Rate Your Encounters

[Iron Sky]

Arise, dead thread, serve me once again!

[sblock=Scenario: The Dreadnaught Bridge]XP Encounter Difficulty: Level 18(7 Level 15 PCs)

Brief summary: The PCs are assaulting the bridge of a massive Hegemony Airship. Inside is one of the Zodiac, the leaders of the Hegemony Empire the PCs have been fighting since the start of the game. They've already killed him once, but somehow he's back - though rumors have said he's... different somehow.

Area setup: The game starts with the PCs breaching the massive steel doors that lead into the Bridge. Inside are four suits of UNITY power armored Dragoons (think Final Fantasy magitech).

Enemies:
1 x Geman Zodiac(Level 16 Solo Controller) - when killed he transforms into Kraken-holder(Level 16 Solo Controller, slightly modified version of the Aspect of Ghaundahar used earlier in the thread, photoshopped pic I made below)
[sblock=Geman]Geman Zodiac Level 16 Solo Controller
Medium aberrant humanoid (air) XP 7,000
HP 636; Bloodied 318
Regeneration 5
AC 31; Fortitude 29; Reflex 30; Will 30
Speed 6, climb 6
Resist 10 thunder
Saving Throws +5; Action Points 2
Initiative +14
Perception +19
Blindsight 10

Standard Actions
m Swirling Wind • At-Will
Attack: Reach 2; +20 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d10 + 11 damage, and the target is pushed 3 squares.

C Rending Storm (thunder) • At-Will
Attack: Close Blast 5; +20 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d10 + 11 damage and the target is pushed 3 squares.

A Pet Tornado • encounter; recharge bloodied
Attack: Area Burst 1 in 10; +20 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d8 + 11 damage and the target is pushed 5 and knocked prone.
Effect: The tornado lasts until the end of the encounter. It can be moved 5 squares as a move action.

C Airy Vault • Recharge 4 5 6
Attack: Close Burst 1; +20 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 3d10 + 11 damage and the target is pushed 3 squares. Effect: Geman may fly his speed.
Minor Actions

R Updraft • At-Will
Attack: Ranged 5; +20 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d10 + 11 damage and the target is pushed 3 squares.

Triggered Actions
Redirected Strike • Recharge 4 5 6
Trigger: When targeted by a melee or ranged attack.
Effect (Immediate Interrupt): Geman selects a new target for the attack inside her aura, sliding the attacker adjacent to the new target if the attacker is also within her aura.

Reactive Gust • At-Will
Trigger: When hit by a melee attack.
Effect (Immediate Reaction): Geman pushes the attacker 3 squares.
Other Powers

Zodiac Resilience
Effect: At the start of each of his turns, Geman may make a saving throw against one status effect, even if it does not normally allow a save.

Skills Bluff +19, Diplomacy +19, History +19, Insight +19, Intimidate +19, Nature +19, Streetwise +19
Str 23 (+14) Dex 23 (+14) Wis 23 (+14)
Con 23 (+14) Int 23 (+14) Cha 23 (+14)
Alignment chaotic evil Languages —[/sblock]
[sblock=Krakenholder]Beholder-Kraken(Aspect of Chaos) Level 16 Solo Controller
Huge aberrant magical beast XP 7,000
HP 640; Bloodied 320
AC 30; Fortitude 32; Reflex 28; Will 30
Speed 3, swim 10, fly 6 (hover)
Resist 10 acid
Action Points 2
Initiative +12
Perception +17
All-Around Vision, Darkvision

Traits
O Eystalks • Aura 10
Any creature that starts its turn inside the aura takes a random eye-ray attack.

Standard Actions
m Tentacle Lash • At-Will
Attack: Reach 3; +21 vs. AC
Hit: 2d6 + 9 damage and grabbed(until escape). Aspect can grab any number of creatures up to 3 squares from it.

m Prime Tentacles • At-Will
Attack: Reach 5; +21 vs. AC
Hit: 2d12 + 7 damage and the target slides 4.

M Tentacle Frenzy • Recharge 5 6
Effect: Make a Tentacle or Prime Tentacle attack against each creature in reach of those attacks.

C Engulfing Maw • Recharge 5 6
Attack: Close Blast 3; +20 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d6 + 9 damage and any creature hit by the attack is grabbed.
Effect: All creatures grabbed by the Aspect after take a secondary attack:.
Attack: ; +20 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d10 + 7 damage. Creatures hit are pulled into the Aspect's square(see Maw, below).

