Tell Me Your Best DM Dirty Tricks...

[Lord Zardoz]

The sort of thinking demonstrated by your players is what caused Gary Gygax to write the Tomb of Horrors adventure.

There are a lot of things you can pull off to mess with your players, such as throwing an 18th level lich at a 3rd level party and casting Finger of Death first round. As funny as that is though, it is not the sort of thing that wins the grudging admiration of your players.

One of the simplest tricks you can use is to have an encounter in a large open area against archers. Just fire and move away each turn, and have the opponents move away from one another.

Another simple trick is to abuse hit and run. Engage for 3 rounds, then retreat. This will really cause problems for pc's who depend on either Summon Monster spells or Buffs. (Once a player realizes that summon monster 3 can call in monsters with DR 5/magic, you do not really have a whole lot of good tactical options for creatures that cannot penetrate the DR except to hope they can outrun the monster).

One trick I really like, however, is having monsters fight from behind cover, and to put a pit trap of some sort along the path to the monsters cover. Players like to charge into melee, and they tend to get dumped right into the pit.

If your really mean, the pit will be filled with water, to a depth of 8 feet or so, and have a heavy iron grate drop onto the pit and fall into place just below the surface of the water. A 50 pound iron grate is hard to lift when your feet are not on the ground. And since it is a grate, you can have humanoids with spears stab past the grate at the guy under it. The water is there just to help the guy drown.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Darklone]

Use a Mr. Johnson bard NPC who leads the players into going against king, church and empire.

 

[Satori]

-Rust Monsters
-Shadows ("Not so strong now, Mr. Barbarian!")
-Wights ("Where'd your xp go?")
-Halfling Rogues ("Doh! Where'd I put that +20 Holy Avenger Full-Blade?")
-Blackguards with Adamantine Weaponry ("Tee hee! I shattered your Legacy Weapon!")
-Spellthieves ("What? You didn't actually want to cast that Wish spell, did you?")
-Warlocks ("Rest? You actually wanted to rest to recover your spells? Ha!")

 

[LostSoul]

I'm fond of "rocks fall, you die". "A cow falls on you from space, you die" is another good one too.

Either that or an EL = Average Party Level + 4 encounter.

If you do use Tucker's Kobolds, make sure that you add in experience for all the traps and tricks that they are using (ie. the environment). Otherwise it's lame.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

These Guys Invade.......Lots of Them

Or they could accidently open a portal to Acheron and have an army of Rust Dragons and Metallovore Rakshasas invade the material plane.

But I prefer the Space Marines

 

[Hyudra]

Play a dangerous foe really really well.

If anyone in the encounter has ranged weapons though, web them against an immovable object of your choice. I actually had a pretty nasty encounter some time ago with a bebilith and four vrocks. The bebilith webbed the party to the side of a cliff which they were held to by telekinesis. After webbing them down, the vrocks took to the air and, right next to the helpless party, started dancing.

From Fang & Claw, a Guide to Creative Encounters. Use that enough, and your PCs will bow before you & beg for mercy.

 

[EricNoah]

When playing in a high-level group, I was constantly amazed at how often a simple spell like darkness (the old 3.0 darkness) would hinder us. The other thing that flummoxed us was anyone who could cast Dispel Magic repeatedly.

 

[Kaodi]

Make the next villain a close relative of the PCs, like a sibling or a child, or just someone who they would be unwilling to kill. If they kill them anyway, that is when you send in the demi-god of family ties, and tell them to kiss their butts goodbye, or something like that.

 

[Ashrum the Black]

My favorite was when my PC's assualted a giant stronghold. They cleared out the first level pretty handedly, but used a lot of resources breaking into the keep and clearing things out. So they retreated when they scouted ahead and saw the second level was crawling with more giants to rest.

The giants on the second level were led by a shaman. He heard the screams of his fellows below followed by the eerie silence. He decided to fortify the stairway and passage way into the second level and used some scrolls and such to keep an eye on the PC's. They came down the hallway torwards the room as the giants unleashed their ballista sized crossbows from behind a barricade. The shaman cast some summon spells to tie up the PCs, and he had cast delayed enchantments that went off as they came down the hallway to the barricade.

At one point the shaman through up a wall of ice to seperate the party and let the archers concentrate their fire. Man it was bloody. I actually had one PC leave the fortress and fly up to the windows behind the giants to get into the fight. The PC's were bottle necked that well. The spellcaster actually burned through his entire spell allotment for the day and then had to enter into hth himself.

This kind of set up could be used by anything, even some lowly orcs. Simply give them a smart leader and think about what you'd do with some time to prepare for the murderous Pc's coming to kill you and take your stuff.

Makes for a great fight if the PC's win, and a humbling experience if they have to flee.

-Ashrum

 

[shilsen]

I'm fond of "rocks fall, you die". "A cow falls on you from space, you die" is another good one too.

I presume you're joking.

Either that or an EL = Average Party Level + 4 encounter.

And I presume you're not, but you should be. Beating the PCs down with stronger opposition takes no effort or talent, nor does it gain much respect from players.

What I recommend is using enemies whom the PCs theoretically should be able to beat easily. At least two levels lower than the PCs and no greater in number. Underequipped for their level. And then have them use superior teamwork and tactics to beat the tar out of the PCs.

Remember, never go for the kill. Go for the pain