My favorite encounter that has yet to be triggered by my group is a trap encounter that players will come across if they delve deep into a cave and fail to escape in time. They will be dropped into a room with the “King of Goblins and Giant Rats”, which has a Goblin Boss and a bunch of rat and goblin mobs to fight through in order to escape!
Rushing through a sleet storm, the adventurers had to cut through corrupted lizardfolk to make their way to Gar Shatterkeel. Eventually they were able to disarmed him and hold him in place for another to leap out from behind cover and cut him down. The encounter ended with two adventurers having a cumulative 10 hp remaining and another nearly dying. Their NPC companion helped them as they carried their friend back to the now abandoned Rivergard Keep to recover.
I'm a new DM and preparing a nautical encounter based on "Ghosts of Saltmarsh". I'm tacking a prologue on the front including a storm (see the Encounter of the Week article "Sharkfin Shipwreck") - followed by this encounter which seems like a fight but is actually a tense social encounter and foreshadows things to come:
Note that this encounter is deliberately too difficult, designed so that the adventuring party will retreat or make social contact.
This encounter serves as a foreshadowing of the adventures and challenges to come in the campaign.
The adventuring party is travelling to Saltmarsh on the Sharkfin, a trading vessel captained by Grendanna Stormbreaker (chaotic neutral, female half-orc pirate captain) with first mate Rackham Byrne (neutral good, gnome thug). These NPCs can fight in the encounter if needed.
Only run this encounter if the Sharkfin did NOT get shipwrecked by the storm.
As the boat is about to round a headland of Southern Keoland, they are seemingly ambushed by a party of amphibious creatures: a locathah, a lizardfolk, a merfolk scout and a koalinth. Grendanna can remark that this is a strange combination of creatures to be working together. The four creatures attempt to board the ship and their intent seems malicious.
(Actually this is a misunderstanding. The Sharkfin is passing near (but not in sight of) the coastal base that the Sahuagin are building. This party of amphibians is returning from a scouting mission to determine how quickly the Sahuagin army is building forces, as intelligence for a planned raid (The Final Enemy). They have seen a similar boat assisting the Sahuagin - however that boat (another merchant vessel, like the one in "Salvage Operation") was captured by cultists of the Crushing Wave who serve the chaotic sea goddess Olhydra in her plan to reclaim the ocean from Procan. Most of this will be discovered MUCH later in the campaign!)
Most likely, the adventuring party will try to fight off the four intruders. However, the fight is intentionally too difficult. It is important not to have any of the creatures die, because that will destroy the chances of an alliance with Saltmarsh in "Danger at Dunwater"
If the adventuring party retreats with the Sharkfin, they will see a Young Bronze Dragon coming to pick up the amphibian scouts and fly them out of sight. Why this happens should be a matter of speculation - something that hints at later.
If the party continues to fight and risks death to themselves OR any of the amphibians, this Young Bronze Dragon swoops in and uses Repulsion Breath to end the fight and rescue the amphibians.
Either way, Saltmarsh comes into view for the first time right after the encounter.
After landing in Saltmarsh, events move toward the haunted house expedition in "Sinister Secret".
My encounter “Icy Heart” is my favorite so far! After climbing a mountain my party comes across a troll who has dominated Ice Spiders and Piercers, and the party has to prioritize whether the large troll or smaller creatures are a priority to take out first. The encounter comes out of nowhere too so it is always a fun surprise.
For the encounter challenge this is a short filler adventure for a campaign that I might someday run. This encounter is a investigation of an abandoned arakocra village.
My favorite encounter I made for my players (4 level 3s) happened on a mysterious island they came across. What they did not know was the island was the back of an ancient dragon turtle. This turtle was once controlled by an old wizard who built a magical divise that generated a bubble around the shell, allowing the wizard to work submerged in peace. The dragon turtle resented being controlled and when the spell controlling him was broken he killed the wizard. Years later a tribe of Yaun Ti moved onto the shell and worship the turtle and give it sacrifices of lives and gold for it to allow them to live there.
