#dnd encounter

[jkcorellia]

"scattered audio snippets providing players clues as to what happened at this facility" video game trope but it's repurposed Magic Mouth spells throughout an abandoned wizard tower that your DnD (or similar TTRPG) party is visiting (and expecting to be occupied). The original messages are partially overwritten by frantic, whispered updates on whatever Went Wrong Here

e.g. "Guardians of the tower, arise! Defend your master and his sanct--oh god it got through. It? Them? It's large, but I think there might be one or more handlers. It seems to have defenses against fire in particular. I think…oh shit. Shit!--who cross [so-and-so] will be utterly destroyed!"

near this particular Magic Mouth are several pulverized constructs. ahead is an ornate door, formerly Arcane Locked, now smashed through...

[canadian-witch]

Isometric ready-to-use dungeon set now on roll20 and drivethruRPG

Includes a multi-room multi-level dungeon with a combat arena, icey ruin and water temple variation, as well as tokens for each location so you can play immediately and a blank if you'd rather decorate yourself!

Patrons have early access and access to exclusive tokens that will never be available on roll20 <3

[montreal-derogatory]

[numbdnd]

Does anyone have any fun D&D encounter ideas? I’m running a game in an Arctic/Forest setting and having some trouble finishing my travel rolling table.

I’m mostly looking for encounters that will benefit the players— whether it be a helpful npc, magical loot, or just a cool place to visit.

I’ll share the table here when I’m done, since most of it is my original ideas (and I’m just having trouble with the beneficial encounter table)

[chaotic-and-mentally-ill]

POV: interacting with a holy object in a game be like

[jaypea00101010]

Clay Golem with a Black Pudding as armour

Clay Golem heals from acid damage

Black Pudding acid damages anything it touches

[pionneers-lm]

I can't believe this

My DND players just absolutely clowned on my insane homebrew monster....this is what I get for hyping up how strong an enemy is going to be for three months.

The beast of bedlam was an absolutely cracked monster that they needed to get past

363 HP 22AC +15 to hit, multi attack and every attack hits harder than a fireball. Ranged and melee options even an AOE, regeneration, and whenever you hit it you have to save against going flying 30ft and landing prone, it could fly it had legendary resistance and magic resistance ........this thing was all of the awesomeness i could muster without guaranteeing a TPK against my LV 7 players ....or so i thought

They spent over a week (in game )prepping tons of glyphs of warding to make all this happen at once . ....then they Polymorphed into giant apes, enlarged themselves further, got hasted, greater invisibility, freedom of movement and armour of faithed up. Then when this thing was asleep they jumped it

They killed it in three rounds.....that's 18 seconds in game time a little over an hour of our actual lives

The beast of bedlam that had been the scourge of a continent for a thousand years only got two turns before they killed its ass.

(in all seriousness I am glad my players had fun and got to feel powerful.....but I am still a little sad to see my creation die quite so anticlimacticaly )

[latenight-dnd]

Hey yeah so I talked to the locust and. I’m sorry dawg but they said your crops were ASS. Like, they sucked. Your corn fields? Straight up nasty. Normally they’ll eat anything, but they told me your crops were just really bad. They didn’t even ruin them really, like, Dave across the road is fucked, he has nothing left. But you might have enough to survive the winter. Sorry.

[cassimothwin]

What Crooked Roots released 1 year ago today!

Never did I imagine the dominoes that would fall after my first TTRPG product went live. Thank you to anyone who has purchased it, left a review, or told your friends.

To start the celebrations, the digital edition is 50% off! Find it here!!

Inspired by the settings and themes of The Wicker Man, Over the Garden Wall, The Ritual and many other folk horror tales, comes What Crooked Roots: 15 folk-horror themed roleplay encounters created for Fifth Edition.

Focusing on western tropes and anxieties, What Crooked Roots flips some expectations and reinvents others for a fresh but familiar series of scary scenarios. With a haunting range of encounters that vary in length and difficulty, you’re sure to find something that lingers with your party well beyond their travels…

Explore cursed corn fields growing something wicked.

