Rate Your Encounters

[Iron Sky]

I was just reading Stalker0's great thread where S'mon wrote up some quick summaries of his encounters so far and how they went and I thought it would be a cool idea to have a thread with a stockpile of such encounters.

Could be useful to look through to see what worked for people and what didn't.

Here's a few examples of what I was thinking of from the game I'm running currently. I put the template I used at the bottom of the thread.

Scenario: PC Round-up
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XP Encounter Difficulty: Level 7(Party was level 3)

Brief summary: The local watch are rounding up the PCs at the behest PC-hostile neighbor empire/kingdom that just took over the village the PCs have entered.

Area setup: The town square of a village, with a big open area with fountains, a park, etc and many narrow streets and alleys running out of it.

Enemies:
1 batch of 6 Level 1 minions (Human Militia)
4 batches of 1d4 Level 1 minions. (Human Militia)
4 Level 1 Artillery (Custom Rifleman)
2 Level 1 Soldiers (Custom Spearmen)
2 Level 2 Skirmishers (Custom Swordsmen)

Enemy setup: The PCs are surrounded and accosted by the first 6 local watch. If (when) they resist, the militia call for help. Each of the next 4 turns, a new batch of militia trickles in from various alleys around the square.

On turn 6, a group of actual soldiers from the nearby hostile kingdom arrive at opposite sides of the town square in two squads(2 Artillery, 1 Soldier, 1 Skirmisher per group).

How it went:The PCs slaughtered the uncoordinated militia as they trickled in, making the enemy soldiers seem far more fearsome, especially when the enemy Artillery focused fire and dropped a player on the first turn they arrived. The PCs had to split up against the enemy squads, making for interesting tactics and positioning.

Actual Difficulty: Easier then XP prediction. The squads of troops were tough, but the minions were a push-over.

How well did it work?: I'd give it a 7. The PCs got to kick butt, the enemy soldiers came off as tough and coordinated after the militia, and the players pulled through after a tough fight. It was a pretty good fight for the first of my campaign(PCs started at level 3).[/sblock]

Scenario: The Secret Gate
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XP Encounter Difficulty: Level 11(Party was level 7)

Brief summary: The Dwarves are under siege and a group of Changeling infiltrators have discovered an ancient forgotten gate that will let the enemy hordes into the Dwarven mountain citadel. The PCs are sent by the Dwarven Lords to stop the enemy from opening the gates or at least hold them until a Dwarven Lord can bring his personal guard to the gate.

Area setup: A large open cavern area with a 12 square wide gate at the north end. Along each side of the cavern are series of 3 battlement-topped towers connected by ramps. Towers are 20', 30', and 40' feet tall and at the top of the 40' tall towers are the gate controls. The ramps leading down from the 20' towers are surrounded by 10' tall walls, each with a reinforced wooden door. The doors have about 50 hp (enough to withstand 2-3 rounds of damage) or a moderate-to-hard Strength break DC.

It takes two turns of both gate controls being operated before the gates start to slide open (into the walls), then they widen 1 square per turn, allowing enemy minions to start pouring in. The gates can be closed 1 square per turn via access to either set of controls(only need access to one side to close the gates, both to open them).

Enemies:
4 Level 8 Elite Lurkers (Custom Changelings)
Infinite Level 8 Minions(Hobgoblin Warriors, outside the gates)

Allies:
12 Level 5 Minions (Custom Dwarves)
Dwarf Lord + Personal Guard(Plot, arrive if the gates open too far and start slowly pushing the enemy army back if the PCs can close the gates)

Enemy setup:
One Lurker is at the top of each of the 40' towers at the controls. One Lurker at the top of each of the 20' towers. The ones on the 20' towers try to stall the PCs however they can while the others try to open the gates.

How it went: The PCs split up and battered down the side doors with the help of their minion guard allies. The barbarian went right and got in a heated 1v1 duel with a Lurker, while the Sorcerer blasted the one at the controls on the right. The other PCs charged the two Lurkers on the left, while the dwarven minion allies rushed to hold the hobgoblins that started pouring in through the slowly opening gates.

All the PCs on the left died (partially due to some Dailies used too late, partially due to overly-powerful custom monsters, and partially to some great DM rolling for the monsters) The PC barbarian reached the gate controls on the right and closed the gates - while battling a stream of minions that threw themselves at his tower - as the Dwarven Lord and his guard killed off the hobgoblin horde that had made it inside.

The two infiltrators on the left managed to jump off the tower and slip outside before the gates closed.

Actual Difficulty: Harder than XP prediction. With more balanced lurkers than the ones I used, probably about right. Before the session I planned 2 solos, but decided I wanted 4 elites instead. Changed them from solo to elite right before the session without also balancing their powers...

