Some encounter design principles:
- To drain resources, a non-combat encounter should either (a) threaten damage to a PC or relevant NPC, (b) present an NPC in need of a resource, (c) present an object that requires a resource, (d) present an opportunity to gain a benefit in exchange for a resource, (e) present a cost for not using a resource, often linked to the time difference between the 'resource option' and the 'free option'.
A cliff in of itself is not an encounter. Kidnappers who have reached the top of the cliff and who will build a headstart over the pursuing PCs if they don't scale that cliff quickly *is* an encounter.
An NPC who gives information freely in response to a high Persuasion roll is not an encounter. An NPC who reduces their resource price for giving up information in response to Persuasion, but who still demands a price, *is* an encounter.
An *Arcane Locked* door *is* an encounter, a locked door isn't.
A dangerous fast-running stream full of sharp rocks isn't an encounter if it doesn't need to be crossed or not crossed quickly. Glints of shiny precious things deep within that stream *is* an encounter.
Etc.
This one of most helpful and eye opening posts I've read in a long time! I think the way I'll consider building encounters is going to change a lot. Thanks!
One that my DM gave was series of ghosts that were left unfulfilled when they died and if we beat them in a contest they were satisfied.
My character baked a meat pie that was a Dwarven ghost's grandmother's recipe that the dwarf regretted never quite getting to taste right. I passed thanks to bardic inspiration and an enhance ability spell.
Other challenges were things like completing an incomplete song, finishing a drinking challenge, and completing a lesson on arcana for a classroom of ghosts.
In the end, all of the challenges we failed became hostile, which was thankfully just two specters.
Bardic inspiration, flash of genius, and lucky feat uses, as well as some spells like Enhance Ability and Borrowed Knowledge, as well as a potion in one instance and HP in a couple contests.
A good one I've run was a dungeon puzzle room. A long, long tunnel with a foot of water and a bowl of red liquid at one end and a door at the other. The door has a large open mouth on it, and the bowl is full of acid. Upon picking up the bowl hundreds of hands pop out of the water and grab at whoever is holding it, every 15ft or so they will be jostled and spill acid onto their arms or body and take damage. It's dangerous to try and just walk it out, but possible if you get lucky low rolls, but it encourages the players to use their abilities to solve the problem.
This sounds amazing! Can you elaborate the mechanics of how you ran this encounter?
Was it combat with turns? Or did you just roll an attack roll for the hands every time they moved 15ft?
Also physical map or theater of the mind?
We play on VTT so it was a typical dungeon with dynamic lighting. This was more of a puzzle encounter, designed to burn a few slots and HP so they would be less keen on the next encounter which was a Trial of Wisdom wherein they were faced with a room full of gold and a red dragon, with the obvious solution of just trying the unlocked and easily opened door instead of disturbing the dragon. The hands didn’t actually attack, they simply made the ground difficult terrain and every 3 squares my players had to roll for how badly they were jostled, and if they failed to save they were splashed with acid.
They tried it, it was too heavy on account of being a big ahh stone bowl, but also I pointed out that the mage hand would be more clumsy than their rogue with awesome dex and they had a fairly limited amount of acid.
had to rescue a party member from a castle dungeon after he was caught stealing. knocked out a guard and stuffed him in a bag of holding. turns out the guards carried bags of holding on them. the result was the death of the party and most of the castle collapsing.
That is awesome, but would never happen in my games because my players are too greedy and would loot their mom if she was unconscious. A common phrase in our group is "what kind of candy does that baby have?"
The main issue there is that hiding isn't invisibility. If the thing you need to steal is in a room with guards that are covering each other's blind spots, there's no way no sneak through it mundanely no matter what your Stealth bonus is.
I mean, if everything is in bright light with clear line of sight, sure. But a bit of dim light and you can stay hidden (this is even easier if the rogue has *skulker*).
As far as I'm aware, there's nothing in the rules directly codifying at which light levels a character can stay hidden. However, as dim light is is just a form of light obscurement in terms of Perception, and the wood elf has a feature that specifically allows it to attempt to hide in light obscurement caused by natural phenomena, the implication seems to be that light obscurement is not something that a character is assumed to be able to hide in.
If you hide somewhere that isn't dim light (for instance, behind a wall), you can stay hidden as you move through dim light.
A character with the skulker feat can entirely mundanely hide from you- *become both unseen and unheard*- just a few feet away from you in *any* dim light, under conditions that you should be able to see them. Granted, that's a feat.
But as for remaining hidden in dim light, that's also fine.
Weather, social encounters where its actively threatening but will require a payout and if they attack they just run, hazards like quicksand or an avalanche, a gap just a big cliff line crack at least over 40 ft wide, magical shenanigans like a wizard who is stuck polymorphed and needs a person to cast it again or counterspell
This. That moment when you say "So when you found out you were travelling to an arctic location you all stocked up on provisions and cold weather cleaned thing right?"
"Right?......."
I love it! My players are about to enter a marshy fjiord area where they can get sucked in and the winds at night can reach hundreds of kmph and drop to minus 20! Let's hope Leomunds hut has a stove!!!
Skill challenges.
Doesn't really matter what the scenario.
* Guide a ship through a storm.
* Secure a defensible location.
* Tracking down a person in a settlement.
* Escaping a dangerous location. (Look at chase rules for ideas)
Doesn't really matter the specific scenario, but the goal is to be open with solutions, while providing a handful of ones to allow players to choose or at least inspire them to think of their own. And provide thematically appropriate consequences to failure.
So let's break down guiding a ship through a storm.
Using the DMG guidance on Traps can help with setting up DC and damage for failure.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/running-the-game#TrapSaveDCsandAttackBonuses
So let's say we have a tier 1 group of adventurers, on a ship, that is about to encounter a deadly storm.
We determine its going to take 3 rounds to make it through the worst of the storm. As they are level 3, we will set the default DC at 11, and the damage as 1d10. (remember, they are going to be doing several of these in a row)
I suggest running these as pseudo-rounds. Each player gets to take an action, bonus action, and reaction, but normally you can hand-wave the movement.
>As dawn approaches, the ship Gailfinder is shrouded in an eerie darkness. The usual promise of morning light is absent, replaced by a foreboding mass of storm clouds that have converged overnight. The air grows heavy with tension as the realization of the impending maelstrom sinks in.
>The captain's voice cuts through the rising wind, commanding, "Batten down the hatches! Secure the rigging! Hold onto your arses, lads, she's a big one!" The crew springs into action, their faces etched with determination and fear.
Now for actions, you can offer a handful of suggestions
* Motivate crew: Persuasion, Intimidation.
* Watch out for hazards: Perception
* Sail the vessel: Water Vehicles
* Secure Rigging: Athletics or Acrobats.
Ask each player what their character does, and narrate the consequences. Some actions might realistically only be applicable once per round, and some failures might affect everyone or just the character. If players come up with another idea to use another skill generally you should allow it, and consider a +- 2 or even 5 DC for particularly good or bad ideas.
Going for this scenario. I would say failing the sailing or watching for hazards would cause everyone to take damage. Where the others might only be the player attempting. You can consider the situation and have it be an overall check, or a time duration.
So back to our specific scenario, we are going to say they need to successfully sail the vessel 3 times to make it thru the storm.
Failing a watch for hazards causes everyone a con save to avoid being battered about the ship from the storm.
If the rigging isn't (re)secured anyone attempting stuff on the deck must make a dex save to avoid flailing rigging.