The players find this "island" and evidence of a shipwreck. They go to shore looking for survivors. The island/shell is covered in a dense jungle (which is protected when the turtle submerges by the bubble generater) with 4 stone structures. The structures are reminants of the wizards old home, but it has been built apon by the Yaun Ti.
There are 4 building to explore, each with thier own monsters and traps, but the nefarious part is that there is a time limit. When the sun sets the Yaun Ti will sacrifice the sailors from the wreck to the turtle, and then the turtle will start to slowly submerge under the water. If the players are still on it, they will then have to figure out how to escape.
4) the main pyramid - surrounded by 25 mailsons and purebloods with an abomination on the top. This is where the sacrifices happen.
My players found the treasury first, looted it, then returned to the boat for a long rest. They woke up to see the sacrifices taking place and thrown into the water for the turtle to eat. The turtle then submerged, leaving the players stunned and terrified of the dragon turtle attacking them from underneath for the next few days.
On the face of it, it was a simple (if unfair) encounter: 4 level 5 kobolds (the players) against an adult dragon.
The catch was that they'd raided the dragon's hoard beforehand, and had 6 magical items of varying rarity each. After a long battle involving the dragon being blasted with a wand of wonder, beaten with a rod of lordly might, eating a kobold, and downing two of the others, it came down to one kobold, one dragon, and... a deck of many things.
Disintegrated all of their magic items, summoned an avatar of death, has a fiend out to get them... I felt bad for the little guy, so when they drew the key, I thought it'd be fair to give them a luck blade. They wished for the avatar of death to go after the dragon, and escaped with about 2 hit points.
I am DMing a dungeon in a box campaign. The first boss starting at level 1 is a CR 5 hermit crab. This boss was super deadly for 4 level 1 characters. After knocking 2 players unconscious the other 2 party members got the idea to kite the crab back throughout the dungeon tripping all the traps they had not disarmed yet. This dealt massive damage however before the final trap dealt the killing blow on the beast, it claimed the life of the party's wizard. The 2 unconscious PC's successfully made their 3 death saves to stabilize and rejoin the ranger.
Link to the encounter with the Dragonskull hermit crab
I just started as a DM, and running my first Campaign. I'm starting with Starter Set and Lost Mine of Phandelver.
I got setup with DDB, and preparing sessions (SlyFlourish's Lazy Dungeon Master book has helped me a lot).
I'm getting ready for session 2, and just created an Encounter using DDB. It was super easy! I loved it. I was missing the courage to do it and finally tried it. We will soon be running the Redbrands Hideout and was concerned about how my group might be doing against the Nothic... we'll see... I now have it ready on DDB's Encounter Builder and got a better view of how that might turn out... can't way to play it!
For our first big campaign ever we decided to run Dungeon of the Mad Mage.
The players did not have any issues so far, but were soon to encounter a bunch of Manticores. Mind you these are all new players that have never encountered a Manticore (and I was a new DM so I decided to have some fun with them).
I tried to make them laugh as annoying as possible and described them in great detail. The 4 PC's got annoyed after a few riddles and laughs with this creature not knowing there were 2 more in the shadows (equals more annoying laughs). |
The fight was the first big one that had in DnD ever and it was a glorious amount of chaos. The Dwarf Barbarian got plucked into the air and the Rogue Elf decided to throw a rope around of their feet and pull the whole Manticore down. The Rogue got pulled up into the air as well..
The Goliath Paladin and Tiefling Warlock managed to damage them enough to get them all down and the whole party was a bit shaken (positively) by their first big fightt!! I am using the Companion addition to the basic Dungeon of the Mad Mage of Wyatt Trull to make the dungeon hosted by a deranged gameshow host and these annoying Manticores fit perfectly!!
When running SKT, my PCs ran an errand for the Grandfather Tree to clear out a corruption left over from a mining operation by fire giants looking for the vonindod. This corruption manifested as a necrotic shambling mound, with corpses mixed with the vegetation. Also, the PCs were inhabiting fungal manifestations instead of their actual bodies for a neat out-of-body experience.
My first ever game and first ever time dming i had Friends over for a board Game night but decided to stall out my dice and own pregen characters. None of these Friends had any experience in dnd or any other ttrpg.
