Parts of Waterdeep are consumed by war for reasons that are not relevant to this question. At a nearby refugee camp, the party has been hired by a wizard to go into town, go to his magic shop, and retrieve a coin for him from his basement. He tells the party that there is a security system in place, but that it isn't anything they can't handle.
They get to the basement. They get to the coin. They pick up the coin.
The doors slam shut, and the room they are in is magically teleported to a new location. A few constructs attack and attempt to retrieve the coin.
End of session.
I need ideas for what the rest of his security system would be to keep this coin, which is very important to him, safe from theft. A few rules:
1) the wizard is not evil. So... no swarms of undead or anything.
2) the security is more interested in trapping them or causing them to return the coin to it's rightful place and leave than it is in killing them. Though, obviously, killing them is also a valid option.
3) level 12 party. So go nuts!
4) needs to be fun. So, for example, my first thought was "giant maze", but that would be tedious and awful to play through and is therefore a bad idea.
5) I would rather it were not just a series of fights. Some fights are ok, but I need other ideas.
I'm a fan of rugs of smothering. Tho in this case spells that shrink intruders and either trap them in jars or flush them into the sewers could be fun 😄
Forcecage! There's no saving throw against it, it can't be dispelled by Dispel Magic, it extends into the ethereal plane, and it lasts one hour. So maybe the party is in a room, one party member gets Forcecaged, and then some big environmental attack happens, like a Cloudkill or an Incendiary Cloud. So now the party has to decide whether to stay and risk a TPK to save one person, or whether the rest of the party will flee, leaving one member to die.
Okay, on second thought maybe that's a tad gruesome. I just like the idea of fighting against the clock. The party needs to know that if they don't solve the puzzle in a specified amount of time, they're all gonna be in the deep doodoo.
But that also means that you have to give them a chance to win. Well... I mean... you don't have to... but you should.
Forcecage! There's no saving throw against it, it can't be dispelled by Dispel Magic, it extends into the ethereal plane, and it lasts one hour. So maybe the party is in a room, one party member gets Forcecaged, and then some big environmental attack happens, like a Cloudkill or an Incendiary Cloud. So now the party has to decide whether to stay and risk a TPK to save one person, or whether the rest of the party will flee, leaving one member to die.
Okay, on second thought maybe that's a tad gruesome. I just like the idea of fighting against the clock. The party needs to know that if they don't solve the puzzle in a specified amount of time, they're all gonna be in the deep doodoo.
But that also means that you have to give them a chance to win. Well... I mean... you don't have to... but you should.
One of the things I've been struggling with is coming up with something that a high level wizard could reasonably have set up but the players actually can get through. Because "flood the entire place with poison" is effective but not great for morale.
"One of the party members dies and you can't do anything about it" is bad form, and will cause that player to not participate all session.
I think there are workable ideas here, and the guards and wards spell mentioned above has potential to split up the party which could lead to less abusive ways to implement those ideas. I need to think on it.
You should add a trap where a bookshelf throws books at them via catapult spell or some other method.
another idea is a pit trap with a portal at the bottom leading to a random room in the building or a random dimension.
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Hollow unbreakable arrows are the most OP common magic item, and my current method of coming up with insane combat shenanigans.
if you make a steel pipe with one end closed and a nozzle on the other, you can enlarge it, fill with any liquid, and then drop concentration, creating a high pressure squirt gun. (or a pipe bomb, depending if it holds)
You should add a trap where a bookshelf throws books at them via catapult spell or some other method.
another idea is a pit trap with a portal at the bottom leading to a random room in the building or a random dimension.
I like the pit trap that dumps them into another room elsewhere in the facility.
How does one operate the "guard and wards" hallway effect without getting lost in the bookkeeping? The party will wind up going different ways from each other,, not realize that is happening, and wind up all over place.
It feels like it will get very confusing very quickly.
Imprisonment-type spell traps I've had mages use for their strongholds:
- Reverse Gravity - Suggestion (the suggestion was "drink the tea" in front of a pot of tea that had a sedative in it) - Demiplane (party got shunted to a mirror dimension where magic followed Opposite Day rules. They had tons of fun messing with spells to try to hack the wards and get out) - Teleportation Circle (aka Go To Jail, do not pass Go, do not collect 200gp) - Darkness - Modify Memory
You can also have puzzle traps that the wizard would know how to bypass but are intended to catch intruders. Hallucinatory Terrain, Programmed Illusion and Mirage Arcane might hide physical traps and guardians (spike pits, animated statues, etc.), or even make people think something terrifying lies in wait when it's just a blank wall. A wizard might also have Arcane Eye set up on the coin at all times, guarded by constructs or a familiar. Perhaps the coin on display is a fake and the real one is hidden in a pocket dimension accessible only if you step on the correct sequence of runes on the floor...
Imprisonment-type spell traps I've had mages use for their strongholds:
- Modify Memory
It would be funny to have an enchantment that makes everyone in the room think you collected the coin when you didn't and teleport you all outside. It would probably piss off the players but it would be fun to try to think of a way to remember to grab the coin.