How well did it work? I'd give it an 8. The fight and setup was great, tense, and cinematic, but 4/5 dead players wasn't as cool. If less players had died, probably a 10/10 - especially since the PCs discovered the existence of the ancient, forgotten gate on their own after a 3-day investigation trying to track down the infiltrators(skill challenge).
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Template

Scenario: (remove spaces around sblocks below)
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XP Encounter Difficulty: Level +/- X

Brief summary:

Area setup:

Enemies:
X Level+/-Y Role

Enemy setup:

How it went:

Actual Difficulty:

How well did it work(on a scale of 1-10):

[ /sblock ]


I'll probably post more later. I'd love to see other people's encounters, good and bad - even if you don't want to use my template. Can never have too many good encounter ideas!

 

[Blackbrrd]

Scenario: White dragon fight,
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XP Encounter Difficulty: Level 7+4
(Used on a level 7 party, but it is a level 11 encounter)

Brief summary: Adult White dragon blasting the snow away from graves awakening the dead.

Area setup: An island in the middle of a icy river with precarious stepping stones. The island has a big graveyard, the graves are covered by snow.

Enemies:
Adult White Dragon Level 9 Solo brute with 20% fewer hp, so award 1600xp
3xChillborn zombie Level 6 Soldier
3xMad Wraith Level 6 Controller

Enemy setup:
The Dragon awakens as the party bicker like hell crossing the river, fights them as they come onto the island. It uses its breath weapon to blast the snow away from some graves awakening the chillborn zombies the following round. It stays flying and uses its breath weapon a few rounds later to awaken the Mad Wraiths in the same way

How it went:
The archer in the party was scouting and noticed the dragon, shot it and started the fight with only two PC's on the stepping stones. Otherwise it went about as planned. One of the fighter pushed the gravestones over the chillborn zombies as they awakened, slowing them by one round. (I didn't let them use the aura when they had a gravestone on top of them). The dragon never landed and flew away after getting down to 25% hp.

Actual Difficulty:
The encounter is a little easier than it might seem, as the dragon uses it's breath weapon to uncover the graves and the undead used some rounds getting up of the graves. Difficulty about as a level 10 encounter. The players used all available dailies.

How well did it work(on a scale of 1-10):
The multiple enemies that had to be handled and the big bad guy made for a very interesting encounter for every character type. The encounter has plenty of suspense and the characters feel threatened but not overwhelmed. I would give it an 8.5.
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[Iron Sky]

I really dig the breath-weapon uncovering the graves and the snowy island graveyard. Might steal this one for my game.

Are Mad Wraiths the ones with the daze aura + regen + insubstantial + weakening attacks? If so, they might not be as much of a problem in an outdoor fight with room to move, but inside without much room to move those ones are TPK material.

Also, was the gravestone-tipping something you already had planned or was that DM-rewarded player creativity?

 

[Sanzuo]

Thanks for killing everyone! I give this thread an 8/1

 

[the Jester]

Here's one that I really enjoyed running.

Scenario: Deadly Cliff-Dwellers
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XP Encounter Difficulty: Level 2 encounter (party was 1st level)

Brief summary: The pcs are on the run from an army of mixed humanoids. Searching for a secret tunnel that runs under the mountains, the party encounters a group of drakes. In the middle of the fight, a group of goblins, attracted by the noise, cuts the pcs' retreat off.

Area setup: The fight takes place in a curving canyon about 140' long that dead ends at the back, our of sight of the pcs' starting area. It is about 20' wide in most places. Near the end, a ledge juts out 20' up, upon which one of the monsters dwells. There is no easy access to it from the canyon; pcs must climb to reach it (Athletics DC 15). Outside of the canyon are the edges of the mountain range to one side and scrubby plains to the other.

Enemies:
One needlefang drake swarm (level 2 soldier);
One spitting drake (level 3 artillery);
Four goblin cutters (level 1 minions);
Two goblin sharpshooters (level 2 artillery),

Enemy setup: The pcs initially see the spitting drake, which is on a ledge 20' up. The needlefang swarm comes in from the back of the canyon, starting off out of line of sight from the pcs. At the end of round 3, the goblins arrive at the entrance to the canyon, possibly cutting off the pcs' retreat.

How it went: A very good, very tough fight. The fighter climbed up the cliff to get at the spitting drake while the needlefang drake swarm tore into the rest of the party. There were cool terrain issues (between the canyon and the ledge the drake was on) that made the fight fun, and the combination of the swarm and minions made it nice and hard to deal with the artillery. No pcs died.

Actual Difficulty: More like a level 4 encounter than a level 2. The combination of terrain factors and the needlefang's general badassitude made this a tough fight.

