DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

[Bohandas]

Call of Cthulhu antagonists
How about a Call of Cthulhu campaign where the murder cult isn't trying to wake the eldritch abomination up, but rather are the only thing keeping it asleep (Similar to the Vigil from Docyor Who or the unnamed cult from The Cabin In The Woods)

[redzimmer]

Call of Cthulhu antagonists
How about a Call of Cthulhu campaign where the murder cult isn't trying to wake the eldritch abomination up, but rather are the only thing keeping it asleep (Similar to the Vigil from Docyor Who or the unnamed cult from The Cabin In The Woods)

Or the Banites in Treasure Of the Savage Frontier.

[Bohandas]

Fantasy Borg Cube
(spelljammer)
In the middle of the pholgiston the characters come across an incongruous iron cube-shaped fortress filled with spawn-creating zombies controlled by an evil witch whose living head is grafted onto a zombie body

[redzimmer]

And their analogous Species 8472 being a living Formian hive ship.

[redzimmer]

How the party meets:

The party meets in a dungeon, stripped of gear and prepared spells.

A magic mouth informs them each has been infected with a necrotic cyst (Libris Mortis).

An NPC is also in the dungeon. He is killed when his cyst is triggered.

The magic mouth tells the party they must gather certain reagents for an unknown party unless they want to die next...

[Bohandas]

High level spelljammer campaign
The gods of greyhawk recruit the characters to do some errands for them in realmspace (which the greyhawk gods can't enter because they are interdicted by lord Ao). Olidammara wants to plunder the wall of the faithless for souls and Zagyg wants them to steal back some notebooks of his that were stolen by Jon Irenicus

[redzimmer]

I would ten copies of that. A spelljammer heist caper sounds awesome.

[Bohandas]

Encounter/Adventure/Side-Quest

A sibriex (flesh-grafting demon from fiendish codex 1) passed through a racher's lands recently, now the rancher is down three steers and up three uncontrollably violent bulls with demonic tireless-rage abilities.

A more extended version of this encounter could be that the ranch is secluded and quite some time has gone by since these uncontrollable bulls gored the rancher and ranch hands to death, only now have people gotten worried and sent somebody due to the herd of fiendish cattle sired by the bulls beginning to cause trouble

[Bohandas]

Encounter
When the wizard casts Time Stop they are accosted by a Quarut, Langolier, or Hound of Tindalos while still under the spell's effects.
Alternately the party is hired as backup by a wizard targeted by these creatures; he's going to cast a modified version of the spell that will pull them all in so they can fight the creature with him

[Bohandas]

The old "head of vecna" gag, but in connection with an ettin or hydra that avoids it's fatal flaw

[Bohandas]

Hook/Campaign (uses concepts from Warhammer 40k, but easily adapted to D&D)
Someone has discovered that localized warpstorms can be cheaply created with a setup very similar to John Calhoun's Behavioral Sink/Mouse Utopia experiments

[Bohandas]

Adventure

Someone hires the PCs to find out who has been vandalizing his statuary garden. By the end of the adventure it turns out to be a Marut Inevitable (the ones that regulate life and death) and that some of the statues were bought from shady sources and are actual petrified people, whose alotted time is now up. The marut has had to wait and come back for a few whose time wasn't quite up when it first appeared


EDIT:
More Ideas With Maruts

*A cattle drive that is running late finds its cattle that have missed their scheduled time for slaughter being killed by a marut

*Conversely: a marut is attacking ranchers for presuming to schedule the life and death of their animals

[Bohandas]

NPC: "Psychopathic Sammy"