There are lots of things you can add - especially if the room is teleported to a different location. Put it in the middle of a maze that prevents the use of teleportation or planar transport. Each layer of the maze (or level of the dungeon heading to the exit) gets more dangerous or deadly as they go.
You need to decide whether losing the coin or killing a few thieves is of greater importance to the wizard. If they would prefer not to kill anyone then they must also be willing for the coin to be stolen.
Have the security system - perhaps run by a sentient magic item - inform the players that returning the item to its proper place will allow them to leave but that they won't be allowed into the shop again (thus preventing the party from taking long rests outside the shop).
However, I don't understand the fundamental premise of the mission.
If the wizard really wants their coin back, they would have told the adventurers how to deal with the security system. Possibly even deactivate it. Some reasons I can think of for not giving this information are:
1) The wizard wants a bunch of sacrificial adventurers to test the security system to see if they can beat it. He'd prefer that they not succeed in recovering the coin since that would demonstrate the system works and if they do recover it he can improve the security after a debrief.
2) The wizard has lost control of the security system - he created a self-sustaining and evolving security system run by a sentient magic item (AI) - and he doesn't know what it has evolved to and has no way to shut it down since it no longer listens to him. It's primary directive being prevent the item being taken at all costs.
Shrinking them could be a good option. Good luck climbing the stairs- they are thousands of feet high now!
Also, giant bugs to fight, so the "defences" are just day-to-day bugs in the wizard's basement.
So, the room has teleported somwhere and they have some constructs (assume these are already dealt with?).
My first thought would be to try and give the room itself some form of sentience. It's only interested in keeping the people from leaving with the coin. The whole premise of the room is to get them to give the coin back. It presents the PCs with slot machines and pay-to-use things which all need coins to be put in. It teleports to horrible places (poisonous swamps full of monsters and acid rain, magma chambers in the underdark, the plane of fire, the plane of water, the inside of a heavily guarded castle, and so on) where leaving the room would be suicide.
Ultimately, the players have to reason with the room, or trick it, to let them leave safely with the coin. This might involve a test of how well they know the Wizard, for example, or that they do not intend to keep the coin. The room might repeatedly try to trick them, by saying things like "Oh, you want to get the coin to >Wizard<? Well, why didn't you say so? Just put it in this here slot and I'll send it to him!" and if they do, "Hah! Fooled you! Do you think I was built yesterday?".
Ultimately they can opt to return the coin to leave safely, persuade the room, or just hack it to bits (give it a statblock with bludgeoning attacks and lair actions which change the environment as it teleports around trying to subdue the thieves). IF they kill it, then the coin can be recovered and the wizard will have a destroyed room to go back to.
The situation:
Parts of Waterdeep are consumed by war for reasons that are not relevant to this question. At a nearby refugee camp, the party has been hired by a wizard to go into town, go to his magic shop, and retrieve a coin for him from his basement. He tells the party that there is a security system in place, but that it isn't anything they can't handle.
They get to the basement. They get to the coin. They pick up the coin.
The doors slam shut, and the room they are in is magically teleported to a new location. A few constructs attack and attempt to retrieve the coin.
End of session.
I need ideas for what the rest of his security system would be to keep this coin, which is very important to him, safe from theft. A few rules:
1) the wizard is not evil. So... no swarms of undead or anything.
2) the security is more interested in trapping them or causing them to return the coin to it's rightful place and leave than it is in killing them. Though, obviously, killing them is also a valid option.
3) level 12 party. So go nuts!
4) needs to be fun. So, for example, my first thought was "giant maze", but that would be tedious and awful to play through and is therefore a bad idea.
5) I would rather it were not just a series of fights. Some fights are ok, but I need other ideas.
Any clever ideas?
I’d throw the guards and wards spell in the mix, whatever else you might do.
Fantastic! Noted!
I'm a fan of rugs of smothering. Tho in this case spells that shrink intruders and either trap them in jars or flush them into the sewers could be fun 😄
Forcecage! There's no saving throw against it, it can't be dispelled by Dispel Magic, it extends into the ethereal plane, and it lasts one hour. So maybe the party is in a room, one party member gets Forcecaged, and then some big environmental attack happens, like a Cloudkill or an Incendiary Cloud. So now the party has to decide whether to stay and risk a TPK to save one person, or whether the rest of the party will flee, leaving one member to die.
Okay, on second thought maybe that's a tad gruesome. I just like the idea of fighting against the clock. The party needs to know that if they don't solve the puzzle in a specified amount of time, they're all gonna be in the deep doodoo.
But that also means that you have to give them a chance to win. Well... I mean... you don't have to... but you should.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
One of the things I've been struggling with is coming up with something that a high level wizard could reasonably have set up but the players actually can get through. Because "flood the entire place with poison" is effective but not great for morale.
"One of the party members dies and you can't do anything about it" is bad form, and will cause that player to not participate all session.
I think there are workable ideas here, and the guards and wards spell mentioned above has potential to split up the party which could lead to less abusive ways to implement those ideas. I need to think on it.
