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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Noumenon" data-source="post: 4493299" data-attributes="member: 70102">I ran the encounter tonight and it was really fun.  Here's how I used your ideas.First, I wanted to force a little bit of combat on the party right away, hoping they'd be cautious and not damage the web too much (this would make it more transgressive to start damaging the web later on).  So I had the last surviving bugbear cavalry flee into this room and down the thick strand supporting the web.  But his monstrous spider mount had been killed under him by a monk that could run faster than it, so he failed a Balance check and fell into the web.  A spider woke up and bit him, then he climbed out (glad I made the web not-too-sticky like you said) and made it right on top of the egg sac.I think the barbarian was about to zip-line down the thick strand, but Mr. Instigator had the initiative next and he just ran into the room without even stopping to take in the situation and fireballed right onto the egg sac.  Oh yeah.  I didn't even need to put a sign that said "Do not fireball" on it.So the whole top half of the egg sac caved in and the bugbear's corpse fell into a sea of 1200 tiny monstrous spiders (four CR2 swarms that did 2d6, distraction and DC 10 poison).  The top section of the web was ripped apart, and one of the prisoner cocoons also fell into the boiling nest of spiders, enough of the web being burnt off that they could see it was the cleric's girlfriend they had been trying to save.  This was great because it made the cleric grouse and complain about how irresponsible the fireballing was, which I imagine makes an Instigator like it even more.So the swarms start coming up the web and a fireball takes out the other main strand, dropping the egg sac to the floor of the cavern and hurting the girlfriend even more.  One half of the web went swinging against the wall, slamming all the prisoners in cocoons (some of whom were being swarmed) and setting off the monstrous spiders.  The other half of the web stayed put, because I took the suggestion of adding mystery by having one of the cocoons glowing and put a lantern archon in there, and it floated and held the strands up.So the cleric dived down 60 feet right into the sea of spiders and the remains of the egg sac (I should have explained his survival as being slowed by the remaining strands of web).  The Instigator summoned a small Air Elemental.  Now he's whirlwinding up 150 tiny spiders at a time and then ejecting them -- splat-splat-splat-splat -- all over the walls and floor of the cavern.  Meanwhile he is "rescuing" all the prisoners whose cocoons are being swarmed by shooting Scorching Rays that are burning away the spiders and the webs and the prisoners too.  I couldn't have designed a crazier scene.I used one big side-view battlemap, even though it makes a 2-D battle out of a 3-D space. I think it's worth it.  Kind of like how Galactic Civ II sticks with the 2-D galaxy for gameplay that doesn't require mental rotating.  I didn't have to go more than 60 feet because it turns out spiders only have a climb speed of 20, so a double move was 40.  (Tiny spiders only have climb 10.)The best things I got from this thread were having the characters start at the top, rather than the bottom, which meant anything that fell was further out of their control, instead of closer.  And the basic starting image of tranquility and quiet, with one cocoon glowing for mystery.  Maybe someday I will mount a battle on an even bigger, building-sized spiderweb that will not be so easily destructible.  That would make the swinging effect and the multiple chutes-and-ladders battlemaps viable.It was a really great scene and a fun level 9 encounter made of just four CR2s and twelve CR1s.  Thanks a lot for helping me build it.</blockquote>

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