Meet beekeepers who hide a secret.

Unearth forgotten, haunted groves.

Crack a black egg or see if it hatches.

Hear the whisper of something following in the shadows.

Feast on the fruit with human teeth inside instead of seeds.

Flee the Groat Man as it hunts you through an abandoned village. 

And much more!

[atlas-the-sage]

The Oncoming Storm

By Sage

An encounter for my players at sea on a ship, but written so it can be adapted, and it is available at any level; you just have to lower or raise DC and damage. Warning Note: Please ask your players if they are okay with horror themes and if they are okay expressing a fear they have.

The players wake up from their rest to the drizzle of darkened clouds; if any player is currently outside, then have them say how their character wakes up to rain on them.

Anyone who looks above sees white clouds fading into the distance, gray ones setting in with the day, and the drizzle they feel is them entering into the body of a coming storm.

Soon after all players are awake, have each of them make a smell-based perception check with a DC of 18. If they get under a 10, then it is all as normal; if they get above a 10, yet still fail, they can sense the rain is deep with the smell of salt; if they succeed, then they will know that the coming storm is one of acidic rain; if they get below 20, they can smell an unnatural acid.

Now have players make any checks necessary for where they are to protect it from high winds and bullet-like rain. An example of this is my encounter. I'm doing it on a ship in the deep ocean, so I will have them do investigation checks for holes, strength for tightening all ropes, finding something to cover any holes, securing anything that can fall on the ship, etc.

After this is done, time has passed, and they are now fully in the storm, and the vapors have taken hold. You see, it's not a normal storm; no, it’s one that is filled with a crack in the very plans themselves. Because of this, the rain is filled with a hallucinogenic toxin. The players will then make a con save; if they fail their perception, they do it at a disadvantage; if they succeed, then they do it normally themselves; if anyone is under 20, then they all make it normally. The check is made at DC 16; I personally need to adjust this for my players since they all have high con, so please note theirs before just using the 16; if they succeed, then they just feel the rain is boiling hot and will burn them; if they fail the check, they are trapped in the toxin.

Now this part is where you're needed to ask if they are okay with using their own fears. Either way, they make a DC 100 roll. Depending on what they get, you will describe their own personal experience with it. Please be careful with how you make each one.

Ok with fear

1–20: It is their personal fear.

21–50: is their character’s biggest fear.

51–70: Is this a chaotic illusion? Have them roll on the wild magic table. I personally suggest a d10000 one; it will change what happens in their illusion.

71–90: Is altered perception? They see reality as changed for the better, so well, in a storm, they may not notice that there is even rain or maybe that it looks sunny.

91–100: They are in their most euphoria, what the character sees as the best thing to ever happen to them.

If they are not okay using their own fears, then they just use 1–50 for their characters fears.

Anyone trapped in the effect cannot feel anything outside of their illusion. So the players and/or NPC’s around them must find a way to get them out; the way each one gets out is up to the DM, but I do suggest having them do something personal with the person they are rescuing, like having a talk about brotherhood, their backstory, or something. That or they do something really creative. Besides, depending on what illusion they are under affects how hard it is to free them; the slight illusion is the easiest, the nightmare and chaos are a challenge, and the player's fear and euphoria are very hard to overcome.

Well, under the illusion, the storm is going on around them, so depending on how you are handling the storm, they will have to fight through it. An example of this in my encounter is that they are in very choppy waves, so they will have to make athletic or acrobatic checks to not fall over and slide around the ship. Well, this will affect their illusion; it doesn’t wake them up, though it can make it easier to help wake them. Any checks made well in the illusion are made at a disadvantage. As well, the rain is still happening, so everyone, not in the illusion, must roll initiative, and with each turn, they are helping people caught in the rain. At the end of the turn order, they will take 1d4 fire damage. As a precaution, I’d say let one person make the check no matter what, even if it’s a NPC, so they can help everyone.

As examples of what is happening in the illusions, here are a couple of the ones I’m planning to use.

