I play with a group of seasoned players and I want to throw some unconventional combat problems for them. With that in mind, how do you pull of the following actions within the rules? Or add your own! I need more ideas!
Situation #1 While the players are engaged with a group of bads, I want to have a rope tied to a carriage with 4 horses, and 2 more bads. One bad is the driver, one bad uses the rope to lasso a player on the battlefield, then the driver whips the horses to a gallop. I feel this would really change the direction of the combat.
Situation#2 Kick dirt in a characters eyes: If a player gets knocked prone, how difficult would it be to kick dirt in the characters eyes? Would the character get full blindness/Disadvantage on attacks or some other penalty?
Situation #3 Put a necklace of fireballs on a friendly NPC thats about to go off, figure the party has like 3 rounds to notice the item, and remove it. How to time delay and or trigger it after a few rounds. I guess I could just go with lit dynamite.
Situation #4 Cause an avalanche: players have to contend with a battle and the avalanche. Or the threat of an avalanche if the battle gets too rowdy.
Situation #5 Bad guys reposition a character: Get a row of fighters to pull a player character into their line of defense, then keep the rest of the players from getting to that player character while the bads back lines kick its butt.
Situation #6 A reverse gravity land mine: Is there a way to set a spell to trigger on a device or area when a specific action happens?
Situation #7 Kick someone down stairs or off a cliff.
Situation #8 In a feild of lava flows, fling lava at the players. How much damage? How do you fling it?
What combat tactics and problems do you have in waiting for your players?
"With that in mind, how do you pull of the following actions within the rules?"
The DM isn't beholden to "rules" the way that players are. Give your combat legendary actions and lair actions. Balance the effects as though they were traps and then dress them appropriately for the encounter. Designate triggers and consequences, whether that trigger is a monster action, or an hour glass draining.
Monsters have tons of abilities that the players don't have access to, and that doesn't need to be explained. If you want someone to fling lava, then start by deciding how much damage you want to do and then decide what that should look like.
Situation #1 While the players are engaged with a group of bads, I want to have a rope tied to a carriage with 4 horses, and 2 more bads. One bad is the driver, one bad uses the rope to lasso a player on the battlefield, then the driver whips the horses to a gallop. I feel this would really change the direction of the combat.
Create one custom "carriage" monster that has a trample, ranged grapple attack, and then a drag attack contingent on a grapple. At half hit points, it loses the ranged grapple and drag (regardless of which of the two are killed, because the grappler will just hop in the driver seat). No attacking mounts, the driver is skilled enough that that attacks aimed at the mounts are redirected towards carriage monsters AC, like a PC with mounted combat.
Or, use the Ghosts of Saltmarsh vehicle rules to get at the same thing. I'm not real familiar with them, but I think ships have subsystems with their own AC and HP etc.
Situation#2 Kick dirt in a characters eyes: If a player gets knocked prone, how difficult would it be to kick dirt in the characters eyes? Would the character get full blindness/Disadvantage on attacks or some other penalty?
Sure, maybe have them kick dirt to replace one of their melee attacks, and the prone player needs to make a Dexterity or Constitution save (their choice) against DC 12 or 14 or the kickers Acrobatics roll or something, to avoid Blinded until the end of the kicker's next turn.
Situation #3 Put a necklace of fireballs on a friendly NPC thats about to go off, figure the party has like 3 rounds to notice the item, and remove it. How to time delay and or trigger it after a few rounds. I guess I could just go with lit dynamite.
Maybe have it explode on a 20 in round 1, 19 or 20 in round 2, 18, 19, or 20 in round 3, etc..... while the party is tasked to rack up 3 successes before 3 failures on some reasonable DC skill checks with Sleight of Hand, Arcana, Persuade, Investigation, etc... Yup, you read it right, 4E skill challenge time! If (when) it explodes, everyone saves vs the necklace as normal, but with 2d6 less dice or whatever for each passed check, and 1d6 less for each attempted but failed check, or something (I don't know what the necklace's total, you get the idea).
Situation #4 Cause an avalanche: players have to contend with a battle and the avalanche. Or the threat of an avalanche if the battle gets too rowdy.
Situation #5 Bad guys reposition a character: Get a row of fighters to pull a player character into their line of defense, then keep the rest of the players from getting to that player character while the bads back lines kick its butt.
