Hey all,

So my players are going to be setting out for a large homebrew dungeon I'm making, and I could use some advice on it. 

So the idea is it's a reawakened automaton forge that was built into the side of a mountain. Thier goal is to get to a large spire set deep inside of the forge. All the while this large ancient forge seems to be making automatons all on its own, these will be the primary enemies of the dungeon. Turns out the factory is being controlled by a large sentient magic core. 

What I need advice on is some fun gimmicks that would keep them interested. I the only loose idea I had is the the forge would obviously be pretty hot what with molten metal everywhere. I was thinking this would be a four floor dungeon and I don't just want it to be a fighting gauntlet.

Thanks!

I would think about what the automatons were originally supposed to do.  Don't just make them weapons of war, it is more fun if they are supposed to be other things and turned into monsters.

Basically I would have them fighting monsters that says things like "Time to wash the dishes!  Boy this is a large dish, better use some extra soap!"  and "Must bake the turkey.  Get in my oven, turkey."

Big machinery. If it's a massive self-working forge, then there's going to be equally massive moving parts. Maybe the dungeon doesn't have standard "traps" but instead has the literal bells and whistles of something like a huge clock. You don't even really need to explain what they're for in the context of the forge - just have huge bits of swinging, spinning, slicing, and other dangerous bits for the party to navigate. 

Perhaps there's a room with dozens of huge pendulums swinging across that the party needs to say traverse, or there's a section of flooring they can't reach without climbing up onto a few flights of massive spinning gears. 

A dungeon like this would get my ideas pumping for sure - make sure to have fun with it! And if you want to get weird with it, add some of the higher CR modrons from the recent Planescape book. 

Give each floor its own 'theme' that relates to the role it played in the operation when everything was fully functional

Maybe the top level was the Sales floor, the second was Detailing, the third was the Refinery and the final level the main Forge itself, something like that. As Mog suggested, the automatons and traps on each level could reflect their original purpose

The above suggestions should work well. "Automatons" leaves a good range for interpretation. There would likely be all sorts of them to encounter. Mechanical sweepers and forge feeders, ore loaders and gate/door wardens, bellows and slag skimmers, and of course actual guards and forge tenders. I like the idea of the internal workings acting as obstacles or traps to be overcome...a locked door that requires a password or combination, ore shunts with walls that sweep everything into them, leaky pipes that randomly drip boiling water or molten metal....sensors that mistake fully armored players as slabs of ore to be collected and dumped into the furnace....so much chaos and fun to be had!

Thanks for the awesome ideas everyone! 

They find the original workshop and pieces of a protype. If you put the pieces together (mend cantrip is the easiest way or you have to make repeated arcana checks for various pieces) and awaken the prototype (A1), who is not under the dungeon's control and gives you whatever information you need and maybe a magic item. He won't leave the workshop. He explodes if attacked causing damage to the party, destroying the room, and setting off an alarm that brings the enemy contracts.

I wd add some conveyor belts that force movement. Perhaps a few molten hot furnaces, as well as a few scrapper automatons that want to "recycle" the party members since they do not fit within the parameters of a "good product."

Also, for future reference, this kind of post is better put in the DM's Only section of this site so that your players are less likely to see it.