I'm getting ready for my group to fight a white dragon, and while looking through Fizban's I noticed the "Mirror Ice" regional effect. It gave me the idea to make the dragon's lair into a type of funhouse maze, where reflections bounce throughout. I'm wondering now what kind of cool features or mechanics could make this a memorable setting, and would love to hear your guys' thoughts on how to best develop it.
Here's what's coming to mind so far:
- Disadvantage on Stealth checks to hide, as mentioned in Fizban's.
- Spells that cast light will have greater effect or further range (double?).
- An effect similar to the mirror image spell, where you might be attacking a reflection instead of the actual opponent. How to resolve that mechanically, though? Perception rolls before each attack to see if they actually hit their target? That seems cumbersome, but I don't want it to be just a random roll of the dice for the mirror effect; more perceptive PCs should have some kind of advantage (and those with blindsight or truesight would be immune).
- Navigating the space will be tricky. Survival checks to successfully move through labyrinth sections? Ending up in a different part of the dungeon than intended?
- What kind of denizens would love this kind of set up? I'm leaning toward an adult oblex, just to add some madness to this mirror maze, but would there be anything better, or in addition to that?
When people cast spells that blind or do radiant damage. I would either increase the damage and DC, give them a wider range, or make it so that there is about a 20% chance that the spell also targets another randomly determined target.
I would also say that mirror image effect makes sense but it might be difficult to figure out. Maybe everybody in there is under the effect of the spell, but that seems cumbersome. Maybe everyone just naturally has disadvantage on their attack rolls, but anybody who has a passive perception of 15 or higher can bypass this disadvantage.
I would suggest looking at the mirror zone table to find more ideas and things to use.
I think an animated breath would be good there, maybe a Minotaur has been trapped in the ice for a long time and has been trying to find its way out. (Use the goristro stats if you need one of a much higher level) That could also be a place that the white dragons hatchlings go to explore and play so they may come across those. Frost mephits and snow golems would also fit. An adult oblex also sounds like it would be a cool addition to the mirror ice labyrinth.
Increasing range, damage, and DCs on spells involving light, blindness, radiant damage, or similar effects make sense. I'll crunch some numbers.
I really like the mirror image idea too, as it calls on the classic trope of the heroes being surrounded by illusions of the enemy, but I'd love for the heroes to use it as well. The Disadvantage to attack rolls for anyone with <15 Passive Perception is intuitive and simple to apply, but between high Perception and a couple of blindsight magic items, that would only affect one PC, and they'd probably just rely on spells with saves, so that mechanic wouldn't have much effect. Maybe I'll just do a 11+ mirror image effect for everyone but just in one room/section, so it's not bogging down the whole session...
Ooh! I'd totally forgotten about the Mirror Zone table from Tasha's! I really like the idea of reflections stepping out from the walls to aid in attacks, or a PC's own reflection getting their attention to share information/secrets.
I've recently watched Annihilation and I'm feeling inspired. Weird things like animated breath, mephits, owlbears, and an oblex (I think I'll go elder) are perfect.
For determining whether you're looking at a character or their reflection, more perceptive characters might stop to notice things like which side the target's hair is parted on, the alignment of buttons on their shirt, whether some distinctive facial marking is on the correct side, which hand is holding their weapon, or which shoulder they carry their bag on. If there's a little bit of dust or snow being blown through the air, you could check whether the direction of its movement around the target is correct. Those could all be good "in character" ways to tell whether you're looking at a reflection or not. At that point, the question might be whether you have a clear enough view of them to see one of these "tells," or whether you can find one quickly enough to still act... which is where the die roll comes in.
This is all assuming that these are single reflections which appear "mirrored" from the way they should be. If the image is reflected off of 2 surfaces (or any even number of them), then the image appears "correct" again, which would make this less helpful.
Excellent and brilliant in-game descriptors. Out of combat, that's easy to resolve with a Perception check (passive or otherwise). What about in combat? I don't want to be making Perception rolls every turn...