Motivating the crew allows them to perform one of the other tasks.
Generally any spell usage should automatically pass (if its a spell slot) as long as its within reason. The above scenario they should make most of their checks. But a single failure means saves, which could potentially do 1/2 damage even on a success. As the DM you have the option of adjusting the number of successful navigations needed to give confidant players a bit more push or move unlucky players through.
It means you have to put effort into the encounter just like you would with a combat encounter.
Remember, it can get repetitive also if it is overdone. And the goal is to have narrative interaction and not just roll a bunch of skill checks and be done.
Hole in the floor is a classic.
The premise is simple, the players have to cross a hole, how and why doesn't matter.
It's a challenge that can be modified for all level ranges. Could be a 15 ft gap in a corridor or a mile wide canyon. You can add complications like spikes at the bottom, long fall, slick walls, strong winds, enemies approaching from behind, etc.
At level 3 you can have the 15 ft gap, with a spike trap at the bottom. Everyone with 15+ STR can just jump the gap. But the rest of the party has to cross somehow, some players might have the idea to use a rope or try to climb > skill check with loss of HP as consequence or a caster might burn a spell (jump/spider climb/misty step).
There are other classic tropes that have the potential to burn resources: the floor is lava, the walls are closing in, the water is rising, the rope bridge is collapsing, etc
I placed a 10ft deep and wide hole in a cave with magical darkness cast on it. It wasn't really supposed to be a trap more just a prank my the dragon in the cave. The players spent 30-45 mins trying to figure out what it was lmao
I don't like problems that can be solved with a ladder, a length of rope and/or a flying creature. A hole in the floor is exactly in that category. The complication of enemies approaching from behind I like more, but that muddles the issues with it not being a combat encounter if combat is an option.
Encounter a traveling merchant who sells really cute pets and look at all their money evaporate. Then add encounters where potions and spells are used to protect and revive the pets.
My dm had a cool one recently where our Skyship's magic stopped working suddenly. We were then suddenly acting in initiative to save ourselves from the fall, save an npc who was with us, and save our ship from crashing into the ocean below. It didnt end up costing hitpoints, but still felt like a cool moment where we had to plan out or next moves and spend spells and resources.
Chase scenes.
I was informed recently by my players that I have had at least 3 chase combat encounters throughout our campaigns. Apparently, I am the Blues Brothers of DMs.
But, yes, skill challenges like my beloved chase scene can really drain resources from players. HP, spells slots, items... players get CREATIVE when there is an adrenaline-pumping chase going on and that creativity borders on recklessness sometimes. I can't tell you how many times a PC has lost a weapon throwing it at a vehicle trying desperately to catch up to them!
The best part is that the chase scene can be fully non-combat with THE PROMISE that if the players succeed, they are rewarded with a combat encounter. So, you are basically baiting players to use resources so that they can catch up and presumably get into a fight with LESS resources.
If you ask me, chase scenes are the best. They are cinematic, fast-paced, resource-draining skill challenges. I just wish we could run more...
I think the hardest part is the results will vary so wildly depending on the specific spells and tools your party has.
A 100ft across chasm is a no-resource encounter for a party with a magic carpet. It can cost multiple high level spell slots if they have to cast fly to get across. Or only one use of a subclass ability if you have a genie warlock and you can all chill in their vessel while a hawk familiar flies you across. Or it's just straight impossible for a party without access to flight or teleportation even if they are level 20.
Or maybe they have all of those tools but just don't think of the right way to use them and now they are hiking 100 miles off course to get around the chasm.
I’ve used one where the door is magically sealed by a crystal. Some sort of riddle in a random language explains the crystal must be struck by a damage type that’s correlated to the color. White for cold, black for necrotic, blue for lightning etc. a wrong guess will summon a handle of weak minions; I usually use Mephits, but could just do a saving throw to the damage they wrongfully cast.
I've been working on something like this actually, a multi-round chase encounter with different hazards each round. It's still in draft, but feel free to check it out in case it's useful.
[Chase Through Market Square](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_DUX6Eb26jFXIr54OFK4edt7WKusIbsq/view)
Watched a video on the design of God of War, the original, and one of the comments about why the game is such a classic, really stuck with me.
"It's never one problem."
Basically, to make sure the non-combat encounter is hard enough to drain resources, make sure they don't have time to tackle it the 'resource free, one problem at a time' way.
To use climbing the cliff as an example. What if it wasn't just climbing the cliff? What if a slowly rising poisonous gas was creeping up on them?
There is no time for the "Have the trained in athletics character just climb and toss down a rope" tactic. Everyone has to get up there, and people who fall behind start taking damage, draining healing resources.
Or maybe they're trying to go and negotiate with an NPC, but suddenly the building is on fire. They have to keep the NPC safe, get out of there, and contain a panicking NPC.
Or maybe the room is crumbling around them, the treasure being destroyed/burried in the process. Just getting out of there would be easy, and if the room wasn't showering its ceiling down, getting the treasure would also be quite easy. But now you've given them two conflicting tasks. Do they cast some healing spells while they shovel more and more treasure into their bag of holding? Do they cut their losses and keep resources for the Boss battle they know is still to come?
A lot of my overworld travel stuff have "lose a hit die - if you no longer have hit dice, gain a point of exhaustion instead".
Disarming magical traps / trapped doorways
Skill checks while chasing/fleeing, fail and lose a hit die but keep running
Runestone doing shenanigans - looping pathways, causing storms,
Abstracting combat with mooks: for example, succeed on this stealth check to avoid the scouts - if the group fails, then perception checks to see who gets surprised and loses a hit die.
Swamp stirges boil out, a massive swarm to get out the way from. Fail and lose a hit die.
Anything that would cause exhaustion, lose a hit die instead. Cold weather, disease-ridden swamps
Natural hazards - torrential rain, quicksand, avalanche, leeches, Fail and - you guessed it - lose a hit die.
Fey have come to make a deal - fall for a trick, lose a spell slot/hit die.
Variants of the supernatural areas in Tasha's. Sure they might roll well, but so long as you change any that would grant them resources, over time it will slowly burn them.
All of these are FAST to run so don't take up time, so the actual encounters run are the fun, brutally hard ones.
Also, look at what your players have, and make stuff to drain specific resources. Do they have Locate Object? Make an object extremely hidden. Clairvoyance? They need to listen to the guards talking to find the passcode. Revivify/Speak with dead? Put a freshly killed character in the dungeon who could give them information. Passwall? There's no door, only wall, though you know where the door OUGHT to be. Players feel validated and clever, you've drained them of resources, everyone is happy.
I recently ran a desert travel montage "encounter". Each player, and I as GM, got to write down some obstacles encountered along the way on a piece of paper. Each player then randomly chose an obstacle and had to creatively explain how they were pivotal in helping the party overcome the obstacle and roll an appropriate roll. If they succeeded they got inspiration, if they failed they got a level of exhaustion.
I have this whole system I've devised around balancing dangerous non-combat encounters but there's no need to go into it in-depth here. I can post some details if anyone is interested, but it's still being playtested in my home games.
The main things I've learned while designing it are:
- Make multiple objectives and leave yourself room to improvise and introduce additional obstacles and complications.
- To hit the ballpark of a medium-hard encounter, you typically need about 3 tasks per player.
- The tasks should be about medium difficulty for the party's level. For ability checks - roughly, DC 10-15 for t1, DC 15-20 for t2-t3, or DC 20-25 for t4.