How well did it work(on a scale of 1-10): It really made for a scary fun fight that could have easily left a couple of pcs dead. I love a good, high-lethality game, so I'll rate it at a 9. Very few other 4e encounters that I've run have felt nearly as dangerous.[/sblock]

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[Blackbrrd]

Are Mad Wraiths the ones with the daze aura + regen + insubstantial + weakening attacks? If so, they might not be as much of a problem in an outdoor fight with room to move, but inside without much room to move those ones are TPK material.

Will you believe me if I said I forgot all about the aura? It would really up the difficulty of the encounter...
(They don't weaken though)

Also, was the gravestone-tipping something you already had planned or was that DM-rewarded player creativity?

Player creativity. The player couldn't attack the dragon and the Chillborn Zombie corpses weren't quite alive yet, so the player wanted something to do in the mean time.

 

[Iron Sky]

By the looks of it, we have somewhat similar styles Jester; push your PCs to the limit and see how they fare. Looks like a fun encounter.

Will you believe me if I said I forgot all about the aura? It would really up the difficulty of the encounter...

I've done that before, missing an aura here or there that would have made the fight waaay harder. Gotta love those moments 4 rounds in when you go "Oh, uh, I guess the boss suddenly turns his aura on..."

Scenario: The Pinman
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XP Encounter Difficulty: Level 9(PCs level 4)

Brief summary: The PCs discover a madman's lair inside an ancient, rusting, half-destroyed spine-covered metal snake.

Area setup: The fight starts inside the snake's mouth and winds down the innards of the snake. The snake is anywhere from 4-6 squares wide and all the squares next to the wall are covered with spines that do 1d6 damage per square a creature moves through them.

Scattered in hidden alcoves the length of the snake are suits of armor the Pinman can put on as he retreats down the snake.

Enemies:
Pinman, Level 6 Custom Elite Controller (Specializing in many flavors of AoE ongoing damage)
4 Spine Golems, Level 5 Custom Soldiers (Mark imposes ongoing damage if marked PCs don't attack them and they explode when killed)
10 suits of Pinman armor, Level 1 minions
4 Spine Traps, Level 2 Custom traps

Enemy setup:
The Pinman and two Spine Golems face the PCs at the mouth of the snake. The Pinman begins with a suit of armor on that absorbs all the damage of the first hit against him as a minion and falls of when hit.

The Pinman leaves retreats down the snake to put on new suits of armor while the Spine Golems hold off the party. If the party pursues, they likely hit the hidden Spine traps the Pinman has built in here and there in the snake. Half-way down the snake, two more Spine Golems wait.

How it went: The idea was a hit-and-run fight with the madman down the length of the snake, while he kept throwing on new crazy suits of spiked armor, all with lots of ongoing damage, spike traps, and harassment by the Spine Golems. Instead, the party knocked the Pinman prone and kept him prone and dazed the rest of the fight. The whole fight happened just inside the snake's mouth.

The Spine Golems however inflicted huge damage since when they died they exploded in a Close Burst 2 shower of spines that did decent damage and ongoing - and the party's sorcerer killed 3 of them in the same round while they were surrounding the party. So, in all, it didn't go exactly as planned.

Actual Difficulty: Due to most of the pinman armor (minions) not being used and avoiding all the traps until after the fight, it was much easier than planned. Since the Pinman got the "prOWNed" condition (what we call dazed + prone), he was fairly uninteresting while the Spine Golem's were terrifying when 3 died at once and nearly took 2 players to negative bloodied.

How well did it work(on a scale of 1-10): 5. It was a challenging fight, but the party's lockdown of the Pinman nerfed the whole hit-and-run idea, the traps, and the "minion armor". The Spine Golems explosions were supposed to make the players work on positioning bloodied Golems away from the group, but ended up nearly killing some party members instead.

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[Stalker0]

One needlefang drake swarm (level 2 soldier);
The combination of terrain factors and the needlefang's general badassitude made this a tough fight.

I think the needlefang should get a special ability that just adds +2 to the level of any encounter its in

 

[DanmarLOK]

Scenario: Avenging Dead
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XP Encounter Difficulty: Level 7+ / +4

Brief summary: The party is in pursuit of a ravaging band of raiders from the west and sees the unfortunately all too common sight of pillars of smoke on the horizon. They loosen their shovels and head over to see, yet again, if there are any survivors and to bury the dead. They arrive to find the village still smoldering with burned and savagely hacked corpses.

Area setup:

It's a small village with a central area with a well that's been collapsed down so it's now a pit that drops down 30' to water. Assorted obstacles, destroyed stands, smouldering wagons and piles of bodies create difficult terrain. Peasant cottages are still burning at a low level or collapsed into piles of embers creating zones of damage from heat. Drifting smoke makes the entire area hazy granting concealment to creatures that are more than 10 squares away.