What about in combat? I don't want to be making Perception rolls every turn...
Well, unless there are also magical effects or illusions, I would expect the reflections to only affect ranged combat. Maybe that's a case for using special magical effects like the Mirror Zone, if you really want to make it interesting. I'm not sure how you'd do that without adding rolls, though.
One rules-light option might be to allow characters to use the Hide action without disadvantage using Deception -- not for actually concealing themselves (which would still be at a disadvantage), but just imposing disadvantage on attacks against them until either they reveal their position (by attacking, casting a spell, etc.) or someone spots them just like locating a hidden creature. ("Hey, that's the real one over there!") Rogues would get the most out of that with Cunning Action, but I guess it might not be very useful to other classes unless there are also other ways to gain that benefit.
The only other thing that comes to mind, is that you could require that all attacks (or just all ranged attacks?) use Wisdom instead of their usual ability, or that anyone without proficiency in Perception only receives half of their proficiency bonus to attacks. The trouble is, players might think that's unfair, especially if they didn't realize what they were getting into in advance; added mechanical challenges in combat encounters are expected, but straight-up changing the attack mechanics might not be welcomed.
some creatures are used to the mirrors and have advantage to find people or creatures have disadvantage on stealth (this is similar to Graz’zt lair effects)
The hide mechanic means that creatures will be contesting passive perception with stealth rolls. You can even treat it in such a way that they can beat some players and not others the ones they beat with their stealth rolls will not know the creatures location and not be able to attack effectively.
As luck would have it, every single PC is proficient with Perception, some of them with a higher Perception modifier than their to-hit bonus, so I don't think they'd cry foul. The ones that don't have a higher Perception will have Blindsight (they're collecting dragon masks), so I was planning on having them be exempt from the effect.
But the more I think about it, requiring use of Wisdom/Perception instead doesn't make for a real challenge in this case. I'm much preferring the use of Deception to sort of "blend in" with your reflections and impose disadvantage unless they attack, kind of like an environmental blur effect. It's an active choice on the part of the players and the monsters. The Rogue would absolutely love it, and the others might rely on spells with saves (maybe the target rolls with advantage if it's a single target spell, to adjudicate accidentally targeting a reflection?) or buffing the Rogue (her Cleric friend/bodyguard would likely be tossing Bless on her anyway, or maybe just Spirit Guardians to keep the enemy opting for a ranged shootout). I'd probably neutralize the Druid's Faerie Fire, though, since a burning target would also have burning reflections.
Yeah, that's probably the best choice for it. A Deception-based "hide" action to blend into the reflections in the ice, or regular Stealth with Disadvantage. The Rogue has a Cloak of Elvenkind, so her Disadvantage would be countered by the cloak's Advantage, so she'd likely stick with Stealth (much better modifier), but the other characters could take advantage of it. I just need to broadcast the strategy as an option.
Fey seem like a good monster choice for this kind of location.
The quickling with it's fast movement could very quickly run around the maze and hide to confuse people
A hag like a bheur hag could use the mirrors to show off it's frightening ability to players while remaining hidden and could also use it's ice magic to manipulate the maze.
Another option is to use the shadow and modify it into a reflection as Tasha's suggests. They would do well in this environment because they could use their bonus action to hide using the fact they look like the players to hide among the non sentient reflections. A shape shifter like a doppelganger could similarly take advantage of looking like the players here.
Another direction is that monsters that emphasis sight like a beholder might also get across the hiding mechanic. It could be interesting to have a beholder blasting reflections or bouncing rays off walls.
Finally a wizard like a illusionist could also enjoy playing in a hall of mirrors.
Have fun with Critical Misses (Natural 1) on spells being cast - they reflect off of the shiny icy - and roll dx to actually reflect back and hit a party member. :)
Party member either hits someone near them (but only does half damage). So if a Paladin Critical Fails and rolls 10 damage, the Fighter standing next to him takes 5 damage as the Paladin miscalculates, and accidentally strikes his companion. Same with spells. :) It makes it fun because the players will scold one another (in character) "I am taking more damage from you than the hobgoblin!" :D
I'm getting ready for my group to fight a white dragon, and while looking through Fizban's I noticed the "Mirror Ice" regional effect. It gave me the idea to make the dragon's lair into a type of funhouse maze, where reflections bounce throughout. I'm wondering now what kind of cool features or mechanics could make this a memorable setting, and would love to hear your guys' thoughts on how to best develop it.