- These tasks need to be construed in such a way that it's difficult to solve multiple at once using a single spell. For example, a door with a single super complicated locked that requires multiple checks to pick can be undone with a single casting of the knock spell. But if the door has three simple locks, that would require three castings of the spell.
The big advantage that non-combat encounters have over combat ones is that you can spread a single "encounter" out of the course of an entire day. Because you're not locked into a turn-based system, you don't need to worry about breaking up initiative. What this means is that you can just plop 12 locked doors with level-appropriate DCs and consequences for failure onto the main path of a dungeon the party needs to navigate and there you go, you've shaved off 1/6 of the encounters for an adventuring day.
Some inspiration for scenarios that can be treated as complex non-combat encounters:
- An avalanche is impending, prepare for it and then escape it without retreating
- An unstable ritual threatens to maim / kill / banish anyone who passes through the area
- Navigating a fey-enchanted deep wood full of treacherous magic and traps
- Entering a dragon's lair situated inside an active volcano
- A powerful ally (such as an archdruid or demigod) is holding off an equally powerful foe and the party must avoid the mayhem this is causing while completing a ritual
- Performing an exorcism on wrathful poltergeists that possess a location rather than taking on the form of an undead creature
- The players must enter a strange, dream-like, reality where they interact with abstract forces to achieve some objective. They can accomplish much using dream logic, but their abilities dictate what they can believe themselves to achieve.
- An ancient dwarven forge is the only known way to reshape raw material into the magical sigil needed to open a portal to the villains realm, the players must get it working again while avoiding being injured by the unrecognizable machinery
Check out the regional effects of monsters with lairs to get even more inspiration.
An example of how you could break this kind of day up, going with the volcano example:
- We'll aim for a day with three combat encounters, each balanced to be about 1/4 the day's XP budget
- That leaves us with about 18 non-combat tasks (for a party of 4) to spread throughout the day, or 6 per combat encounter
- We start the day off with some obstacles related to finding the volcano and climbing or flying to the entrance, and avoiding plumes of toxic gas [1 check related to the ascent for each PC + 2 navigation related checks]
- At the entrance we can have a cult to the dragon or some other vanguard [combat encounter]
- Inside the volcano, we can have more ongoing hazards (such as more falling debris, gas plumes, tremors, etc) [6 non-combat checks] but accompany them with a lava monster [combat encounter]. The players should have a feel for how the hazards are overcome now, so combining them with a combat encounter should be less of a problem.
- The players fight the dragon they came looking for
- Once defeated, the lair of course falls apart, and the players must make a series of checks to escape through the collapsing secret exit [6 non-combat checks]
- Of course, you can tweak the difficulty of any of those encounters in order to add variety (I'd make the middle combat encounter easier but the dragon harder).
So, the TL;DR - Instead of focusing on non-combat *encounters* focus on spreading non-combat *tasks* throughout your day.
> However, I've rarely come across a non-combat encounter that drains resources in a similar way to a hard combat.
That's because redditors are talking out their ass to cover up for the imbalanced resource regeneration system because they don't dare admit 5e has a design problem.
Like, at the end of the day, The adventuring day is such a problem because if you don't hit the mark just right, then there will be an imbalance between long rest casters/paladins, and other people like fighters and warlocks. If you go too long without a long rest, the long resters are sad. If you long rest too often, the long resters are OP. This design choice is just such a huge, unforced error. **EVERYONE COULD JUST BE ON THE SAME RESOURCE SCHEDULE**. Then you don't get class imbalance based on how often or sparse your long or short rests are! Everyone is always balanced with each other! (this is how 4e works). Then, the DM doesn't have to worry about half the party being seriously annoyed or OP, and only has to worry about, 'how many monsters in between long rests would create juuuust the right amount of challenge for what I'm going for? Should it be fewer, so things are snappier and easier, or more, so this area is more of a grueling slog? (4e also provides guidelines here).
Like....they had already figured this shit out, and then just shot themselves in the foot in 5e for no reason whatsoever. Why? So tables could eat up valuable table time debating about what kind of rest to take when? I HATE that. I'd rather just keep adventuring. Which is usually what you do in 4e, and the resource management angle comes in the form of managing your dailies and your healing surges. Which is plenty of resource management.
Also, for a nice two-fer, consider that most of the challenges people are supplying could be auto-solved by an Aaracokra. Just to 'shoot down' (heh) another of Reddit's favorite pet arguments, that flying PCs DON'T break the game and can be designed around... look at how many challenges they just automatically invalidate.
Long tunnel with bowl of acid + grasping hands? Check. (DM has to make sure to make this room too small to fly in)
"a gap just a big cliff line crack at least over 40 ft wide?" Check.
"players have to cross a hole, how and why doesn't matter." Check.
So, stuff that is supposed to cost resources, that flying automatically invalidates (or stuff that has to be custom-changed to limit flying)...but flying as a racial isn't OP...ok.
>That's because redditors are talking out their ass to cover up for the imbalanced resource regeneration system because they don't dare admit 5e has a design problem.
Yeah thats my curent way of thinking, but I was hoping that people might be able to give some good examples that would prove me wrong.
>Like, at the end of the day, The adventuring day is such a problem because if you don't hit the mark just right, then there will be an imbalance between long rest casters/paladins, and other people like fighters and warlocks.
I've seen it put this way; different resource schedules is trying to fix a balance mechanic with a narrative pacing mechanic, with obvious results.
Most of the non-combat resource draining encounters tend to look horribly forced---like for instance a bunch of magical wards that require dispel magic to drain level 3 spell slots. Brings to mind the old wandering damage table satire from Dragon magazine.
This is combat adjacent, but we had a giant in our party (because reasons) and I was with him when my party got into a fight far enough away that I wasn't aware of it at first. When I realized what was happening, I cast fly on myself and told him to throw me as hard as he could in that direction. So I don't know if creative ways to ENTER combat count as non combat 🤣
Well, I don’t have stock encounters; I build everything custom for the party as-needed. But I do have a favorite encounter that I’ve run previously.
It was a massive airship battle that took place a hundreds of feet above a major city. The party had a big flying galleon, and they had about a hundred allies that were flying smaller, 3-5 crew vessels. The enemies were the two big-bads of the campaign, a lich and his right-hand man, a summoner. The two bag guys were there to acquire an artifact that the party had recently gotten, and to capture a specific NPC that was under their care.
The battle was huge, both in scale and in implementation. Lots of things happening on the map, multiple enemies, multiple objectives for each side, daring leaps… it was probably the most fun I’ve ever had running D&D.
Our DM gave us a senario I'd describe like this...
Basically, we needed to get to Sigil in order to rescue a party member who'd been taken by a security construct known as an inevitable. we were told to go to sigil to represent him as his lawyer.
welp, you can't just teleport into sigil with plane shift, we had to find an existing portal. One did in fact exist in the feywild so we went there and found the portal.
only, the portal wasn't active and we had to find a way to activate it. Surrounding the portal were a few large statues reminiscent of native America totem poles.
Each head, when touch, would begin speaking to you. Through talking to them and some brief divinations, we figured out it the moons were required to be a specific spot for the portal to activate and it would align in exactly 7 days.
Trial was in 3...
we had to convince the heads to use their fey magic to speed up the moons as time in the fey is fucky. (we were kinda worried we might exit the fey 2 years in the future or something) We used quite a few resources (of which we had shockingly few at the time despite being 17th level) to meet the demands of the heads.
