D&D 5E Devious Encounters

[Shadai]

So I was kicking this idea around for a bit. Any hack DM can create deadly encounters, simply load up the bad guys with more xp worth than the party can hold and toss it at them. But it takes a crafty DM to take an encounter that initially doesn't seem too difficult, and through terrain and/or monster tactics turns it into a more dangerous encounter than expected.

Someone had mentioned in another thread of using something like a Stone Golem with Magma Mephits. Stone Golem has resistance to about everything but magical weapons. Magma Mephits meanwhile can cast heat metal, making it very difficult for those PC's to hold said magical weapons. Devious.

What other Devious Encounters have you thrown at the players? Or, if you don't DM, what encounters have been thrown at you?

 

[iserith]

So I was kicking this idea around for a bit. Any hack DM can create deadly encounters, simply load up the bad guys with more xp worth than the party can hold and toss it at them. But it takes a crafty DM to take an encounter that initially doesn't seem too difficult, and through terrain and/or monster tactics turns it into a more dangerous encounter than expected.

Someone had mentioned in another thread of using something like a Stone Golem with Magma Mephits. Stone Golem has resistance to about everything but magical weapons. Magma Mephits meanwhile can cast heat metal, making it very difficult for those PC's to hold said magical weapons. Devious.

What other Devious Encounters have you thrown at the players? Or, if you don't DM, what encounters have been thrown at you?

I have created tons of encounters that would fit the bill in D&D 5e. I have posted some of them on the forums here. In terms of deviousness, I would specifically call out Seahorse Run, Shroom to Grow, and Frigga's Lament.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

As a DM, I don't design encounters with any kind of devious combo in mind. I find that if I put any effort at all in trying to make an encounter more difficult that the party feels like they had no chance to succeed, because I tend to roll pretty extreme results (which is part of why I don't roll damage in 5th edition - too many times that something happens like when I rolled 7d10 damage for a breath weapon and got maximum twice in the same combat, with different sets of dice) encounters that are "easy" by the numbers can already have a bit of a bite too them - just not one that feels like I meant for it to happen.

As a player, I've been on the receiving end of only DMs that go for "devious" and come of as "actually wants the game to end with a TPK, but just won't admit that to himself and put together an intentionally impossible encounter."

Things like setting up terrain full of pits that are hard to climb out of plus monsters extremely good at pushing their targets and monsters with heavy-hitting ranged attacks too, so the party is looking at options that appear to be "stand over here and die", "fail our goal by just leaving instead of doing this," and "go over there and take a bunch of damage, plus extra damage for falling, and hope that we can manage to get out of the pits quickly enough not to leave our other party members without any help from us for too long."

Or one time when we absolutely had to travel down this road, but we physically couldn't leave the road because of dense and dangerous undergrowth, and the road passed between two undead archer-filled towers with a half dozen heavily armored, polearm wielding, trip specialized undead forming a line across the road between the (I forgot to mention doorless) towers.

 

[mflayermonk]

Ropers on the ceiling.

 

[Shiroiken]

Devious encounters are awesome, so long as the players are intelligent and use strategy to overcome the challenge, rather than just "I hit the thing."

Just last week in a dungeon, my DM had a beholder on an island surrounded by a wide pit. There were other monsters (ogres and ettins) that came around the sides, and no where to hide and attack effectively. The minions kept the range attack characters from being able to effectively attack the beholder. The encounter was entirely unnecessary (we were just trying to get its loot), so we could have fled at any time, but we really didn't want to give in. Eventually we managed to get a character on the island (mine), who managed to keep the beholder busy (Lucky and my own lucky dice were the only reason I survived 9 eye rays before it turned to me to stone and dropped me in the pit) until the minions were all dead.

My own personal best (at least recently) was a single medusa against a higher level party. Her lair was a maze of narrow passages with tight corners and limited visibility. She would fire her bow at the party, then move back to the next intersection. If they went around the corner to go after her, they either risked the medusa's gaze or were running blind. To top it off, almost all of the passages had spiked pit traps in the middle of them, while she wore boots of striding and springing to jump over them. Eventually, the party's rogue decided to move off in a different direction, which allowed him to eventually cut off her escape routes. Once cornered, she was easily slain. It was somewhat frustrating for the players at first, but it was also a lot of fun for them to think of how to beat what should have been an easy monster.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I don't create devious encounters with that specific intent. I create encounters that match the intelligence/traits of the creatures and make sense in the game world. For example, a clan of bullywugs who use rust monsters. Or a clan of kobolds where they do hit and run, luring and/or herding PCs into a bunch of traps. Or a wizard who had a series of giant magnets on a hallway that were tripped from a trap, which also released a flesh golem.

 

[Rhenny]

The old flesh golem in a pool of electric eels (or electrical traps that trigger while fighting a flesh golem) trick was one from the past.

Fire and Iron Golem are a good mix too.

Any illusion using monster played well can be really tricky if it is hidden or disguised (Raksasha, especially one that is a spell-caster in addition).

 

[Saeviomagy]

There's a neat monster in 4e darksun (some sort of spider?) that had a nasty attack power that only worked on blinded targets. I always wanted to pair them with something like a medusa or bodak so the choice became: suffer the gaze attack OR suffer extra damage for voluntarily blinding yourself.

 

[Zardnaar]

I had one the other day underwater vs Sahugin in strong currents. I gave them advantage to hit and the PCs disadvantage on attack rolls. THe PCs beat a hasty retreat at level 8 as they split the party and 1 player was flunking swim checks and the other one went in to get them.

 

[Shadai]

To be clear, when I create devious encounters I don't intend for the party to die. I just want them to be challenged. Some combos are better than others. And some times you combine a couple of monster abilities for "Wow, that's awesome"