Using VERY tough monster with low level characters. Advice please

[Infinite Monkey@Work]

The characters in my campaign are 2nd level. They may be 3rd by the time this situation comes into play.

They will be sent on a quest to obtain an artifact. They will be told that this is of vital importance to the town they live in and the country guarded by the (border) town.

I want the artifact to be guarded by an extremely scary monster. SOmething they have no chance of killing, but that isn't a death trap.

A) I'm not sure which monster is best for this role.
B) I'm not sure how to ensure they don't all die horribly.

The artifact is deep in an evil swamp, possibly in a warren of tunnels beneath the swamp. I was thinking of using a dokonu (basically a Huge rocky spider from OA) but its CR 19. I could trap it in a cavern within the warren, saying that it used to be a normal spider that has been warped by the power of the artifact, and is worshipped and fed by the other creatures living in the warren, probably orcs.

Does anyone have suggestions as to how I can do this? Either less deadly, but still huge and scary, monsters or ways of ensuring the parties survival (there is no raise dead on my world, so not putting the characters in deadly situations is important, especially as this is just the start of the campaign.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Greatwyrm]

Any kind of a combat encounter is probably going to turn into a total party kill. How about making it a puzzle/role-playing one instead. The big warped spider gets kind of a sphinx complex. It got really smart and anybody dumb enough to come up and try to swipe the artifact gets a shot at the riddle/maze/gordion-knot/whatever. Everyone so far has failed and been rewarded with a one-way trip through the spider's digestive track. The heroes, being heroes, are of course a cut above all those other poor slobs who came before them...

 

[mmadsen]

I want the artifact to be guarded by an extremely scary monster. SOmething they have no chance of killing, but that isn't a death trap.

A) I'm not sure which monster is best for this role.
B) I'm not sure how to ensure they don't all die horribly.

As a general rule, I love using monsters too tough to beat in a straight-up fight, but you have to make absolutely sure that the players know that's what you're doing. Don't let them assume it's just the Big Boss at the end of the level, and that they should just barely beat it.

I'd suggest using something that can't chase the PCs down, either because it's too big to follow them through some bottleneck, or too heavy to cross the rickety bridge, or just too slow to catch the Barbarian with Expeditious Retreat cast on him.

Turn it into a puzzle.

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, if it's a smart monster, it can just capture them and use them as servants (or set them to do a task in exchange for their freedom).

 

[Lazybones]

How about a hydra? They're pretty slow and unless the group has an armored halfling or gnome, they should be able to run away from it.

 

[Pyske]

First, let me see if my assumption is correct: You want the PCs to meet the critter, flee, and be forced to come back later. Yes?

So the problem with a puzzle is that it can be beaten. A trapped monster with no range can be whittled to death by missile file.

Hmm,... what about putting Lazybones hydra in an obscuring mist? Except then you have the potential for a one-round kill of a PC. Perhaps a fiendish ghost? Something with low damage but high defenses is probably ideal.

Of course, then there's the possibility of PCs dashing through the area. Perhaps the critter becomes material near the artifact.

. . . . . . . -- Eric

PS -- Dokonu are shapeshifters. Bad choice if you want to avoid getting the PCs close enough to be killed. (IMHO)

 

[Victim]

Modify the creature to trade damage dealing for defenses. This way, even if they go into combat with it, they'll realize that they're out matched before dying horribly.

It might also be a good idea to have rumors or information about the creature so that they know what they're dealing with. The clever plan needed to defeat the creature won't organize itself in the middle of combat - therefore, they either need to be able to plan ahead of time, or retreat and then plan. However, in almost all cases, there will be someone who won't retreat, so planning ahead of time is the best idea.

 

[Cullain]

golem

what about some kind of golem, stuck in a room he can't get out of? The PCs will have no chance against it, since low-level chars. won't usually have magic weapons. But if he can't fit through doorways, etc., they'll be able to flee.

But definitely be sure they know it's too tough for them. I had my pretty low level PCs, with few magic items, fighting a dire bear. They decided to fight it head on.

That was not a pretty picture.

Cullain

 

[Umbran]

There's been a number of cogent responses. So, I'll add one that you probably don't want, but ought to be here for completeness...

I'm making some suppositions, but based upon what you've said, you already have a big scary monster - it's called a Logical Inconsistency.

To wit - If there really is an artifact of great power, and it's location is known (even if only to a few) and it is possible for low-level adventurers to obtain it, then why is it still there? If it's relatively easy to obtain, then someone will have obtained it.

My advice would be to change the scenario slightly. Don't sent them for the powerful artifact that will save the town. Send them out for the last component a local wizard needs to complete the magics that will save the town, or something similar. That means the guardian can be much, much less potent. Characters should not be sent to handle things that are "out of their league". If nothing else, if they are going out fetching artifacts at 2nd level, what in the world do you do to interest them when they're 12th? Or 20th?

That aside - scariness is not in the monster, it's in the presentation. Properly described, even kobolds are scary.

 

[Infinite Monkey@Work]

The general idea I have planned out is...

PCs get artifact, beleiving it will save town

Artifact warps town (Its actually a piece of the body of the evil god, but they don't know that)

PCs have to clear up the mess they started.

The reason that no one else has found the artifact is that its location has only just been discovered. The lord of the town was told that it is up to him to recover the artifact, so he forms the PCs adventuring company. But he wasn't informed of the difficulty involved until it was too late, and now he has no choice but to send the PCs in. They will be told before hand that the artifact is guarded by a creature of great power, and they will be told that if they fight it they will die.

As some more background, the country the PCs are in is a central capital protected by a ring of fortress/towns around it. The capital and several of the fortresses have already been corrupted by artifacts similar to the one the PCs will be sent to recover.

Once the PCs have recovered the artifact, they will be sent away on a longish mission, and when they get back their home town will not be a nice place. The focus of the rest of the campaign will be trying to undo the damage that their actions helped cause.


The reason that I want an uber-monster guarding the artifact is to show the players just what they are up against. IMC the forces of evil are very much stronger than the forces of good, just badly organised, which is why subterfuge like corrupting towns is used.

I don't want to use anything 'normal' looking, like a golem, because the evil god is also the god of chaos, so his most powerful servants tend to be nasty icky things.

Also, I was going to remove the dokonu's shapeshifting power.



So basically what I would like help with is ways of setting up the encounter with the creature so it scares the players horribly and they feel like the only just escaped with their skins without running too much of a risk of a TPK.