Elf fighter, human Rogue and a dragon paladin named Peterson Smoke.
I started them with an encounter of the Day https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/441-encounter-of-the-week-sharkfin-shipwreck which they failed shipwrecked in an island the Rogue Tried to ditch his fellow adventurers and swim away.Luckily the fighter threw a 2x4 to get the sahuagin to notice the Rogue. Bit of combat fun and i thought we were done.
But they wanted more so i had to get creative on the spot. Upon entering a forest village the dragonborn was immediately heralded as a hero, legend, the best thing ever. Got a feast in his Honor. All the farm maids were round up before him to select the prettiest one. Everyone happy until screaming started from the kitchen. Barkeep says the dragonborn made a fine choice.
Farm maids for dinner anyone? Turns out the village was populated with some kind of dragon worshippers cult. Dragonborn pally was so enamored with all the praise he had gotten that he condoned the human sacrifice.
And that is how a first time player got his paladin to be abandoned by his God.
The fight might seem simple, but it is ranked deadly for level 1 party... and it nearly was for a group of friends finally convinced to play for the first time.
A party of four: wizard, fighter, cleric, warlock; trundle down the Triboar Trail escorting a wagon of provisions to Phandalin. Arrows fly from the trees targeting the wagon, the ox pulling is hit... so too the wizard driving -_- drops to 1hp. First round for the players, the wizard opts to Wilhelm scream and fall off the wagon, the fighter charges blindly into the trees, the cleric follows, and the warlock decides to go the opposite way to "ambush the ambush".
The dice gods made it a tense fight, with some big hits from the goblins, but the party survived thanks to some MVP eldritch blasts from the warlock. They were bloodied, bruised, and in need of a rest, but they survived.
Fun encounter with my PCs at the culmination of purifying a cursed wayside. https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/d7b31310-e81d-4e15-8353-9b994ee890e0 Players loved the flavor, personality of the the undead cursed villain, and the fun stuff sitting around. The part where the boss flees off on his skeleton "throne" was particularly climactic.
First time DM, decided to start with the essentials kit with 4 of my friends! The party (plus Xanth the centaur) made it to Circle of Thunder and encountered two of the Anchorites of Talos performing a ritual to summon Gorthok the Thunder Boar. Cut to the wizard casting web and Gorthok failing his save, the paladin and wildhshaped druid (Bear) then proceed to wail on the boar while the fighter, wizard and Xanth provide backup from a distance. Oh, and they also lit the web afire and dealt extra fire damage. They than proceeded to cook and eat Gorthok after the fight, I was so impressed (and mildly upset) at how they wrecked my poor thunder boar that I gave them some temporary hp depending on how well they cooked the boar meat.
Inspired by Odaire and the story of Maligno, I hope I can do justice here what is in my head.
The adventures find their way into an old decrepit temple ruin. Inside the once cherished temple shows its signs of unkempt wear with tipped over pews, gargoyles fallen to the ground, shards of stained glass, and shattered busts of forgotten leaders. Towards the center of the room is an old man slumped in a chair and clutching a cane, at first he seems asleep or even just unaware of his unannounced visitors, and off in the distance a faint cry can be heard of "free me". Any disturbance in the once great room, whether calling out to the old man or searching for the source of the voice, and suddenly the old man leaps up and runs towards random members of the party and attacking them with his cane while letting out an almost screeching laughter. No matter how hard they hit or what spells they use the old man does not relent nor show signs of injury. In between rounds the voice can still be heard, faintness dependent on location of party member, and a successful perception check can lead them to a small pile of loose rubble with a small carrionette locked in a cage underneath. Even after releasing the doll like creature it continues to beg and cry "free me" while the old man continues to pursue whoever is nearest the tiny creature. Only once the doll is destroyed does the old man finally succumb and collapse to the floor as their soul is finally freed from their true cage.
I had a really cool idea for the first encounter in the first session which went as intended for most of it.
My players started in a prison underneath a colosseum, waiting their turn to "perform". Giving them time to meet each other for the first time and maybe come up with a strategy to survive whatever awaits them.
