Ad-Hoc Challenge Handbook (WIP)

[Nytemare3701]

Ad-Hoc Challenge Handbook

This handbook is going to be a list of the many ways you can make an encounter harder WITHOUT raising the CR. Most stat blocks don't give any attention to the intelligence of a monster, except for perhaps a slightly better written tactics section. What about the monsters with 18+ int? These are by definition smarter than the smartest human ever to exist in our world. Ever watch Law Abiding Citizen? That guy is BELOW INT 18. DMs, play like a mastermind!
Special mention will be given for things that do raise CR, but are FAR more powerful than they should be for the increase.

This is my first handbook, so I'll probably screw something up.  

Key:
Orange: Intelligent Creatures or NPCs use this stuff.
Blue: Only the REALLY intelligent (IE DM's) critters use these.
Brown: Natural. Probably terrain based or location specific.

Table of Contents:

1. Nonmagical "Traps"
2. Magical "Traps"
3. Tucker's Kobolds
4. Strategy
5. Tactics
6. Miscellaneous

[Nytemare3701]

Nonmagic "Traps"

Arrow Slits

Marbles
Sized Tunnels
[spoiler]

• Having tunnels that only tiny creatures can enter where the kobolds can run to can help a lot, also. The kobolds fire a crossbow bolt from hiding, and then duck into a nearby tunnel only to pop out of a different tunnel entrance a couple of rounds later and fire at them again. Readied actions with ranged weapons will negate this advantage soon enough, but it will probably give the kobolds an extra round or two of attacks.

[/spoiler]
TangleFoot Bags
[spoiler]

Tanglefoot bags are effective vs most anything without Freedom of Movement, they are a great debuff, that hinders Combat ability even if they make the save .... all you have to do is hit them with a Ranged Touch Attack

[/spoiler]
Weather
[spoiler]

Weather conditions. Kind of a subset of terrain disadvantage, but fog, darkness, or heavy rain can nearly as debilitating to a party as being forced to fight underwater. Dead magic zones are good too, though a bit of a jerky move if it's for an extended period.

[/spoiler][/list]

[Nytemare3701]

Magic "Traps"

Earthbound Spell: Slap this on any caster to get on the fly spell traps.
Entangling Spell: Tell chargers no.

Entangling Earthbound Save-or-Suck: The ubercharger takes a Save-or-Suck and gets entangled. Fuck You.

Silent Image [spoiler]

I'm going to use kobolds as my example NPCs here as that is what the original thread was talking about, and they're a classic for this kind of thing, anyway.

• A cliff with a Silent Image over it doesn't technically count as a trap. This would work like some of those old "Coyote and Road Runner" skits. You have a path with a break in it, and a huge dropoff at the break, and you cover the break with an illusion of the path still being there. Until they "interact" with it, the PCs won't even get a saving throw. You should probably give them a reflex save to avoid falling off, just to be fair. Or have an NPC "redshirt" go first.
• Silent Image can also provide total concealment for the kobolds that they themselves can see through (because they know it is an illusion). Enemies might not even get a save unless they can physically reach the illusion to "interact" with it (depends on how the DM interprets interact). So a bunch of kobolds on a cliff with an illusion of a rock wall on top of it can fire down on people below them with impunity (and total concealment ).

[/spoiler]

[Nytemare3701]

Strategy
A DM's monsters and NPCs have the advantage of time. Strategy is calculated as (Time+Resources)x INT

Difficult Terrain
[spoiler]

Difficult terrain doesn't increase the CR, but can make things much more difficult for our intrepid heroes. Having the kobolds attack from hiding (ranged attacks) while the PCs are in difficult terrain will make it take at least twice as long for the PCs to get to them, unless they have some way to ignore the terrain.

[/spoiler]
Ambushes
[spoiler]

another fun thing to do is use Ambushes .... the Targets are Flatfooted(no Dex to AC,cant make AoO) ...but wait , there more.... if you use Alchemical Splash Weapons you make Ranged Touch Attacks(ignore Armor,Shield and Natural Armor bonuses) .... thus there is a Great chance that very Low level characters will hit much Higher level characters.

