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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dirtDM1" data-source="post: 2588122" data-attributes="member: 36719">I've never posted here and am still kind of new to 3E and 3.5E.  I played 2E for 10+ years.  I would welcome suggestions as I don't seem to be playing monsters up to their full potential.  The group seems to have a fairly easy time progressing up from 1st level (in about 10 6-hour sessions).  I have allowed the 3 Base Books and the four "Complete" books (CA, CV, CD, CW) for allowed feats and classes.  Anyway, I tend to change monsters slightly or alot, depending on whim, to confuse players.  I do this to prevent the 2 players that quote the MM to me from knowing exactly what they face.  So, if in the following paragraphs the monsters are not quite by the book, you'll know why.  I am currently DMing a group of about level 9 or 10, with cleric having hired ten 4th level fighters as support.  I currently have them in a swamp about 2 days away from the edge of the swamp.  The party is there investigating why the rogues most recent endeavor (supplying weapons for the war between the great kingdom and the Land of Iuz) is failing.  The two most recent caravans have dissappeared on the road to the best port town in the area.  Without getting too detailed, the road must be cleared to continue buisiness.  They have just killed 5 trolls with relative ease.  I currently have 20 more trolls in the tribe at the area they are approaching along with a rather dull (only 12 INT-dumb for a dragon) Adult Black Dragon that domineers them.  The troll tribe is currently warring with the Yuan-Ti tribe that also lives in the same swamp.  2 of the trolls have Character Levels or Rgr2/Ftr2 and Rgr4.  One is an archer with a magic composite bow and the other is TWF scimitar wielder.  I have house ruled that trolls in this setting are sexless and that they reproduce by eating the still beating heart of an opponent and then severing a limb that eventually grows into another troll in one day.  On the other side, the Yuan-Ti are pretty much standard MM fare except for the following changes: 1) I have adjusted the society so that half-breeds are in control, there is only one abomination that is a Mon8 (grappler), the half-breeds include a leader Drd3/Sor4/MystTh7, Wiz9, Rgr8 (archer - firebow), and five Rgr 3 (archers with wizard attached to cast flame arrow).  There are 90 tribe members with the half-breed/fullblood ratio of 1:8.  All tribe members are armed with melee weapons and have three bottles of oil.2) Yuan-Ti reproduce by the venom that the half-breeds carry.  Two failed Fort saves versus the venom means that you will slowly be transformed into a pureblood.  Purebloods cannot transmit this.  It's kinda like lycanthropy and it means that the Yuan-Ti tribe has swelled by transforming all the traffic attempting to cross the swamp.One other important note to make life hard on the players ... The swamp is infested with a form of Green Slime that thrives in sunlight.  In fact, the slime can move very slowly while in sunlight and can sense living creatures up to 60' away.  At night the slime is dormant and is safe to touch.  Both the yuan-ti and trolls sleep during the day in the trees where the slime cannot follow.  The party has not figured out the tree thing yet.Both tribes will fight to the death (including the dragon) as they are under the influence of an artifact (Heward's Mystical Organ - a MUSICAL organ) that rests inside the base of a gigantic tree stump (220' diameter) beneath the swamp.  Both sides are warring to gain control of the tree.  The organ is guarded by first a Gargantuan 24 HD Gelatinous Cube (550 hp) that is powerful enough to paralyze the dragon and is semi-intelligent (but is still not subject to mind affecting magic - call it an effect of the organ).  It has Reg 20 from the number of trolls it has killed.  Beyond that is an Erinyes that has an evil powerful sword (+8 total bonus) and armor (summonned by the Yuan-Ti and bound to the area to guard against the other tribe).  The tribe has faced this opponent recently, and barely got away.  Whew, that was long.  I probably left some stuff out, but suggestions are welcome.  I prefer not to give the tribe Uber-Magic items as the party will eventually gain them.Occasionally, I have had to back off in the past to avoid TPK.  I see my job as the DM to provide a challenge that the party can handle (with much difficulty) but that does not kill all of them (some is OK).  However, I do throw in the occasional monster they can't beat, but I usually leave an avenue of escape as I myself hate "killer DM's".</blockquote>

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