Their turns arrive and they are escorted into a dark chamber in the shape of a stone dome. On the edge 15ft above the ground, benches filed to the brim with people cheering. The only lights coming from a few torches between the crowd and on the edge of the arena, and in the center a beacon of light coming from a single hole at the top of the dome. Luckily, the two of them were not alone, three other NPC from the underground cells are forced into the arena as well. Not a minute after they enter a door drops on the other side and a beast makes its presence known. A creature resembling a skinny white horse with no tail or mane and a bird-like head with white eyes and no pupils.
The plan was for them to put on a good fight and before any of them was killed to have it stopped and offer a hob as performance as "gladiators". Buying their time, getting favors, and soon after their freedom, or just sneak out after a fight or two, their choice.
But instead, they managed to escape the colosseum during the fight, and as soon as they leave the colosseum they realize for the first time where were. They are greeted with a view of an underground stone city. As soon as this happens I start thinking about the possibilities of a setting like this... and everything is cut short when I hear one of the players say that they want to follow the beast into the catacombs of the city... The other player agrees sooo... I try to slowly convince them that the creature is long gone make them turn around, but the goblin of the party has darkvision, advantage on perception checks based on sound, and a really high score in wisdom...
So they find it, and it attacks the first player it sees, a warforged with super high AC. So it just keeps him pinned to the ground while missing all of its attacks. Meanwhile, the other player, the goblin who is also a bard, keeps healing the beast and tries to make animal handling checks... and he rolls high... 3 times in a row... forcing me to give it to them as a pet...
Can you guess what happened next? No? Well, let me tell you what happened. They made their way out of the underground to the surface... and for the rest of the session, I had to pull everything out of my ass as we pretty much roleplayed Minecraft "adventures" for two days... You know, punching down trees, fishing, making fire with sticks... all that goods stuff.
As a last-ditch effort to make them lose the mini-boss from their party I tried to make it sneak during the night... try being the keyword as SOMEONE has a freaking high passive perception. So I just gave up and from that day I started doubling all the numbers from the monsters' stats blocks to try balancing things up.
In our most recent session, my players came face to face with multiple vampire spawn. They knew that they were in there from the shopkeep so they opened all of the windows. Granted, I made a mistake and didn't remember that the sunlight in Barovia is just bright light, but not sunlight. This probably should have been a TPK. I've warned them for any future vampire encounters. Even with the 20dmg per round, the vampire spawn still did manage to kill one of the PCs. The Players opted to make a new character instead of seeking resurrection from a dark power.
This was only my 4th session as a DM, so I have A LOT to learn, but I am having a blast and both my players and I have been really enjoying using dndbeyond to facilitate our play.
When the party gets a bit treasure happy and careless about the inherent goodness of found treasure, I want them to earn a hard lesson the hard way. So, they'll come across a cursed artifact, the Gloves of the Lich. Immune to all removal magic, the only way to remove the gloves is to slam the wearer's left hand in the gate of the 6th level of Hell. Otherwise, over 60 days, the player would slowly turn into a lich!
Open questions for the party to discover:
Can a player successfully be a lich?
What happens to the hand that gets crushed in the gate?
My favorite encounter that has yet to be triggered by my group is a trap encounter that players will come across if they delve deep into a cave and fail to escape in time. They will be dropped into a room with the “King of Goblins and Giant Rats”, which has a Goblin Boss and a bunch of rat and goblin mobs to fight through in order to escape!
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/e7a814d5-47e3-412b-8487-1bb69b3aba6f
Rushing through a sleet storm, the adventurers had to cut through corrupted lizardfolk to make their way to Gar Shatterkeel. Eventually they were able to disarmed him and hold him in place for another to leap out from behind cover and cut him down. The encounter ended with two adventurers having a cumulative 10 hp remaining and another nearly dying. Their NPC companion helped them as they carried their friend back to the now abandoned Rivergard Keep to recover.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/bd8b178a-b55a-4fbb-a810-5cfbb0329541
I'm a new DM and preparing a nautical encounter based on "Ghosts of Saltmarsh". I'm tacking a prologue on the front including a storm (see the Encounter of the Week article "Sharkfin Shipwreck") - followed by this encounter which seems like a fight but is actually a tense social encounter and foreshadows things to come:
-----------------
Link (Sharkfin Ambush)
Note that this encounter is deliberately too difficult, designed so that the adventuring party will retreat or make social contact.