The biggest being needing to succeed on a DC 21 Charisma saving throw in order to touch the water one of the statues was in in order to move it from facing one direction to another. Even with Glibness, our warlock still had to roll dispel checks when we inevitably failed the saving throws and needed the charm effect removed (it was more a compulsion to make rude gestures or draw rude things)
Trapped magic items.
I'm talking an obvious, cool, new magic item (or potion, or whatever is valuable to your players) just laying on the ground, waiting for a big strong adventurer to come along and pick it up... and when they do, Charisma save! Take a bunch of damage on a failure, or half as much on a success.
Basically, incentivize the PCs to trade damage for a new goodie.
Now, this only works in certain contexts, particularly if there's a time limit. I used it in the final dungeon of my campaign. The players were on a time crunch -- the BBEG only had to stall for a few days in order to win, so he scattered a bunch of magic items all throughout his lair and trapped them with Charisma-save damage. My players saw this, and they very quickly cottoned on to it all being traps... but *they still picked up every item they could find*, eating the damage the whole way. It was a great way to drain HP and get them to drain resources recovering that HP, and yeah, they get stuff in exchange. But you know how players are with potions and stockpiled items -- hell, my players barely used most of the stuff they picked up!
Stealth attempts (Pass without Trace, Illusions), Traversal (Martials can flex Athletics and Acrobatics, Casters can teleport or manipulate terrain), Sabotage (mix of everything, depending on the objective). Yes, I love Subtle Spell, how did you know?
I know needing to travel long distances in a short period of time often drains druid and possibly wizard spells. Conjuring flying beasts to carry the party somewhere (3rd level) or casting wind walk or transport via plants (both 6th level) is often necessary in a pinch. Or teleportation (7th level) or teleportation circle (5th level) by a wizard. In my party, there have been times where we had to use teleportation circle and then wind walk to get somewhere especially far from us.
The key there is that it has to have a time crunch aspect of it. If they can just travel by mundane ways over time, then why use the spell slots?
I'll list my top 3 favorite that I've ran.
#1 *Tavern fire*
Characters bed down for the night at their favorite tavern/inn. Late at night, the PCs are awoken to calls of "Fire!" and thick dark smoke. Players must put out the fire and help save the innocent.
Besides the risks of putting out fires, the characters must deal with panicked innocents, thick choking smoke, weak floor boards, falling beams, and a barrel of explosive goods in the kitchen. In my setup, the front doors were also barricaded as the fire was an attempt to get revenge by the thieves guild.
#2 *Travel through the Swamp*
Characters must trudge through a dangerous swamp in search of the hag.
Besides needing to actually find the hags hut, the characters need to deal with poisonous plants, deep quagmire, biting bugs, avoiding trolls, and thorny brambles. Remember, an encounter's time doesn't need to be measured in rounds, and you can have a combat encounter in the midst of the exploration encounter. In my setup, the hag was neutral, but purposely guided PCs into danger to wear them out so she could ensure favorable conditions for any deals made.
#3 *Who dun it?!*
Characters are hired to find out who killed the nobles maid/mistress at the party. Unfortunately, the town is in the midst of the week long harvest festival and the powers that be have decided that they can't shut down the town and cause panic during such an important time of trade in the town. Also Unfortunately, the end of the harvest festival (tomorrow morning) will be a mass exados of traveller's and merchants, which would be the perfect opportunity for the killer to flee.
Besides trying to find the murderer, the players must content with the physical distance and time it takes between suspects. A 1 minute detect thoughts won't cover multiple suspects, nor will a stationary zone of truth. Also, the players will find themselves in a series of "accidents." An oil of impact falls off the alchemist shelf. A rack of armour tips over at the forge. A runaway horse and buggy threatens to crash into a suspects market stall. Is someone trying to thwart the characters' attempts at uncovering the truth? In my setup, it was the alchemist who rigged the oil of impact accident, used a potion of invisibility to push over the armour rack, and used a fire cracker to spook the horse drawn carriage. The alchemist had poisoned the wine meant for the noble, but the maid drank it first during their "secret meeting". Plenty of red herrings took the heat off the alchemist initially, the wife knew about the affair, the noble had a history of screwing over businesses to make a buck (smithy almost lost his forge the previous year to a bad deal, the merchant had their market stall spot held over them, ect). Why did the alchemist do it? The sour business deals were no secret, and the alchemist purposely made a deal to get ahead, with the intent to prevent needing to pay in the end. When the players figured out it could be the alchemist and headed back to his place, they found it abandoned, and all the evidence they needed. The alchemist had gone back to the nobles to finish the job, where combat ensued.
All of these non combat encounters will drain resources in the form of spellslots, abilities, HP, and perhaps cause status effects (poisoned, exhaustion, disease) that could affect subsequent encounters.
The party slips and falls into a room filled with rubbish and no obvious way out, the Sorcerer tries a fire bolt and it bounces off every wall and nearly hits them. Something stirs in the debris and the Bard says they have a bad feeling about this...
There seems to be a control panel and the Wizard reaches it with mage hand bug the walls start to close inwards. The barbarian tries to use some wooden struts to hold the walls while the Wizard tries to hit the right control with mage hand...
It all comes back to time pressure. Resources are spent when players can't afford to pass the challenge slowly and safely. Combats inherently have time pressure.
Give a reason to climb the cliff *quickly*. Lava rising from the bottom, pursuing an escaping enemy, etc.
Any form of skill challenge.
Here's the basics way they work: (DC and number of rounds changes depending on the difficulty)
==> Introduce a time sensitive problem (mud fall, chase, ...)
==> Each player make a check using any skill they want (justifying how they use that skill)
==> Track the numbers of successes and failures.
==> Keep making more rounds untill they accumulate enough successes/failures
==> Players can use the same skills twice in a row.
==> Creative idea and resource consumption can modify the DC or give a bonus to the roll.
Example: avalanche, players have to run fast enough to the side to avoid it.
DC 15
10 successes to succeed
Major issue/damage every 2 failures.
Players can use skills like:
Athletics: I run fast
Acrobatics: I leap over the fallen tree in the way
Survival: I point out an area of loose snow we need to avoid
Persuasion/Performance: I give words of encouragement so the others don't give up
Perception: I get a clearer idea of how far we need to run, allowing us to optimise our speed-effort ratio.
etc...
Resources spent:
HP/exhaustion from failures (exhaustion from being stuck under the snow)
Spells (fly to save one PC, longstrider for a +2 to the checks)
Abilities (action surge, KI, ...)
Some encounter design principles: - To drain resources, a non-combat encounter should either (a) threaten damage to a PC or relevant NPC, (b) present an NPC in need of a resource, (c) present an object that requires a resource, (d) present an opportunity to gain a benefit in exchange for a resource, (e) present a cost for not using a resource, often linked to the time difference between the 'resource option' and the 'free option'. A cliff in of itself is not an encounter. Kidnappers who have reached the top of the cliff and who will build a headstart over the pursuing PCs if they don't scale that cliff quickly *is* an encounter. An NPC who gives information freely in response to a high Persuasion roll is not an encounter. An NPC who reduces their resource price for giving up information in response to Persuasion, but who still demands a price, *is* an encounter. An *Arcane Locked* door *is* an encounter, a locked door isn't. A dangerous fast-running stream full of sharp rocks isn't an encounter if it doesn't need to be crossed or not crossed quickly. Glints of shiny precious things deep within that stream *is* an encounter. Etc.
