My party are about to take a trip (about 10-12 days game time) on a series of Canals and Rivers to get to the capital city of where they are. I have been creating a random encounter table but wondered if anyone had any ideas. Encounters don't just have to be fighting monsters :).
Just thinking that sahaugin always work. Merfolk, merrows, or pirates/bandits may be cool depending on your characters level.
Dragon turtles are awesome for high levels, and Fizbans Treasury of Dragons has younger and wyrmling (as well as ancient) versions of them for different levels too.
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Bandits (pirates, really) but on a slow moving canal, they could block the canal way with a big chain or something and attack from the shore.
I‘m a big fan of popping in traveling carnivals. Just to let the characters watch a show. And most of the time, players are trained that everything the meet is somehow out to get them, so it’s fun to see what they get up to while they’re looking for the villian, when really, it’s just a day off.
Beavers built a dam across the water. If you have anyone with speak with animals, it can be a social encounter to convince them to take it down. If they can also convince them not to rebuild, they’ll earn themselves some friends in the nearby town who’ve been annoyed by this for years.
A travelling barge full of gnomes who all have different trades & want to sell things
A willow tree, which when sailed under reveals the same stretch of water leading to the same tree, endlessly. When the sun comes up, the leaves fall and the tree dies, and the magic is dispelled - until dusk.
An ancient and complex set of lock-gates to get them up a hill (sort of a non-puzzle)
A water elemental which is covered in lily pads and full of tadpoles, which it is protecting.
A ghost-barge, pulled by a skeleton of a horse
A dwarven inventor who they see crashing her hovercraft
An ancient and abandoned set of canals which lead to (and theoretically through) a defiled city. Good option to combine with the beavers suggested above - if they fail to get rid of the dam, it's an alternative route.
Loads of fireflies. Just describe the beauty of it.
Loads of flamebeetles. Just describe the beauty of it - then they start setting everything they land on aflame.
A proper ghostship - full pirateship, in a canal.
An abandoned huge seafaring ship, through which a tunnel has been carved for the boats. It's now a tavern; it appeared some 100 years ago, and nobody knows how.
A tunnel through the mountain, with darkmantles, piercers, and ropers to content with as the barge slowly continues through (make a cool moving battlefield, with people hanging under ropers).
A Ghost bridge, which sees the barge floating in the air. An amiable if snatchy ghost requests something shiny from the party as payment, and will drop the boat into the river below if not sated. anythign shiny will do, it's an opportunity for fun roleplay.
Schools of glowing fish, perhaps persued by huge pike.
A giant who is fishing, and needs help tying his hook because his fingers are too thick. Gives the party a huge fish as a gift, or teaches them to fish.
Thick fog, and a sinister sound of footsteps. Do not explain why or where they are from.
A giant magpie. If they treat it nicely, it will return later and give them a gift. If not, it will return to steal something.
A magical section of canal which lies over a hill, yet does not flow downwards.
A section of crystal clear canal which lies over an immensely deep trench.
A huge field of corn in which something can be heard keeping pace with the boat. If left unattended, the bargehorse disappears.
A group of hippos/manatees/wallowing bladder creatures with huge long necks and sad eyes are blocking the way. If startled, they may stampede.
A long queue of canal boats approaching a toll gate. The elderly tiefling at the front is shouting with the toll guards, and is clearly deaf as a post.
A patch of long cattail plants with cattails which smell amazing. They behave like normal cattails when bitten.
A strange scraping sound can be heard inside the boat. This continues for several days, until they find a lamprey-like creature gnawing on the hull.
Water bulette. Puts holes in the boat. Bonus points if they are tiny and cute.
Underwater roper, who drags the players off the boat and underwater.
The corpse of something huge (tarrasque-like size), which has attracted predatory fish which are eating the limbs in the canal.
A huge octopus / small kraken, who is a salesman of rare artefacts and talismans.
A false kraken attack which stops halfway, and a gnomish salesman tries t osell them kraken repellant. The tentacles reveal themselves to be animatronic.
An exit ramp to a lake, which is a huge waterslide.
A thick fog bank lies in front of you. there is a single orange light penetrating it. out of the mist comes a ferry pioleted by a hooded and cloaked figure. it becomes with its hand, as if asking for a coin. it raises its head to revel a bleached skull with ectoplasmic eyes in the sockets.
if the PCs give the ferryman a gold peice, he takes them to somewhere they need to go, but they didn't know it. they can never shake the feeling that the ferryman is hiding something behind his bleached and gold-toothed grin
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About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
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My party are about to take a trip (about 10-12 days game time) on a series of Canals and Rivers to get to the capital city of where they are. I have been creating a random encounter table but wondered if anyone had any ideas. Encounters don't just have to be fighting monsters :).
Just thinking that sahaugin always work. Merfolk, merrows, or pirates/bandits may be cool depending on your characters level.
Dragon turtles are awesome for high levels, and Fizbans Treasury of Dragons has younger and wyrmling (as well as ancient) versions of them for different levels too.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.Bandits (pirates, really) but on a slow moving canal, they could block the canal way with a big chain or something and attack from the shore.
I‘m a big fan of popping in traveling carnivals. Just to let the characters watch a show. And most of the time, players are trained that everything the meet is somehow out to get them, so it’s fun to see what they get up to while they’re looking for the villian, when really, it’s just a day off.
Beavers built a dam across the water. If you have anyone with speak with animals, it can be a social encounter to convince them to take it down. If they can also convince them not to rebuild, they’ll earn themselves some friends in the nearby town who’ve been annoyed by this for years.
A few ideas that came to me from this:
...ok I think that's a few to be going with!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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thankyou that is all great :)
I'm VERY late to this, but here are some things that came to mind:
If anybody would like my GMing playlists
battles: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2mRp57MBAz9ZsVpw895IzZ?si=243bee43442a4703
exploration: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0qk0aKm5yI4K6VrlcaKrDj?si=81057bef509043f3
town/tavern: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/49JSv1kK0bUyQ9LVpKmZlr?si=a88b1dd9bab54111
character deaths: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6k7WhylJEjSqWC0pBuAtFD?si=3e897fa2a2dd469e
A thick fog bank lies in front of you. there is a single orange light penetrating it. out of the mist comes a ferry pioleted by a hooded and cloaked figure. it becomes with its hand, as if asking for a coin. it raises its head to revel a bleached skull with ectoplasmic eyes in the sockets.
if the PCs give the ferryman a gold peice, he takes them to somewhere they need to go, but they didn't know it. they can never shake the feeling that the ferryman is hiding something behind his bleached and gold-toothed grin
Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!