Psychopathic Sammy is the proprietor of a magic weapon shop called "Psychopathic Sammy's Armament Emporium". The sign on the door advertizes "homicidally insane prices". True to the sign's word Psychopathic Sammy buys and sells weapons and magic items at a lower profit margin than standard. As the PCs grow in levels, the store seems to begin to follow them to different cities and towns, always appearing the same on the inside as it did in it's initial location. When the PCs become high level and start to deal in large amounts of treasure the Store begins to appear in places where it absolutely could not be, such as in the trunk of a tree or embedded inside of a one foot thich wall which definitely doesn;t have his shop on the other side of it. In truth, Pychopatgic Sammy is a yugoloth, and the store remains where it has always been; in a suite on the 203rd floor of the Wasting Tower in the gray wastes of Hades; (which, btw, imposes extensive hidden penalties to any non-evil PC that enters the store until such time as they exit the store). The door is a reconfigurable portal that can be sent where it needs to be. Often appearing in the dead of night so that Sammy can have time to murder the previous occupants of any building whose door his shop has replaced and set up a copy of his window display in the window. PCs with high spot skills will notice that the window display on the inside (which generally has an illusory street beyond it; another permenent magic item) doesn't quite match the window display on the outside, especially as regards people on the other side of it. If the PCs try to attack or rob the store knowing who Sammy really is they'll find themselves swarmed by yugoloth guards and the portal gone.

If the PCs, having found out Sammy's true nature, ask why he's doing business with them, the heroes, of all people, Sammy will become offended and say that he wouldn't be a very good arms dealer if he cared who he was selling to; (the only important things are that thet have spare magical weapins to be sold off and more importantly they have money to but more expensive ones; he wishes only to make money and ensure that the world is supplied with instruments of death). Pursuant to this, anything which the PCs sell to him has a very high chance of making it into the hands of their enemies (or at least the important non-random-encounter enemies that can afford magical stuff), at the same low price (represented by an amount of additional gear corresponding to the discount) at which Sammy sells to them. Over time they may find that they;ve sold him the same few items many many times. If they start to wonder if this Yugoloth is selling them cursed stuff or whatever he'll show them an item which has made it's way back to him a few times and laughing reply something to the effect of "I'd say that you lot are curse"

[redzimmer]

I love this guy. I could totally see him as a NPC in one of the Baldur’s Gate games.

[Bohandas]

Campaign idea

The player characters are aspects of Greyhawk gods trying to establish a footh0ld on Faerun. They're locked out from simply manifesting themselves there by Lord Ao, so to clandestinely establish a foothold there they have been born there as mortal aspects (while, of course, still retaining their true form and other aspects and avatars elsewhere)


Adventure concept

Wererats vs. kobolds. Mousetraps galore.

[Bohandas]

NPC: "Psychopathic Sammy"

Psychopathic Sammy is the proprietor of a magic weapon shop called "Psychopathic Sammy's Armament Emporium". The sign on the door advertizes "homicidally insane prices". True to the sign's word Psychopathic Sammy buys and sells weapons and magic items at a lower profit margin than standard. As the PCs grow in levels, the store seems to begin to follow them to different cities and towns, always appearing the same on the inside as it did in it's initial location. When the PCs become high level and start to deal in large amounts of treasure the Store begins to appear in places where it absolutely could not be, such as in the trunk of a tree or embedded inside of a one foot thich wall which definitely doesn;t have his shop on the other side of it. In truth, Pychopatgic Sammy is a yugoloth, and the store remains where it has always been; in a suite on the 203rd floor of the Wasting Tower in the gray wastes of Hades; (which, btw, imposes extensive hidden penalties to any non-evil PC that enters the store until such time as they exit the store). The door is a reconfigurable portal that can be sent where it needs to be. Often appearing in the dead of night so that Sammy can have time to murder the previous occupants of any building whose door his shop has replaced and set up a copy of his window display in the window. PCs with high spot skills will notice that the window display on the inside (which generally has an illusory street beyond it; another permenent magic item) doesn't quite match the window display on the outside, especially as regards people on the other side of it. If the PCs try to attack or rob the store knowing who Sammy really is they'll find themselves swarmed by yugoloth guards and the portal gone.

