I just had an idea from the number 1 spot of the looping forest where every time they loop everything ages 10 years except the players. That way even the things they see look slightly different and maybe there are young monstrosities they fight and scare off which become terrifying later. Once they solve the time loop they resume normal time line
Song birds of the swamp. That one killed me. The set up is the party is walking through the swamp and in the distance hear some song birds singing. In a swamp. If the players go to investigate they find that it is coming from under a old gnarled tree in a pond. What is happening is that their is methane bubbling up from under the tree. Staying near the tree can be dangerous, but not as dangerous as fire. Any fire in the area around the tree basically drops a fireball on the flame. Had a game where our wizard got paranoid by the gnarled old tree that he "could sense no magic from" became convinced it was under some non detection and shot some flame cantrip at it. I was near the tree investigating it. I get hit with a fireball. Paranoia confirmed, Wizard starts "combat" and got first. Drops a fireball on the tree, and me. The gass ignites again. I die. Two rounds later he has "Killed" the tree. The GM tells us what really happened and I finish a new character.
Encounter 0, the setup: You're walking through the forest, there's noone around you and your sending spell is dead, out of the corner of your eye you see him. . .he's about 30 feet back, he's gaining. . .
I’ve been thinking of a forest encounter with pixies. And this is a perfect time to share it. It starts with the party seeing dancing lights in the distance. If they don’t go and investigate later on they’ll see a chest with treasure leaning against some overgrowth. If they ignore that they’ll begin to hear little scoffs and sighs around them along with very slight chatter. And if they either ignore any other of the pixies advances or leave the forest a group of pixies will fly at them, throw trash and other miscellaneous stuff at them, call them no fun and fly away. If the party did investigate any of the lures the pixies left they will suddenly feel sleepy and pass out. Any party members immune to sleep will be suddenly entangled by vines. The pixies will then come out of the woodwork and steal all the party’s stuff and polymorph them into rats. When the party wakes up a dozen or so excited pixies will tell them that they hid all their stuff around the forest and, as rats, they must get the stuff back. If the party members run out of time or turn back into humans by taking too much damage they lose. Now losing can matter or not depending on how the party takes the prank. If they get angry at the pixies or say nothing the pixies will take their stuff and leave. If the party found the prank funny or complement the pixies the pixies will be smitten (in a non romantic way) and give them all their stuff back. Now if they won or befriended the pixies after lossing, the pixies will hand them the chest with around 100 to 500 gold worth of treasure in it, and will be friends with the party from that point on. I hope that’s a good encounter, I haven’t been able to run it yet. But I think some goofy fun with some pixies could be a good one off adventure for a party.
Great vid. I love ones like this that give creative ideas. Mostly that's non-combat stuff like this, though you could do a top ten ways to make combat more interesting; examples: Have intractable set pieces, like cutting the rope of a chandelier to make it fall. Have a time factor where the fight wouldn't normally be deadly, but after a certain number of rounds the fight is "lost" even if you're all alive, such as a hostage being killed or a ritual being completed, this creates a sense of urgency and forces the players to take risks they otherwise might not.
Hello D&DLogs, great video! You could set up 3 encounters in a row using the magical flowers than the sleeping animals and finally the enlarged animals. To me, they all fit together nicely. Thanks for the video, you have a wonderful day!
When DMing the looping forest, make sure you don't just say exactly the same thing over and over again. Change up the wording each time while describing the same location. Also don't use a map until they figure out that things are repeating, or cycle between two maps but make sure to keep up a good poker face to make it so that the party members are the ones who realize what's going on before you tell them.
You can combine the flower trail with the endless loop, in case your players character are rolling bad wis checks and have low passive perception. Or you could reverse the rule for increasing difficulty for each roll.
I am really glad that I have seen this since I have my players go through a forest a few times. Those are some pretty cool ideas, plus I could even use some of them in plains. I always seem to forget that encounters don't have to be combat related. Especially since my players have already gotten used to me throwing them into combat lol. I would like to see your top 10 ideas for mountain encounters.
I runned an encounter in a small village in the way to Illefarn mountain, the players found a group of bersekers (Ragnar, Floki, Lagertha, Bjorn and so on, Im a big fan of Vikings) just having fun and a little drunk. There was a challenge, a fist fight between one of the players and one of the bersekers, and finally Ragnar went to Illefarn with the party. He had some mushrooms to get his Rage. If some of the party ate the mushroom he had to make a Con save, on a succeed he was on rage formsome rounds …on a failure he was having a allucination for some rounds.
A video about various encounters in a city/urban area could be great as well and be different from the forest where it's assumed the population density is much lower.
Think my favorite encounter I've done is the taking the Australian hoax of dropbears by having bears with inflated stealth skills in trees doing stealth checks. It's so simple yet it always gets great reactions out of people when they're suddenly sneak attacked by a fucking bear.
One encounter i got is long abandon building . which be their only for flavor. tell the history of the woods and what lives in the woods . it can also be what left after some thing went down. They may find old items worth some thing or not. the bones being slayed long ago . i It may be so old it a death trap if they are to watchful of what they do. maybe they fall into the basement. Right thought the floor and take a little damage.
This is fantastic! I don't suppose you've got anything similar for deserts, do you? My players are in a huge desert with an anti-magic field permeating it.
