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4 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2009 - 4:07AM
#51
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Date Joined:
Dec 20, 2007
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awesome stuff! a linky-recap in the first post would be icing on the cake... 
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4 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2009 - 6:46AM
#52
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Genius Rovin! I'll definitely use that encounter this upcoming session! it fits right in, making everything so easy to plan for story.
Glad to help. If you want another simple-but-dangerous encounter group (pair, really) that you could use just about anywhere, you might try: 1 x Human Noble (MM2, level 5 controller) - a troll handler 1 x Troll (MM1, level 9 brute) - and his troll Versus a level 5 3-man party, this pair should be beatable but fairly dangerous. It's nearly a solo encounter in many ways, although the troll is much less dangerous once the noble drops. ire-using parties won't have as much trouble with it as others, but with a three-man team, there probably isn't a lot of that. Try to keep the noble next to the troll to interfere with flanking and gain a defense bonus, and grant the troll as many extra attacks as you can manage, popping the noble's hesitation trick when he goes bloodied. Focus on bloodying targets with claw strikes to earn another extra attack, and you should be pretty frightening even when outnumbered. The noble could be another hitman after the NPC from the Bodyguard Gig encounter, or a bandit chief, or just some random jerk that picks a fight with the PCs. The troll might be right out in the open, or he could be concealed in a covered wagon or show up from nearby after a round or two (in which case pop the hesitation trick early, then fight defensively while yelling for help till the big guy shows up). a linky-recap in the first post would be icing on the cake...
Sorry, you lost me. Linky-recap for what, now?
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4 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2009 - 8:57AM
#53
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Date Joined:
Mar 12, 2009
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Rovin, thanks for the updated encounter, but what i believe he meant by "linky recap" is go on the first post in this thread and link to the individual posts on the encounters you wrote, like a Table of Contents.
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4 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2009 - 11:40AM
#54
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Date Joined:
Dec 20, 2007
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Sorry, you lost me. Linky-recap for what, now?
like, on the first page, links to all the encounters published so far, ordered by tier, or by level
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4 years ago ::
Oct 01, 2009 - 9:09AM
#55
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Rovin, thanks for the updated encounter, but what i believe he meant by "linky recap" is go on the first post in this thread and link to the individual posts on the encounters you wrote, like a Table of Contents.
Oh, right, gotcha. Has gotten a bit sprawly, hasn't it? I'd be happy to do the edit if someone can tell me how to code for links to individual posts. It was a one-click process before the board changeover, but doesn't appear to be now. Or perhaps I'm just missing it. Still a little baffled by some of the changes they made around here.
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4 years ago ::
Oct 02, 2009 - 4:33AM
#56
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Date Joined:
Dec 20, 2007
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on the top right side of your post there's a number. The post just before mine, for example, has the number 55 when you click on that, you'll have the URL of that particular post community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758... now, you just write down [ url = community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758... ] HERE [ / url ] take away all the empty spaces from my example, and you get this: HERE
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4 years ago ::
Oct 02, 2009 - 7:03AM
#57
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Date Joined:
Dec 20, 2007
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can I also advance a request for an encounter? - party level 22, final showdown with an undead army. General of the Army is a Death Knight (once a paladin, father of one of the PCs), his captains are Vampire twins. cheers
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4 years ago ::
Oct 02, 2009 - 8:00AM
#58
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can I also advance a request for an encounter?
- party level 22, final showdown with an undead army. General of the Army is a Death Knight (once a paladin, father of one of the PCs), his captains are Vampire twins.
cheers
Give me a little more data and I'll take a stab at it when I get some free time at home. What race(s) are the death knight and vamps, what difficulty do you want the fight to be, what's the likely setting (indor, out, at the city walls of one side or another, etc?), and what's the party composed of (number of PCs, classes, PP, EDs)? I'll take a stab at editing that first post into a table of contents later. Thanks for the info - I didn't realize the post number was still an active function, since it doesn't have a "button" and the cursor only changes if you hit it just right. Sigh.