Yeah, that's a good one. Consider having a plan for a houserule to "push through" or "push aside" enemies, because otherwise a red-rover line of kobolds can hold back an raging minotaur from ever breaking through. Probably just opposed Shove checks as normal, but with the option to move through someone's space on a success (as difficult terrain) rather than moving them or knocking them prone. There's a Battlemaster maneuver, "Bait and Switch", that can probably inspire you to write a similar enemy action they can use on players they hit, to set up them pulling them into the mob of death.
Situation #6 A reverse gravity land mine: Is there a way to set a spell to trigger on a device or area when a specific action happens?
Situation #7 Kick someone down stairs or off a cliff.
That's just falling. , but decide which version you want to use. I'd say that stairs are probably difficult terrain, and if you are knocked Prone on them or pushed 5 feet, you fall to the bottom of them and take falling damage as normal.
Situation #8 In a field of lava flows, fling lava at the players. How much damage? How do you fling it?
I believe that lava is "A creature takes 6d10 fire damage when it enters lava for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there," but that could be different from book to book? Probably wouldn't do that much for a gob of lava that hits the player though, maybe just treat it like Fire Bolt or something.
For number one. A to hit roll to lasso, then a grapple check. If player loses, bad guy is grappling them, follow rules for grappling, but allow the character (or someone else) to break it by cutting the rope.
No. 2 dex save or blinded for one round.
Edit: Well, not only did chickenchamp ninja me, he was far more comprehensive. You win this round, chickenchamp.
Just be aware that once you do this to the players, the players can do it back and they might end up kicking dirt in faces and lassoing and dragging all your monsters around.
The ideal is to balance unconventional options so they are situationally superior. If they are too good, the PCs will use them all the time as will any moderately intelligent creatures, making them no longer unconventional or interesting. If they aren't good enough, they put the character using them at an effective disadvantage. If you get the balance just right, the character using it will benefit when the options are appropriate and/or unexpected, but will be at a disadvantage if they use them the rest of the time.
Situation#2 Kick dirt in a characters eyes: If a player gets knocked prone, how difficult would it be to kick dirt in the characters eyes? Would the character get full blindness/Disadvantage on attacks or some other penalty?
For this situation you can use The Sandscreen combat stunt written by James Haeck:
Another tactic I used to devastating success in the past (So I wont be using it again, but feel free to use it), I had a tunnel slope down into a Zone of Bad Air (Trap DC 4 I think). Think gas pocket underground. When the players reach the bottom, 4 Armored Skeletons run down a slope on the other side and attack. This keeps the party at the bottom of the slope IN the zone of bad air (Which requires a perception check to notice and causes con saves vs pass out). At the same time the 4 skeletons come down, one runs away from the fight with the with the command of "Run back to base, and hit your weapon against your shield (Sounding an alarm folks have triggered the ambush and are on the way). On the second round, a Flaming Skeleton at the top of the other side of the slope runs down, igniting the zone of bad air. The results were a near TPK, the zone of bad air can cause folks to pass out, the 2nd round flaming skeleton, causing an explosion was like 10d6 damage, the following rounds were devoid of oxygen. 1 player managed to stay up, and dragged each party member up the other side of the slope.
Situation#2 Kick dirt in a characters eyes: If a player gets knocked prone, how difficult would it be to kick dirt in the characters eyes? Would the character get full blindness/Disadvantage on attacks or some other penalty?
Sure, maybe have them kick dirt to replace one of their melee attacks, and the prone player needs to make a Dexterity or Constitution save (their choice) against DC 12 or 14 or the kickers Acrobatics roll or something, to avoid Blinded until the end of the kicker's next turn.
On further reflection, this was way too strong. Blinded is a crazy condition, since it:
Gives all attacks (ranged and melee) advantage against the creature
Gives the creature disadvantage on all attacks against everyone
Entirely prevents the creature from casting any spell that requires a target they can "see"
Entirely prevents the creature from making any Opportunity Attacks
Allows characters to Hide from the creature without needing to find any concealment or cover
Gives attacks from within 5 feet advantage against the creature, but melee (reach) and ranged attacks from further than 5 feet have disadvantage
Gives the creature disadvantage on all attacks against everyone
Creature moves at half speed (crawling)
Creature can stand to end the condition, by using half its movement
Prone gives some of the team a boost against an enemy on the team's turn, but the enemy can easily end the condition at the start of their own turn... and even if they don't, it may not significantly change their turn options. Blinded is.... a lot more disruptive, and letting a player inflict Blinded at all, let alone have it last through the enemy's turn and the player's own next turn... that's too much.