If the PCs, having found out Sammy's true nature, ask why he's doing business with them, the heroes, of all people, Sammy will become offended and say that he wouldn't be a very good arms dealer if he cared who he was selling to; (the only important things are that thet have spare magical weapins to be sold off and more importantly they have money to but more expensive ones; he wishes only to make money and ensure that the world is supplied with instruments of death). Pursuant to this, anything which the PCs sell to him has a very high chance of making it into the hands of their enemies (or at least the important non-random-encounter enemies that can afford magical stuff), at the same low price (represented by an amount of additional gear corresponding to the discount) at which Sammy sells to them. Over time they may find that they;ve sold him the same few items many many times. If they start to wonder if this Yugoloth is selling them cursed stuff or whatever he'll show them an item which has made it's way back to him a few times and laughing reply something to the effect of "I'd say that you lot are curse"

Additionally, if the PCs ever find themselves in jail his door may appear in the wall of their cell with an offer to sell them weapons (and in this case only weapons) on credit. He may also let them temporarily hire some thugs on credit. He will not sell them anything else on credit nor will he use his portal to drop them off somewhere else.

[Bohandas]

Plot Twist
The Curse

The PCs keep findig evidence (starting before they ever meet him in person) vaguely connecting a particular NPC to various shady goings on that the PCs oppose. Eventually it turns out that he's under a curse that vauses people to view him unfavorably such as Cloak of Hate (from Heroes of Horror) or, especially, the last Bestow Greater Curse variant on page 36 of Dragon #348

[Bohandas]

NPC/Encounter
The Opposite of Boob-Plate

The PCs meet a female psionicist adventurer whose entire body is permanently embedded in a large slab of rebar concrete with holes drilled in it for air, food, and sight (Granting her total cover). The entire mess is dragged along in a cart pulled by a horse whose brain has been replaced with her psicrystal. And how was the horse's brain replaced with her psicrystal? She doesn't actually know the details, but she traded both of her breasts to a Sibriex (Firndish Codex 1, pg52) to make it happen.


NPC
The Ed Gein of Dragons

Another disreputable-ish merchant. This one is a dragon (most likely a rust dragon from the plane of Acheron, although this is not essential; they just fit because they're evil but not super evil and have reason to be working in non-metallic materials). This dragon will enthusiastically buy the bodies and bodyparts of slain dragons from the PCs and will also sell them items made of dragonhide, including armor but also including many items that derive no mechanical benefit whatsoever from being made of dragonhide.

[Bohandas]

Class:

A class I came up with. It's less powerful than most PC spellcastig classes but more powerful than NPC spellcasting classes

The Soothsayer

Level	BAB	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
						0st	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	0	0	0	2	Lore, Initiative Bonus +1	5	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2nd	1	0	0	3	Bonus Feat, Magic Trapfinding	6	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3rd	1	1	1		Advanced Learning	6	5	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4th	2	1	1	3	Skill bonus, Skepticism +1	6	6	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5th	2	1	1	4	Initiative Bonus +2	6	6	5	3	-	-	-	-	-	-
6th	3	2	2	5	Bonus Language	6	6	6	4	-	-	-	-	-	-
7th	3	2	2	5	Advnaced Learning	6	6	6	5	3	-	-	-	-	-
8th	4	2	2	6	Bonus Feat, Uncanny Dodge	6	6	6	6	4	-	-	-	-	-
9th	4	3	3	6	Initiative Bonus +3	6	6	6	6	5	3	-	-	-	-
10th	5	3	3	7	Reflex Save Bonus +1	6	6	6	6	6	4	-	-	-
11th	5	3	3	7	Advanced Learning, Skepticism +2	6	6	6	6	6	5	3	-	-	-
12th	6/1	4	4	8	Bonus Language, Skill Bonus	6	6	6	6	6	6	4	-	-	-
13th	6/1	4	4	8	Initiative Bonus +4	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	3	-	-
14th	7/2	4	4	9	Bonus Feat	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	4	-	-
15th	7/2	5	5	9	Advanced Learning	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	3	-
16th	8/3	5	5	10	Improvede Uncanny Dodge	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	4	-
17th	8/3	5	5	10	Initiative Bonus +5, Skepticism +3	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	3
18th	9/4	6	6	11	Lingusitics	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	4
19th	9/4	6	6	11	Advanced Learning	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5
20th	10/6	6	6	12	Bonus Feat, Reflex Save Bonus +2, Skill Bonus, Unshakable Will	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

Lore: Bonus equal to 1/2 soothsayer level. Stacks with Loremaster lore ability.

