Making good use of outdoors

[sev]

The campaign I'm running is about to descend into a series of underground tunnels and caves. Before I send the party there, I'd like to give them one last hurrah in the outdoors.

I'm expecting to put in some high ground with cover for ranged attacks, and make it so they'll probably have to eject at least one foe before they get to use it. They'll sight the problem -- some Turaglas-worshipping cultists dragging off a teenager -- from a long distance. Giving the foes some slowing powers of some sort appeals to me, along with a soldier or a brute to keep the melee characters interested while they're trying to get through the slow (or the terrain).

Any tips for creating an outdoor encounter that really makes good use of the things they're *not* going to see in a cave?

If it's important, the party's level 7.

 

[Keenberg]

The campaign I'm running is about to descend into a series of underground tunnels and caves. Before I send the party there, I'd like to give them one last hurrah in the outdoors.

I'm expecting to put in some high ground with cover for ranged attacks, and make it so they'll probably have to eject at least one foe before they get to use it. They'll sight the problem -- some Turaglas-worshipping cultists dragging off a teenager -- from a long distance. Giving the foes some slowing powers of some sort appeals to me, along with a soldier or a brute to keep the melee characters interested while they're trying to get through the slow (or the terrain).

Any tips for creating an outdoor encounter that really makes good use of the things they're *not* going to see in a cave?

If it's important, the party's level 7.

A fun mechanic that comes to my mind is flight. Maybe some ornithopters are sitting around, and the players can pilot them to drop some explosives from above.

Ooooooor.... Mounts. After a short melee fight, the remaining cultists jump on to horses and the PCs must take the horses of those they have already killed and race to catch the runaways. Perfect opportunity to throw a skill challenge.

You could even combine the two. Let me know how everything turns out, it sounds exciting!

 

[sev]

A fun mechanic that comes to my mind is flight. Maybe some ornithopters are sitting around, and the players can pilot them to drop some explosives from above.

Ooooooor.... Mounts. After a short melee fight, the remaining cultists jump on to horses and the PCs must take the horses of those they have already killed and race to catch the runaways. Perfect opportunity to throw a skill challenge.

You could even combine the two. Let me know how everything turns out, it sounds exciting!

I like these ideas but will have to save them for later, as the area the party's in has already been established to be low-technology and experiencing a horse shortage (seriously!). Ornithopterswill be perfect flavor for signifying that they've finally made it out of the low-tech kingdom, so I'll have that in my toolkit for a few levels down the road.

I like the idea of using a skill challenge to handle fleeing opponents, regardless of whether they're mounted. Much more interesting than several rounds of "okay, so you run, and you run, and ... is anyone doing anything other than running? Okay, you catch them/you don't catch them."

 

[.5 Elf]

Have it near a river - lots of opportunity fo hijinx and skill challenge.

 

[firesnakearies]

Trees.

Big trees with huge trunks and lots of large, thick branches sticking out from them at various heights, partially overlapping or with small gaps between them. Combatants could run around on those branches and jump between them, climb up and down to different levels of elevation, take cover or snipe at people on the ground, get knocked off, and so forth.

Maybe with a nice rushing river running through the middle, underneath the network of branches.

 

[.5 Elf]

To further elaborate, ( now that my girlfriend isn't here hectoring me) you can have your chase scene take place via canoe. I'd look to the last of the Mohechans as insperation for a river chase scene.

Lots of potetial hazards and pitfalls await on a river as well as part of a skill challenge. You can add a set of falls, the danger of a char in armor falling in the river, waterborne assailants (gators maybe) ect.

Hope that helps!