Here's what's coming to mind so far:
- Disadvantage on Stealth checks to hide, as mentioned in Fizban's.
- Spells that cast light will have greater effect or further range (double?).
- An effect similar to the mirror image spell, where you might be attacking a reflection instead of the actual opponent. How to resolve that mechanically, though? Perception rolls before each attack to see if they actually hit their target? That seems cumbersome, but I don't want it to be just a random roll of the dice for the mirror effect; more perceptive PCs should have some kind of advantage (and those with blindsight or truesight would be immune).
- Navigating the space will be tricky. Survival checks to successfully move through labyrinth sections? Ending up in a different part of the dungeon than intended?
- What kind of denizens would love this kind of set up? I'm leaning toward an adult oblex, just to add some madness to this mirror maze, but would there be anything better, or in addition to that?
As always, thanks in advance for your responses.
When people cast spells that blind or do radiant damage. I would either increase the damage and DC, give them a wider range, or make it so that there is about a 20% chance that the spell also targets another randomly determined target.
I would also say that mirror image effect makes sense but it might be difficult to figure out. Maybe everybody in there is under the effect of the spell, but that seems cumbersome. Maybe everyone just naturally has disadvantage on their attack rolls, but anybody who has a passive perception of 15 or higher can bypass this disadvantage.
I would suggest looking at the mirror zone table to find more ideas and things to use.
I think an animated breath would be good there, maybe a Minotaur has been trapped in the ice for a long time and has been trying to find its way out. (Use the goristro stats if you need one of a much higher level) That could also be a place that the white dragons hatchlings go to explore and play so they may come across those. Frost mephits and snow golems would also fit. An adult oblex also sounds like it would be a cool addition to the mirror ice labyrinth.
Increasing range, damage, and DCs on spells involving light, blindness, radiant damage, or similar effects make sense. I'll crunch some numbers.
I really like the mirror image idea too, as it calls on the classic trope of the heroes being surrounded by illusions of the enemy, but I'd love for the heroes to use it as well. The Disadvantage to attack rolls for anyone with <15 Passive Perception is intuitive and simple to apply, but between high Perception and a couple of blindsight magic items, that would only affect one PC, and they'd probably just rely on spells with saves, so that mechanic wouldn't have much effect. Maybe I'll just do a 11+ mirror image effect for everyone but just in one room/section, so it's not bogging down the whole session...
Ooh! I'd totally forgotten about the Mirror Zone table from Tasha's! I really like the idea of reflections stepping out from the walls to aid in attacks, or a PC's own reflection getting their attention to share information/secrets.
I've recently watched Annihilation and I'm feeling inspired. Weird things like animated breath, mephits, owlbears, and an oblex (I think I'll go elder) are perfect.
Thanks!
For determining whether you're looking at a character or their reflection, more perceptive characters might stop to notice things like which side the target's hair is parted on, the alignment of buttons on their shirt, whether some distinctive facial marking is on the correct side, which hand is holding their weapon, or which shoulder they carry their bag on. If there's a little bit of dust or snow being blown through the air, you could check whether the direction of its movement around the target is correct. Those could all be good "in character" ways to tell whether you're looking at a reflection or not. At that point, the question might be whether you have a clear enough view of them to see one of these "tells," or whether you can find one quickly enough to still act... which is where the die roll comes in.
This is all assuming that these are single reflections which appear "mirrored" from the way they should be. If the image is reflected off of 2 surfaces (or any even number of them), then the image appears "correct" again, which would make this less helpful.
Excellent and brilliant in-game descriptors. Out of combat, that's easy to resolve with a Perception check (passive or otherwise). What about in combat? I don't want to be making Perception rolls every turn...
