Evil Encounters

[shadowoflameth]

Since it has come up a couple of times among the DMs out there, I thought I would throw out this one to you.

What munchkin defeating, or a party members would say 'Evil Encounters' do you have up your sleeves? Im thinking of by the book level appropriate here, not a 4th level party facing a ranger balor riding the terrasque.

For my own example, I would suggest any of the variations on demonic acolyte (DMG) that is turned to stone. This can be dobne in a temple where the priestess is a medusa, and the acolyte is the statue, or with a gargoyle. Either way, allies within 5 squares, even minions get resist all 20.

A certain sage in 3.5 used the dragoncraft scenario. Let the wizard have/make a really buffed dragoncraft item, then later have an evil cleric cast true ressurection, (or some such ritual) and trigger it when the heroes are attacking and keeping him from raising the big evil whatever it is. This way the weapon suddenly disappears, and the dragon comes back to life in the presence of a humanoid party desecrating a temple of Tiamat.

I'm quite sure there are ideas out there to share with like minded DMs like myself.

I don't advocate cruelty, but as the threads about min max power gamers and the havoc they can cause point out, there is a time and place.

 

[Blizzardb]

The Fey-Incanter Vestige forces the target to roll saving throws twice and take the lower result (this means approximately 30% chance to save without other modifiers). Combine this with creatures that petrifiy or kill on two failed saving throws and you will have a truly evil encounter.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

any incoporal with a weaken effect and Regen are problems...tag team them with monsters with high resist or AOE weaken and you can slaughter a party...


We in one game fought 2 wraiths (Lurker Incopr, weaken, Regen, phasing) that were going through walls of a maze...
teamed with swarm thing...

oh and our group had no controler...very low on AOE

 

[Flipguarder]

Im DMing a group thats just two paladins and a rogue. Any groups of non-zombie minions is painful for them.

 

[fissionessence]

While I do find this exercise interesting, I think it's also a little unnecessary. Given 4E's emphasis on generating your own monsters, the ease of doing so, and the lack of defined structure (read: rules) when doing so, why try to 'powergame' your DMing? You can just create a new monster group / encounter with the exact difficulty and trickiness you want.

I'd more treat this thread as 'What monsters from existing sources a DM should avoid putting in a single encounter if he or she doesn't want to massacre his or her PCs."

Anyway, please continue. As I said, it's still an interesting exercise

~ fissionessence

 

[invokethehojo]

I threw some level 3 players against (all from open grave) reaper level 9, brain in the jar level 6 and several famine hounds and it was crazy. there were three rooms the fight was taking place in, one with a pit between the PC's and brain (10 feet deep). The brain could keep track of the fight and would telepathically tell the reaper where to go (phasing through walls to appear in other rooms). Combine this with the brains dominate ability and the famine hounds ongoing damage on a basic hit and it was a great fight. maybe not quite evil, but the best encounter I've run so far... sorry if that doesn't meet this threads standards.

 

[Rechan]

Mad Wraith. It is just nasty. Aura 3 instant daze? Yessir. Pair that with some wraiths (doing CA to any target who's dazed)? Yessir. You could even be more vicious, pairing such a creature with a monster that's invisible to dazed targets (Clay scout, illithid). Additionally, there are two zombies in a Creature Incarnations article; one does 2d6 to dazed targets, the other has an aura that removes the vulnerability to radiance to all allies within 5.

My other favorite combo is a specific scenario: A partially flooded tunnel, with land at the end. Under the water are any number of chillborn zombies. At the end of the tunnel are a Deathlock Wight and a Corruption Corpse. The latter two have very nice range, and darkvision; they can pepper PCs traveling on a boat down the tunnel. When the PCs hit the cumulative auras of the chillborn, they're taking fat damage. The Deathlock Wight can immobilize PCs; the Chillborn do more damage to immobilized targets. If the CB grab and drag targets overboard into the water, they're taking damage for the auras, drowning, and immobilized. Not to mention possibly weakened from the Corruption Corpse's mote attacks.

 

[Rechan]

If I was going to be a bastard, I can tell you what I would use:

Oni Night Hunter + Chasmes + Night Hag + Assassin Imp.

Each monster is designed to put a target to sleep, and then do very bad things to them once they're a sleep. So, you have a group of monsters that can bombard a group with sleep attacks, and then pound on the unconscious. If only one person drops, the group would likely focus fire, then rinse and repeat.