I'm having an event next month and we are going to do a level 10 one shot. I'm looking for ideas/adventures that anyone may have as reference or to use that involve a good amount of combat and would be paced well enough to finish in one session. I've done some looking online already, mostly at https://merricb.com/dungeons-dragons-5e-adventures-by-level/ but I haven't found anything yet that really fits the bill.
Google "One page dungeon." It's a repository of several years worth of one-shot dungeon ideas. Not all of them are very good, but I've gathered about 20 or so that are just truly inspired.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
My suggestion is to find a way to somehow use all of the party's resources in just a few hours, and that should NEVER be just one long drawn out slog fight/crawl.
Make a well that the spellcasters have to dump dozens of spell slots into together, or a well that needs blood (hp) from the fighters in the party. Find a reason the party would feel the need to fuel the altar, and a growing threat that they have to deal with while they pool their resources into it.
Example, the party is told to investigate a dungeon, The session starts with the party having the door shut behind them and lock them in some kind of death trap. The party makes their way out, (prepare for their teleportation, terrain destruction, and other shenanigans as they try to escape) and end up triggering some kind of unexpected fall or warp into another older dungeon that the person who tricked the party didn't know about. So, party locked in room filling with sand, but their struggling/praying brings about an earthquake that drops everyone into a deep dark dungeon, trapped yet again. This sub-dungeon is where the adventure really starts after the initial freak-out. The party wanders around until they find the altar, and have to use clues from the surrounding rooms to find out that it can enable them to escape (possibly one free party teleport to anywhere they want) but it needs either mana or blood to function. While looking for clues, they trigger a deep terrifying danger. A flood of skeletons, a creeping super ooze, a mind-flayer and its thralls, or even an eldritch god speaking through some horrible aberration. (One beholder and a few small minions might be enough to challenge them after they start dumping resources into the altar) Make sure they already start weakening themselves with the altar before the fight starts, it is ONLY a fight of ATTRITION, let them feel that if teh fight is drawn out, they will lose, but they may also lose if they stab themselves too hard before the portal can open. Ooh, it should be a planar gate...
Cool ideas, thank you for the feedback! It's going to be interested because of our party comp, Barbarian, Warlock, Wizard, Fig/Cle, and one yet to be determined. Group is very light on healing.
I'm having an event next month and we are going to do a level 10 one shot. I'm looking for ideas/adventures that anyone may have as reference or to use that involve a good amount of combat and would be paced well enough to finish in one session. I've done some looking online already, mostly at https://merricb.com/dungeons-dragons-5e-adventures-by-level/ but I haven't found anything yet that really fits the bill.
Google "One page dungeon." It's a repository of several years worth of one-shot dungeon ideas. Not all of them are very good, but I've gathered about 20 or so that are just truly inspired.
My suggestion is to find a way to somehow use all of the party's resources in just a few hours, and that should NEVER be just one long drawn out slog fight/crawl.
Make a well that the spellcasters have to dump dozens of spell slots into together, or a well that needs blood (hp) from the fighters in the party. Find a reason the party would feel the need to fuel the altar, and a growing threat that they have to deal with while they pool their resources into it.
Example, the party is told to investigate a dungeon, The session starts with the party having the door shut behind them and lock them in some kind of death trap. The party makes their way out, (prepare for their teleportation, terrain destruction, and other shenanigans as they try to escape) and end up triggering some kind of unexpected fall or warp into another older dungeon that the person who tricked the party didn't know about. So, party locked in room filling with sand, but their struggling/praying brings about an earthquake that drops everyone into a deep dark dungeon, trapped yet again. This sub-dungeon is where the adventure really starts after the initial freak-out. The party wanders around until they find the altar, and have to use clues from the surrounding rooms to find out that it can enable them to escape (possibly one free party teleport to anywhere they want) but it needs either mana or blood to function. While looking for clues, they trigger a deep terrifying danger. A flood of skeletons, a creeping super ooze, a mind-flayer and its thralls, or even an eldritch god speaking through some horrible aberration. (One beholder and a few small minions might be enough to challenge them after they start dumping resources into the altar)
Make sure they already start weakening themselves with the altar before the fight starts, it is ONLY a fight of ATTRITION, let them feel that if teh fight is drawn out, they will lose, but they may also lose if they stab themselves too hard before the portal can open. Ooh, it should be a planar gate...
Cool ideas, thank you for the feedback! It's going to be interested because of our party comp, Barbarian, Warlock, Wizard, Fig/Cle, and one yet to be determined. Group is very light on healing.
bloodletting then. Glhf!