labyrinth gladiator challenge

[Digital M@]

In my Tomb of Annihilation game my players decided they wanted to fight in the gladiator arena. I want it to be a memorable event and I have decided to make it Labyrinth Night, inspired by Harry Potter Gauntlet of Fire. I thought an interactive maze with a minotaur at its center or something similar (a little tradition is always fun) would be much more fun to run and play than an open arena fight against tigers or what have you. I also did not want them to fight dinosaurs yet or the undead as I want the jungle to introduce those combats.

I have six players and am planning on breaking them up into three groups of two competing against each other. 3 entrances leading to one central chamber with the main baddie and a treasure.

I am planning on traps: Pit traps, poisonous cloud flowers, grabbing vines, Stacks of goblins a panther or tiger, giant spiders, Giant snake

I have a few questions for the community. I am not an experienced DM in 5E.

1. What type of CR should I try to create for two level three characters. There will be no short or long rests

2. Other creature and or trap recommendations - more the better. I would prefer to set up a different feel for each of the three paths the characters are taking

3. How many challenges for fully healed characters not allowed to take rests? I Want to challenge them.

4. Any suggestions on running something like this? Have you done this before? Should I put some simple puzzles in this to foreshadow the puzzles in Omu? Any ideas for puzzles?

Thanks

 

[iserith]

1. CR is more of an art than a science, and an expected level of difficulty can be rapidly increased or decreased the moment the players start making decisions. Suffice it to say, with only 2 PCs, things will generally be harder for them than a party of four or five. A CR 2 monster is a Hard encounter by the numbers. A CR 3 monster is Deadly. Then you'll want to be careful about too many lower-CR creatures as the PCs may quickly be overwhelmed. To mitigate these concerns, you may consider adding three or so NPCs, fellow gladiators, who are basically guards from the Monster Manual. They're there to take the hits and get killed in gruesome ways. It's cinematic, and can help you manage the difficulty. As well, if you're not sure if the PCs will be overwhelmed, consider having the monsters come in waves. That way you can add a couple of monsters if the PCs are having an easy time of it or hold back monsters if they're struggling.

2. You might take a look at what the characters will eventually encounter as they continue their journey into Chult. This is a good opportunity to foreshadow future, tough encounters in the jungle or the ruins.

3. This depends on the characters. I recommend allowing them to have the benefits of short rests as a reward for achieving particular goals without taking the full hour to rest. For example, if they grab the brass ring and move on to the next challenge, the roar of the crowd fills them with courage and hope and this allows them regain some resources and spend hit dice to heal up a bit before carrying on.

4. Definitely use this as an opportunity to foreshadow the things to come.

Good luck!

 

[Shiroiken]

A major thing to keep track of is time and how you want to navigate the labyrinth. Int/Investigation checks are solid IMO, with each failed check costing time. The major downside of this is that the challenges won't affect the outcome of the race, other than who can survive. If you assume the same amount of time through the maze, then the time to complete the challenges matters the most, tracking rounds of combat, trap resolution, and puzzle solving.

1. What type of CR should I try to create for two level three characters. There will be no short or long rests

Pretty low, actually. A single CR2 would be a solid fight, or maybe a pair of CR1. Be very careful about using a lot of lower CR monsters, because the party will be down on actions per round.

Out of curiosity, any reason against the short rest? I understand that it's a race, but could believe that players could try to rest, hoping the others need to do the same.

2. Other creature and or trap recommendations - more the better. I would prefer to set up a different feel for each of the three paths the characters are taking

I would recommend looking at creature types for monsters, such as beasts, humanoids, and monstrosities, with each path using one of each type to give a different feel. The beast option would be good combined with the ensnaring vines for example. Humanoids might set an ambush, maybe with a pit trap they use ranged attacks over. Monstrosities should have a warped sense of the maze, perhaps being harder to figure out.

3. How many challenges for fully healed characters not allowed to take rests? I Want to challenge them.

Not counting the end, 2 medium combats and 1 non-combat challenges would be the max. You could do 1 hard combat and 2 non-combat challenges as well.

4. Any suggestions on running something like this? Have you done this before? Should I put some simple puzzles in this to foreshadow the puzzles in Omu? Any ideas for puzzles?

Puzzles are ALWAYS a pain to run. You should decide first how you want to run them, as either player based, character based, or a mix of both. Player based means the players have to solve the problem, giving real world skilled players the advantage. Character based means that it's resolved with skill checks, which is kind of boring. A mix can work by allowing players to try and solve the puzzle, but checks can be used to give hints (at a time penalty) and to determine the time taken (despite real world time solving).