Enemies:
Undead -
Level 7 Elite Controller x 1
Level 5 Solider x 2
Level 5 Skirmisher x 2
Level 6 Minion Skirmishers 2x5 waves (with a third wave held in reserve pending DM judgment)

Enemy setup:
The Elite is in the center of the area and triggers the remainder of the enemies who claw their way from piles of bodies or emerge from the rubble. The minions attack in waves.

How it went:

The party showed up as expected and went to survey the damage and look for survivors. As they entered the center of the village they hear a low pitched moaning coming from one of the piles of the bodies. They move closer to investigate expecting to find a survivor and OOC "some clues as to the bandits they've been chasing that are causing all the mayhem." As the group got closer they saw the tortured remains of a woman who's eyes opened and she let loose a piercing cry of pain and anguish that blasted them all back several squares and knocked them prone. Other corpses started shifting and emerging forth at the cry and the battle was on.

The party was comprised of an avenger, a bard, an invoker, a fighter, a rogue.

It went well enough. The minions had an encounter power where they could inflict the psychic trauma of their burning to death against their targets, the soldiers were set up with good grab powers and the bard spent two turns climbing up out of the well after being dropped into it. The non-minion skirmishers had interupts that interfered with the parties attacks while the elite would freeze PC's in turn in place with her outpouring of pain.
During the fight there was the sound of wood creaking and groaning from one of the smoldering huts and the avenger moved toward it thinking it was reinforcements only to catch a full on explosion as a cask of alcohol inside finally exploded, the blast also destroying most of another wave of minions that were crawling forward. I did make a reference to the sign of a ale mug still hanging by one strap to which I got the comment, "Oh great now we get to fight drunk zombies."


Actual Difficulty: Level 5 the radiant abilities really wreaked havoc with the undead but I expected that. The minions went down like so much popcorn which is why I had another wave in reserve but things were starting to look a bit tense since they are lacking in healing abilities so I burned most of them up in the explosion. If I did it over again I might shift some of the minions into more standards that arrived in a second wave.

How well did it work(on a scale of 1-10): 8'ish. The party really enjoyed the imagry as I painted a picture of the rage and pain the undead were consumed by as they tried to protect their village even after death. The smells of burnt flesh and the choking smoke making it hard to see, the corpses stumbling to life around them. Having to hack these poor villagers tortured bodies up was really unpleasent for them (in a good way) and increased their fervor to go after the group responsible and make them pay for their crimes.
Tactically it went well enough. The having to avoid the hot zones, and after the bard was tossed into the well, everyone shifting targets to get rid of the grabby zombies was fun. The explosion was a high point with a lot of "You illegitimate child, I thought you were bringing in a brute or something out of that thing." type emotion.
The creatures they were fighting had a lot of impeding style abilities but nothing that really shut a player down. Dazed or Immobilized was the worst of it with slows and weakens. I've found I really dislike Stunning powers. The obvious references to the Witch from L4D were brought up but I didn't have her in mind when I made the creature but those game related visuals and audibles helped cement her as a pitiful but deadly creature for the players.

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[the Jester]

Here's another one that worked well.

Scenario: Gun-Guarded Entry
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XP Encounter Difficulty: Level 13 (pcs were level 13, so level +0 encounter)

Brief summary: The party enters the encounter via teleport circle, not knowing exactly where they would end up but knowing that it's in enemy territory. They find themselves facing gun-toting undead and a bone golem.

Area setup: A large, mostly open area with a teleport circle at one end; a catwalk 15' above the floor level crosses the room. Two exits lead to twisting hallways with stairs up leading to the walkway. Each exit has two closed doors between the room the pcs are in and the walkway, thereby slowing down the pcs.

Enemies:
1 bone golem (level 12 elite brute; MM2)
2 pistol wraiths (level 16 artillery; converted from Monsternomicon; stats here)

Enemy setup: The pistol wraiths begin on the catwalk; the bone golem begins play directly behind the teleport circle.

How it went: A very fun fight, with the party forced to focus on the bone golem initially while the pistol wraiths took pot shot after pot shot at them. This was a good fight without too much grind, with only a few enemies and with a real sense of danger due to the pistol wraiths' combination of good damage, weakening and insubstantial. (I know, I know- "weakness + insubstantial is MEAN, waah!" Well, okay then- I'm mean to my players.) One of the pcs is playing a custom paragon path- the pistol mage- and so the pistol wraiths really focused fire on him and had him running very, very scared for a lot of the fight, using their grave shot on him whenever it recharged. Ow!!

Actual Difficulty: About as anticipated. It's always a little hard to figure encounter levels for me, since my group has about 8 players, and we usually have 5-8 at a time, but I never know exactly how many in advance. But yeah, about a level-equivalent encounter.

How well did it work(on a scale of 1-10): 8. The terrain worked as intended, the tactics worked as intended, the monsters worked as intended. I guess the only reason it was "only" an 8 is because nothing extra spectacular happened.

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