Sep 19, 2025
I drew the Sunsward from Curse of Strahd. It was always one of my favorite things from Cos
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I drew the Sunsward from Curse of Strahd. It was always one of my favorite things from Cos
"scattered audio snippets providing players clues as to what happened at this facility" video game trope but it's repurposed Magic Mouth spells throughout an abandoned wizard tower that your DnD (or similar TTRPG) party is visiting (and expecting to be occupied). The original messages are partially overwritten by frantic, whispered updates on whatever Went Wrong Here
e.g. "Guardians of the tower, arise! Defend your master and his sanct--oh god it got through. It? Them? It's large, but I think there might be one or more handlers. It seems to have defenses against fire in particular. I think…oh shit. Shit!--who cross [so-and-so] will be utterly destroyed!"
near this particular Magic Mouth are several pulverized constructs. ahead is an ornate door, formerly Arcane Locked, now smashed through...
I'm running 3 different d&d campaigns with my Creative Writing classes.
Today something happened that I'm still reeling over.
Encounter with an enchanted (posessed) armour.
Two of the PCs immediately try to fight it with no results.
One of them goes: "I want to try to wear it"
I replied with "You'll have to catch it first."
So we roll for it. The armour rolls a 1. This kid successfully grapples the armour and wears it.
"Ok, now make a Wisdom saving throw against the armour who's trying to possess you" I made the armour roll as well, since it was a will vs will battle. The armour rolls another Nat 1.
This level 1 character walks away with a full enchanted armour and its angry ghost clinging to it, yapping in his ear.
I'm always amazed by what these kids can do, I swear I would've never thought of it-
Do you have like, a process for encounter planning? Or some kind of format? A bitch is struggling.
I don't have as clear cut of an answer I'd like to give you. The truth is, with the way CR is determined, and how wildly encounters can vary based on party composition, strategy, their rolls, and your rolls...sometimes an encounter could be extremely easy, and that same encounter with another group of the same size could be deadly. And how charitable your DM is with giving you magic items (especially if they are powerful) also plays a role. I struggle a lot with planning encounters in terms of 'balance'. So my answer? Don't create encounters for balance. Create encounters that make sense and use monsters you want to use. That doesn't mean throw your party of Lv 3's against a Tarrasque or a Beholder and hope for the best though! As a Dungeon Master running an encounter, your goal isn't to try and defeat the part. It's to make it challenging, and make them feel like they earned a triumphant victory. Monsters\Enemies may "know what they're doing," but so do YOU as the Dungeon Master. So, if a battle seems to be going too easy...some reinforcements show up! If a battle is going VERY poorly, make some decisions that still make sense, but give your party a bit of room to breath. A few examples, if they're losing but one or two enemies are close to death, they might run away even though victory is in the grasp because when push comes to shove they're cowards. What if the bandits are about to win, but one of them decides they can't live this life anymore? They can't live with themselves if they watch another group of would-be-heroes die for a few gold, so they suddenly switch sides. Maybe when the Owlbear takes out one hero, instead of 'finishing them off' it goes for the more immediate threat of the full HP fighter. The truth is there's a lot to running encounters that is fluid and dynamic and to be really good at it, you need to be able to adjust on the fly and make decisions about what is going to make the encounter most fun. It shouldn't just be "Okay, Combat has started, so now I'll try my best to TPK you all." TL:DR. Plan out encounters that make sense for wherever the party is going, and with whatever monsters you think will be fun. But, remember you have more control over the eb and flow of the battle than you realize! Don't be afraid to mix it up, or make choices that might seem 'sub optimal'. You're the DM, just make sure everyone is having fun.
Idk if that helps, but I hope it does! And if you ever want to stop by the Twitch Stream sometime, maybe we can do an impromptu Encounter Build!
Isometric ready-to-use dungeon set now on roll20 and drivethruRPG
Includes a multi-room multi-level dungeon with a combat arena, icey ruin and water temple variation, as well as tokens for each location so you can play immediately and a blank if you'd rather decorate yourself!
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POV: interacting with a holy object in a game be like
Most popular answer will be a random encounter for my players in my oregon trail themed DnD campaign!
weird ass plant
time loop!
water gets poisoned and they all have dysentery for a day
tornado
stampede
quicksand
mirage shenanigans
other (leave in notes!)
More encounters for travel in Dark Sun
The party comes across an oasis surrounded with lush vegetation, much of which is covered in mushrooms and fungi. When they reach the oasis, they find a druid cultivating mushrooms with all sorts of strange properties. As long as the party has no Defilers or Templars, they will be allowed to enter. If the party drinks from the oasis, they will be given a random potion effect, but will also enter a state of intense hallucination for 2d6 hours.
The party encounters a ruined monastery that was once home to a group of powerful psionicists. Within the temple is a small obsidian orb atop a pedestal. If anyone touches the orb, they will hear a voice in their head, thanking the person for finding them. This orb was meant to contain an incredibly powerful and somewhat insane psionicist from many years ago so they would not cause any destruction. Anyone who touches the orb may telepathically communicate with the mind within. It will demand the party finds it a new body and will threaten them to get its way if needed, but cannot actually do anything to the party while trapped in the orb. If it gets the body it demands through any methods, it will provide the characters with psionic boons or items, but will inevitably lead to a great deal of destruction.
In the road is a large caravan of Nikaal. They have several dozen carts pulled by Crodlu, but all of the carts are immobile, either because of damages or dead Crodlu. The Nikaal will plead for aid, asking the party to help them evacuate. They say they were attacked by a tribe of Brogh, but they will be back soon. The party can try to help theme scape, but the Brogh's will return in 5 minutes, with a group of 8. If the Nikaal escape, they will pay the party 100 ceramic, and possibly repay the favor at a later time.
A belgoi begins following the party, though it does not attack or even interact with them. It will avoidcombat at all costs. However, small items will begin to go missing after several days. Bigger and bigger items will begin to go missing, before the Belgoi eventually lures off a member of the party with its bell. However, instead of killing the character, it steals all of their stuff and leaves them in the desert. The party may attempt to track it down, finding all of their items and various other junk in a small cave nearby.