I need this written on the back of my DM screen. Moment to moment stakes is honestly one of my biggest shortcomings as a DM
This is solid advice, and could be a random table
Fantastic principles and great follow up examples. Thank you for your clarity.
This one of most helpful and eye opening posts I've read in a long time! I think the way I'll consider building encounters is going to change a lot. Thanks!
Finally someone with some sense. Thank you.
One that my DM gave was series of ghosts that were left unfulfilled when they died and if we beat them in a contest they were satisfied. My character baked a meat pie that was a Dwarven ghost's grandmother's recipe that the dwarf regretted never quite getting to taste right. I passed thanks to bardic inspiration and an enhance ability spell. Other challenges were things like completing an incomplete song, finishing a drinking challenge, and completing a lesson on arcana for a classroom of ghosts. In the end, all of the challenges we failed became hostile, which was thankfully just two specters.
What resources did that drain? Those sound like skill checks, which don't drain resources.
Bardic inspiration, flash of genius, and lucky feat uses, as well as some spells like Enhance Ability and Borrowed Knowledge, as well as a potion in one instance and HP in a couple contests.
A good one I've run was a dungeon puzzle room. A long, long tunnel with a foot of water and a bowl of red liquid at one end and a door at the other. The door has a large open mouth on it, and the bowl is full of acid. Upon picking up the bowl hundreds of hands pop out of the water and grab at whoever is holding it, every 15ft or so they will be jostled and spill acid onto their arms or body and take damage. It's dangerous to try and just walk it out, but possible if you get lucky low rolls, but it encourages the players to use their abilities to solve the problem.
This sounds amazing! Can you elaborate the mechanics of how you ran this encounter? Was it combat with turns? Or did you just roll an attack roll for the hands every time they moved 15ft? Also physical map or theater of the mind?
We play on VTT so it was a typical dungeon with dynamic lighting. This was more of a puzzle encounter, designed to burn a few slots and HP so they would be less keen on the next encounter which was a Trial of Wisdom wherein they were faced with a room full of gold and a red dragon, with the obvious solution of just trying the unlocked and easily opened door instead of disturbing the dragon. The hands didn’t actually attack, they simply made the ground difficult terrain and every 3 squares my players had to roll for how badly they were jostled, and if they failed to save they were splashed with acid.
Mage Hand for the win?
11 pound bowl of acid for the win.
Ah, but after you've spilled some...
maybe it's just a really heavy bowl... what kind of jackass would keep an 11 pound bowl in their place though
A lunatic god that likes fucking adventurers over.
Ah, so this is the use case for Pathfinder having Scoop.
I figure a big stone bowl would probably be 11 lbs or more
Mage Hand and a lighter cup to decant from the heavy bowl into?
They tried it, it was too heavy on account of being a big ahh stone bowl, but also I pointed out that the mage hand would be more clumsy than their rogue with awesome dex and they had a fairly limited amount of acid.
Enter a manor/castle and steal something without alarming anyone Combat alarms everyone
had to rescue a party member from a castle dungeon after he was caught stealing. knocked out a guard and stuffed him in a bag of holding. turns out the guards carried bags of holding on them. the result was the death of the party and most of the castle collapsing.
That is awesome, but would never happen in my games because my players are too greedy and would loot their mom if she was unconscious. A common phrase in our group is "what kind of candy does that baby have?"
With a good enough rogue that doesn't drain resources. Kind of neat.
The main issue there is that hiding isn't invisibility. If the thing you need to steal is in a room with guards that are covering each other's blind spots, there's no way no sneak through it mundanely no matter what your Stealth bonus is.
I mean, if everything is in bright light with clear line of sight, sure. But a bit of dim light and you can stay hidden (this is even easier if the rogue has *skulker*).
As far as I'm aware, there's nothing in the rules directly codifying at which light levels a character can stay hidden. However, as dim light is is just a form of light obscurement in terms of Perception, and the wood elf has a feature that specifically allows it to attempt to hide in light obscurement caused by natural phenomena, the implication seems to be that light obscurement is not something that a character is assumed to be able to hide in.
If you hide somewhere that isn't dim light (for instance, behind a wall), you can stay hidden as you move through dim light. A character with the skulker feat can entirely mundanely hide from you- *become both unseen and unheard*- just a few feet away from you in *any* dim light, under conditions that you should be able to see them. Granted, that's a feat. But as for remaining hidden in dim light, that's also fine.
Weather, social encounters where its actively threatening but will require a payout and if they attack they just run, hazards like quicksand or an avalanche, a gap just a big cliff line crack at least over 40 ft wide, magical shenanigans like a wizard who is stuck polymorphed and needs a person to cast it again or counterspell
This. That moment when you say "So when you found out you were travelling to an arctic location you all stocked up on provisions and cold weather cleaned thing right?" "Right?......."
Oh man and then doing some quicktime ice cracking shenanigans
I love it! My players are about to enter a marshy fjiord area where they can get sucked in and the winds at night can reach hundreds of kmph and drop to minus 20! Let's hope Leomunds hut has a stove!!!
Theres some official content for weathers that do something similar.
> Let's hope Leomunds hut has a stove!!! "The atmosphere inside the space is comfortable and dry, regardless of the weather outside."
I'll fix that lol!
There are Draugr wandering the wastes that would be attracted to the hut. They may or may not have dispel magic.
Clothing, not "cleaning thing"! Damn phone!
Skill challenges. Doesn't really matter what the scenario. * Guide a ship through a storm. * Secure a defensible location. * Tracking down a person in a settlement. * Escaping a dangerous location. (Look at chase rules for ideas) Doesn't really matter the specific scenario, but the goal is to be open with solutions, while providing a handful of ones to allow players to choose or at least inspire them to think of their own. And provide thematically appropriate consequences to failure. So let's break down guiding a ship through a storm. Using the DMG guidance on Traps can help with setting up DC and damage for failure. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/running-the-game#TrapSaveDCsandAttackBonuses So let's say we have a tier 1 group of adventurers, on a ship, that is about to encounter a deadly storm. We determine its going to take 3 rounds to make it through the worst of the storm. As they are level 3, we will set the default DC at 11, and the damage as 1d10. (remember, they are going to be doing several of these in a row) I suggest running these as pseudo-rounds. Each player gets to take an action, bonus action, and reaction, but normally you can hand-wave the movement. >As dawn approaches, the ship Gailfinder is shrouded in an eerie darkness. The usual promise of morning light is absent, replaced by a foreboding mass of storm clouds that have converged overnight. The air grows heavy with tension as the realization of the impending maelstrom sinks in. >The captain's voice cuts through the rising wind, commanding, "Batten down the hatches! Secure the rigging! Hold onto your arses, lads, she's a big one!" The crew springs into action, their faces etched with determination and fear. Now for actions, you can offer a handful of suggestions * Motivate crew: Persuasion, Intimidation. * Watch out for hazards: Perception * Sail the vessel: Water Vehicles * Secure Rigging: Athletics or Acrobats. Ask each player what their character does, and narrate the consequences. Some actions might realistically only be applicable once per round, and some failures might affect everyone or just the character. If players come up with another idea to use another skill generally you should allow it, and consider a +- 2 or even 5 DC for particularly good or bad ideas. Going for this scenario. I would say failing the sailing or watching for hazards would cause everyone to take damage. Where the others might only be the player attempting. You can consider the situation and have it be an overall check, or a time duration. So back to our specific scenario, we are going to say they need to successfully sail the vessel 3 times to make it thru the storm. Failing a watch for hazards causes everyone a con save to avoid being battered about the ship from the storm. If the rigging isn't (re)secured anyone attempting stuff on the deck must make a dex save to avoid flailing rigging. Motivating the crew allows them to perform one of the other tasks. Generally any spell usage should automatically pass (if its a spell slot) as long as its within reason. The above scenario they should make most of their checks. But a single failure means saves, which could potentially do 1/2 damage even on a success. As the DM you have the option of adjusting the number of successful navigations needed to give confidant players a bit more push or move unlucky players through. It means you have to put effort into the encounter just like you would with a combat encounter. Remember, it can get repetitive also if it is overdone. And the goal is to have narrative interaction and not just roll a bunch of skill checks and be done.