So, don't use the system I first spit-balled, walk that one back QUITE a bit or your players are going to kick sand in every fight! :p
I would just do 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 as homebrew monster powers. Your creatures can do whatever they want. They are not beholden to any spell list or the actions listed in the PHB. They can do other stuff that only a lifetime of monstering can teach. One of the ways I telegraph to my players that a given monster is particularly badass is by having it cast a spell they all know that breaks at least one restriction given in the spell description.
The trick is just to get a feel for balancing these things so you can threaten the party without steamrolling them. For example, Here's Dirt in You Eye could cause the Blinded condition, but it only targets a prone PC, and it might only recharge on a roll of 6. Tossing lava might not do the "official lava damage" but rather something more appropriate to a ranged attack of that level/CR. And so forth.
I play with a group of seasoned players and I want to throw some unconventional combat problems for them. With that in mind, how do you pull of the following actions within the rules? Or add your own! I need more ideas!
Situation #1 While the players are engaged with a group of bads, I want to have a rope tied to a carriage with 4 horses, and 2 more bads. One bad is the driver, one bad uses the rope to lasso a player on the battlefield, then the driver whips the horses to a gallop. I feel this would really change the direction of the combat.
Situation#2 Kick dirt in a characters eyes: If a player gets knocked prone, how difficult would it be to kick dirt in the characters eyes? Would the character get full blindness/Disadvantage on attacks or some other penalty?
Situation #3 Put a necklace of fireballs on a friendly NPC thats about to go off, figure the party has like 3 rounds to notice the item, and remove it. How to time delay and or trigger it after a few rounds. I guess I could just go with lit dynamite.
Situation #4 Cause an avalanche: players have to contend with a battle and the avalanche. Or the threat of an avalanche if the battle gets too rowdy.
Situation #5 Bad guys reposition a character: Get a row of fighters to pull a player character into their line of defense, then keep the rest of the players from getting to that player character while the bads back lines kick its butt.
Situation #6 A reverse gravity land mine: Is there a way to set a spell to trigger on a device or area when a specific action happens?
Situation #7 Kick someone down stairs or off a cliff.
Situation #8 In a feild of lava flows, fling lava at the players. How much damage? How do you fling it?
What combat tactics and problems do you have in waiting for your players?
"With that in mind, how do you pull of the following actions within the rules?"
The DM isn't beholden to "rules" the way that players are. Give your combat legendary actions and lair actions. Balance the effects as though they were traps and then dress them appropriately for the encounter. Designate triggers and consequences, whether that trigger is a monster action, or an hour glass draining.
Monsters have tons of abilities that the players don't have access to, and that doesn't need to be explained. If you want someone to fling lava, then start by deciding how much damage you want to do and then decide what that should look like.
Create one custom "carriage" monster that has a trample, ranged grapple attack, and then a drag attack contingent on a grapple. At half hit points, it loses the ranged grapple and drag (regardless of which of the two are killed, because the grappler will just hop in the driver seat). No attacking mounts, the driver is skilled enough that that attacks aimed at the mounts are redirected towards carriage monsters AC, like a PC with mounted combat.
Or, use the Ghosts of Saltmarsh vehicle rules to get at the same thing. I'm not real familiar with them, but I think ships have subsystems with their own AC and HP etc.
Sure, maybe have them kick dirt to replace one of their melee attacks, and the prone player needs to make a Dexterity or Constitution save (their choice) against DC 12 or 14 or the kickers Acrobatics roll or something, to avoid Blinded until the end of the kicker's next turn.
Maybe have it explode on a 20 in round 1, 19 or 20 in round 2, 18, 19, or 20 in round 3, etc..... while the party is tasked to rack up 3 successes before 3 failures on some reasonable DC skill checks with Sleight of Hand, Arcana, Persuade, Investigation, etc... Yup, you read it right, 4E skill challenge time! If (when) it explodes, everyone saves vs the necklace as normal, but with 2d6 less dice or whatever for each passed check, and 1d6 less for each attempted but failed check, or something (I don't know what the necklace's total, you get the idea).