The Endless: The player is in the same place they were, but everything has stopped; there is no storm, no sound, no movement of the wind, and the waters are unmoving and calm. Yet there is no one but you, and just in the endless expanse of the ocean, in under a second, the ship has not moved; everything has been still. No matter what, there is just nothing but you. Now months have passed; there is still good, but all there is or ever has been is you; every game and book has been done and gone; fishing does nothing; and you have completely lost sight of how time is moving. But in the void of quietness, you feel something—in its endless presence and pressure, a sound—finally something! But as soon as it’s there, it’s gone; nothing is back; the loneliness is back; but maybe there's hope? Now, finally, months later, the food and wine have been used up, yet as you starve, you can’t die, yet you feel it curn away at your muscles and bones. You are so weak, yet that’s not the worst part. No, the worst is the noise. You can hear it now constantly all around you; it’s suffocating. You can pinpoint what it is or even what could make it, but it’s pure static in your brain. Every moment, every second, you hear it out there, yet why won’t it kill you? In between each part, I’m going to let my player say what their character is doing or feeling, really amplifying the silence each time.

The Fathomless: A npc my group loves is an alchemist goblin that they thought was a corpse in a shipwreck, but apparently she had survived by chugging potions of fein death, letting her survive for a bit under the water deep in the ocean, but the whole time she was awake and could feel everything. So I’m going to have her relapse into this fear by making it so she notices and feels it but never gets saved and is trapped, slowly dying in the abyss of the ocean. My players are going to have to deal with the outcome of her recovery.

My final notation is that after everyone is out, the storm will suddenly disappear, and then I’m going to have them do, of their choice, a survival, nature, religion, history, or Arcana check to see if there's any known storm to do this to them; they will find out no matter what that isn’t, and this came from an enemy that is now hunting them for taking his property, and that was just an aftereffect of his rampage on the island that they see in the distance, all meant to scare them.

[agathielart]

An arboreal griffon is a ferocious avian carnivore with the sleek body of a leopard and the head, forelegs, and wings of a green woodpecker.

These creatures are chiefly known for their characteristic behaviour. They mostly forage for small and medium sized mammals on the trunks and branches of trees, and often communicate by drumming with their beak, producing a reverberatory sound that can be heard for miles. Their diet also includes birds, eggs, tree sap, scraps and carrion.

They mostly nest and roost in holes that they excavate in tree trunks, which they defend fiercely. They sometimes come into conflict with caravans when they make holes in wagons to feed on goods, but perform a useful service by their removal of invasive species on trees. I drew this for my GM who wanted to homebrew some griffins! This one is based over a green woodpecker and a leopard. You can find the homebrew on DnDBeyond

[grimvestige]

Little mockup of a spooky "tree" for my campaign that definitely wasn't used to brainwash child soldiers :)))))

There's this fun eldritch infection called the palehallow that is spreading throughout the planet, and in little concentrated pockets there's quite literally 'hearts' of it. While this isn't the heart itself, it is a bunch of veins coming up from it.

Thankfully, this thing is burnt to a crisp now due to the casters in the party just shooting lightning bolt at it repeatedly.

As always, timelapse under the cut, and reblogs help artists a bunch on tumblr ^^

[nepaklusti]

More encounters for travel in Dark Sun

The party comes across an oasis surrounded with lush vegetation, much of which is covered in mushrooms and fungi. When they reach the oasis, they find a druid cultivating mushrooms with all sorts of strange properties. As long as the party has no Defilers or Templars, they will be allowed to enter. If the party drinks from the oasis, they will be given a random potion effect, but will also enter a state of intense hallucination for 2d6 hours.

The party encounters a ruined monastery that was once home to a group of powerful psionicists. Within the temple is a small obsidian orb atop a pedestal. If anyone touches the orb, they will hear a voice in their head, thanking the person for finding them. This orb was meant to contain an incredibly powerful and somewhat insane psionicist from many years ago so they would not cause any destruction. Anyone who touches the orb may telepathically communicate with the mind within. It will demand the party finds it a new body and will threaten them to get its way if needed, but cannot actually do anything to the party while trapped in the orb. If it gets the body it demands through any methods, it will provide the characters with psionic boons or items, but will inevitably lead to a great deal of destruction.

