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View Full Version : The Tomb of Horrors - 4E style



AgentPaper
2009-05-24, 12:42 AM
Of course, this is the "tomb of horrors" in spirit only. The goal here is to make a dungeon that is both ridiculously lethal as well as fun to play in. Automatic deaths should abound, but those deaths should always be fun, cool, or hilarious. Standard traps won't be used alone, but as parts of more devious puzzles and mechanisms. Trap-finding type skills should be useful, but we don't want a situation where the only way to proceed is to take a few steps, check for traps, take a step, check for traps, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

As well, the theme of the dungeon will be, instead of an egyptian tomb in a desert, a mayan/aztec styled temple in the middle of a jungle. The entire dungeon will be above ground, in actual structures, which we will eventually make a floorplan for, inside and out. (once we have the dungeon layout figured out) This could change if someone has a better idea, but I think this will work fine.

Things we need to decide:
-What theme should there be for monsters? I'm thinking serpentine/draconic, with Naga and Drakes and Kobolds and any other monsters we want to use re-fluffed to fit.
-How many rooms should there be in the dungeon? 10 seems reasonable, but it might be a bit long. (or short?)
-What level should the dungeon be? We should probably stick to heroic, so crazy builds don't start popping up. 10 seems like a nice level, and would make the dungeon perfect for a paragon-entry test type deal.

Other than that, the most important part is the rooms of the dungeon itself! Each room should be it's own contained encounter, with puzzles, traps, monsters, hazards, and so on inside, though some rooms will likely overlap with each other, and most should have more than one entrance and exit. Most importantly, no room should be a "pure" challenge; every encounter should have some mix of monsters and traps and puzzle-solving and skill cballenges, all at the same time. As well, no two rooms should be alike.

Shadow_Elf
2009-05-24, 10:43 AM
Ideas:
Rust Monsters + Dweomer Eaters, combined with some very choke-point-y terrain and ranged traps

Dusk Unicorn using Fey Wisps + Hazardous Terrain. Possibly give it the Wizard template and combine with Cloud of Daggers, Stinking Cloud and other fun stuff for lots of unavoidable auto-damage. Give it melee beaters that have resistance to the spells/traps in question.

Troll Scions of Flame, to really confuse players. Advanced to level 11s so they get beter fire resistance. If the fire resistance negates an attack, the attack doesn't negate the regeneration.

Feyborn Stirge Swarms, Feyborn Advanced Drake Swarms, etc. Swarm Attack + Pull enemy adjacent = profit!

Grey Slaads. When the inevitably cheesed-out characters try to status lock it, it status locks them instead. Combine with creatures that can give penalties to saving throws.

I'll probably have more ideas later.