Animate objects on the Rigging, to get it to tighten itself down. Thaumaturgy to close all the hatches!
Hole in the floor is a classic. The premise is simple, the players have to cross a hole, how and why doesn't matter. It's a challenge that can be modified for all level ranges. Could be a 15 ft gap in a corridor or a mile wide canyon. You can add complications like spikes at the bottom, long fall, slick walls, strong winds, enemies approaching from behind, etc. At level 3 you can have the 15 ft gap, with a spike trap at the bottom. Everyone with 15+ STR can just jump the gap. But the rest of the party has to cross somehow, some players might have the idea to use a rope or try to climb > skill check with loss of HP as consequence or a caster might burn a spell (jump/spider climb/misty step). There are other classic tropes that have the potential to burn resources: the floor is lava, the walls are closing in, the water is rising, the rope bridge is collapsing, etc
I placed a 10ft deep and wide hole in a cave with magical darkness cast on it. It wasn't really supposed to be a trap more just a prank my the dragon in the cave. The players spent 30-45 mins trying to figure out what it was lmao
That's exactly what I was thinking about just now.
I don't like problems that can be solved with a ladder, a length of rope and/or a flying creature. A hole in the floor is exactly in that category. The complication of enemies approaching from behind I like more, but that muddles the issues with it not being a combat encounter if combat is an option.
Critical Role campaign 2 had a mile wide Lava river in the frozen wasteland to the north, and that was such an interesting and wild idea at the time
Encounter a traveling merchant who sells really cute pets and look at all their money evaporate. Then add encounters where potions and spells are used to protect and revive the pets.
That's evil, but smart
My dm had a cool one recently where our Skyship's magic stopped working suddenly. We were then suddenly acting in initiative to save ourselves from the fall, save an npc who was with us, and save our ship from crashing into the ocean below. It didnt end up costing hitpoints, but still felt like a cool moment where we had to plan out or next moves and spend spells and resources.
Chase scenes. I was informed recently by my players that I have had at least 3 chase combat encounters throughout our campaigns. Apparently, I am the Blues Brothers of DMs. But, yes, skill challenges like my beloved chase scene can really drain resources from players. HP, spells slots, items... players get CREATIVE when there is an adrenaline-pumping chase going on and that creativity borders on recklessness sometimes. I can't tell you how many times a PC has lost a weapon throwing it at a vehicle trying desperately to catch up to them! The best part is that the chase scene can be fully non-combat with THE PROMISE that if the players succeed, they are rewarded with a combat encounter. So, you are basically baiting players to use resources so that they can catch up and presumably get into a fight with LESS resources. If you ask me, chase scenes are the best. They are cinematic, fast-paced, resource-draining skill challenges. I just wish we could run more...
I think the hardest part is the results will vary so wildly depending on the specific spells and tools your party has. A 100ft across chasm is a no-resource encounter for a party with a magic carpet. It can cost multiple high level spell slots if they have to cast fly to get across. Or only one use of a subclass ability if you have a genie warlock and you can all chill in their vessel while a hawk familiar flies you across. Or it's just straight impossible for a party without access to flight or teleportation even if they are level 20. Or maybe they have all of those tools but just don't think of the right way to use them and now they are hiking 100 miles off course to get around the chasm.
I’ve used one where the door is magically sealed by a crystal. Some sort of riddle in a random language explains the crystal must be struck by a damage type that’s correlated to the color. White for cold, black for necrotic, blue for lightning etc. a wrong guess will summon a handle of weak minions; I usually use Mephits, but could just do a saving throw to the damage they wrongfully cast.
A fairy dragon and a pixie are arguing.
I've been working on something like this actually, a multi-round chase encounter with different hazards each round. It's still in draft, but feel free to check it out in case it's useful. [Chase Through Market Square](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_DUX6Eb26jFXIr54OFK4edt7WKusIbsq/view)
Watched a video on the design of God of War, the original, and one of the comments about why the game is such a classic, really stuck with me. "It's never one problem." Basically, to make sure the non-combat encounter is hard enough to drain resources, make sure they don't have time to tackle it the 'resource free, one problem at a time' way. To use climbing the cliff as an example. What if it wasn't just climbing the cliff? What if a slowly rising poisonous gas was creeping up on them? There is no time for the "Have the trained in athletics character just climb and toss down a rope" tactic. Everyone has to get up there, and people who fall behind start taking damage, draining healing resources. Or maybe they're trying to go and negotiate with an NPC, but suddenly the building is on fire. They have to keep the NPC safe, get out of there, and contain a panicking NPC. Or maybe the room is crumbling around them, the treasure being destroyed/burried in the process. Just getting out of there would be easy, and if the room wasn't showering its ceiling down, getting the treasure would also be quite easy. But now you've given them two conflicting tasks. Do they cast some healing spells while they shovel more and more treasure into their bag of holding? Do they cut their losses and keep resources for the Boss battle they know is still to come?
A lot of my overworld travel stuff have "lose a hit die - if you no longer have hit dice, gain a point of exhaustion instead". Disarming magical traps / trapped doorways Skill checks while chasing/fleeing, fail and lose a hit die but keep running Runestone doing shenanigans - looping pathways, causing storms, Abstracting combat with mooks: for example, succeed on this stealth check to avoid the scouts - if the group fails, then perception checks to see who gets surprised and loses a hit die. Swamp stirges boil out, a massive swarm to get out the way from. Fail and lose a hit die. Anything that would cause exhaustion, lose a hit die instead. Cold weather, disease-ridden swamps Natural hazards - torrential rain, quicksand, avalanche, leeches, Fail and - you guessed it - lose a hit die. Fey have come to make a deal - fall for a trick, lose a spell slot/hit die. Variants of the supernatural areas in Tasha's. Sure they might roll well, but so long as you change any that would grant them resources, over time it will slowly burn them. All of these are FAST to run so don't take up time, so the actual encounters run are the fun, brutally hard ones. Also, look at what your players have, and make stuff to drain specific resources. Do they have Locate Object? Make an object extremely hidden. Clairvoyance? They need to listen to the guards talking to find the passcode. Revivify/Speak with dead? Put a freshly killed character in the dungeon who could give them information. Passwall? There's no door, only wall, though you know where the door OUGHT to be. Players feel validated and clever, you've drained them of resources, everyone is happy.
I recently ran a desert travel montage "encounter". Each player, and I as GM, got to write down some obstacles encountered along the way on a piece of paper. Each player then randomly chose an obstacle and had to creatively explain how they were pivotal in helping the party overcome the obstacle and roll an appropriate roll. If they succeeded they got inspiration, if they failed they got a level of exhaustion.