Eye Rays(standard, at-will) • At-Will
Attack: (2 random targets in range take random eye-ray attacks.);
Eye 1: +20 vs. Will; 1 - Withering Ray(Necrotic): range 10
Hit: 2d4 + 7 necrotic and 10 ongoing necrotic damage (save ends).
Eye 2: ; +20 vs. Will; 2 - Blinding Ray(Psychic): range 10
Hit: 2d4 + 7 psychic damage and the target is blind(save ends).
Eye 3: ; +20 vs. Reflex; 3 - Dissolving Ray(Acid): range 10
Hit: 2d4 + 7 acid damage and the target takes 10 ongoing acid damage(save ends).
Eye 4: +20 vs. Fortitude; 4 - Enfeebling Ray: range 10
Hit: 2d4 + 7 damage and the target is weakened(save ends). First Failed Save: The target is dazed and weakened(save ends both). Second Failed Save: The target is stunned(save ends).
Eye 5: +20 vs. Will; 5 - Disarming Ray(Psychic): range 5
Hit: 2d4 + 7 psychic damage and the target throws whatever they are carrying in their main hand into the Aspect's space. If they are not carrying anything in their main hand, they throw their off-hand item. Otherwise, they throw a random magical item they are carrying.
Eye 6: ; +20 vs. Will; 6 - Confusion Ray (Charm): range 10
Hit: 2d4 + 7 psychic damage and the target charges its nearest charge-able ally and makes a melee basic attack against it.

Eye Ray Frenzy • Recharge 5 6
Effect: Usable only when bloodied; As eye rays above, except the Aspect makes four eye ray attacks.

Minor Actions
Main Eye • At-Will
Attack: Ranged 10; +20 vs. Will
Hit: The target is dazed until the end of the Aspect's next turn and the Aspect slides them 5 squares.

Triggered Actions
Body Shield • At-Will
Effect (Immediate Interrupt): When the Aspect is targeted by an attack, it may make one creature in its Maw the target instead. After the attack is resolved, the creature used as a Body Shield is considered to have saved from the Maw(see above).

C Death Cloud • Encounter
Trigger: When reduced to 0 hit points.
Attack (Free): Close Burst 5; +20 vs. Fortitude; When reduced to 0 hit points
Hit: 4d10 + 10 poison damage and the target contracts Far Mutation.

Other Powers
Maw • At-Will
Action: No Action.
Effect: All creatures in the Maw take 20 ongoing acid, are restrained, and no creatures outside the Maw have line of sight to them(save ends all). On a successful save, the target escapes from the maw and is prone in a square of their choice adjacent to the Aspect.
Effect: Each failed save: The creature loses a healing surge and the Aspect heals a number of hit points equal to the creature's surge value. If the creature has no healing surges, it suffers an amount of damage equal its surge value.

Skills Arcana +18, Endurance +20, Insight +17, Stealth +17
Str 26 (+16) Dex 18 (+12) Wis 18 (+12)
Con 24 (+15) Int 20 (+13) Cha 18 (+12)
Alignment chaotic evil Languages —[/sblock]
2 x Hegemony Dragoon Unity Walker, Black(Level 14 Elite Brute)
[sblock=Black Walker]Hegemony Dragoon Unity Walker, Black Level 14 Elite Brute
Large natural animate (construct) XP 2,000
HP 346; Bloodied 173
AC 28; Fortitude 29; Reflex 27; Will 27
Speed 5
Resist 20 acid
Saving Throws +2; Action Points 1
Initiative +10
Perception +11

Traits
O Acid Sheidl • Aura 2
Any time the Walker takes damage, all creatures in the aura take 1d8 acid damage.

Standard Actions
m Acid Smash (acid) • At-Will
Attack: Reach 2; +15 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 4d6 + 5 acid damage.

Twin Smash • At-Will
Effect: The Walker makes to Acid Smash attacks.

M World of Hurt (acid) • Recharge 4 5 6
Attack: +15 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 7d6 + 6 damage and 10 ongoing acid damage.

Minor Actions
Unity Walker Armor • Encounter when bloodied
Requirements: .
Effect: The Walker gains regen 10 and 1d6 charges.

Acid Buildup (acid) • At-Will
Effect: The Walker builds up a charge of acid. The next time the Walker hits, it may expend any number of charges to deal an extra 1d10 per charge.

Repower • Recharge 5 6
Effect: The Walker may expend any number of charges. Each heals it 1d8 hitpoints.