This encounter serves as a foreshadowing of the adventures and challenges to come in the campaign.
The adventuring party is travelling to Saltmarsh on the Sharkfin, a trading vessel captained by Grendanna Stormbreaker (chaotic neutral, female half-orc pirate captain) with first mate Rackham Byrne (neutral good, gnome thug). These NPCs can fight in the encounter if needed.
Only run this encounter if the Sharkfin did NOT get shipwrecked by the storm.
As the boat is about to round a headland of Southern Keoland, they are seemingly ambushed by a party of amphibious creatures: a locathah, a lizardfolk, a merfolk scout and a koalinth. Grendanna can remark that this is a strange combination of creatures to be working together. The four creatures attempt to board the ship and their intent seems malicious.
(Actually this is a misunderstanding. The Sharkfin is passing near (but not in sight of) the coastal base that the Sahuagin are building. This party of amphibians is returning from a scouting mission to determine how quickly the Sahuagin army is building forces, as intelligence for a planned raid (The Final Enemy). They have seen a similar boat assisting the Sahuagin - however that boat (another merchant vessel, like the one in "Salvage Operation") was captured by cultists of the Crushing Wave who serve the chaotic sea goddess Olhydra in her plan to reclaim the ocean from Procan. Most of this will be discovered MUCH later in the campaign!)
Most likely, the adventuring party will try to fight off the four intruders. However, the fight is intentionally too difficult. It is important not to have any of the creatures die, because that will destroy the chances of an alliance with Saltmarsh in "Danger at Dunwater"
If the adventuring party retreats with the Sharkfin, they will see a Young Bronze Dragon coming to pick up the amphibian scouts and fly them out of sight. Why this happens should be a matter of speculation - something that hints at later.
If the party continues to fight and risks death to themselves OR any of the amphibians, this Young Bronze Dragon swoops in and uses Repulsion Breath to end the fight and rescue the amphibians.
Either way, Saltmarsh comes into view for the first time right after the encounter.
After landing in Saltmarsh, events move toward the haunted house expedition in "Sinister Secret".
My encounter “Icy Heart” is my favorite so far! After climbing a mountain my party comes across a troll who has dominated Ice Spiders and Piercers, and the party has to prioritize whether the large troll or smaller creatures are a priority to take out first. The encounter comes out of nowhere too so it is always a fun surprise.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/319cf368-0c30-4e11-bf9d-655be99ee20f
For the encounter challenge this is a short filler adventure for a campaign that I might someday run. This encounter is a investigation of an abandoned arakocra village.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/b1be6eb4-2dd0-4b62-8d80-74060ffd650e
My favorite encounter I made for my players (4 level 3s) happened on a mysterious island they came across. What they did not know was the island was the back of an ancient dragon turtle. This turtle was once controlled by an old wizard who built a magical divise that generated a bubble around the shell, allowing the wizard to work submerged in peace. The dragon turtle resented being controlled and when the spell controlling him was broken he killed the wizard. Years later a tribe of Yaun Ti moved onto the shell and worship the turtle and give it sacrifices of lives and gold for it to allow them to live there.
The players find this "island" and evidence of a shipwreck. They go to shore looking for survivors. The island/shell is covered in a dense jungle (which is protected when the turtle submerges by the bubble generater) with 4 stone structures. The structures are reminants of the wizards old home, but it has been built apon by the Yaun Ti.
There are 4 building to explore, each with thier own monsters and traps, but the nefarious part is that there is a time limit. When the sun sets the Yaun Ti will sacrifice the sailors from the wreck to the turtle, and then the turtle will start to slowly submerge under the water. If the players are still on it, they will then have to figure out how to escape.