Initiative Bonus: Insight bonus of the indicated amount

Magic Trapfinding: As trapfinding but magic traps only

Advanced Learning: At 3rd, 6th, 11th, and 16th level, a soothsayer can add a new spell to his list, representing
the result of personal study and experimentation. The spell must be a wizard, bard, or Wu Jen spell of the divination, abjuration, or transmutation school, and of a level no higher than that of the highest-level spell the soothsayer already knows. Once a new spell is selected, it is forever added to that soothsayer’s spell list and can be cast just like any other spell on the soothsayer’s list.

Linguistics: Gain a bonus language plus a bonus feat from the following list
Linguistics Bonus Feats: Dark Speech (BoVD, FC1, FC2), Minor Utterance of the Evolving Mind (ToM), Scribe Scroll, Skill Focus (Decipher Script, Forgery, or Truespeech), Utterance of the Evolving Mind (ToM), Words of Creation (BoED)

Reflex Save Bonus (su): Insight bonus of the indicated amount

Skill bonus: +1 insight bonus each time to one of the Following: Appraise, Decipher Script, Gather Information, Heal, Knowledge (pick one), Sense Motive, Spellcraft

Skepticism: Insight bonus of the listed amount to will saves to disbelieve

Uncanny Dodge (Su)

This is similar to the rogue ability, but is asupernatural divination effect and thus does not work in an antimagic field or against attackers protected by mind blank or nondetection. Starting at 8th level, a soothsayer can react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She retains her Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if she is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, she still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.

If a soothsayer already has uncanny dodge from a different class she automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead.


Improved Uncanny Dodge (Su)

This is similar to the rogue ability, but is a supernatural divination effect and thus does not work in an antimagic field or against attackers protected by mind blank. A soothsayer of 16th level or higher can no longer be flanked.

This defense denies another rogue the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has rogue levels at least equal to their soothsayer level.

If a character already has uncanny dodge from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.

Unshakable Will: If a 20th level soothsayer makes a successful Will saving throw against an effect that normally has a partial effect on a successful save, there is instead no effect. An unconscious soothsayer does not gain the benefit of Unshakable Will.

General Bonus Feat List:
Alertness, Appraise Magic Value (CAd), Arcane Disciple (CD), Arcane Thesis (PHB2), Blind Fight, Brew Potion, Communicator (CA), Cool Head (CSco), Diligent, Disguide Spell (CAd), Dodge, Enlarge Spell, Eschew Materials, Extend Spell, Eyes in the Back of Your Head (CW), Graft Flesh (LOM, FF), Greater Spell Focus (Divination only), Hear the Unseen CAd), Improved Initiative, Insightful (CA), Insightful Divination (CM), Insightful Reflexes (CAd), Investigator, Iron Will, Jack of All Trades (CAd), Lightning Reflexes, Magical Aptitude, Magic Disruption (CM), Magic Sensitive (CM), Metamagic School Focus (Divination) (CM), Mystic Backlash (CM), Negotiator, Night Haunt (CA), Obscure Lore (CAd), Open Minded (CAd, EPH), Persuasive, Scribe Scroll, Self-Sufficient, Spell Focus (Abjuration, Divination, Transmutation, or Necromancy), Spell Penetration, Sunlight Eyes (CM), Track, Vatic gaze (PHB2), Widen Spell



Class Skills:
Appraise, Autohypnosis (EPH), Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Knowledge (all), Listen, Perform (Oratory), Search, Sense Motive, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, True Speach (ToM), Use Magic Device

2+int mod skill points per level



Spellcasting:
Intelligence or Wisdom, whichever is currently higher determines spell save DC and max spell level
Intelligence determines bonus spells
Otherwise as Warmage, Beguiler, and Dread Necromancer.


