Encounters with Alternate Goals

[iserith]

Originally posted by iserith:

I thought it might be fun to post some encounters with alternate goals for the PCs and monsters here for discussion and reference. Here's a scene from a one-shot "delve-style" adventure I'm running this month called "Dogs of War."
 

 
T H E   S I T C H
The gnolls have dug their trenches close to yours and have found a weak spot in your lines to exploit. They are about to send a raid over the top and through your lines to get into Fort Castle. Stop them or be one step closer to watching the fall of the last bastion of man.
 
O B J E C T I V E
Prevent the gnolls from moving off the left side of the map. If three or more gnolls manage to make it across, you fail and the scene ends. PCs start in the reserve trench on the left side of the map.
 
T E A M   M O N S T E R
Braaag, a reskinned b'rohg (10th-level elite soldier)
2 infernal contraptions, reskinned constructs of some kind (8th-level standard artillery), RBA attacks 1 to 3 targets
15 gnoll claw fighters (6th-level minion skirmishers) that have an interrupt to avoid AoE
6 iron boot mines (6th-level minion traps) that you can lose a foot on
 
Monster Goals: Braaag sets about tearing up sections of the barbed wire so the gnoll minions can get through it. He and the gnolls know where all the iron boots are. The infernal contraptions sit in superior cover and fire on any enemies foolish enough to stick their heads up. Gnoll minions start in the reserve trench. On their turn, they move to the communication trench and to the front-line trench, prone and crawling if possible. If there are no gnolls in the reserve trench at the end of a combat round, five more gnolls are placed on the map in the reserve trench. When three such waves are filling the trenches, the gnolls go over the top and rush the PCs' lines trying to make it off the map.
 
With all that said, how do the PCs prevail? What encounters have you done that have alternate goals like this? Let's get a few posted and a discussion of ideas!

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by AaronOfBarbaria:

I like the encounter design there, iserith.
 
The monsters have a singular goal that doesn't even involve direct conflict against the PCs, and the PCs have a goal that could be accomplished in a (figurative) dozen ways besides killing all the bad guys.
 
Last time my players were in a position similar to this, the blocked up the connecting trenches and filled what you call the front-line trench with burning pitch and oil, and used a squad of archers to pick off any of the enemy brave enough to jump the flames, buying them the time needed to invisibly sneak across the flame line to the enemy leader, kill him, and break troop morale.
 
They had also thought about using their invisibility spells to turn some spears on hand into traps by positioning them so that enemies would likely run full-speed into them without seeing them until it was too late and impaling themselves, but they decided that they didn't have enough invisibility spells to cover enough area that way.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by iserith:

Thanks. I could see a group doing what your players did in this scenario. Gathering the oil and putting together a squad of archers would likely fall into the realm of a skill challenge give that time is of the essence. In 4e terms, that'd basically give the players a zone or maybe a wall of fire as an asset with a companion character squad of archers that could do area burst attacks with arrows. Gnoll be nimble, Gnoll be quick, Gnoll better jump high or he burn his... fur.
 
How else might a group achieve victory here? For you optimizers - what's a "dream team" of 5 PCs with reasonably balanced roles that could easily take this down? (Don't say 5 invokers with hand of radiance.)
 
What other encounters have you guys run that had alternate goals like this? How did the players handle it?

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by JTheta:

There was an encounter I participated in that had three groups in play:
 
1) Some Ghaunadar cultists. Humanoid, probably Drow, but I think they also had pet oozes.
 
2) Several draegloths.
 
3) The PCs.
 
The goal of the cultists was to complete a ritual, which, if the PC's hadn't interfered, would have involved sacrificing the draegloths. The ritual could still be completed if enough blood was spilled in that room. So, to complete their goal, they just needed to do a certain amount of damage to the draegloths.
 
The goal of the PCs was to stop this ritual. Killing the cultists and their oozes would accomplish this, but only if it was done before the draegloths got hurt too much. Moving the draegloths out of the room would also accomplish the goal. Hurting the draegloths would be counter-productive.
 
The draegloths were enraged and attacking anything that moved. Their goal theoretically coincided with the PCs, but they didn't really know this.
 