The 4 buildings are:
1) the treasury - guarded by a malison and a pureblood and 3 chests, all have a different trap to poison or alert of intruders. https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/20d2247a-9559-4ae3-8ac7-3f98bedc9cab
2) the cells - guarded by 2 malisons and a trap above the door that casts the sleep spell on anyone leaving through the door who does not have snake blood. https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/5362b7fd-b19b-4c47-961d-400dcd263e8f
3) the hatchery - all the yaun ti eggs guarded by 2 broodguard and 2 purebloods. https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/92960339-978c-4903-90f5-d2d815961ba4
4) the main pyramid - surrounded by 25 mailsons and purebloods with an abomination on the top. This is where the sacrifices happen.
My players found the treasury first, looted it, then returned to the boat for a long rest. They woke up to see the sacrifices taking place and thrown into the water for the turtle to eat. The turtle then submerged, leaving the players stunned and terrified of the dragon turtle attacking them from underneath for the next few days.
On the face of it, it was a simple (if unfair) encounter: 4 level 5 kobolds (the players) against an adult dragon.
The catch was that they'd raided the dragon's hoard beforehand, and had 6 magical items of varying rarity each. After a long battle involving the dragon being blasted with a wand of wonder, beaten with a rod of lordly might, eating a kobold, and downing two of the others, it came down to one kobold, one dragon, and... a deck of many things.
Disintegrated all of their magic items, summoned an avatar of death, has a fiend out to get them... I felt bad for the little guy, so when they drew the key, I thought it'd be fair to give them a luck blade. They wished for the avatar of death to go after the dragon, and escaped with about 2 hit points.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/50e91ce2-cfc2-4a30-bca6-7a1020384d83
I've always liked the game for worg's and wight's, however the cr for those creatures is way off, but I like them anyways!
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounter-builder
I am DMing a dungeon in a box campaign. The first boss starting at level 1 is a CR 5 hermit crab. This boss was super deadly for 4 level 1 characters. After knocking 2 players unconscious the other 2 party members got the idea to kite the crab back throughout the dungeon tripping all the traps they had not disarmed yet. This dealt massive damage however before the final trap dealt the killing blow on the beast, it claimed the life of the party's wizard. The 2 unconscious PC's successfully made their 3 death saves to stabilize and rejoin the ranger.
Link to the encounter with the Dragonskull hermit crab
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/54eb5fd6-b3c2-48c8-88a8-c35aaae67adf
I just started as a DM, and running my first Campaign. I'm starting with Starter Set and Lost Mine of Phandelver.
I got setup with DDB, and preparing sessions (SlyFlourish's Lazy Dungeon Master book has helped me a lot).
I'm getting ready for session 2, and just created an Encounter using DDB. It was super easy! I loved it. I was missing the courage to do it and finally tried it. We will soon be running the Redbrands Hideout and was concerned about how my group might be doing against the Nothic... we'll see... I now have it ready on DDB's Encounter Builder and got a better view of how that might turn out... can't way to play it!
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/dbbe5a51-f6e6-4a52-898d-37d3a4af54cf
For our first big campaign ever we decided to run Dungeon of the Mad Mage.
The players did not have any issues so far, but were soon to encounter a bunch of Manticores.
Mind you these are all new players that have never encountered a Manticore (and I was a new DM so I decided to have some fun with them).
I tried to make them laugh as annoying as possible and described them in great detail. The 4 PC's got annoyed after a few riddles and laughs with this creature not knowing there were 2 more in the shadows (equals more annoying laughs). |
The fight was the first big one that had in DnD ever and it was a glorious amount of chaos.
The Dwarf Barbarian got plucked into the air and the Rogue Elf decided to throw a rope around of their feet and pull the whole Manticore down.
The Rogue got pulled up into the air as well..
The Goliath Paladin and Tiefling Warlock managed to damage them enough to get them all down and the whole party was a bit shaken (positively) by their first big fightt!!
I am using the Companion addition to the basic Dungeon of the Mad Mage of Wyatt Trull to make the dungeon hosted by a deranged gameshow host and these annoying Manticores fit perfectly!!
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/c684b6ce-86ea-4475-b098-d3b7f51cfc78
*Edit the link doesn't seem to be working to enter as is in the first post.
