Encounter: Scramble Atop Crumbling Pillars

[MortalPlague]

So I'm planning to run an 11th level one-shot pretty soon, and I've got an encounter that I'm putting together with some interesting mechanics. Beneath a monastery, the adventurers will find themselves in a room in an ancient ruin. The floor was once supported by a host of pillars, but that floor has rotted and crumbled away entirely, leaving only the broad pillar-tops as surface. The pillars themselves are slender, widening out as they hit the top, making them rather top-heavy. And fragile.

At their age, any movement across them will set them in motion, knocking over pillars like dominoes.

There will also be a combat in this room. Some, but not all of the adversaries will be flying. So there's a chance to knock some of the non-flying monsters off pillars, but the fight can't be won purely by doing so.

The pillar rules are what I'm focusing on mostly, however. The way I have it setup, as soon as someone jumps onto a pillar, it begins to fall in the direction they moved onto it. The pillars act on two initiative counts: 30 and 15. So they begin to fall quite swiftly, knocking into other pillars, and taking them down.

Obviously, left to their own devices, a row of pillars would overtake the PCs and deny them a route. However, I'm going to give each pillar that's knocked by another pillar a saving throw: on a 12+, they don't fall. That way it's likely for the domino effect to continue, but not a certainty.

The second thing is that I'm going to allow PCs to make an athletics, acrobatics, or dungeoneering check as a free action upon landing to force a pillar to fall a particular way. The pillars, by their bases, will only fall along the domino lines (they can't knock them diagonally, for instance), but they can make it so their own routes aren't compromised.

Thirdly; pillars that have fallen for one round are still up at the top; PCs can jump to them, run across them, and jump off of them. However, since they're on a slant, they're difficult terrain unless the PC succeeds on a DC 15 acrobatics check. And the DC to jump from them is 5 higher, since they need to make up the elevation. Failing the jump DC as a result of the 5 will have them hanging on to the next pillar over.

The floor of the room is 100 feet down; a fall like that is unlikely to outright kill an 11th level PC. But it's enough damage to make them think twice about plummeting. Also, the PCs will enter the room via chute, which splits. I plan to roll a d6, and they enter the room on the row indicated (the numbers across the left). That way they're likely to be out of each others way when they begin crossing.

Any thoughts?

 

[Quickleaf]

How are you tracking this at the game table?

I ask because I had a setup with a fulcrumed bridge swaying up/down depending on which side had greater weight. To represent this at the table I made a 3D battlemap with an actual bridge that could be slanted to a raised+, raised, neutral, lowered, and lowered- position. Doing so helped me keep track of the bridge's position when I was dealing with a fairly I tense combat, and it helped the player understand what the heck was going on.

Some specific points...

Say a PC (initiative count 20) triggers a pillar, which as you said acts on initiative counts 30 and 15. So nothing immediately happens until initiative 15, at which point the pillar slams into an adjacent pillar - make saving throw (let's say it fails). Now a 2nd pillar is falling; meanwhile the first pillar becomes difficult terrain until...next initiative round or next initiative 30? Regardless, at initiative 30 the 2nd pillar slam into a 3rd pillar - make saving throw (let's say it succeeds). At this point the 1st pillar falls the full 100'? The 2nd pillar is now difficult terrain. Since the 3rd pillar made it's save does this mean the 2nd pillar is locked I place against the side of the 3rd pillar? Or does it mean the 2nd pillar now falls 100' as well?

An 100 foot drop is potentially lethal for a wounded level 11 character.

A falling pillar slams into a pillar a PC is standing on. What happens?

 

[MortalPlague]

How are you tracking this at the game table?

The idea is to have cardboard 2x2 square pieces which I'll move when the pillars move. There's going to be a "base" underneath, so when the pillar is off-base, it'll be quickly apparent.

I may have enough wizards' tiles to do this with dungeon tiles. Hmm.

Say a PC (initiative count 20) triggers a pillar, which as you said acts on initiative counts 30 and 15. So nothing immediately happens until initiative 15, at which point the pillar slams into an adjacent pillar - make saving throw (let's say it fails). Now a 2nd pillar is falling; meanwhile the first pillar becomes difficult terrain until...next initiative round or next initiative 30?

All pillars in motion move on each initiative count. That way they move twice per round, giving it the potential to outflank PCs.

Regardless, at initiative 30 the 2nd pillar slam into a 3rd pillar - make saving throw (let's say it succeeds). At this point the 1st pillar falls the full 100'? The 2nd pillar is now difficult terrain.

Correct. The pillars have three states. Completely upright, slanted, or collapsed to the floor.

Since the 3rd pillar made it's save does this mean the 2nd pillar is locked I place against the side of the 3rd pillar? Or does it mean the 2nd pillar now falls 100' as well?

The intent would be that the 2nd pillar would remain in place, slanted against the third pillar. But I didn't mention that in the first post. Anyway, upright pillars will catch a falling pillar if they make their save.

An 100 foot drop is potentially lethal for a wounded level 11 character.

Yes it is. It's a one-shot, though, so I don't mind putting in that sort of threat. Average damage would be about 55, wouldn't it? So it's unlikely (but still possible) to put a PC past negative bloodied. That's fine by me.