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4 years ago ::
Oct 02, 2009 - 9:45AM
#59
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Late paragon tier Elemental Chaos encounter, which I originally ran in conjunction with the Slaad Portal encounter. Balancing Act The Hook: The PCs are travelling through Elemental Chaos and encounter some monsters. A fight ensues, greatly complicated by the weird terrain. Setup: The battlefield (and the entire region, as far as the eye can see) is a series of floating shards of black rock which bob and sway 30' over a churning sea of flame, within which ominous dark shapes can sometimes be seen. Scatter dozens of 2x2 rocks across the battlefield with at least one square between them. 1d6 rocks will drift one square at random at the start of each round, pushing any other rock so that they maintain a minimum one-square gap between them. This may cause a series of chain reaction pushes. Anyone standing on a rock that moves must make a DC 12 Acrobatics check or fall prone. Any creature that involuntarily goes prone on a rock for any reason (including dropping to zero HP) must make a save or fall off the edge. A creature which is already prone is safe from this, and assumed to be hanging on for dear life. Any creature standing on a rock may take a standard action to make a close attack that targets all creatures on the rock: +22 vs. Reflex, Hit: Target falls prone. This will affect the creature itself, so going prone (and taking the -2 attack penalty) may be a good idea. Anyone falling off a rock plunges into the fire sea and vanishes from sight. They take 4d10 falling damage, become prone unless they can zero that damage somehow, and suffer 10 ongoing fire (save ends, cannot save while in the fire sea). At the start of the next round, a new rock carrying the creature will burst from the sea and rise 10' above it. The following round it will rise to the same 30' altitude as the rest of the rock layer, pusjing rocks above it out of the way as it does so. The entire area is difficult terrain for fliers due to erratic updrafts. The rocks themselves are normal terrain, just shaky, unstable normal terrain. Monsters: 1 x Raavasta Observer (MotP, 19 Lurker) - mastermind, disguised as a Rakshasa 1 x Rakshasa Noble (MM1, 19 Conroller) - thinks he's in charge 3 x Rakshasa Archer (MM1, 15 Artillery) - catman snipers 3 x Rakshasa Soldiers (MM1, 15 Soldier) - grunt troops 12,000 XP, level 19 encounter Tactics: The Ravaasta concentrates on ranged attacks, using Mind Lure to force victims to fall as often as possible. Don't initiate melee, use Vanish if threatened, and flee if bloodied or left alone. Set your Variable Resist to fire, and consider using the fire sea as an escape route. The raavasta's familiarity with the area lets it "swim" out of sight under the flames if it chooses to, rather than resurfacing with a boulder. The noble alternates between raw damage powers and forced movement effects, trying to cause falls. Avoid melee if you can, but continue fighting until all the other Rakshasa are slain. The soldiers screen for the other monsters, and are likely to use the "shake the rock" attack if they find themselves outnumbered on any single stone. Fight to the death. The archers snipe with Double Attack until a target is bloodied, then hammmer him with Ghost Arrow to block healing. Concentrate your fire on the softest target you can find. If pressed into melee, shake the rock until you get a chance to flee. Fight as long as the noble (or the disguised Raavasta) is still alive, then flee if bloodied. Aftermath: The PCs can proceed on their journey. They may get loot, but there's a fair chance that the bodies of their opponents have fallen into the fire sea. Characters with serious long-term fire resistance may be able to recover lost loot or dead PCs.
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4 years ago ::
Oct 03, 2009 - 7:07AM
#60
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One more Elemental Chaos encounter. When I first ran this, it was part of a longish series of inconclusive fights with a couple of raavasta agents of Tiamat who were trying to pry a McGuffin artifact away from the party. The previous Slaad Portal and Balancing Act fights were also part of the series, and this one was the wrapup. You could plug any or all of them in as generic one-shots, although this last one works best if the PCs have irritated a Tiamat cult in the past, or if they're carrying (or rumored to be carrying) something of immense worth. Summoning the Queen of Greed The Hook: The Pcs are travelling through a hot, dry wasteland of shattered stone (which could be anywhere, although my run was in Elemental Chaos) when they spot a massive plume of polychromatic smoke less than a mile ahead of them. Arcana-skilled characters will notice a sudden spike of magical energies implying strong ritual magic. Presumably they go to investigate, whereupon they encounter a cell of Tiamat cultists who are working on calling the boss for some help killing and looting the PCs. Setup: Outdoor open battle during the daytime. Scatter some large and huge rock spires around as obstacles and line of sight blockers. At the center of the field is a towering (hundreds of feet high, and growing) plume of multicolored smoke, with the center 3x3 zone heavily obscured and another 2 square radius around that lightly obscured. The cultists stand around the perimeter of the plume, with the raavasta chanting and the dragonborn keeping watch. Monsters: 1 x Raavasta Observer (MotP, 19 Lurker) - mastermind and ritualist
5 x Dragonborn Bloodreavers (Dr, 17 Skirmisher) - cultist bodyguards
10,400 XP, level 18+ 1 x Aspect of Tiamat (Dr, 17 Solo Brute) - possibly summoned during the fight +8,000 XP, raising the level to 21-22 Tactics: The raavasta is performing the summoning ritual, which requires four turns (you can adjust this if you think your PCs need more or less time to stand a reasonable chance of dropping the raavasta) of effort to complete. Each turn the raavasta must spend a minor action chanting while adjacent to or within the lightly obscured zone of the smoke or no progress is made. Once the ritual is complete, roll 10+ on a d20 at the start of each turn for the Aspect of Tiamat turn arrive and roll initiative. The progress of the ritual is obvious (the smoke plume grows taller and its colors brighten) and an easy Religion or Arcana check will determine that it's intended to summon divine aid. Do everything you can to stay alive while performing the ritual, moving around the cloud and using Vanish and Mind Lure to avoid or disperse attackers. Fight to the death to finish the summoning, but flee if the aspect appears and actually attacks you. The dragonborn do their best to distract the PCs from the raavasta while skirmishing. If they can't stop the melee PCs by fighting fair, they may try rushing a ranged character en masse, brutally mugging him, and then using him as a hostage. They'll also coup de grace without mercy if they think they've got time. They fight till the raavasta is dead, then flee if they can when bloodied. If the ritual is completed, they fight to the death regardless. If the aspect of Tiamat arrives, she appears in the center 3x3 area of the plume, condensing out of the smoke as it disappears. Roll initiative normally. She uses Frightful Presence immediately, then proceeds with normal dragon tactics, trying to engage multiple PCs with her bite attacks or breath weapon from low altitude and spending APs rapidly to maximize damage. She displays little concern for her followers, and will happily breath on them if she has to to catch more PCs, and once bloodied, she'll make berserk bite attacks against allies if she has any left over that can't target a PC. The aspect fights to the death, and pursues anyone who tries to flee. Aftermath: The party may get some loot from the cultists, and they're unlikely to be pestered by Tiamat's followers for a good long time after this, especially if they killed the aspect. In the long run, this fight may come back to haunt them, as dragon-gods tend to have long memories and a fondness for revenge.
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