When running SKT, my PCs ran an errand for the Grandfather Tree to clear out a corruption left over from a mining operation by fire giants looking for the vonindod. This corruption manifested as a necrotic shambling mound, with corpses mixed with the vegetation. Also, the PCs were inhabiting fungal manifestations instead of their actual bodies for a neat out-of-body experience.
My first ever game and first ever time dming i had Friends over for a board Game night but decided to stall out my dice and own pregen characters. None of these Friends had any experience in dnd or any other ttrpg.
Elf fighter, human Rogue and a dragon paladin named Peterson Smoke.
I started them with an encounter of the Day https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/441-encounter-of-the-week-sharkfin-shipwreck which they failed shipwrecked in an island the Rogue Tried to ditch his fellow adventurers and swim away.Luckily the fighter threw a 2x4 to get the sahuagin to notice the Rogue. Bit of combat fun and i thought we were done.
But they wanted more so i had to get creative on the spot. Upon entering a forest village the dragonborn was immediately heralded as a hero, legend, the best thing ever. Got a feast in his Honor. All the farm maids were round up before him to select the prettiest one. Everyone happy until screaming started from the kitchen. Barkeep says the dragonborn made a fine choice.
Farm maids for dinner anyone? Turns out the village was populated with some kind of dragon worshippers cult. Dragonborn pally was so enamored with all the praise he had gotten that he condoned the human sacrifice.
And that is how a first time player got his paladin to be abandoned by his God.
Similar to a previous post, my encounter is the opening combat of Lost Mine of Phandelver.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/db84f729-366d-4707-910a-5afe5d4ff50d
The fight might seem simple, but it is ranked deadly for level 1 party... and it nearly was for a group of friends finally convinced to play for the first time.
A party of four: wizard, fighter, cleric, warlock; trundle down the Triboar Trail escorting a wagon of provisions to Phandalin. Arrows fly from the trees targeting the wagon, the ox pulling is hit... so too the wizard driving -_- drops to 1hp.
First round for the players, the wizard opts to Wilhelm scream and fall off the wagon, the fighter charges blindly into the trees, the cleric follows, and the warlock decides to go the opposite way to "ambush the ambush".
The dice gods made it a tense fight, with some big hits from the goblins, but the party survived thanks to some MVP eldritch blasts from the warlock. They were bloodied, bruised, and in need of a rest, but they survived.
Fun encounter with my PCs at the culmination of purifying a cursed wayside. https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/d7b31310-e81d-4e15-8353-9b994ee890e0 Players loved the flavor, personality of the the undead cursed villain, and the fun stuff sitting around. The part where the boss flees off on his skeleton "throne" was particularly climactic.
First time DM, decided to start with the essentials kit with 4 of my friends! The party (plus Xanth the centaur) made it to Circle of Thunder and encountered two of the Anchorites of Talos performing a ritual to summon Gorthok the Thunder Boar. Cut to the wizard casting web and Gorthok failing his save, the paladin and wildhshaped druid (Bear) then proceed to wail on the boar while the fighter, wizard and Xanth provide backup from a distance. Oh, and they also lit the web afire and dealt extra fire damage. They than proceeded to cook and eat Gorthok after the fight, I was so impressed (and mildly upset) at how they wrecked my poor thunder boar that I gave them some temporary hp depending on how well they cooked the boar meat.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/8fc93250-f244-478c-9b08-8164c0fb6e62
Inspired by Odaire and the story of Maligno, I hope I can do justice here what is in my head.
