non-combat-combat-encounters

unan oranis

First Post
I'm thinking of encounters that deploy a map and use minis, but aren't actually combats.

Puzzles and other types of games could happen instead; my example:


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Unicorn tag non-combat-combat-encounter

Atop a hill stands a gray unicorn, whose gaze is so intense that you would mistake it for hostile were it not for the beasts psychic emanation of tranquility - though the stillness is charged with all the power of the calm before the storm.

"so you like treasure and danger. You will find I have plenty of both... let us have some sport!"

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In this battle all attacks do 0 damage, and there are no critical hits.

Grabs may be used in place of basic attacks for opportunity attacks.

Every time the unicorn is "hit" and would normally have received damage, give the party a treasure chest. Once ten treasure chests have been given out, the unicorn has lost the game.

Every time the unicorn "hits" someone the party receives a jinx token. Once the party has ten jinx tokens they have lost the game.


Tactics:
In order to give as many jinxes with as few treasures as possible, the unicorn will hit and run most of the time, unless it can find a nice narrow area only one or two pc's can fight.

The unicorn will use it's fey beguiling to tie up one pc, and command him/her to grab as an opportunity action any pc that runs by.

Use fey step to jump to an unreachable ledge, or lurk in a dark cavern or cursed woodland area (whatever might be on the battle-map) to stealth and use it's low-light vision.

Conclusion:
If they win, the party will have received ten treasure chests, and a certain number of jinx tokens.
The reward for the encounter could be one or more treasure parcels, divided up between the magic chests.
Each chest opened has a 1 in 6 chance of being trapped with an elemental attack (medium limited damage expression).
Every time a 2-6 is rolled and at least one jinx token remains, re-roll and delete one jinx token.


Notes:
The ideal balance for this encounter would be a group around 5 levels below the unicorn (a lvl 9 creature), and with a battle-map with lots of narrow spots, caves and ledges that the unicorn can leap across, hide in and retreat without being surrounded.
The higher defenses and perfect terrain ought to give the unicorn a shot of winning vs 5 action-point wielding characters.

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ok, it's in fairly rough shape and could use some play-testing... though i'm probably just going to run it as-is and see what happens.

anybody doing/done similar things? boulder rolling puzzles etc?

got a better name than non-combat-combat-encounters?
 

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Well, unicorn-tag isn't my cup of tea ... but the idea is good.

The two-stealthy-strikers party from 4e rules might do well with this: making movement and stealth checks to sneak past a patrolling guard, pick a lock without him noticing, and get through the door before his rounds get him back to the door. There could be plenty of other mini-deployed encounters in that which rely on non-combat uses of Standard actions, move actions, etc ... and things flow nicely into combat if the party fail the skills section.

One of our DM's likes to set out minis for just about every interesting scene - he's got a collection of bartenders, serving wenches, and interesting patrons, etc; its pretty funny seeing one of our younger players get distracted by the sultry female mini he's put at the bar.

Personally, as a DM, I never ever do this .. so it worked to tremendous tension-building effect when I forced the party to roll initiative and place themselves on the battle map ... and then gave them no visible opponent save for a locked door 100 feet away.
 

very good idea-good concept,what I think I may do with it is use a nymph
and the reward would be a kiss that would grant a boon,or a leprican(man I cant splel)and you would get his pot of gold,Heck I think Ill use all three!

An Idea I had along these lines is for a superhero game where the players
would have to put out a fire in a chemical plant with explosions and gasses and toxic waste,with a little work this could work for a fantasygame.Substitute chemical factory with toxic magical waste dump.

It always seems that the ideas I like here never get that much attention,I guess this is a little too out of the main stream for the average DM.
 

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