In the road is a large caravan of Nikaal. They have several dozen carts pulled by Crodlu, but all of the carts are immobile, either because of damages or dead Crodlu. The Nikaal will plead for aid, asking the party to help them evacuate. They say they were attacked by a tribe of Brogh, but they will be back soon. The party can try to help theme scape, but the Brogh's will return in 5 minutes, with a group of 8. If the Nikaal escape, they will pay the party 100 ceramic, and possibly repay the favor at a later time.

A belgoi begins following the party, though it does not attack or even interact with them. It will avoidcombat at all costs. However, small items will begin to go missing after several days. Bigger and bigger items will begin to go missing, before the Belgoi eventually lures off a member of the party with its bell. However, instead of killing the character, it steals all of their stuff and leaves them in the desert. The party may attempt to track it down, finding all of their items and various other junk in a small cave nearby.

[developerideabin]

DnD Encounter Idea

The group gets a quest to stop an evil necromancer who's trying to raise the dead in a graveyard by using a pearl which has been said to put the dead into a trance. The group heads out and eventually finds the necromancer in the graveyard, but they are to late.

The dead have already risen and the necromancer is only one step away from completing his nefarious plan. He hoists the large orb up into the air. The orb looks odd, like a thousand sided die with mirrors on each side. As he has fastned the orb in place, he casts "Dancing Lights" and the enitre graveyard lights up. The graveyard turn into a disco, with the unded being hypnotised and dancing to the beat.

It turns out our cast misheard the questgiver, and that they were supposed to stop the "Necrodancer" in the "Raveyard"

[grayraccoon]

I have to remember to tell the story of a percy Jackson inspired dnd one shot that I ran recently soon

[rhokisb]

How A Bard Kills a Giant

The party encountered a Bullette herder recently (A Fomorian with 3 Bullettes) at the base of the mountain while they were trying to take a long rest. 4 of the 6 had their armor off when the attack happened.

The Bard (The Always Fresh, Never Frozen, Fiddlin' Fucking Fred) gets up, mad as hell, and casts Phantasmal Killer against the Giant. When asked what the Giant sees, the Bard scratches his head and shrugs, "I dunno what he's afraid of, but I would assume it's school."

The Sorcerer, also mad as hell, casts a Wall of Fire around the same Giant.

So this Giant, while it's Bullette's rage against the machine of this party, stands there in a circle of fire being burned alive while memories of a school he never attended haunt him. At the end, as the Giant was 100% gonna die, I asked for a roll-off to see who kills the Giant so we could end the session.

The Bard wins. I ask how he kills the Giant.

"I dunno, I would like his torment to be so bad from the psychic damage its taken from its days at school."

"Describe a day at school."

"Alright, well first he gets there and the principal starts making fun of him, calls him the Hunchback of Nostradamus, cause his hunchback is so big he can see his future; then he would make it to gym class, but he can't get changed into his basketball jersey because his hunchback is just so big, and some people call him the turkey smuggler because he looks like he's got a whole ass frozen turkey under his jersey, the one folds over so you never know what number he's playing. Then the basketball comes to him, but you know he can't see too well, so it hits him on the side of the head, which then gives him a bruise on the other side so he REALLY can't see for the rest of the day. Then he gets to social class, and he can't read because he's an illiterate hack......and then lunch, I don't know; he sits there by himself with his swollen, dumb basketball eye, still wearing the jersey because he can't get that off because of the smuggled turkey. It's not really like a smuggled turkey it's just like a backpack with a turkey in it. Yeah...then he's gotta go home to the trailer park after and that's not good for anyone, let alone the Hunchback of Nostradamus: didn't see that in his fucking future I bet.....then he dies."

Edit: Yes, the Bard got an inspiration for this one. 1000% inspiration.