Other Powers
Acid Absorber (acid) • At-Will
Action: Immediate Interrupt, when hit by an attack that deals acid damage.
Effect: The Walker takes no damage from the attack and gains 1 acid charge per die of damage it would have taken.

Skills Athletics +17, Endurance +18, Intimidate +15
Str 21 (+12) Dex 16 (+10) Wis 18 (+11)
Con 23 (+13) Int 15 (+9) Cha 16 (+10)
Alignment unaligned Languages Goblin[/sblock]
2 x Hegemony Dragoon Unity Walker, Red(Level 14 Elite Artillery)
[sblock=Red Walker]Hegemony Dragoon Unity Walker, Red Level 14 Elite Artillery
Large natural animate XP 2,000
HP 220; Bloodied 110
AC 28; Fortitude 27; Reflex 28; Will 27
Speed 6
Resist 20 fire
Saving Throws +2; Action Points 1
Initiative +12
Perception +17
Darkvision

Standard Actions
m Fire Blade (fire) • At-Will
Attack: Reach 2; +17 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + 8 fire damage.

r Blaze Cannon (fire) • At-Will
Attack: Range 20; +19 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d10 + 10 fire damage and ongoing 5 fire damage(save ends).

A Fireburst Cannon (fire) • Recharge 4 5 6
Attack: Area Burst 2 in 10; +17 vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d12 + 10 fire damage and 10 ongoing fire damage (save ends).

Minor Actions
Fire Buildup • At-Will
Effect: The Walker builds up a charge of fire. It may expend a charge as a minor action to make a Light Cannon attack or to add 5 fire vulnerability (save ends) to an attack that just hit.

Repower • Recharge 5 6
Effect: The Walker may expend any number of charges. Each heals it 1d8 hitpoints.

Unity Walker Armor • Encounter when bloodied
Effect: The Walker gains regeneration 10 and 1d6 charges.

Other Powers
Fire Absorber • At-Will
Requirements: When hit by an attack that would deal fire damage.
Effect: The Walker takes no damage from the attack and gains 1 charge per dice of fire damage it would have taken.

Skills Athletics +17, Endurance +17, History +17, Insight +17, Intimidate +17, Stealth +17, Streetwise +17
Str 20 (+12) Dex 20 (+12) Wis 20 (+12)
Con 20 (+12) Int 20 (+12) Cha 20 (+12)
Alignment unaligned Languages —[/sblock]
Note: I'm not sure if these monsters have been MM3 auto-updated by Adventure Tools or not...

Enemy setup: See picture below.

How it went: Slow. It was supposed to be an epic fight, but Geman's tornado locked down two PCs in the hallway, pretty much leaving them making weak ranged attacks the whole time. This was before the MM3 damage update, so the enemy didn't do enough damage to compensate for their relatively high defenses and tons of hp.

Once Geman died and transformed into the beholder-kraken, the fight got more interesting(though his cool powers never recharged in 5 rounds of combat), but they burned him down fairly easily. They thought the transformation was cool, but the fight took so long it was too-little, too-late.

Actual Difficulty: Tornado-frustrating, everything else relatively easy.

How well did it work(on a scale of 1-10): 4 - Grind. What was supposed to be an epic fight ended up being an epic slog. If I did it again, well, I'd have MM3 monster damage expressions so it'd be much more dangerous.[/sblock]

 

[SabreCat]

Scenario: Escape from Carceri, Dune Style
[sblock]
XP Encounter Difficulty: Level + 2 strictly by the numbers. 6-character party of 14th level characters, some 8650 XP when all correctly totaled up.

Brief summary: Tethered to a battlemap-sized Purple Worm, the heroes fight critters birthed from pustules growing on its back.

Area setup: The worm is drawn in colored Sharpie on a sheet of 1-inch gridded paper, about 30 squares long and 7 squares wide. The characters, thrown into Carceri after defeat at the hands of their nemesis, have harnessed this abomination (bit of a fluff rewrite there, heh) from the spawning grounds of Agathys to make their escape. Before the encounter begins, each player gets to place the spike to which their character is tethered, and decide how many squares of slack to give the cord running between the spike and the PC.