Well, unless there are also magical effects or illusions, I would expect the reflections to only affect ranged combat. Maybe that's a case for using special magical effects like the Mirror Zone, if you really want to make it interesting. I'm not sure how you'd do that without adding rolls, though.
One rules-light option might be to allow characters to use the Hide action without disadvantage using Deception -- not for actually concealing themselves (which would still be at a disadvantage), but just imposing disadvantage on attacks against them until either they reveal their position (by attacking, casting a spell, etc.) or someone spots them just like locating a hidden creature. ("Hey, that's the real one over there!") Rogues would get the most out of that with Cunning Action, but I guess it might not be very useful to other classes unless there are also other ways to gain that benefit.
The only other thing that comes to mind, is that you could require that all attacks (or just all ranged attacks?) use Wisdom instead of their usual ability, or that anyone without proficiency in Perception only receives half of their proficiency bonus to attacks. The trouble is, players might think that's unfair, especially if they didn't realize what they were getting into in advance; added mechanical challenges in combat encounters are expected, but straight-up changing the attack mechanics might not be welcomed.
Tasha's has the Mirror Zone magical region which suggests a bunch of magical effects.
If you want something mundane and want the space to be disorienting I recommend working with the stealth mechanics
The hide mechanic means that creatures will be contesting passive perception with stealth rolls. You can even treat it in such a way that they can beat some players and not others the ones they beat with their stealth rolls will not know the creatures location and not be able to attack effectively.
As luck would have it, every single PC is proficient with Perception, some of them with a higher Perception modifier than their to-hit bonus, so I don't think they'd cry foul. The ones that don't have a higher Perception will have Blindsight (they're collecting dragon masks), so I was planning on having them be exempt from the effect.
But the more I think about it, requiring use of Wisdom/Perception instead doesn't make for a real challenge in this case. I'm much preferring the use of Deception to sort of "blend in" with your reflections and impose disadvantage unless they attack, kind of like an environmental blur effect. It's an active choice on the part of the players and the monsters. The Rogue would absolutely love it, and the others might rely on spells with saves (maybe the target rolls with advantage if it's a single target spell, to adjudicate accidentally targeting a reflection?) or buffing the Rogue (her Cleric friend/bodyguard would likely be tossing Bless on her anyway, or maybe just Spirit Guardians to keep the enemy opting for a ranged shootout). I'd probably neutralize the Druid's Faerie Fire, though, since a burning target would also have burning reflections.
Yeah, that's probably the best choice for it. A Deception-based "hide" action to blend into the reflections in the ice, or regular Stealth with Disadvantage. The Rogue has a Cloak of Elvenkind, so her Disadvantage would be countered by the cloak's Advantage, so she'd likely stick with Stealth (much better modifier), but the other characters could take advantage of it. I just need to broadcast the strategy as an option.
Fey seem like a good monster choice for this kind of location.
Another option is to use the shadow and modify it into a reflection as Tasha's suggests. They would do well in this environment because they could use their bonus action to hide using the fact they look like the players to hide among the non sentient reflections. A shape shifter like a doppelganger could similarly take advantage of looking like the players here.
Another direction is that monsters that emphasis sight like a beholder might also get across the hiding mechanic. It could be interesting to have a beholder blasting reflections or bouncing rays off walls.
Finally a wizard like a illusionist could also enjoy playing in a hall of mirrors.
Have fun with Critical Misses (Natural 1) on spells being cast - they reflect off of the shiny icy - and roll dx to actually reflect back and hit a party member. :)
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Ooh! That's wonderful!
I do this with all Critical Fails.
Party member either hits someone near them (but only does half damage). So if a Paladin Critical Fails and rolls 10 damage, the Fighter standing next to him takes 5 damage as the Paladin miscalculates, and accidentally strikes his companion. Same with spells. :) It makes it fun because the players will scold one another (in character) "I am taking more damage from you than the hobgoblin!" :D
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up