Spell List

Lv0- Amanuensis (sc), Arcane Mark, Dawn (sc), Detect Poison, Detect Magic, Easy Math (S&S) Guidance, Know Direction, Light, Naturewatch (sc), Read Magic, Silent Portal

Lv1- Alarm, Allied Footsteps (cm), Amplify (sc), Appraising Touch (sc), Bloodhound (sc), Comprehend Languages, Dancing Lights, Detect Animals or Plants, Detect Chaos/Evil/Good/Law, Detect Secret Doors, Detect Snares and Pits, Detect Undead, Faerie Fire, Find Temple (sc), Guided Path (sc), Guiding Light (sc), Identify, Instant Search (sc), Know Greatest Enemy (sc), Living Prints (sc), Message, Omen of Peril, Spontaneous Search (sc), Targeting Ray (sc), True Casting (cm) True Strike, Vigilant Slumber (cm), Vision of Glory (sc)

Lv2- Animal Messenger, Circle Dance (sc), Continual Flame, Corpse Candle, Deathwatch, Detect Thoughts, Discern Shapechanger (sc), Erase, Eyes of the Avoral (BOED), Find Traps, Healthful Rest (sc), Hide From Animals, Hold Portal, Listening Lorecall (sc), Locate Object, Low Light Vision (sc), Luminous Gaze (sc), Magic Aura, Master's Touch (sc), Mending, Sanctuary, Scent (sc), See Invisibility, Sleep, Songbird (SC) (oratory only), Speak With Animals, Speak With Plants, Ventriloquism, Zone of Truth

Lv3- Analyze Portal (sc), Anticipate Teleportation (sc), Arcane Sight, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Darkvision, Discern Lies, Find the Gap, Fox's Cunning, Glitterdust, Healing Lorecall (sc), Invisibility Purge, Know Opponent (sc), Know Vulnerabilities (sc), Lesser Telepathicv Bond (sc), Listening Coin (sc), Locate Object, Make Whole, Mechanus Mind (SC), One With The Land (sc), Owl's Wisdom, Protection From Good/Evil/Law/Chaos, Speak With Dead, Speechlink (sc), Tongues, Weather Eye (sc)

Lv4- Arcane Eye, Arcane Lock, Assay Spell Resistance, Blessed Sight (BoED), Blindsight (sc), Calm Emotions, Chain of Eyes, Daylight, Detect Scrying, Divination, Enthrall, Helping Hand, Implacable Pursuer (sc), Interplanar Message (sc), Lay of the Land (sc), Locate Creature, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Safety (sc), Scent (sc), Scrying,

Lv5- Commune, Commune With Nature, Contact Other Plane, Deeper Darkvision (sc), Dispel Magic, Dream, Echo Skull, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Magic Circle Against Good/Evil/Law/Chaos, Prying Eyes, Sending, Sonorous Hum (sc), Telepathic Bond, Zone of Revelation (sc)

Lv6- Analyze Dweomer, Break Enchantment, Create Food and Water, Dream Sight (sc), Knock, Legend Lore, Lesser Geas, Nondetection, Probe Thoughts, Psychic Poison (BOVD), Secret Page, Stone Tell, True Seeing, Wall of Light

Lv7- Brain Spider (sc), Dismissal, Greater Arcane Sight, Greater Dispel Magic, Greater Scrying, Illusory Script, Leomund's Secure Shelter, Lesser Planar Binding, Mass Fox's Cunning, Mass Owl's Wisdom, Telepathy Block (BOED), Vision

Lv8- Cure Light Wounds, Discern Location, Geas, Greater Prying Eyes, Hindsight (sc), Lesser Planar Ally, Mental Pinnacle (EPH), Moment of Prescience, Scramble Portal (sc)

