My group really enjoys puzzles. I've gone with a logic puzzle to mixed success and a crossword puzzle dungeon to... well I thought it was bad.
I'd really enjoy having puzzles inside of combat, with enemy weaknesses or some quirk that they have to fulfill to access their abilities.
Some things I've thought of: A headless horseman kind of deal where so long as he uses his full movement speed he has a higher AC against either melee or magical attacks. Something like that.
A combat with different colored enemies that have to be on certain color squares before they can be damaged. If not on their colors, attacks phase through them. Maybe magic still works?
I'm also a fan of strategic fights where when certain actions are taken by the party, the enemy gets to react. As in, if hit by a magical attack, the enemy can redirect it as a reaction. Separately, if hit by a melee attack, enemy is able to react and strike back; enemy doesn't get an extra attack if hit at range.
I think it'd be really fun to see the party react to these unexpected situations and how they solve the problems. It's especially important to me to make combat challenging in ways other than just big numbers of monsters because my party is so magical and heal-heavy. They don't have the best strategy but they more than make up for it in HP.
So if anyone has any good ideas for combat to make it more interesting or puzzle-like, I'm all ears. Thanks.
I read something a while back about a Combat Encounter where there were (number of party members) - 1 colored runes on the floor. If you were standing on a rune, you didn’t take damage from some kind of environmental effect. So the party is forced to play musical chairs on these runes and they have to juggle positioning to spread the damage out.
This is a good beginning concept for some interesting effects. Imagine all the cases where having the party positioned a very specific way would be to the bad guy’s advantage.
Perhaps the party is fighting in a lair of some monster with a line or cone effect attack. Put the runes in a line or cone so they stand where the monster can maximize doing damage to the most number of targets.
If your party has a lot of melee users, spreading these safe zones out means they suddenly can’t all be fully efficient in their damage output.
2) Idea 2
Add other objectives besides staying alive to the combat encounter. Maybe the party not only has to survive but they also have to save an NPC or catch an enemy with a special item. I’ve seen plenty of advice before on dilemma scenarios- encounters where you have to choose between saving an NPC and letting the bad guy get away and staying alive. Make it so it’s only possible to do one of those things.
There’s some more work on these ideas for sure, but hopefully this is a start.
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"Random chance plays a huge part in everybody's life." - Gary Gygax
One of the PCs get trapped in a room with a table and chair. On the table is a chess board. There is no way out and the player has to play a game of chess (maybe pick a player who knows how to play chess to be the one trapped in the room).
Meanwhile back with the other players, who are in a larger room, with a checkerboard floor and various statues on certain squares. They notice that every so often a statue will animate and move to a certain square before becoming dormant again. The statues on the far side of the room are of different monsters. There are less statues on the players side of the room and they are of knights and other noble creatures of good.
Whenever the trapped player makes a move one of the good statues moves against an enemy statue of a monster. And whenever the trapped player's ghostly opponent makes a move then one of the monster statues moves against the good statues or the other players.
The goal isn't necessarily to win but to get the enemy King to move away from a door it is blocking... when this happens the game of chess ends and the ghostly image thanks the trapped player, a secret door opens and he is free to rejoin the others... they can also leave through the door behind the King to the next room/hallway etc.
One of the PCs get trapped in a room with a table and chair. On the table is a chess board. There is no way out and the player has to play a game of chess (maybe pick a player who knows how to play chess to be the one trapped in the room).
Meanwhile back with the other players, who are in a larger room, with a checkerboard floor and various statues on certain squares. They notice that every so often a statue will animate and move to a certain square before becoming dormant again. The statues on the far side of the room are of different monsters. There are less statues on the players side of the room and they are of knights and other noble creatures of good.
Whenever the trapped player makes a move one of the good statues moves against an enemy statue of a monster. And whenever the trapped player's ghostly opponent makes a move then one of the monster statues moves against the good statues or the other players.
The goal isn't necessarily to win but to get the enemy King to move away from a door it is blocking... when this happens the game of chess ends and the ghostly image thanks the trapped player, a secret door opens and he is free to rejoin the others... they can also leave through the door behind the King to the next room/hallway etc.
I love this idea a lot!
An idea I have is for a room in which the PC's end up battling elementals. On the floor of the room is a circle divided into four, each quarter having an elemental symbol for either ;earth' 'fire' 'air' or 'water' either written in primordial or in the language of the place they are in (depending on your PC's party make up/how easy you want to make it for them at the start). The group are attacked by elementals and standing on the 'fire' section they either gain resistance/immunity/vulnerability to that damage.
I offer the three because changing how easy it is for them to read the symbols, deciding what kind of elemental creatures and how many of them there are can change the shape of the fight. Also if there is only enough room for two party members to stand in any of the quarters of the circle they would have to decide who gets the resistance/immunity etc (if vulnerability is your desired direction then once they have worked that out they will avoid those sections, unless you have some kind of push effect to force them into it.