During the fight, no PC can move farther away from their spike than the length of their tether. A minor action adds or subtracts 1 square of slack. At the top of each round after the first, I roll 1d6 to see how the worm behaves:

1. High speed. At the end of each character’s turn, they slide toward the back of the worm until they reach the end of their tie line. A Moderate Acrobatics check negates this forced movement. (First round it's this without rolling.)
2. Moderate speed. As high speed, but the difficulty is Easy.
3. Whip to the left. As high speed, but characters slide diagonally right-back instead of straight back.
4. Whip to the right. As high speed, but characters slide diagonally left-back instead of straight back.
5. Sudden stop. All characters immediately slide toward the front of the worm until they reach the end of their tie line. A Moderate Acrobatics check negates this forced movement. Characters may move freely to the extent of their tie lines this round, no slide.
6. Violent thrashing. Each character is randomly subjected to “whip to the left” or “whip to the right”. In addition, all characters must immediately make a Moderate Acrobatics check or fall prone.

Enemies:
At the top of rounds 1 and 2, roll 1d8 and add this many Abominate Pustules (14 Minion Brute) to the map.
At the top of rounds 3 and 4, roll 1d4 instead.
At the top of round 3, add a Pod Demon (15 Elite Artillery) to the map.
Nothing special happens in rounds 5 or 6.
After Round 6, the worm crashes into its destination and the fight ends.

Enemy setup:
Pustules don't attack the first round they're in play, they just grow. On their second turn, they explode, making a close burst 1 attack and becoming either a Neogi Spawn Swarm or a Stirge Suckerling Swarm (both 10 Brute), determined randomly.

How it went:
Most of the party (Rogue, Warlock, Wizard, and one Paladin) spaces out evenly along the length of the worm, choosing 3 squares of slack. The cowardly Bard|Psion puts himself at the very rear with a single square of slack. The second Paladin puts herself 2/3 of the way back with a 15 (!!) square lead. The group debates briefly whether they have that much chain, but I allow it. More rope to hang herself with, really: she flies to the back of the worm and has to make a saving throw to avoid falling off (she succeeds).

Over the course of the battle, there's a variety of successes and failures on the Acrobatics checks, and some times when the players decide tactically not to try, to get free movement without opportunity attacks! The Paladin with the unwise tether choices has to make several saves vs. falling; she succeeds on one only by dint of Heroic Effort, and the last one she fails, meaning she's dangling off the side when the worm crashes (I give her single-target limited damage for the road rash). Unfortunately, the two most interesting worm movement results (5 and 6) never come up.

Three Neogi Spawn Swarms end up being created from the pustules; the PCs pick the rest off before they burst. The Pod Demon is unpleasant, but takes an enormous amount of damage from the Warlock when he manages to bloody her: she has a Ring of Fury and a Backlash Tattoo, meaning three Eldritch Blasts in counterattack, one of which crits. So he doesn't last to round 6. Two swarms remain standing when the fight ends.

Actual Difficulty:
More like even-level. Given they had no real attacks, the Pustules gave way more XP than they were worth (I should have given them a damaging aura or something). The party took a fair amount of damage, with about half the party staying bloodied for a while and the Paladin closer to the front nearly going to 0 but not quite getting there, but there was no danger of defeat.

How well did it work(on a scale of 1-10):
8! We had loads of fun (I even played a track from Shadow of the Colossus when we started, hehe)--but as mentioned, the pustules needed to be more interesting. And to make all the cool worm-movement effects come into play, I should have stepped through them round by round rather than rolling them randomly.
[/sblock]

 

[the Jester]

I lurve this thread and am happy to see it return!

 

[bluesfella]

Scenario: Frost Goblins bring down the airship
[sblock]
XP Encounter Difficulty: Level 1 (not intended to be a significant threat)

Brief summary: The party of 5 level 1 adventurers are traveling in a small hot-air balloon in the dead of winter. (They aren't very high up - just above the dense cloud cover hugging the ground.) Just before they reach their destination, two small frost goblins come flying up through the clouds and land on the balloon itself. They pull out daggers and start shredding the balloon, while two more come flying up behind them and do the same. The balloon starts to plummet while they fight off the minions, then it crashes and throws them all prone (based on their acrobatics/athletics checks). As they stand up and retrieve their weapons, a giant frost goblin appears and throws even more minions at them...

Area setup: Approx. 40ft. by 50ft. airship platform...basically like a large hot-air balloon basket, but wider and more shallow.

Enemies: 1 Giant Frost Goblin (re-branded from a goblin skullcleaver) on the ground below, at least a dozen goblin cutters (minions).