My character, who was a bard, managed to strike an uneasy truce with the draegloths, to discourage them from attacking the PCs. I can't remember now how well this worked, but I think we did stop the ritual.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by baldhermit:

Iserith:
 
don't use elite soldiers of a level higher than the PCs, that is just uncool
don't make the minions avoid AoEs entirely, that possibly voids one players presence / build
please figure out how you wish to deal with line of sight for the controller, the archer, as well as the teleporter
I am not seeing how the goal here is alternative, kill all gnolls still seems to lead to win
what happens to the PCs that lose a foot? I would describe it's effect as "injure a foot" and damage + slowed + ongoing damage

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by iserith:

baldhermit wrote:Iserith:
 
don't use elite soldiers of a level higher than the PCs, that is just uncool

 
I'd agree with you if the goal was to kill everything on the map. PCs probably don't need to attack that guy at all.
 

baldhermit wrote:don't make the minions avoid AoEs entirely, that possibly voids one players presence / build

 
Incoming!  At-Will
Trigger: The gnoll is targeted by a close or an area attack.
Effect (Immediate Interrupt): The gnoll shifts up to 2 squares to a square outside the triggering attack’s area of effect and falls prone.
 
Won't be effective against all AoE or AoEs in succession. Probably okay here.
 

baldhermit wrotelease figure out how you wish to deal with line of sight for the controller, the archer, as well as the teleporter

 
I don't think there is any issue with LOS here. Superior Cover where it exists is noted, otherwise an open field. What are you seeing as an issue?
 

baldhermit wrote:I am not seeing how the goal here is alternative, kill all gnolls still seems to lead to win

 
That's one way. Goal for monsters is other than kill all PCs. And kill all gnolls doesn't mean kill all monsters on map as opposed to many D&D combats.
 
Edit: The encounter would probably benefit from a time limit like holding the line for X rounds without 3 gnolls getting past would count as a win. I'll consider adding that. What do you think would be fair?
 

baldhermit wrote:what happens to the PCs that lose a foot? I would describe it's effect as "injure a foot" and damage + slowed + ongoing damage

 
Attack  Encounter
Trigger: A creature enters the trap’s square.
Attack (Immediate Reaction): Melee 1 (triggering creature); +9 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + 5 damage, and the target is grabbed by its foot, if it has one (escape DC 21). Until the grab ends, the target takes ongoing 5 damage. Each time the target makes an escape attempt against the grab, the target takes 5 damage. If the trap drops the target below 1 hit point, the target loses the foot. A creature with a lost foot is considered to be balancing and treats all surfaces as unstable (see the Acrobatics skill in the Rules Compendium). A creature can regain the missing foot through the cleric power holy cleansing or similarly powerful restorative magic.
Miss: Half damage, and the target is immobilized until the end of its next turn.
 
This is an actual trap from the Compendium. Not sure if it's called "iron boot" though. I reskin/rename a lot. I probably leveled it up.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by baldhermit:

From my phone, so formatting and spelling will be bad:
a possible way to win would be for controller / archer / teleporting striker to incapacitate the only one that can open the breach.
you could go out of normal by removing monster hit points entirely, and making their existence binary in a shaman spirit companion kind of way

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by Chainsawhand:

now all you need are some duckboards for them to balance across or risk falling into the muddy quagmire

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by iserith:

baldhermit wrote:From my phone, so formatting and spelling will be bad:
a possible way to win would be for controller / archer / teleporting striker to incapacitate the only one that can open the breach.

 
Yep. I got the infernal contraptions as backup, but those would be easily burned down as well. They're only standard artillery (on-level) - the superior cover is the only thing saving their butts.

baldhermit wrote:you could go out of normal by removing monster hit points entirely, and making their existence binary in a shaman spirit companion kind of way

 
You mean the minions? Having a minimum damage requirement to take them down would be nasty. I did that in a one-shot I ran called Fimbulvetr where the Shades of Fenrir would attack the people of Grimfjord. Resist 20 except to radiant. Made for interesting approaches by the PCs.
 
What do you guys think of a countdown for Team Monster to fail? How many rounds would be challenging to PCs?
 
(By the way, the map is 16 x 16. I didn't put the grid on it when I screenshot.)

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by baldhermit:

Spirit companion is 10+ half level, I think.