Lv9- Astral Projection, Awaken, Banishment, Contact Deity (CofC), Cure Moderate Wounds, Eye of Power (sc), Fiendish Clarity (BOVD), Foresight, Planar Binding, Seal Portal (sc), Speak With Anything (MotW)

[Bohandas]

[b[Twist/detail: The Sacrifice[/b]

A murder cult dealt with earlier in the campaign turns out to still br active at the end of the campaign. The lower level cult was deliberately set up to fail by their deity, so that people would think the cult has been eradicated and leave the rest of them alone

[Bohandas]

Campaign:
"The Marathon" or "Why doesn't Elminster Just Fix All of the World's Problems"

This idea would probably take an excessibe amount of DM preparation, but I think it would be fun to play

Basically the idea is for a high level party to bulldoze their way through several different adventures designed for low level parties without being given a chance to rest between.

[Bohandas]

Adventure
"The Teind"

Years ago a desperate community of elves made a pact with some devils. In exchange for the devils dealing with some monster or disaster that was poised to destroy the community the elves would publicly sacrifice one of their own to the forces of Hell every few years. This price was chosen by the devils in order to gradually karmically shift the elves toward lawful evil. The contract is enforced by threat of violence, if the elves don't comply with the sacrifices the devilish executor of the contract will come and execute all of them.

The PCs job is to help the elves welch of the contract, (possibly by killing the baatezu enforcer, stealing all the devils' copies of the contract, or setting up an illusory sacrifice)

[redzimmer]

Or proving to a marit court that a contract signed under duress must be renegotiated under less-forceful terms.

[Bohandas]

Adventure Hook

A new decree that all cats in the land must be neutered leads the PCs to uncover a conspiracy of government infiltration by a group of wererats

[danielxcutter]

Adventure Hook

A new decree that all cats in the land must be neutered leads the PCs to uncover a conspiracy of government infiltration by a group of wererats

Which is further complicated by the Cat vs. Commoner thing.

[zlefin]

DnD Adventure

The princess, and only child/heir, has been kidnapped by a red dragon, who was masquerading as a human and had infiltrated the court of the King.
The King is lawful neutral, and the kingdom is a mix of alignments.
The princess is actually chaotic evil, is in love with the dragon (and its mutual), and fled with him, and doesn't like all her fathers' rules. whether she admits this to the players will depend on the tactical situation.

how it branches out from there depends on the players choices: do they let the princess stay with the dragon, bring her back by force, or something else?

The princess WILL try to claim the throne at some point if she is alive (And once her father is dead, while few would support her trying for the throne while her father is alive, many would support her once he's dead, since she's the legal heir) and her reign would be rather unkind to many.
she won't try to kill her father as she's content to wait until he dies of old age, and even a cunning plot might get tracked to her, no need to take such a risk. also while she may dislike her father, it's not a hatred strong enough to want to kill him.

The princess and the dragon will try to have a child; depending on how fast the party responds, the princess may well be pregnant when the party gets to her. how they (and the kingdom) responds to that is another big question.

[redzimmer]

I love it. Just fleshing out a character that could win the heart of of a fickle red dragon would be fun.

[Bohandas]

Campaign Hooks for Spelljammer

*Explorers discover what is initially thought to be the edge of (pholgistonic) space, but it turns out to be an enormous, galaxy sized crystal sphere

*The search for the first planet or first planets. The locations where the many stock lifeforms that seem to inhabit many different planets and to have been independently created multiple times were originally created for the first time

[Bohandas]

High Level Oneshot One Player (plus DM) Adventure

The setting is a small desert village, the baddies are a group of sibling great wyrm blue dragons, and the player is the god Kord, as statted in Deities and Demigods.

[arkangel111]

<b>plothook</b>

3.P - Stop the Ascension

A Strange man (Omnisificer) has gathered the party. He claims the group is the only hope for all the realms. A strange kobold (Chief PunPun) will soon learn the secret to becoming a God.

the Basic idea is to expand each of punpuns steps into a full adventure with the PCs trying to thwart him at every turn. I'd expand further but I'm on my phone.