I was planning a fun and silly encounter for a party of 4 level 4 players, inspired by the Venom Troll encounter from Critical Role (one of my friends got me Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes for my birthday!) while they first visit the Feywild.
Essentially the party would encounter Three Pixies, tending to a Sheep, to which they are feeding it grass to keep it calm. The Pixies tell the party members that it is actually a nasty Venom Troll who entered through the same door that the party did. The Pixies ask for them to take care of it for them, since they can not do real damage to it without risking their lives.
The Pixies and party will get to a safe distance of 60 feet. The polymorph will cancel, so the players get a sight of the Troll's true form, and initiative will then start. TThe first Pixie will cast Entangle to root it in place. The second Pixie will do this in turn, and as a last ditch effort they'll hold polymorph in case the party fails. A bit of plot armor since I intended this to be fun, and not a story piece.
I thought it would be fun and interesting option for the players if the Pixies debated dropped the rat from a height, and the party had to avoid the Venom Troll's splat, but then I looked at a physics calculator and it indicated that a drop from 200 feet would only take something like 5 seconds (one round), and that the energy of a rat would be 300 joules. This is the equivalent force of a 3 foot drop of the Venom Troll. So ZERO damage would occur in my version of Faerun.
I then realized instead of actually doing this, I could leave this as a silly puzzle and argument for the players to have with the Pixies. Fantasy characters arguing about how physics and magic intersect. It isn't worth dropping the rat in MY world, but it is if they cancel the polymorph while it is in mid air, otherwise the energy won't transfer, since force is mass * acceleration, and the mass on impact would be that of a rat and not a Troll. If they decide to cancel the polymorph in air, then a silly argument between players and Pixies about who is going touch the Venom Troll, will ensue.
It sounds like you really like these pixies and you really don't like venom trolls.
What are you really looking for this encounter to accomplish?
What kind of challenge do you want your situation to pose to the PCs?
Does this scenario connect to other parts of the overarching narrative you have constructed? If so, how important is it that it takes place the way you envision?
Also keep in mind that the more convoluted the scenario involving the polymorphed troll, the more likely your players will not undrestand your intent and will instead likely do something to ruin or delay what you expect will happen.
The party has just about reached level 5, and I wanted them to roleplay with and meet more creatures which could serve as allies but were not clearly so based on the party's preconceived biases (eg orc bad, human good). They are approaching the next Tier of Play. The challenge is not the combat encounter, but the roleplaying encounter. The combat serves as a point of interest to get them to possibly accept that being a hero can be fun. As is, they like to avoid combat and all risks... they are fully free to play that way, but I personally frown upon it.
The idea is that the Party's Warlock was summoned by the Seelie Court, who serve as his Archfey Patron, but while walking through the door to the Feywild, the Troll came in shortly before them. The challenge is for them to either accept responsibility for an action they did not DIRECTLY do, and to realize that they may be rewarded by the Archfey for doing so, otherwise they will continue down their path of selfish neutrality, and fail to gain allies. As is, they don't want to take small risks, but taking small risks will give you greater allies, which help you later. That is not how I envision the higher level Tiers of Play will go. They are slowly choosing to be heroes or not.
At its most base, the encounter will start with a Polymorphed Troll and three Pixies debating what to do with it. The party can do what they want from there.
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I was planning a fun and silly encounter for a party of 4 level 4 players, inspired by the Venom Troll encounter from Critical Role (one of my friends got me Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes for my birthday!) while they first visit the Feywild.
Essentially the party would encounter Three Pixies, tending to a Sheep, to which they are feeding it grass to keep it calm. The Pixies tell the party members that it is actually a nasty Venom Troll who entered through the same door that the party did. The Pixies ask for them to take care of it for them, since they can not do real damage to it without risking their lives.
The Pixies and party will get to a safe distance of 60 feet. The polymorph will cancel, so the players get a sight of the Troll's true form, and initiative will then start. TThe first Pixie will cast Entangle to root it in place. The second Pixie will do this in turn, and as a last ditch effort they'll hold polymorph in case the party fails. A bit of plot armor since I intended this to be fun, and not a story piece.
I thought it would be fun and interesting option for the players if the Pixies debated dropped the rat from a height, and the party had to avoid the Venom Troll's splat, but then I looked at a physics calculator and it indicated that a drop from 200 feet would only take something like 5 seconds (one round), and that the energy of a rat would be 300 joules. This is the equivalent force of a 3 foot drop of the Venom Troll. So ZERO damage would occur in my version of Faerun.
I then realized instead of actually doing this, I could leave this as a silly puzzle and argument for the players to have with the Pixies. Fantasy characters arguing about how physics and magic intersect. It isn't worth dropping the rat in MY world, but it is if they cancel the polymorph while it is in mid air, otherwise the energy won't transfer, since force is mass * acceleration, and the mass on impact would be that of a rat and not a Troll. If they decide to cancel the polymorph in air, then a silly argument between players and Pixies about who is going touch the Venom Troll, will ensue.
It sounds like you really like these pixies and you really don't like venom trolls.
What are you really looking for this encounter to accomplish?
What kind of challenge do you want your situation to pose to the PCs?
Does this scenario connect to other parts of the overarching narrative you have constructed? If so, how important is it that it takes place the way you envision?
Also keep in mind that the more convoluted the scenario involving the polymorphed troll, the more likely your players will not undrestand your intent and will instead likely do something to ruin or delay what you expect will happen.
The party has just about reached level 5, and I wanted them to roleplay with and meet more creatures which could serve as allies but were not clearly so based on the party's preconceived biases (eg orc bad, human good). They are approaching the next Tier of Play. The challenge is not the combat encounter, but the roleplaying encounter. The combat serves as a point of interest to get them to possibly accept that being a hero can be fun. As is, they like to avoid combat and all risks... they are fully free to play that way, but I personally frown upon it.
The idea is that the Party's Warlock was summoned by the Seelie Court, who serve as his Archfey Patron, but while walking through the door to the Feywild, the Troll came in shortly before them. The challenge is for them to either accept responsibility for an action they did not DIRECTLY do, and to realize that they may be rewarded by the Archfey for doing so, otherwise they will continue down their path of selfish neutrality, and fail to gain allies. As is, they don't want to take small risks, but taking small risks will give you greater allies, which help you later. That is not how I envision the higher level Tiers of Play will go. They are slowly choosing to be heroes or not.
At its most base, the encounter will start with a Polymorphed Troll and three Pixies debating what to do with it. The party can do what they want from there.