Fun Monsters to challenge your players.

[DirePorkChop]

Hello Playgrounders,

I am currently running a campaign in a homebrew setting, and I have looked through MM1-5 (+FF) for inspiration on the encounters that I could throw at my murderhobos. My question is this:

Are there any encounters that you have run your players through, want to run your players through, or have been ran through, that you enjoyed more than others? Have you ever had an encounter become more than it was meant to be, and you/ your players loved it? What are some fun monsters to use that you do not run into everyday?

I was thinking about running a small town where the streets are immaculate for being dirt, there are no children present, and anybody that talks to the PC's is beyond friendly, going out of their way to help them (think stepford wives). They attempt to get the PC's to stay for the festival happening over the next few days. After a few hours/ day or two in the town, there is an almost tangible sense that the people are hiding something. Where are all of the children? The town is actually a cult, worshipping a Julajimus, and have been kidnapping children from neighboring villages and feeding them to him, after they ran out of children themselves. The PC's either learn about the Julajimus by snooping, or moving on to the next town/s and the people requesting aid from them. I just thought the Julajimus was an interesting and fun monster to play with (perhaps after adding a template or two).

The other idea that I had, was the group coming across a strange protrusion jutting up from the ground with a doorway on it. The players will enter a long, rounded room with strange pulsating lights, and weird mechanical whirring all around them. The doors in this place cannot be picked with locks, as they require you to use a strange pad with unintelligible writing on it. Basically, they will be on an alien spaceship circa 1950's. I will probably use Ethergaunts from FF for the aliens, making them more CR appropriate, and giving them ray-guns (light crossbows that shoot force bolts and a DC14 Daze or Stun effect, I haven't decided). They have kidnapped a bunch of strange creatures from the world, including such gems as: An advanced Raging Grey Render (raging as he was taken from his charge), A Remorhaz that they keep in a sub-arctic containment room, an adventuring group who has gone insane from the tests and torture, and a Gargantuan Blue Dragon. whom the little green men have chained in the main cargo hold on the ship. They will have to fight the render, crazed party, and the Remorhaz, but they could cut a deal with the dragon, who is locked in a cube of force a la Magneto from the X-Men movies.

Any thoughts as to how I can spice these up a bit? Any other encounter ideas that immediately stand out? I am interested in monsters that my players may have never encountered before. I am not concerned with the CR, as the encounters I use run the gambit from super easy to extremely difficult (not impossible). Thanks in advance playground.

[DirePorkChop]

Hmm. Playground's got nothin' huh?

[erok0809]

My party and I both enjoyed an encounter where there was a switch at the end of a long room that the party had to get to. The room counted as major negative-dominant, and had earth necromentals (from Libris Mortis) guarding it, who would grapple the party and just hold them to let the room do its work. In retrospect, air might have worked even better, with the whirlwind ability holding them in instead of grappling. It was a lot of fun, since it made the party think about how to pass it without just smashing face, since they would have lost if they tried that.

[Name1]

Your cult encounter reminds me of a Mockery Monarch, a magical beast that eats people and spits them back out as his minions.

Kython Swarms have been pretty successful in my memory.

Another thing you could use is an exhibit where you can see fossils and have them come to life. A revived fossil baboon is CR 1, according to the encounter calculator that means that if you make the area with a low ceiling (so the party can't fly) but have it be big otherwise (so they can't just wall the area), 40 of these are a good challenge for a CR 10 party.

The (half-fiend) Were-Battletitan Orge-Mage is nearly always in my campaigns, 'cause these things are awesome.

Pathfinder has the "Eye King"-Template. An Evil Eye appears to be capable of becoming an Eye King, which is hilarious.

The "Monster of Legend"-Template also makes for memorable encounters. I like to add it to said Kythons.

[DirePorkChop]

My party and I both enjoyed an encounter where there was a switch at the end of a long room that the party had to get to. The room counted as major negative-dominant, and had earth necromentals (from Libris Mortis) guarding it, who would grapple the party and just hold them to let the room do its work. In retrospect, air might have worked even better, with the whirlwind ability holding them in instead of grappling. It was a lot of fun, since it made the party think about how to pass it without just smashing face, since they would have lost if they tried that.

Puzzle Combat. I haven't done one of those in a while. I'm Thinking a sewer tunnel or something, and the players could trip a plate, releasing gelatinous oozes into the corridor, and the rogue needs to make open lock checks each round to open the door at the end. The group must defend the rogue while he unlocks the door. Thanks Erok.

[DirePorkChop]

Your cult encounter reminds me of a Mockery Monarch, a magical beast that eats people and spits them back out as his minions.

Kython Swarms have been pretty successful in my memory.

Another thing you could use is an exhibit where you can see fossils and have them come to life. A revived fossil baboon is CR 1, according to the encounter calculator that means that if you make the area with a low ceiling (so the party can't fly) but have it be big otherwise (so they can't just wall the area), 40 of these are a good challenge for a CR 10 party.

The (half-fiend) Were-Battletitan Orge-Mage is nearly always in my campaigns, 'cause these things are awesome.

Pathfinder has the "Eye King"-Template. An Evil Eye appears to be capable of becoming an Eye King, which is hilarious.

The "Monster of Legend"-Template also makes for memorable encounters. I like to add it to said Kythons.

Emphasis is mine.