You should add a trap where a bookshelf throws books at them via catapult spell or some other method.
another idea is a pit trap with a portal at the bottom leading to a random room in the building or a random dimension.
Hollow unbreakable arrows are the most OP common magic item, and my current method of coming up with insane combat shenanigans.
if you make a steel pipe with one end closed and a nozzle on the other, you can enlarge it, fill with any liquid, and then drop concentration, creating a high pressure squirt gun. (or a pipe bomb, depending if it holds)
I like the pit trap that dumps them into another room elsewhere in the facility.
How does one operate the "guard and wards" hallway effect without getting lost in the bookkeeping? The party will wind up going different ways from each other,, not realize that is happening, and wind up all over place.
It feels like it will get very confusing very quickly.
Imprisonment-type spell traps I've had mages use for their strongholds:
- Reverse Gravity
- Suggestion (the suggestion was "drink the tea" in front of a pot of tea that had a sedative in it)
- Demiplane (party got shunted to a mirror dimension where magic followed Opposite Day rules. They had tons of fun messing with spells to try to hack the wards and get out)
- Teleportation Circle (aka Go To Jail, do not pass Go, do not collect 200gp)
- Darkness
- Modify Memory
You can also have puzzle traps that the wizard would know how to bypass but are intended to catch intruders. Hallucinatory Terrain, Programmed Illusion and Mirage Arcane might hide physical traps and guardians (spike pits, animated statues, etc.), or even make people think something terrifying lies in wait when it's just a blank wall. A wizard might also have Arcane Eye set up on the coin at all times, guarded by constructs or a familiar. Perhaps the coin on display is a fake and the real one is hidden in a pocket dimension accessible only if you step on the correct sequence of runes on the floor...
It would be funny to have an enchantment that makes everyone in the room think you collected the coin when you didn't and teleport you all outside. It would probably piss off the players but it would be fun to try to think of a way to remember to grab the coin.
Have the wizard's security system turn them into familiars.
The task would be to get the coin out of the shop as a familiar. Use A Familiar Quandary as inspiration.
It could be a fun diversion.
There are lots of things you can add - especially if the room is teleported to a different location. Put it in the middle of a maze that prevents the use of teleportation or planar transport. Each layer of the maze (or level of the dungeon heading to the exit) gets more dangerous or deadly as they go.
You need to decide whether losing the coin or killing a few thieves is of greater importance to the wizard. If they would prefer not to kill anyone then they must also be willing for the coin to be stolen.
Have the security system - perhaps run by a sentient magic item - inform the players that returning the item to its proper place will allow them to leave but that they won't be allowed into the shop again (thus preventing the party from taking long rests outside the shop).
However, I don't understand the fundamental premise of the mission.
If the wizard really wants their coin back, they would have told the adventurers how to deal with the security system. Possibly even deactivate it. Some reasons I can think of for not giving this information are:
1) The wizard wants a bunch of sacrificial adventurers to test the security system to see if they can beat it. He'd prefer that they not succeed in recovering the coin since that would demonstrate the system works and if they do recover it he can improve the security after a debrief.
2) The wizard has lost control of the security system - he created a self-sustaining and evolving security system run by a sentient magic item (AI) - and he doesn't know what it has evolved to and has no way to shut it down since it no longer listens to him. It's primary directive being prevent the item being taken at all costs.
Shrinking them could be a good option. Good luck climbing the stairs- they are thousands of feet high now!
Also, giant bugs to fight, so the "defences" are just day-to-day bugs in the wizard's basement.
So, the room has teleported somwhere and they have some constructs (assume these are already dealt with?).
My first thought would be to try and give the room itself some form of sentience. It's only interested in keeping the people from leaving with the coin. The whole premise of the room is to get them to give the coin back. It presents the PCs with slot machines and pay-to-use things which all need coins to be put in. It teleports to horrible places (poisonous swamps full of monsters and acid rain, magma chambers in the underdark, the plane of fire, the plane of water, the inside of a heavily guarded castle, and so on) where leaving the room would be suicide.
Ultimately, the players have to reason with the room, or trick it, to let them leave safely with the coin. This might involve a test of how well they know the Wizard, for example, or that they do not intend to keep the coin. The room might repeatedly try to trick them, by saying things like "Oh, you want to get the coin to >Wizard<? Well, why didn't you say so? Just put it in this here slot and I'll send it to him!" and if they do, "Hah! Fooled you! Do you think I was built yesterday?".
Ultimately they can opt to return the coin to leave safely, persuade the room, or just hack it to bits (give it a statblock with bludgeoning attacks and lair actions which change the environment as it teleports around trying to subdue the thieves). IF they kill it, then the coin can be recovered and the wizard will have a destroyed room to go back to.
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just throw a lot of low level stuff that would take time
every step has a glyph have it be random use a bunch of spells you would normally never use
picks up the coin it activates Jim’s Glowing Coin
Everyone is uncontrollably Levitate
steps on one Rime’s Binding Ice
Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm
Synaptic Static