[/spoiler]
Extreme Range
[spoiler]

Enemies capable of fighting from extreme ranges. A longbow user with far shot and whatever from, say, 2000 feet away and up a tall tree will be a tough challenge for most any party, even if they are much higher level

[/spoiler][spoiler]

[Nytemare3701]

Tactics
It has been said many times, but it bears repeating. A strategy won't last for more than a few rounds of combat. What you do next depends on your tactics.

[Nytemare3701]

Miscellaneous

Scripted DM Fiat:
[Spoiler]

Multitasking (the ship is sinking and the evil wizard is getting away in the only raft and the skeletons he summoned are slaughtering the crew and the captain's daughter fell overboard in the storm which just keeps getting worse and so on and so on)

[/spoiler]
Leadership:
[spoiler]

Minions granted by Leadership (or thrallherd) are the benefits of a feat and/or class feature. Just as spells cast by a wizard don't raise his CR (even if he's summoning critters much higher level than he), those benefits shouldn't either.

Even though they should.

[/spoiler]

[PhaedrusXY]

I'm going to use kobolds as my example NPCs here as that is what the original thread was talking about, and they're a classic for this kind of thing, anyway.

• A cliff with a Silent Image over it doesn't technically count as a trap. This would work like some of those old "Coyote and Road Runner" skits. You have a path with a break in it, and a huge dropoff at the break, and you cover the break with an illusion of the path still being there. Until they "interact" with it, the PCs won't even get a saving throw. You should probably give them a reflex save to avoid falling off, just to be fair. Or have an NPC "redshirt" go first.
• Silent Image can also provide total concealment for the kobolds that they themselves can see through (because they know it is an illusion). Enemies might not even get a save unless they can physically reach the illusion to "interact" with it (depends on how the DM interprets interact). So a bunch of kobolds on a cliff with an illusion of a rock wall on top of it can fire down on people below them with impunity (and total concealment ).
• Difficult terrain doesn't increase the CR, but can make things much more difficult for our intrepid heroes. Having the kobolds attack from hiding (ranged attacks) while the PCs are in difficult terrain will make it take at least twice as long for the PCs to get to them, unless they have some way to ignore the terrain.
• Having tunnels that only tiny creatures can enter where the kobolds can run to can help a lot, also. The kobolds fire a crossbow bolt from hiding, and then duck into a nearby tunnel only to pop out of a different tunnel entrance a couple of rounds later and fire at them again. Readied actions with ranged weapons will negate this advantage soon enough, but it will probably give the kobolds an extra round or two of attacks.

[carnivore]

Kobolds also make the most from NPC classes.... notice:

Challenge Rating: Kobolds with levels in NPC classes have a CR equal to their .

thus a Kobold Warrior 4/ Ardent 2 .... is a CR 3 encounter, even though he can have 3rd lvl Psion Powers available and has a BAB +5 (Feats required: Practiced Manifester(Ardent))

another fun thing to do is use Ambushes .... the Targets are Flatfooted(no Dex to AC,cant make AoO) ...but wait , there more.... if you use Alchemical Splash Weapons you make Ranged Touch Attacks(ignore Armor,Shield and Natural Armor bonuses) .... thus there is a Great chance that very Low level characters will hit much Higher level characters.

Tanglefoot bags are effective vs most anything without Freedom of Movement, they are a great debuff, that hinders Combat ability even if they make the save .... all you have to do is hit them with a Ranged Touch Attack


 

[PhaedrusXY]

Kobolds also make the most from NPC classes.... notice:

Challenge Rating: Kobolds with levels in NPC classes have a CR equal to their .

thus a Kobold Warrior 4/ Ardent 2 .... is a CR 3 encounter, even though he can have 3rd lvl Psion Powers available and has a BAB +5 (Feats required: Practiced Manifester(Ardent))

While the RAW may be debateable, I think that's definitely crapping all over the RAI. According to that, a commoner 1/wizard 9 is only CR 7, too.

[carnivore]

i would not reduce regular Class levels with the -3 mod, i would only reduce based on NPC classes .... in your Example(commoner 1/wizard 9), i would give only the subtraction for the NPC level.. thus it would be a CR 9 ....