If it were an actual campaign, I might scale it back just a touch.

A falling pillar slams into a pillar a PC is standing on. What happens?

The pillar begins to fall, meaning the PC moves with it. The PC would have to deal with the difficult terrain due to the slope, and the increased difficulty to jump away from it. The PC wouldn't need to save to avoid falling off, the pillars knock together gently enough for them to anticipate it.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=62721]MortalPlague[/MENTION]
What happens if a PC is hanging from the side of a pillar (monster pushed them over edge but they made save) when another pillar slams into it? >)

It sounds like your player will love it!

 

[Riastlin]

I might consider giving the PCs an Acrobatics or Athletics save (probably hard DC) to avoid knocking over a pillar when they land on it. You could flavor this as "You are able to land just right on the pillar, balancing your weight such that it trembles a bit but doesn't actually fall. Consider after all, that these are 100 foot tall stone (I'm assuming) pillars. No doubt they weigh quite a bit more than the PCs. You'll still also have plenty of pillars falling to create an awesomely dynamic encounter.

 

[MortalPlague]

What happens if a PC is hanging from the side of a pillar (monster pushed them over edge but they made save) when another pillar slams into it? >)

Terrible, terrible damage!

I might consider giving the PCs an Acrobatics or Athletics save (probably hard DC) to avoid knocking over a pillar when they land on it. You could flavor this as "You are able to land just right on the pillar, balancing your weight such that it trembles a bit but doesn't actually fall. Consider after all, that these are 100 foot tall stone (I'm assuming) pillars. No doubt they weigh quite a bit more than the PCs. You'll still also have plenty of pillars falling to create an awesomely dynamic encounter.

That's a good point. I'll just lump that in with the check to determine which way it falls; maybe they get a chance to keep it standing instead. Perhaps that should be a higher DC?

Also, I think dungeoneering should apply too.

 

[MortalPlague]

So I ran the encounter today, and it went very well. PCs were running around on the pillars, maybe not as much as I'd have liked, but it was still a fight that required mobility. The paladin was knocked off a pillar by a minion, and took about 80 damage, ending up with 6 hit points left.

In the end, there were only ten pillars still standing (or so). Mind you, I forgot to give the pillars a save to avoid falling, but they weren't falling quite fast enough for my liking anyway. So it all worked well.

I'm curious, Riastlin, how the idea worked for you?

 

[Infiniti2000]

I have to admit I didn't understand the setup. If there's no floor what are the pillars standing on? What was "below" this room such that it created a hundred-foot drop? That sounds quite bizarre. Also, how can this be "beneath" a monastery of the pillars don't have anything above? Why are the pillars top-heavy? That sounds like an incredibly bad engineering design. All in all, this encounter reminds me of the chomping room in the Galaxy Quest movie. "This episode was badly written!" I realize that you're just trying to create an interesting encounter, but either I can't understand it at all or it's just too much of a stretch.

 

[Riastlin]

I'm curious, Riastlin, how the idea worked for you?

Haven't run it yet. It will actually be a while before it gets run since the party is currently stuck in the Shadowfell on another adventure.

I have to admit I didn't understand the setup. If there's no floor what are the pillars standing on? What was "below" this room such that it created a hundred-foot drop? That sounds quite bizarre. Also, how can this be "beneath" a monastery of the pillars don't have anything above? Why are the pillars top-heavy? That sounds like an incredibly bad engineering design. All in all, this encounter reminds me of the chomping room in the Galaxy Quest movie. "This episode was badly written!" I realize that you're just trying to create an interesting encounter, but either I can't understand it at all or it's just too much of a stretch.

The way I intend to set this up is that the pillars did at one time support the ground floor above and helped bridge a chasm (sort of like Fellowship of the Ring if instead of stairwells they simply built a floor). Over time though an underground river has burst through a wall in the chasm and has since been rushing around the base of the pillars (thus causing the bases to become narrower due to erosion). The combination of the raging river and time has contributed to the floor above collapsing.

I will probably space my pillars out a little further as well to make it seem a little more realistic (though not too much because I don't want the party to be afraid to try to cross). I figure every time a pillar is jumped on I will give the player a save to keep it from falling (possibly with a penalty, don't know yet). I figure if the pillars are still standing, then it takes at least some doing to knock it over. I'll also probably start with a few of the pillars being already knocked over so as to warn the party that they may not be entirely stable.

 

[Infiniti2000]

The way I intend to set this up is that the pillars did at one time support the ground floor above and helped bridge a chasm (sort of like Fellowship of the Ring if instead of stairwells they simply built a floor). Over time though an underground river has burst through a wall in the chasm and has since been rushing around the base of the pillars (thus causing the bases to become narrower due to erosion). The combination of the raging river and time has contributed to the floor above collapsing.

Ah, thanks for the description. I figured I was misunderstanding it. So, in the OP's setup, these are basically 100ft pillars holding up the floor to this room. I would think that a 100ft pillar that ends in a 10ft x 10ft top surface would be very heavy. If the pillars actually crack, then anyone down below would surely be dead, and most likely that would bring the whole lot down.

Ah well, I'm glad the encounter worked out and was fun.