Gnoll time!

[Tonguez]

and of course the giant throwing all those rocks has opened a hidden entrance to The Dungeon of Lion King - an elephants graveyard infested with gnolls ruled by a much bigger Dragonne named Scar! (oh and don't forget to include a pair of jesters named Timon and Pumba)

 

[CruelSummerLord]

so, today we fight the dragone...

the thing is, its was not as tough as i thought. it managed to drop the mage to -4 hp, and take 16 from teh fighter.

it deals lot of damage (1d8/1d8/3d6), but it had 9 hd, so it was not that hard. so i decide that before they search for treasure, the gnolls started shooting flaming arrows at the "door" (its not a door, i just cant describe it ) of the cavern.

so the players were traped inside.
ok, so they didnt move or anything, they just wait.

to spice things, (and that may be a problem), i added a hill giant. the gnolls "pay" him with goods to help him. he started to throw rocks (and killed a npc, and knocked the mage AGAIN-after the cleric had healed up), then opened space to the gnolls to attack (the giant was too big for the cavern).


so, to stay in topic, i just whant to thank all the ideas. i made the gnolls something like fierce barbarians, and not coward hyenas from "the lion king".

I found this thread too late to post, but it sounds like you handled things really well.

I would have said that gnolls are chaotic evil, and therefore not known for playing fair. They wouldn't have any compunctions about letting a wild monster soften the PCs up before coming in to finish them off. Deciding to attack a weakened enemy before he can regroup isn't you being unfair as a DM-it's playing the gnolls as smart and experienced fighters. I don't see gnolls as cowardly hyenas anyway-I see them as savage, murderous killers who enjoy picking off the weak and the injured.

Similarly, the gnolls' tactics sound really well-planned out, too. By pinning the PCs down with missile fire and shooting into the cave, the PCs don't have a chance to heal up, and they can't get out to counterattack effectively without exposing themselves to still more missile fire, which is what sounds like it happened. Recruiting the hill giant is another nice touch, since the big lunk will probably divert a lot of the PCs' strongest attacks, and deal out a lot of damage before being killed. And if the giant is killed by the PCs, so much the better, since the gnolls can just take back the loot they paid him to help out in the first place. And if he survives, but is still badly injured...

This encounter sounds like a lot of fun.