Half-Fiend Were-Battletitan Ogre-Mage sounds like a boss/ Mini-boss fight to me! I think I just peed a little in excitement. Do we have stats somewhere, because I would absolutely run this in my game.

[CleanDeceit]

Check out 3.5's Complete Challenges.

My favorite encounter in there comes in at CR 10 involving an illusionary dragon, an Aboleth and a Dragon Turtle - except, in my game, I replaced the dragon Turtle with a "Drowned One" (from the LM, I think).

The combat was very interesting but did result in a total party kill, so be careful ;)

[Name1]

A Half-Fiendish Were-Battletitan Ogre Mage is a Natural Lycanthrope Ogre Mage that has a Battletitan alternative form and the half-fiend template. They are CR 17 though, so it depends on the party how much of a challenge this creature is.

Statting it out isn't an easy thing though, because it depends on the situation when it comes to feats. Personally, I like to have it focus on it's half-fiend heritage and thus have it shuffle away it's armor-proficiencies and replace them with Quicken SLA and Magic in the Blood. However, you may prefer to have it use the Thicket of Blades-Stance and Legendary Wrestler to have it swallow things (or even have it shuffle it's 23 feats [assuming it devoted itself to an Elder Evil] to play it as a pseudo-initiator).

[Eldariel]

Honestly, just bogstandard Aboleths make for wonderful encounters. A proper underwater illusionary battlefield giving it unidirectional offensive options with its Enslave combined with the beauty that is Slime (note, after Heal becomes commonly available, their threat rating plummets), and the escape option in Mucus Cloud makes them nice, rounded threats that can really punch above their weight class when played up to their intelligence. They have a beautiful set of abilities for making the PCs paranoid and turning D&D into a horror game.

Sadly Psionic Aboleths are actually far less of a threat than their non-Psionic counterparts since unlike Illusions (Illusory Wall, Programmed Image, Mirage Arcana; yeah, Mirage Arcana is "only" hours/level but as an At Will ability, it might as well be permanent), you can't build permanent webs of illusions the same way. Though the DC upgrades on their various abilities do help a tad.


Another one: In my early days of 3.5, our party fought a Ragewalker [MM3]. That thing was a near TPK. Those make for good encounters particularly alongside some living spells in cramped quarters. The Blood Rage effect is just beautiful and their high spell resistance combined with the immunity to projectile attacks makes them rather difficult to kill. Overall, they're really scary but quite interesting as puzzle encounters (though their ability to nova with double Empowered Blade Barriers can quickly cause some PC deaths). The only thing really resistant to everything they do is a Cleric or a Druid.

[DirePorkChop]

Spoiler: CleanDeceit

Show

A Half-Fiendish Were-Battletitan Ogre Mage is a Natural Lycanthrope Ogre Mage that has a Battletitan alternative form and the half-fiend template. They are CR 17 though, so it depends on the party how much of a challenge this creature is.

Statting it out isn't an easy thing though, because it depends on the situation when it comes to feats. Personally, I like to have it focus on it's half-fiend heritage and thus have it shuffle away it's armor-proficiencies and replace them with Quicken SLA and Magic in the Blood. However, you may prefer to have it use the Thicket of Blades-Stance and Legendary Wrestler to have it swallow things (or even have it shuffle it's 23 feats [assuming it devoted itself to an Elder Evil] to play it as a pseudo-initiator).

23 feats is a lot to work with. I suppose I will have to put on my DM hat and start to build said badass from block 1. Thanks for the idea man. The players will definitely be excited to run into this thing. Do not be surprised to see a thread on this in the future. *foreshadowing*

Spoiler: Eldariel

Show

Honestly, just bogstandard Aboleths make for wonderful encounters. A proper underwater illusionary battlefield giving it unidirectional offensive options with its Enslave combined with the beauty that is Slime (note, after Heal becomes commonly available, their threat rating plummets), and the escape option in Mucus Cloud makes them nice, rounded threats that can really punch above their weight class when played up to their intelligence. They have a beautiful set of abilities for making the PCs paranoid and turning D&D into a horror game.

Sadly Psionic Aboleths are actually far less of a threat than their non-Psionic counterparts since unlike Illusions (Illusory Wall, Programmed Image, Mirage Arcana; yeah, Mirage Arcana is "only" hours/level but as an At Will ability, it might as well be permanent), you can't build permanent webs of illusions the same way. Though the DC upgrades on their various abilities do help a tad.


Another one: In my early days of 3.5, our party fought a Ragewalker [MM3]. That thing was a near TPK. Those make for good encounters particularly alongside some living spells in cramped quarters. The Blood Rage effect is just beautiful and their high spell resistance combined with the immunity to projectile attacks makes them rather difficult to kill. Overall, they're really scary but quite interesting as puzzle encounters (though their ability to nova with double Empowered Blade Barriers can quickly cause some PC deaths). The only thing really resistant to everything they do is a Cleric or a Druid.

It's weird, but I have never played in a game featuring an Aboleth. I looked at aboleths as a "grown" Tojinda or something. Never appealed to me, but I can see how they could be dangerous. Scrying, scheming, naughty little things, aren't they? I have a great idea for them too. Thanks man, I appreciate the help.

Ragewalkers seem fun, though I cannot think of an interesting way to drop them on a party. Maybe a fight in a mine? While on Minecarts? Escaping something bad? I'll have to think about that one.