The adventures find their way into an old decrepit temple ruin. Inside the once cherished temple shows its signs of unkempt wear with tipped over pews, gargoyles fallen to the ground, shards of stained glass, and shattered busts of forgotten leaders. Towards the center of the room is an old man slumped in a chair and clutching a cane, at first he seems asleep or even just unaware of his unannounced visitors, and off in the distance a faint cry can be heard of "free me". Any disturbance in the once great room, whether calling out to the old man or searching for the source of the voice, and suddenly the old man leaps up and runs towards random members of the party and attacking them with his cane while letting out an almost screeching laughter. No matter how hard they hit or what spells they use the old man does not relent nor show signs of injury. In between rounds the voice can still be heard, faintness dependent on location of party member, and a successful perception check can lead them to a small pile of loose rubble with a small carrionette locked in a cage underneath. Even after releasing the doll like creature it continues to beg and cry "free me" while the old man continues to pursue whoever is nearest the tiny creature. Only once the doll is destroyed does the old man finally succumb and collapse to the floor as their soul is finally freed from their true cage.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/4f5ef50a-35a3-442d-9c0e-0f1c7710ac1a
This is going to be a long story but I hope you'll enjoy the CHAOS that is my players during every game we play.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/97a05d30-6513-4fd5-8567-0174b5398265
I had a really cool idea for the first encounter in the first session which went as intended for most of it.
My players started in a prison underneath a colosseum, waiting their turn to "perform". Giving them time to meet each other for the first time and maybe come up with a strategy to survive whatever awaits them.
Their turns arrive and they are escorted into a dark chamber in the shape of a stone dome. On the edge 15ft above the ground, benches filed to the brim with people cheering. The only lights coming from a few torches between the crowd and on the edge of the arena, and in the center a beacon of light coming from a single hole at the top of the dome.
Luckily, the two of them were not alone, three other NPC from the underground cells are forced into the arena as well.
Not a minute after they enter a door drops on the other side and a beast makes its presence known. A creature resembling a skinny white horse with no tail or mane and a bird-like head with white eyes and no pupils.
The plan was for them to put on a good fight and before any of them was killed to have it stopped and offer a hob as performance as "gladiators". Buying their time, getting favors, and soon after their freedom, or just sneak out after a fight or two, their choice.
But instead, they managed to escape the colosseum during the fight, and as soon as they leave the colosseum they realize for the first time where were. They are greeted with a view of an underground stone city. As soon as this happens I start thinking about the possibilities of a setting like this... and everything is cut short when I hear one of the players say that they want to follow the beast into the catacombs of the city...
The other player agrees sooo... I try to slowly convince them that the creature is long gone make them turn around, but the goblin of the party has darkvision, advantage on perception checks based on sound, and a really high score in wisdom...
So they find it, and it attacks the first player it sees, a warforged with super high AC. So it just keeps him pinned to the ground while missing all of its attacks. Meanwhile, the other player, the goblin who is also a bard, keeps healing the beast and tries to make animal handling checks... and he rolls high... 3 times in a row... forcing me to give it to them as a pet...
Can you guess what happened next? No? Well, let me tell you what happened.
They made their way out of the underground to the surface... and for the rest of the session, I had to pull everything out of my ass as we pretty much roleplayed Minecraft "adventures" for two days... You know, punching down trees, fishing, making fire with sticks... all that goods stuff.
As a last-ditch effort to make them lose the mini-boss from their party I tried to make it sneak during the night... try being the keyword as SOMEONE has a freaking high passive perception. So I just gave up and from that day I started doubling all the numbers from the monsters' stats blocks to try balancing things up.
In our most recent session, my players came face to face with multiple vampire spawn. They knew that they were in there from the shopkeep so they opened all of the windows. Granted, I made a mistake and didn't remember that the sunlight in Barovia is just bright light, but not sunlight. This probably should have been a TPK. I've warned them for any future vampire encounters. Even with the 20dmg per round, the vampire spawn still did manage to kill one of the PCs. The Players opted to make a new character instead of seeking resurrection from a dark power.
This was only my 4th session as a DM, so I have A LOT to learn, but I am having a blast and both my players and I have been really enjoying using dndbeyond to facilitate our play.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/a0be7083-3dd8-4d96-aaf1-d424800a1f6f
When the party gets a bit treasure happy and careless about the inherent goodness of found treasure, I want them to earn a hard lesson the hard way. So, they'll come across a cursed artifact, the Gloves of the Lich. Immune to all removal magic, the only way to remove the gloves is to slam the wearer's left hand in the gate of the 6th level of Hell. Otherwise, over 60 days, the player would slowly turn into a lich!
Open questions for the party to discover:
It will be fun to find out!