Mapping elements to combat effects

[Badwe]

Really like that idea, chronoplasm. One of my goals is for the players to HAVE to visit around 3 or 4 of them and dig in a few floors but not need to get to the bottom (obviously it should _feel_ like reaching the bottom is impossible even if crafty players might be able to). Your idea of putting foils or keys to the other temples is brilliant.

One might even create keys or symbols that are shaped a certain way and could unlock shortcuts, secret encounters, or secret treasure in other temples. This is exciting stuff, I definitely want to fit those in when I get down to blocking these places out.

For the randomness: you may have noticed a set of phenomena in that DMs often try too hard to make encounters a perfect fit for their group. The PCs get overconfident at worst, sometimes simply being determined, and rarely retreat. I want these dungeons to feel as if they have no sympathy for where the PCs are in terms of level (even if that's not the case) so I'd like to include patrols, randomly weak encounters, randomly strong encounters, and seemingly (or actually) innocous rooms in most floors, bringing back the classic feel of never really knowing what to expect next.

It's funny, nothing scares PCs more than an empty room.

 

[chronoplasm]

Glad you like it.
I guess I'll suggest some items then.

Key of Emptiness (turn any locked door into a portal to an empty room.)
Key of Room-Swapping (Mark two doors and cause them to switch places. The rooms can come from different dungeons.)
Key to the Inn (any door can take you to a quiet resting place.)
Key of Heat (opens a door and makes the room hotter.)
Key of Cold (opens a door and makes the room colder.)
Key of Flooding (fills a room with water.)

 

[Danforthe]

If the temples are all related then it makes sense for them to have items in each of the other ones as a system of checks and balances. This way, no temple acting alone can unlock all of the power items/secrets/macguffins it contains. Since the elementals refuse point blank to work together it's up to an outside party (the PCs) to infiltrate each and gather the various items.

This leads easily into the Backer NPC who puts the players on the track in the first place so that they can retrieve some artifact/macguffin from the temples, or destabilise the elemental balance, or do something good that looks bad (okay, whatever motivation fots your campaign) giving a (somewhat archetypal) motivation for the players to go into the temples and an overarching plot that can direct the endgame.

It also allows for enemies from one elemental temple to follow the players into one of the others giving the chance to have more "off elements" or three-way encounters to mix things up.

 

[Danforthe]

Also, don't forget to throw curveballs at them. Have fire-based traps that heat up slowly and sap their ability to think, targetting Will.

Ice Chains that grapple them.

Wind blasts that Bull Rush them as they try to climb across perilous ledges.

Also, avoiding an Ice Palace or Igloo, maybe another setting that has fallen to an endless winter (like Narnia I guess) or a world where the sun seems to have gone out. It might not just be cold but also ruined, falling into darkness and entropy. In such a place Ice loving natives would thrive, but others would have turned to sacvenging, huddling into the small pools of heat or embraced undeath for the "safety" it brings.

 

[Badwe]

I want to compartmentalize the effects that can originate from a certain element in order to create a mechanical<->thematic link between what element you're in and what is happening to you. That being said, I like the idea of ice chains grappling you and thunder waves bullrushing. If there was a nature temple or even if the water temple had deadly kelp I might use grappling there instead.

For the setting of the ice temple I'm beginning to think I'll have to loosen my idea of "temple". Most likely it will be an icy ball of earth, almost like a floating continent, with the myriad environments on top. Then, caves or small forts can lead down to pure ice areas below.

For another example of thematics:

++Psychic
-dominated, blindness, dazed (mind flayers)
-fear effects to push and slide
-attacks will more than anything else
-force players to attack each other


for psychic i actually have some plans to really change things up, and create a sense of mistrust among the players. I'd say there was something prevalent like the "curse of lies" where any player revealing a deep secret to their allies would take a hefty chunk of damage. What is a deep secret? anything the DM writes on a piece of paper and hands to you such as "your weapon is talking to you and demands lives, take damage for each killing blow that isn't yours" or "you don't trust the elf, don't heal him". This will create a fun ( i think) metagame where players realize they each have issues but can't share them with each other.


Another thing i need to plan out is what kind of monsters will go into places. Some things can be assumed across all such as elementals, archons, giants of that element etc.:

**Fire Monsters
-salamanders
-azer
-efreet
-red dragon
-magma beasts

**nature monsters
-yuan-ti
-shambling mounds
-dryads
-treants

**earth monsters
-galeb duhr
-gargoyles
-mummies
-scarabs/bugs
-creatures from the underdark (trogs, drow, etc.)