Smart Tactics as a DM

[Xarlen]

So, there's a thread where you have goofed some situations. But I'd like to hear what some have done which was potentially really cool or cruel to a party.

I have 2.

1) The PCs were investigating undead animals moving through the marketplace's food supplies, spreading disease. Well, they went through a tunnel under the graveyard, into a Necromancer's Manner (This all was hooked to a much more elaborate plot of Poison and Disease Cultists). Anyways, the PCs went through the basement, which was a narrow hallway, with three cells along the sides of the hall.

At the end of the hall was a skeleton. The NPC cleric charged the skeleton, and at this point, the skeleton pulled a lever. It raised the doors to the cells. The NPC cleric was attacked by a carrion crawler that came out. Well, PCs go to help... and a second comes out of the second cell, and then a third comes out of the closest cell, right after the mage.

It could have been a TPK, but the Necro's henchmen saved the party while locking them up and gloating, ala Bond.


Same mega-adventure, different situation.

PCs were going through a sea cave into a cavern complex, where the city got its' water; the evil Clerics had poisoned the water. Well, they were walking through a 15' wide tunnel. The center of the cave was a 5' wide rise, while on either side 5' out was submerged in water. At the very end, there was a circular room that had a cave branching off, and the center of the room was very deep.

When the PCs got about half way through the tunnel, a Chuul crawled out from under the water along one of the 5' wide waterways, and grappled the NPC paladin, while attacking the others. And then the OTHER Chuul came out of the deep hole in the end of the Cavern.

I trapped 4 characters between two creatures with reach. The Chuuls dominated the battlefield.

 

[arwink]

An enemy mage with Shatter and the clerics holy symbol. Have you ever looked at how many cleric spells have DF as a component?

They learn to carry backups now

 

[DM_Matt]

Currently on the In Character forum I just had some PCs attacked in their place of business by some fighters (led by a powerful monkish psywar, backed up by a cleric) with SKRs Fleshbound Vampire template.

The opening salvo involved a spell that put out the light sources and filled the air with poison gas.

The PCs could be affected by the poison, but the vamps could not. The PC's darkvision (which is infravision IMC for "biologicals" (nonmagical creatures)) could not see the vamps, and the vamps themselves used Spring Attack/Expert Tactician, Improved Trip and polearms all to great effect.

 

[Xarlen]

What level were they?

 

[DM_Matt]

What level were they?

The Vamps? F6 (CR7)...they get Alertnes, Combat Reflexes, Imp Init, Imp Unarmed St and Lightning Ref, and Toughness with the template, plus one for being initially human, fighter feats at 1,2,4, and 6, and level feats at 1,3, and 6, which were Exprect Tactician, Weapon Focus, Weapon Spec, Dodge,
Expertise, Improved Trip, Mobility, and Spring Attack.

The PCs? 2 L9s, the three NPCs were a few levels higher but two of the three were taken down by the vamp leader and the poison (none of the PCs missed poison saves). It was supposed to be likely that the PCs would lose. The vamps were there to kidnap another NPC (just a Wiz3), and were sent with the powers of the defenders in mind and a good plan.

They didn't kill anyone, though, altouhgh half the vamps got dusted.

This was the prologue for these two PCs, who are supposed to wind up in the same town as the rest of the party shortly, hoping to rescue the hostage, which will conveniently produce a harmony of interests with the preexisting party to bring them in.

 

[Xarlen]

I thought that template was CR +6. Not CR +1 (Ftr6+vamp).

Or am I confused?

Still looked nasty and cool.

 

[nameless]

As DM, I wanted to bring the players to a "lost world" type area, so I rigged an enchanted dragon egg up. The dragon who laid the egg put an enchantment that would throw up a very large teleportation circle back to its home if anyone touched the egg. He intended the egg to remain safe, and was willing to slow progress in order to keep it that way.

Fast forward a couple of months. Some of the PCs are escorting a merchant caravan, and one is the son of the caravan's leader. The leader knows that his son is very inquisitive, and for security reasons can't let anyone know about the egg. His buyer is the intended recipient (by the dragon) of the egg. He simply warns his son (the PC bard) not to open the box, and definitely not to touch what's inside.

Another group of PCs are highwaymen waiting in the fields trying to rob passing caravans. They ambush this one, and chaos ensues. Of course, the first thing the bard does in this situation is find the box and open it. When I describe the dragon egg, he immediately declares that he wants to grab it and put it in his pack. No prodding necessary...

*poof*

The wagon, all the combatants, and a good portion of earth are suddenly in a jungle valley. One t-rex later and most of the NPCs were dead, and the PCs grouped together. It couldn't have gone better.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

My succesful combat and trap stories are few and far between but I tend to hit the humor and the smack down on the head pretty well.

That all my change tomorrow... ....Mwuhahahahahahahaha!!!

But as for proven successes...

Back in the Exalted days one of my players loved making up backgrounds for his characters and I tended to let him. He also, however, really wanted to write in a Dragon Blooded character that he could fight with early on. Cleverly, he wrote up this bit about how his sister married a Dragon Blood who hated him. The first adventure ended with the neighborhood being fairly unhappy about the character and sending word to the Brother-in-law that the character didn't seem 'well.'

I could see the gleam in the player's eyes as his wicked brother-in-law showed up with his entourage, and then I saw it dim as he realized that the brother-in-law had brought the character's mother along.

The mother turned out to be the best NPC villain ever. Her good natured evil and motheringness drove all the PCs and Players crazy, but she was too kind to kill and to clever to avoid. Her force of personality was a better protection for dastardly villains than any group of henchmen ever created.

My one great combat success in that campaign was setting up a very nice ambush based on one of the character's sense of honor and a loop whole involving camoflauge rules. The other was to develop a villain who attacked from behind miles of layered obstacles and environmental effects. Loud music, high wind, smoke, if it had a circumstance penalty the PCs had to attack through it.

Going to see if I can do something similar with a wizard who specializes in 'wall of...' spells tomorrow.

 

[DM_Matt]

I thought that template was CR +6. Not CR +1 (Ftr6+vamp).

Or am I confused?

Still looked nasty and cool.

I double checked. CR+1 it is.

 

[s/LaSH]

The coolest has to be when the PCs walked into a room filled with 60 zombies, surrounding them. It gave the fighter time to try out his new Whirlwind Attack feat. Everyone loved that session - there were three more rooms like that, and the players were highly annoyed when they realised they hadn't cleaned out the last two after the adventure.

I followed it up a while later with five hundred goblins. It was supposed to be a military encounter, but the PCs ended up doing more damage than their troops.

"You go that way, cavalry. I'll go this way. Heheh."

There are some other cool moments, but I'm saving those for revelations in my webcomic. Guess what they are and win art! (/plug)