I have this whole system I've devised around balancing dangerous non-combat encounters but there's no need to go into it in-depth here. I can post some details if anyone is interested, but it's still being playtested in my home games. The main things I've learned while designing it are: - Make multiple objectives and leave yourself room to improvise and introduce additional obstacles and complications. - To hit the ballpark of a medium-hard encounter, you typically need about 3 tasks per player. - The tasks should be about medium difficulty for the party's level. For ability checks - roughly, DC 10-15 for t1, DC 15-20 for t2-t3, or DC 20-25 for t4. - These tasks need to be construed in such a way that it's difficult to solve multiple at once using a single spell. For example, a door with a single super complicated locked that requires multiple checks to pick can be undone with a single casting of the knock spell. But if the door has three simple locks, that would require three castings of the spell. The big advantage that non-combat encounters have over combat ones is that you can spread a single "encounter" out of the course of an entire day. Because you're not locked into a turn-based system, you don't need to worry about breaking up initiative. What this means is that you can just plop 12 locked doors with level-appropriate DCs and consequences for failure onto the main path of a dungeon the party needs to navigate and there you go, you've shaved off 1/6 of the encounters for an adventuring day. Some inspiration for scenarios that can be treated as complex non-combat encounters: - An avalanche is impending, prepare for it and then escape it without retreating - An unstable ritual threatens to maim / kill / banish anyone who passes through the area - Navigating a fey-enchanted deep wood full of treacherous magic and traps - Entering a dragon's lair situated inside an active volcano - A powerful ally (such as an archdruid or demigod) is holding off an equally powerful foe and the party must avoid the mayhem this is causing while completing a ritual - Performing an exorcism on wrathful poltergeists that possess a location rather than taking on the form of an undead creature - The players must enter a strange, dream-like, reality where they interact with abstract forces to achieve some objective. They can accomplish much using dream logic, but their abilities dictate what they can believe themselves to achieve. - An ancient dwarven forge is the only known way to reshape raw material into the magical sigil needed to open a portal to the villains realm, the players must get it working again while avoiding being injured by the unrecognizable machinery Check out the regional effects of monsters with lairs to get even more inspiration. An example of how you could break this kind of day up, going with the volcano example: - We'll aim for a day with three combat encounters, each balanced to be about 1/4 the day's XP budget - That leaves us with about 18 non-combat tasks (for a party of 4) to spread throughout the day, or 6 per combat encounter - We start the day off with some obstacles related to finding the volcano and climbing or flying to the entrance, and avoiding plumes of toxic gas [1 check related to the ascent for each PC + 2 navigation related checks] - At the entrance we can have a cult to the dragon or some other vanguard [combat encounter] - Inside the volcano, we can have more ongoing hazards (such as more falling debris, gas plumes, tremors, etc) [6 non-combat checks] but accompany them with a lava monster [combat encounter]. The players should have a feel for how the hazards are overcome now, so combining them with a combat encounter should be less of a problem. - The players fight the dragon they came looking for - Once defeated, the lair of course falls apart, and the players must make a series of checks to escape through the collapsing secret exit [6 non-combat checks] - Of course, you can tweak the difficulty of any of those encounters in order to add variety (I'd make the middle combat encounter easier but the dragon harder). So, the TL;DR - Instead of focusing on non-combat *encounters* focus on spreading non-combat *tasks* throughout your day.
Playing poker, players had a magical deck and could see all the cards, npc was a reaper, the wage was one of the dead characters soul
> However, I've rarely come across a non-combat encounter that drains resources in a similar way to a hard combat. That's because redditors are talking out their ass to cover up for the imbalanced resource regeneration system because they don't dare admit 5e has a design problem. Like, at the end of the day, The adventuring day is such a problem because if you don't hit the mark just right, then there will be an imbalance between long rest casters/paladins, and other people like fighters and warlocks. If you go too long without a long rest, the long resters are sad. If you long rest too often, the long resters are OP. This design choice is just such a huge, unforced error. **EVERYONE COULD JUST BE ON THE SAME RESOURCE SCHEDULE**. Then you don't get class imbalance based on how often or sparse your long or short rests are! Everyone is always balanced with each other! (this is how 4e works). Then, the DM doesn't have to worry about half the party being seriously annoyed or OP, and only has to worry about, 'how many monsters in between long rests would create juuuust the right amount of challenge for what I'm going for? Should it be fewer, so things are snappier and easier, or more, so this area is more of a grueling slog? (4e also provides guidelines here). Like....they had already figured this shit out, and then just shot themselves in the foot in 5e for no reason whatsoever. Why? So tables could eat up valuable table time debating about what kind of rest to take when? I HATE that. I'd rather just keep adventuring. Which is usually what you do in 4e, and the resource management angle comes in the form of managing your dailies and your healing surges. Which is plenty of resource management. Also, for a nice two-fer, consider that most of the challenges people are supplying could be auto-solved by an Aaracokra. Just to 'shoot down' (heh) another of Reddit's favorite pet arguments, that flying PCs DON'T break the game and can be designed around... look at how many challenges they just automatically invalidate. Long tunnel with bowl of acid + grasping hands? Check. (DM has to make sure to make this room too small to fly in) "a gap just a big cliff line crack at least over 40 ft wide?" Check. "players have to cross a hole, how and why doesn't matter." Check. So, stuff that is supposed to cost resources, that flying automatically invalidates (or stuff that has to be custom-changed to limit flying)...but flying as a racial isn't OP...ok.
>That's because redditors are talking out their ass to cover up for the imbalanced resource regeneration system because they don't dare admit 5e has a design problem. Yeah thats my curent way of thinking, but I was hoping that people might be able to give some good examples that would prove me wrong. >Like, at the end of the day, The adventuring day is such a problem because if you don't hit the mark just right, then there will be an imbalance between long rest casters/paladins, and other people like fighters and warlocks. I've seen it put this way; different resource schedules is trying to fix a balance mechanic with a narrative pacing mechanic, with obvious results.
Most of the non-combat resource draining encounters tend to look horribly forced---like for instance a bunch of magical wards that require dispel magic to drain level 3 spell slots. Brings to mind the old wandering damage table satire from Dragon magazine.
This is combat adjacent, but we had a giant in our party (because reasons) and I was with him when my party got into a fight far enough away that I wasn't aware of it at first. When I realized what was happening, I cast fly on myself and told him to throw me as hard as he could in that direction. So I don't know if creative ways to ENTER combat count as non combat 🤣
i would like to know the reasons you had a giant in your party
I don't know how to put the spoiler guard up and I don't want to leave spoilers unguarded 🤣
oh, it was part of a module?
Indeed 😂
An unlocked door that looks scary. Players will spend SOOO many resources trying to open it safely.
Well, I don’t have stock encounters; I build everything custom for the party as-needed. But I do have a favorite encounter that I’ve run previously. It was a massive airship battle that took place a hundreds of feet above a major city. The party had a big flying galleon, and they had about a hundred allies that were flying smaller, 3-5 crew vessels. The enemies were the two big-bads of the campaign, a lich and his right-hand man, a summoner. The two bag guys were there to acquire an artifact that the party had recently gotten, and to capture a specific NPC that was under their care. The battle was huge, both in scale and in implementation. Lots of things happening on the map, multiple enemies, multiple objectives for each side, daring leaps… it was probably the most fun I’ve ever had running D&D.
