So in a little while, the party is going to do battle in the tomb of a long "dead" god. Depending on how things shake out, its possible that the god will be "reawakening" during the encounter (PCs are 19th level btw). I'm planning this as a capstone encounter in a rather lengthy adventure and the battle should be pretty huge in its own right.
That being said, I also think that dynamic terrain makes for the best encounters much of the time (as well as dangerous/hindering terrain, terrain powers, etc. So what, should be in place in the case of a god's tomb?
The first thought I had is sort of a giant sarcophagus (i.e. large enough to allow the encounter to start on top of it, with the lid slowly retracting during the battle.
That then opens the encounter up to a more 3D perspective as the fight starts to happen, in part, on the god. The god will not be a combatant per se, but I'm thinking sort of a "restless sleep" idea with his limbs flailing about, possibly crushing and/or pinning combatants. Gas clouds (sorta like a breath weapon) also come to mind, and then you have just the sheer verticle drops that can accompany something like this (after all, who knows just how big a god's true body really is?)
I'm also thinking that the god's "reawakening" could bring some beneficial effects with it to, i.e. creating things like energy nodes that allow a power to be recharged (i.e. recover an encounter power) or healing font, etc.
But I'm still looking for something to make this really memorable, so I come to you all for ideas (as well as advice on the above suggestions) for making this truly great. The main opponent btw will be a solo dragon (Calastryx) that has previously given the party fits, which is one of the reasons why I want to make the terrain particularly interesting.
That being said, I also think that dynamic terrain makes for the best encounters much of the time (as well as dangerous/hindering terrain, terrain powers, etc. So what, should be in place in the case of a god's tomb?
The first thought I had is sort of a giant sarcophagus (i.e. large enough to allow the encounter to start on top of it, with the lid slowly retracting during the battle.
That then opens the encounter up to a more 3D perspective as the fight starts to happen, in part, on the god. The god will not be a combatant per se, but I'm thinking sort of a "restless sleep" idea with his limbs flailing about, possibly crushing and/or pinning combatants. Gas clouds (sorta like a breath weapon) also come to mind, and then you have just the sheer verticle drops that can accompany something like this (after all, who knows just how big a god's true body really is?)
I'm also thinking that the god's "reawakening" could bring some beneficial effects with it to, i.e. creating things like energy nodes that allow a power to be recharged (i.e. recover an encounter power) or healing font, etc.
But I'm still looking for something to make this really memorable, so I come to you all for ideas (as well as advice on the above suggestions) for making this truly great. The main opponent btw will be a solo dragon (Calastryx) that has previously given the party fits, which is one of the reasons why I want to make the terrain particularly interesting.