Enemy setup: The frost goblin giant is on the ground, and each round on his turn throws between two to four minions at the balloon until it crashes. (That only took two rounds.) He continues throwing minions until he is bloodied, then he charges and begins melee attacks.

How it went: Very well! This was a thematic battle, and not intended to be too difficult, but it ended up being very close. It really took the party by surprise, and I had several comments about how much they enjoyed it. I gave the giant goblin an aura 2 that slowed the PC's, but other than that, I just re-flavored the stock powers. The PC's, being a very oddly-mixed group and unsure of their own powers, took some time to figure out strategies, but eventually overcame the odds. When the giant would throw minions at them, they would take damage from the hit, get knocked prone, AND now had minions flanking them. Even if they ducked and were missed by the minions, those minions were now behind them. Even though all the minions went down quickly, there was a lot of "OH CRAP!" moments when the softer PC's would get knocked down and surrounded. PC's were knocked unconscious three different times! By the time the big baddie was bloodied, it became a melee grudge match, but by then the players were having so much fun it didn't matter.

Actual Difficulty: Maybe Level 3? It turned out much more difficult than I imagined, but part of that is the player's faults, really. This was only their 2nd encounter ever...

How well did it work(on a scale of 1-10): Easy 9. They talked about for a week afterward...

[/sblock]

 

[DarkLord Of DForce]

We just had a very interesting and challenging encounter in our last Saturday session.

We had a 1ev19 party consisting of my Avenger, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, Barbarian,
and Wizard for this particular session (we have a swordmage and fighter that rotate in and
out of gameplay).

Its the Tomb Of Horrors. The section where the entire room is filled with bones, skeletons, bone shards, etc, with a very narrow bone and flesh bridge traversing the room from our entry point to the exit on the other side. The bridge is about 20 feet up.

We enter the room, and immediately go into an encounter. We are facing 15 minions, all flying, with aura's that do -2 to all saves. We are also facing 2 DM modified Eldritch Phantoms.
First round starts out well enough, the minions come in adjacent and attack hard, but our AOE party skills take them out fairly quickly. At this point, an Eldritch Phantom "possesses" our Barbarian. (I'm saying possession because what happens goes *way* beyond just domination). The DM then asks what the Barbs biggest daily power is. I immediately go, whoah! - domination only allows you 1 action, and At-Will powers at that. He tells us these creatures can use all our daily powers, 3 actions each turn, and even our action points.
He then crits on a 7w daily power the barb has, against our Paladin. He has an Execution Axe, he's raging, he gets an MBA off a crit....Boom! Paladin is dead in the first round. I mean -dead-, negative bloodied value dead. (he didn't have full HP - in a skill challenge from the previous room, he was down to about 82 hp).

Things are kinda rough after that. We manage to wipe all the minions, kill one Eldritch Phantom, only to have the 2nd Eldritch Phantom revive 9 of the 15 first wave minions we killed. I had held Solar Wrath back, and managed to take out almost half of this wave, and we dealt with them. At this point the single remaining Eldritch Phantom begins dominating us (its a ranged 5) and pushing us off the bridge. Once on the floor of this room, you are in dangerous/difficult terrain. 1st failed saving throw, you take dmg, are slowed and restrained, and partially sunk into the floor. 3 failed saves total, and your character is dead.

Most of us have no way of getting back on the bridge. I use Sequestering Strike to attack myself, then on a hit, teleport back up onto the bridge. Its a hack, but I couldn't think of any other way.

Another epic moment - our Barbarian did a running start charge on the remaining Eldritch Phantom, who was about 5 sqrs off the bridge. And Missed. Slammed into the wall on the other side of the Phantom, then slid down the wall to the floor. Just imagine this nearly 8ft tall, 350 pound Barbarian launching himself off the bridge, then sailing past the Phantom.

We finally do wear the darned thing down and make it through to the other side. I have to say, that's been one of the most challenging encounters we've had so far. I'm not so sure about making any creature able to dominate you and use all of your powers, but its surely a fact that when the Barbarian killed our Paladin in the first round, it was a real sit up and take notice, "OH CRAP!" moment for the party.

 

[Iron Sky]

I agree about the PC vs PC (allowing dailies especially!) is dangerous. In my last 4e campaign, the PCs were in a hallucinogenic poison trap that made them all think everyone else in the party was a demon(hostile) until they saved against it and got out of the area. The Barbarian was charging around dropping someone every round until the sorcerer finally put him down.

4e is definitely NOT designed for PvP, though when it happens I've noticed players get a strange delight out of pwning each other.