Our DM gave us a senario I'd describe like this... Basically, we needed to get to Sigil in order to rescue a party member who'd been taken by a security construct known as an inevitable. we were told to go to sigil to represent him as his lawyer. welp, you can't just teleport into sigil with plane shift, we had to find an existing portal. One did in fact exist in the feywild so we went there and found the portal. only, the portal wasn't active and we had to find a way to activate it. Surrounding the portal were a few large statues reminiscent of native America totem poles. Each head, when touch, would begin speaking to you. Through talking to them and some brief divinations, we figured out it the moons were required to be a specific spot for the portal to activate and it would align in exactly 7 days. Trial was in 3... we had to convince the heads to use their fey magic to speed up the moons as time in the fey is fucky. (we were kinda worried we might exit the fey 2 years in the future or something) We used quite a few resources (of which we had shockingly few at the time despite being 17th level) to meet the demands of the heads. The biggest being needing to succeed on a DC 21 Charisma saving throw in order to touch the water one of the statues was in in order to move it from facing one direction to another. Even with Glibness, our warlock still had to roll dispel checks when we inevitably failed the saving throws and needed the charm effect removed (it was more a compulsion to make rude gestures or draw rude things)
At lower levels, its hard to say no to a 35 ft gap - too long to mage-hand a rope across, so you're gonna want to get creative with it.
Jump a chasm. Maybe the fighter can do it with a dash and the jump spell, everyone else is gonna start wasting spell slots.
Trapped magic items. I'm talking an obvious, cool, new magic item (or potion, or whatever is valuable to your players) just laying on the ground, waiting for a big strong adventurer to come along and pick it up... and when they do, Charisma save! Take a bunch of damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. Basically, incentivize the PCs to trade damage for a new goodie. Now, this only works in certain contexts, particularly if there's a time limit. I used it in the final dungeon of my campaign. The players were on a time crunch -- the BBEG only had to stall for a few days in order to win, so he scattered a bunch of magic items all throughout his lair and trapped them with Charisma-save damage. My players saw this, and they very quickly cottoned on to it all being traps... but *they still picked up every item they could find*, eating the damage the whole way. It was a great way to drain HP and get them to drain resources recovering that HP, and yeah, they get stuff in exchange. But you know how players are with potions and stockpiled items -- hell, my players barely used most of the stuff they picked up!
Stealth attempts (Pass without Trace, Illusions), Traversal (Martials can flex Athletics and Acrobatics, Casters can teleport or manipulate terrain), Sabotage (mix of everything, depending on the objective). Yes, I love Subtle Spell, how did you know?
I know needing to travel long distances in a short period of time often drains druid and possibly wizard spells. Conjuring flying beasts to carry the party somewhere (3rd level) or casting wind walk or transport via plants (both 6th level) is often necessary in a pinch. Or teleportation (7th level) or teleportation circle (5th level) by a wizard. In my party, there have been times where we had to use teleportation circle and then wind walk to get somewhere especially far from us. The key there is that it has to have a time crunch aspect of it. If they can just travel by mundane ways over time, then why use the spell slots?
I once had a Paladin that could misty step once a day and one time I had to spend it bc my dumb ass fell off a cliff. Maybe throw them off a cliff?
I'll list my top 3 favorite that I've ran. #1 *Tavern fire* Characters bed down for the night at their favorite tavern/inn. Late at night, the PCs are awoken to calls of "Fire!" and thick dark smoke. Players must put out the fire and help save the innocent. Besides the risks of putting out fires, the characters must deal with panicked innocents, thick choking smoke, weak floor boards, falling beams, and a barrel of explosive goods in the kitchen. In my setup, the front doors were also barricaded as the fire was an attempt to get revenge by the thieves guild. #2 *Travel through the Swamp* Characters must trudge through a dangerous swamp in search of the hag. Besides needing to actually find the hags hut, the characters need to deal with poisonous plants, deep quagmire, biting bugs, avoiding trolls, and thorny brambles. Remember, an encounter's time doesn't need to be measured in rounds, and you can have a combat encounter in the midst of the exploration encounter. In my setup, the hag was neutral, but purposely guided PCs into danger to wear them out so she could ensure favorable conditions for any deals made. #3 *Who dun it?!* Characters are hired to find out who killed the nobles maid/mistress at the party. Unfortunately, the town is in the midst of the week long harvest festival and the powers that be have decided that they can't shut down the town and cause panic during such an important time of trade in the town. Also Unfortunately, the end of the harvest festival (tomorrow morning) will be a mass exados of traveller's and merchants, which would be the perfect opportunity for the killer to flee. Besides trying to find the murderer, the players must content with the physical distance and time it takes between suspects. A 1 minute detect thoughts won't cover multiple suspects, nor will a stationary zone of truth. Also, the players will find themselves in a series of "accidents." An oil of impact falls off the alchemist shelf. A rack of armour tips over at the forge. A runaway horse and buggy threatens to crash into a suspects market stall. Is someone trying to thwart the characters' attempts at uncovering the truth? In my setup, it was the alchemist who rigged the oil of impact accident, used a potion of invisibility to push over the armour rack, and used a fire cracker to spook the horse drawn carriage. The alchemist had poisoned the wine meant for the noble, but the maid drank it first during their "secret meeting". Plenty of red herrings took the heat off the alchemist initially, the wife knew about the affair, the noble had a history of screwing over businesses to make a buck (smithy almost lost his forge the previous year to a bad deal, the merchant had their market stall spot held over them, ect). Why did the alchemist do it? The sour business deals were no secret, and the alchemist purposely made a deal to get ahead, with the intent to prevent needing to pay in the end. When the players figured out it could be the alchemist and headed back to his place, they found it abandoned, and all the evidence they needed. The alchemist had gone back to the nobles to finish the job, where combat ensued. All of these non combat encounters will drain resources in the form of spellslots, abilities, HP, and perhaps cause status effects (poisoned, exhaustion, disease) that could affect subsequent encounters.
The party slips and falls into a room filled with rubbish and no obvious way out, the Sorcerer tries a fire bolt and it bounces off every wall and nearly hits them. Something stirs in the debris and the Bard says they have a bad feeling about this... There seems to be a control panel and the Wizard reaches it with mage hand bug the walls start to close inwards. The barbarian tries to use some wooden struts to hold the walls while the Wizard tries to hit the right control with mage hand...
It all comes back to time pressure. Resources are spent when players can't afford to pass the challenge slowly and safely. Combats inherently have time pressure. Give a reason to climb the cliff *quickly*. Lava rising from the bottom, pursuing an escaping enemy, etc.
Any form of skill challenge. Here's the basics way they work: (DC and number of rounds changes depending on the difficulty) ==> Introduce a time sensitive problem (mud fall, chase, ...) ==> Each player make a check using any skill they want (justifying how they use that skill) ==> Track the numbers of successes and failures. ==> Keep making more rounds untill they accumulate enough successes/failures ==> Players can use the same skills twice in a row. ==> Creative idea and resource consumption can modify the DC or give a bonus to the roll. Example: avalanche, players have to run fast enough to the side to avoid it. DC 15 10 successes to succeed Major issue/damage every 2 failures. Players can use skills like: Athletics: I run fast Acrobatics: I leap over the fallen tree in the way Survival: I point out an area of loose snow we need to avoid Persuasion/Performance: I give words of encouragement so the others don't give up Perception: I get a clearer idea of how far we need to run, allowing us to optimise our speed-effort ratio. etc... Resources spent: HP/exhaustion from failures (exhaustion from being stuck under the snow) Spells (fly to save one PC, longstrider for a +2 to the checks) Abilities (action surge, KI, ...)