See Icewind Dale for avalanche rules.
Yeah, that's a good one. Consider having a plan for a houserule to "push through" or "push aside" enemies, because otherwise a red-rover line of kobolds can hold back an raging minotaur from ever breaking through. Probably just opposed Shove checks as normal, but with the option to move through someone's space on a success (as difficult terrain) rather than moving them or knocking them prone. There's a Battlemaster maneuver, "Bait and Switch", that can probably inspire you to write a similar enemy action they can use on players they hit, to set up them pulling them into the mob of death.
Glyph of Warding + the spell that you want to go off.
That's just falling. , but decide which version you want to use. I'd say that stairs are probably difficult terrain, and if you are knocked Prone on them or pushed 5 feet, you fall to the bottom of them and take falling damage as normal.
I believe that lava is "A creature takes 6d10 fire damage when it enters lava for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there," but that could be different from book to book? Probably wouldn't do that much for a gob of lava that hits the player though, maybe just treat it like Fire Bolt or something.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
For number one. A to hit roll to lasso, then a grapple check. If player loses, bad guy is grappling them, follow rules for grappling, but allow the character (or someone else) to break it by cutting the rope.
No. 2 dex save or blinded for one round.
Edit: Well, not only did chickenchamp ninja me, he was far more comprehensive. You win this round, chickenchamp.
Absolute aces Champ. I am new to 5th ed and all the references are very helpful. Much appreciated!
Just be aware that once you do this to the players, the players can do it back and they might end up kicking dirt in faces and lassoing and dragging all your monsters around.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
The ideal is to balance unconventional options so they are situationally superior. If they are too good, the PCs will use them all the time as will any moderately intelligent creatures, making them no longer unconventional or interesting. If they aren't good enough, they put the character using them at an effective disadvantage. If you get the balance just right, the character using it will benefit when the options are appropriate and/or unexpected, but will be at a disadvantage if they use them the rest of the time.
For this situation you can use The Sandscreen combat stunt written by James Haeck:
Combat Stunts
Another tactic I used to devastating success in the past (So I wont be using it again, but feel free to use it), I had a tunnel slope down into a Zone of Bad Air (Trap DC 4 I think). Think gas pocket underground. When the players reach the bottom, 4 Armored Skeletons run down a slope on the other side and attack. This keeps the party at the bottom of the slope IN the zone of bad air (Which requires a perception check to notice and causes con saves vs pass out). At the same time the 4 skeletons come down, one runs away from the fight with the with the command of "Run back to base, and hit your weapon against your shield (Sounding an alarm folks have triggered the ambush and are on the way). On the second round, a Flaming Skeleton at the top of the other side of the slope runs down, igniting the zone of bad air. The results were a near TPK, the zone of bad air can cause folks to pass out, the 2nd round flaming skeleton, causing an explosion was like 10d6 damage, the following rounds were devoid of oxygen. 1 player managed to stay up, and dragged each party member up the other side of the slope.
On further reflection, this was way too strong. Blinded is a crazy condition, since it:
Compare to Prone, which:
Prone gives some of the team a boost against an enemy on the team's turn, but the enemy can easily end the condition at the start of their own turn... and even if they don't, it may not significantly change their turn options. Blinded is.... a lot more disruptive, and letting a player inflict Blinded at all, let alone have it last through the enemy's turn and the player's own next turn... that's too much.
So, don't use the system I first spit-balled, walk that one back QUITE a bit or your players are going to kick sand in every fight! :p
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I would just do 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 as homebrew monster powers. Your creatures can do whatever they want. They are not beholden to any spell list or the actions listed in the PHB. They can do other stuff that only a lifetime of monstering can teach. One of the ways I telegraph to my players that a given monster is particularly badass is by having it cast a spell they all know that breaks at least one restriction given in the spell description.
The trick is just to get a feel for balancing these things so you can threaten the party without steamrolling them. For example, Here's Dirt in You Eye could cause the Blinded condition, but it only targets a prone PC, and it might only recharge on a roll of 6. Tossing lava might not do the "official lava damage" but rather something more appropriate to a ranged attack of that level/CR. And so forth.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm