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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6058172" data-attributes="member: 20323">[MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] Yes, totally, communication is key. Especially in a complex mega-dungeon where the "player vs. DM" style tends to come out.On a different note, I've been looking at some of the kobold chiefs as unconventional boss monsters (there are 12 kobold tribes in Dragon Mountain, each quite distinct). Since they're just minions it presents a fun challenge for a DM/designer, and really gets you thinking in a kobold's shoes (heh, not sure if that's a good thing <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ).One example is Clan Gnarled Fang - they're whiny, pudgy, lazy, vicious but low morale kobolds who play skull-skull, making their home in the old Merchant's Quarter where they charge other kobolds for trading. As I thought of ways to use these guys it dawned on me: they are the perfect gelatinous cube trainers! I don't know why, it just clicked. So I decided their chief Harlichak would throw the ultimate gelatinous cube encounter at the PCs...thus I present Harlichak's Gelatinous Doom:Harlichak's Gelatinous Doom (level 14, XP 4800)24 kobolds (level 9 minion Skirmisher) Valued at 1/2 XPKobold chief (level 13 minion soldier, leader)3+ gelatinous cubes (modified to be level 9 standard brutes' auto-engulf immobilized, restrained ,or stunned PCs, or PCs with nowhere to retreat to)False-floor pit trap (level 13 lurker trap)2 suspended alchemist's sparks (homebrew, level 13 lurker trap)Taunting kobolds appear on either side of a passage the PCs explore, yelling and beating drums. Floating in front of both groups are bits metal - knives, belt buckles, flasks, helmets. These are the gelatinous cubes. All the yelling and drumming is how the kobolds have trained the cubes to do as they want. If the PCs try to escape through a door out of the passage, they find it barred (opening outward) or stumble upon a gelatinous cube (open inward). Somewhere along the passage, or perhaps along an escape route the PCs devise is a pit-trap with a gelatinous cube on the bottom.Harlichak has "fed" the cubes alchemist's spark traps, which hang suspended as two separate spheres of volatile gas. When a cube dies, the spheres fall to the floor releasing their gases which react as an alchemist's spark (lightning damage and stunned until start of their next turn).As a final trick, Harlichak has a potion of growth which he "feeds" to the cube nearest to him, causing it to double in size (elongate in the passage), be able to engulf 4 PCs at a time, and gain some temporary HP.</blockquote>

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