Or perhaps each quarter offers a different option of immunity, vulnerability, resistance but then you will have a lot to keep track of :S
You can play around with what the circle does, how much of the floor space it covers, what is in the room that attacks the PC's that would interact with the circle (from creatures to traps that spray them with fire etc) & then of course what they get out of it. Perhaps a set of four 'elemental keys' that are needed to open a door to 'X' ?
I made an effective combat puzzle in the DM Training Ground, which consisted of a tilting floor which had to be tilted to access levers, which had to be pulled to open the door. The floor wouldn't tilt on its own - there was a huge animated stone statue in the middle, which had to be baited into moving around the room to tilt it.
One thing I've heard someone on here mention a couple of times, which I am planning on implementing, is the "deep breath". Basically, a monster which has to charge its ability for a turn. Gives the party one turn to avoid being in range or sight of the monster, before it releases a powerful attack - sort of inspired by old school sidescroller/topscrolled games where the final boss had a cycle of repetitive attacks to go through, so you had to learn when to attack and when to dodge. Good for teaching players to do more than try to inflict maximum damage each turn!
I also like to bake reactions into my monsters for the added puzzle. I have one which creates a vacuum around itself, and as a reaction, it can forgoe an attack of opportunity to wait until the creature finishes moving, then pounce on it. It's a playful eel-elemental creature called a Pressure Weird, and is just trying to play - but the vacuum around it causes things to die, rather than play! This became a puzzle for the party, as they didn't want to kill it, so they ended up throwing shiny things to move it away. Moving slowly didn't provoke it's curiosity, so they could have just crept away. Unfortunately, one player forgot and walked away at full speed, and the whole thing started again!
The trapped player looks around the room and realizes there is no way out. He decides to inspect the chessboard on the table and sees that the pieces are set up for a classic game of chess. After a few moments of contemplation, he decides to make his first move.
As soon as he makes a move, one of the good statues on the checkerboard floor moves against an enemy statue of a monster. The other players in the larger room notice this and realize that the game of chess is connected to the statues.
The trapped player focuses on the game of chess, trying to think a few moves ahead and anticipating what his ghostly opponent might do. Every time he makes a move, a good statue on the checkerboard floor moves against an enemy monster statue. As the game progresses, the other players notice that the enemy King is slowly making his way towards a door in the corner of the room.
The trapped player becomes more and more engrossed in the game, knowing that he has to keep his opponent at bay and prevent the King from blocking the door any further. He makes some bold moves, sacrificing pieces to gain an advantage, and is rewarded with a lucky break when his opponent makes a critical error.
As the enemy King finally moves away from the door, the game of chess ends and the ghostly image of his opponent thanks him before disappearing. The secret door opens, and the trapped player is free to rejoin the others. The group then moves through the door behind the King, leading to the next room or hallway.
My group really enjoys puzzles. I've gone with a logic puzzle to mixed success and a crossword puzzle dungeon to... well I thought it was bad.
I'd really enjoy having puzzles inside of combat, with enemy weaknesses or some quirk that they have to fulfill to access their abilities.
Some things I've thought of: A headless horseman kind of deal where so long as he uses his full movement speed he has a higher AC against either melee or magical attacks. Something like that.
A combat with different colored enemies that have to be on certain color squares before they can be damaged. If not on their colors, attacks phase through them. Maybe magic still works?
I'm also a fan of strategic fights where when certain actions are taken by the party, the enemy gets to react. As in, if hit by a magical attack, the enemy can redirect it as a reaction. Separately, if hit by a melee attack, enemy is able to react and strike back; enemy doesn't get an extra attack if hit at range.
I think it'd be really fun to see the party react to these unexpected situations and how they solve the problems. It's especially important to me to make combat challenging in ways other than just big numbers of monsters because my party is so magical and heal-heavy. They don't have the best strategy but they more than make up for it in HP.
So if anyone has any good ideas for combat to make it more interesting or puzzle-like, I'm all ears. Thanks.
1) Idea 1
I read something a while back about a Combat Encounter where there were (number of party members) - 1 colored runes on the floor. If you were standing on a rune, you didn’t take damage from some kind of environmental effect. So the party is forced to play musical chairs on these runes and they have to juggle positioning to spread the damage out.
This is a good beginning concept for some interesting effects. Imagine all the cases where having the party positioned a very specific way would be to the bad guy’s advantage.
Perhaps the party is fighting in a lair of some monster with a line or cone effect attack. Put the runes in a line or cone so they stand where the monster can maximize doing damage to the most number of targets.
If your party has a lot of melee users, spreading these safe zones out means they suddenly can’t all be fully efficient in their damage output.
2) Idea 2
Add other objectives besides staying alive to the combat encounter. Maybe the party not only has to survive but they also have to save an NPC or catch an enemy with a special item. I’ve seen plenty of advice before on dilemma scenarios- encounters where you have to choose between saving an NPC and letting the bad guy get away and staying alive. Make it so it’s only possible to do one of those things.