 

[Nytemare3701]

Updated with both the new info, I'll hold off on the class levels thing for now.

[Prime32]

Kobolds also make the most from NPC classes.... notice:

Challenge Rating: Kobolds with levels in NPC classes have a CR equal to their .

thus a Kobold Warrior 4/ Ardent 2 .... is a CR 3 encounter, even though he can have 3rd lvl Psion Powers available and has a BAB +5 (Feats required: Practiced Manifester(Ardent))

While the RAW may be debateable, I think that's definitely crapping all over the RAI. According to that, a commoner 1/wizard 9 is only CR 7, too.

i would not reduce regular Class levels with the -3 mod, i would only reduce based on NPC classes .... in your Example(commoner 1/wizard 9), i would give only the subtraction for the NPC level.. thus it would be a CR 9 ....

 

Loredrake Venerable Dragonwrought kobold Sorcerer 1/Warrior 2.

[Endarire]

Please bold your colored entries for ease of reading.  Also, what does the green text mean?

Otherwise, I like this concept!

[Etarran]

I really like this idea for a handbook! You should probably include a note with some of the more difficult tactics that they won't play well with a lot of groups. Some of these can cross the line from being a fun challenge to being downright mean, and not every group is into that.

That said, some things off the top of my head. Low level parties especially will have trouble with these, but a lot of them stay good on into higher levels:

- Time limits or running battles (have to get the books out of the library before the fire spreads but - oh no! - the door is blocked by kobolds; chase the thief through the city before he can make it to his horse and escape)

- The presence of innocents or noncombatants is a great way to provide cover, ruin aoes, block charges, and so on. Fighting in a crowd is going to be very difficult for many parties. Having to be responsible for civilians the enemy is actively trying to kill is even worse.

- Multitasking (the ship is sinking and the evil wizard is getting away in the only raft and the skeletons he summoned are slaughtering the crew and the captain's daughter fell overboard in the storm which just keeps getting worse and so on and so on)

- Weather conditions. Kind of a subset of terrain disadvantage, but fog, darkness, or heavy rain can nearly as debilitating to a party as being forced to fight underwater. Dead magic zones are good too, though a bit of a jerky move if it's for an extended period.

- Party conditions. Make the party do a forced march and be fatigued; attack them in their sleep (especially evil right after what appears to be a bossfight, so the party throws their resources at it expecting downtime); get them lost and starving; have them deal with a bunch of diseases or poisons to drain their spell slots and stats

- Odd weapons or abilities. Nets, harpoons, ranged pin, disarming, counterspelling, and so on. A party that isn't expecting to be entangled or pinned from range, dragged around (and maybe thrown off a cliff) or to have their spells stopped by a hidden wizard will rarely be prepared to deal with it. You can really throw people for a loop with exotic weapons especially.

- Enemies capable of fighting from extreme ranges. A longbow user with far shot and whatever from, say, 2000 feet away and up a tall tree will be a tough challenge for most any party, even if they are much higher level

[Nytemare3701]

Gonna pin some players to trees from 2000 feet away...

[Littha]

Gonna pin some players to trees from 2000 feet away...

there was a build around somewhere that could pin players to trees from orbit...

[NiteCyper]

1. Omit in-game vs. RL ability score (Intelligence) via superlative ability score extremity description.
1100 lbs deadlifted means 550 lb. Heavy (Max) Load = Strength Score 25.
[2010-12-19T10:14:19-0500]
Actually, reading a bit through the PHB CHAPTER I: ABILITIES, nothing says that the smartest human, IRL, maxes out at 18 INT, as you imply. The maximum generation of 18 in any ability score is only arbitrarily (e.g., in point buy and the PHB ability score generator).

2. Under Tactics, generally, you seem to have your definition of tactics switched with strategy.

[Nytemare3701]

*cough*

[Lycanthromancer]

The Leadership feat (and the attached minions) don't raise CR at all...

[Ed-Zero]

No love for the totally under cr'd monstrous crab eh? http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040221a or is this specifically for things that are non-monster? Either way, good idea.