There’s some more work on these ideas for sure, but hopefully this is a start.
"Random chance plays a huge part in everybody's life." - Gary Gygax
One of the PCs get trapped in a room with a table and chair. On the table is a chess board. There is no way out and the player has to play a game of chess (maybe pick a player who knows how to play chess to be the one trapped in the room).
Meanwhile back with the other players, who are in a larger room, with a checkerboard floor and various statues on certain squares. They notice that every so often a statue will animate and move to a certain square before becoming dormant again. The statues on the far side of the room are of different monsters. There are less statues on the players side of the room and they are of knights and other noble creatures of good.
Whenever the trapped player makes a move one of the good statues moves against an enemy statue of a monster. And whenever the trapped player's ghostly opponent makes a move then one of the monster statues moves against the good statues or the other players.
The goal isn't necessarily to win but to get the enemy King to move away from a door it is blocking... when this happens the game of chess ends and the ghostly image thanks the trapped player, a secret door opens and he is free to rejoin the others... they can also leave through the door behind the King to the next room/hallway etc.
I love this idea a lot!
An idea I have is for a room in which the PC's end up battling elementals. On the floor of the room is a circle divided into four, each quarter having an elemental symbol for either ;earth' 'fire' 'air' or 'water' either written in primordial or in the language of the place they are in (depending on your PC's party make up/how easy you want to make it for them at the start). The group are attacked by elementals and standing on the 'fire' section they either gain resistance/immunity/vulnerability to that damage.
I offer the three because changing how easy it is for them to read the symbols, deciding what kind of elemental creatures and how many of them there are can change the shape of the fight. Also if there is only enough room for two party members to stand in any of the quarters of the circle they would have to decide who gets the resistance/immunity etc (if vulnerability is your desired direction then once they have worked that out they will avoid those sections, unless you have some kind of push effect to force them into it.
Or perhaps each quarter offers a different option of immunity, vulnerability, resistance but then you will have a lot to keep track of :S
You can play around with what the circle does, how much of the floor space it covers, what is in the room that attacks the PC's that would interact with the circle (from creatures to traps that spray them with fire etc) & then of course what they get out of it. Perhaps a set of four 'elemental keys' that are needed to open a door to 'X' ?
I ran a really cool combat puzzle recently. It works best for mid to high level characters.
Pathfinder - D&D Combat Puzzle for your Game - The Adaptor - Wally DM
I made an effective combat puzzle in the DM Training Ground, which consisted of a tilting floor which had to be tilted to access levers, which had to be pulled to open the door. The floor wouldn't tilt on its own - there was a huge animated stone statue in the middle, which had to be baited into moving around the room to tilt it.
One thing I've heard someone on here mention a couple of times, which I am planning on implementing, is the "deep breath". Basically, a monster which has to charge its ability for a turn. Gives the party one turn to avoid being in range or sight of the monster, before it releases a powerful attack - sort of inspired by old school sidescroller/topscrolled games where the final boss had a cycle of repetitive attacks to go through, so you had to learn when to attack and when to dodge. Good for teaching players to do more than try to inflict maximum damage each turn!
I also like to bake reactions into my monsters for the added puzzle. I have one which creates a vacuum around itself, and as a reaction, it can forgoe an attack of opportunity to wait until the creature finishes moving, then pounce on it. It's a playful eel-elemental creature called a Pressure Weird, and is just trying to play - but the vacuum around it causes things to die, rather than play! This became a puzzle for the party, as they didn't want to kill it, so they ended up throwing shiny things to move it away. Moving slowly didn't provoke it's curiosity, so they could have just crept away. Unfortunately, one player forgot and walked away at full speed, and the whole thing started again!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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The trapped player looks around the room and realizes there is no way out. He decides to inspect the chessboard on the table and sees that the pieces are set up for a classic game of chess. After a few moments of contemplation, he decides to make his first move.
As soon as he makes a move, one of the good statues on the checkerboard floor moves against an enemy statue of a monster. The other players in the larger room notice this and realize that the game of chess is connected to the statues.
The trapped player focuses on the game of chess, trying to think a few moves ahead and anticipating what his ghostly opponent might do. Every time he makes a move, a good statue on the checkerboard floor moves against an enemy monster statue. As the game progresses, the other players notice that the enemy King is slowly making his way towards a door in the corner of the room.
The trapped player becomes more and more engrossed in the game, knowing that he has to keep his opponent at bay and prevent the King from blocking the door any further. He makes some bold moves, sacrificing pieces to gain an advantage, and is rewarded with a lucky break when his opponent makes a critical error.
As the enemy King finally moves away from the door, the game of chess ends and the ghostly image of his opponent thanks him before disappearing. The secret door opens, and the trapped player is free to rejoin the others. The group then moves through the door behind the King, leading to the next room or hallway.
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