I have a twist on the lost child encounter. Have it be a 2 day travel and on that night the child tries to kill one of the party members and it ends up being a doppelganger that has been traveling with you the whole time. Pretty good for a low leveled party
I find that leads to Players expecting all wandering\trapped\prisoner NPCs to be disguised monsters and just killing them. I prefer to use is more rarely.
@@gmradio2436 that's the point, now when they could have saved an innocent person but killed or left them to die, there should be consequences to their choices
@@PapiCito You lost me. How does having the kid be a monster trying to kill them save some one. Unless this is schrodinger's encounter. Then the players lose trust in the GM.
@@gmradio2436 I'm talking about, the next time they come across someone else they can help or save it will have them think before doing so. Like they can cast spells or do checks to get more information before just trusting someone for no reason other then taking someone's word. But if they just end up killing someone it would come with consequences. It makes them think more and use resources before a bigger fight in the near future.
This has player trust issues. Not character, player. This is both a teaching moment on how the GM and world work, and a tone setter. The lesson is the world( and possibly the GM) is hostile and out to get you. Expect to be betrayed. The tone is a grimdark. Then we look at the encounter through the lens of DnD.This is a simple, low Cr encounter. Most likely player are lever 3 or less. Acces to detection spells is limited. Skills to detect a doppelganger are both not high enough and betting on a GM's roleplayed clues or players to pick up on them depends to much on the people involved. The creature itself jas a built-in sneak attack that can one shot some classes. Betrayal encounters have there place in game, but this not the best spot.
Also I saw you had the spellcards for th xanahar's spell I udnerstand if you don't want to tell me where o get them but maybe you could suggest where I start looking?
I love how the encounters are just 1 big story
I just had an idea from the number 1 spot of the looping forest where every time they loop everything ages 10 years except the players. That way even the things they see look slightly different and maybe there are young monstrosities they fight and scare off which become terrifying later. Once they solve the time loop they resume normal time line
so excited for top 10 X encounters now!
Yes! I only hope that we get Swamp and Desert encounters next!
Song birds of the swamp. That one killed me. The set up is the party is walking through the swamp and in the distance hear some song birds singing. In a swamp. If the players go to investigate they find that it is coming from under a old gnarled tree in a pond. What is happening is that their is methane bubbling up from under the tree. Staying near the tree can be dangerous, but not as dangerous as fire. Any fire in the area around the tree basically drops a fireball on the flame.
Had a game where our wizard got paranoid by the gnarled old tree that he "could sense no magic from" became convinced it was under some non detection and shot some flame cantrip at it. I was near the tree investigating it. I get hit with a fireball. Paranoia confirmed, Wizard starts "combat" and got first. Drops a fireball on the tree, and me. The gass ignites again. I die. Two rounds later he has "Killed" the tree. The GM tells us what really happened and I finish a new character.
Encounter 0, the setup: You're walking through the forest, there's noone around you and your sending spell is dead, out of the corner of your eye you see him. . .he's about 30 feet back, he's gaining. . .
It's Mister Wizard! He made it back after all!
Shia Labeouf!
Well time to go watch that again.
I love how calm and nonchalantly describe ways you can gaslight er I mean immerse your players.
I like the idea of a list of encounters that don't have to result in combat, as it's very easy to forget to make such things
Love the magic flowers one, but I have a very distinct idea of what my players would use this ability to draw.
I’ve been thinking of a forest encounter with pixies. And this is a perfect time to share it.
It starts with the party seeing dancing lights in the distance. If they don’t go and investigate later on they’ll see a chest with treasure leaning against some overgrowth. If they ignore that they’ll begin to hear little scoffs and sighs around them along with very slight chatter. And if they either ignore any other of the pixies advances or leave the forest a group of pixies will fly at them, throw trash and other miscellaneous stuff at them, call them no fun and fly away. If the party did investigate any of the lures the pixies left they will suddenly feel sleepy and pass out. Any party members immune to sleep will be suddenly entangled by vines. The pixies will then come out of the woodwork and steal all the party’s stuff and polymorph them into rats. When the party wakes up a dozen or so excited pixies will tell them that they hid all their stuff around the forest and, as rats, they must get the stuff back. If the party members run out of time or turn back into humans by taking too much damage they lose. Now losing can matter or not depending on how the party takes the prank. If they get angry at the pixies or say nothing the pixies will take their stuff and leave. If the party found the prank funny or complement the pixies the pixies will be smitten (in a non romantic way) and give them all their stuff back. Now if they won or befriended the pixies after lossing, the pixies will hand them the chest with around 100 to 500 gold worth of treasure in it, and will be friends with the party from that point on.
I hope that’s a good encounter, I haven’t been able to run it yet. But I think some goofy fun with some pixies could be a good one off adventure for a party.
this sounds amazing
Sounds really nice!
I’m glad people like my idea. I hope either I, or somebody else, could run it someday to test it out to see if it is good in practice.
Great vid. I love ones like this that give creative ideas. Mostly that's non-combat stuff like this, though you could do a top ten ways to make combat more interesting; examples: Have intractable set pieces, like cutting the rope of a chandelier to make it fall. Have a time factor where the fight wouldn't normally be deadly, but after a certain number of rounds the fight is "lost" even if you're all alive, such as a hostage being killed or a ritual being completed, this creates a sense of urgency and forces the players to take risks they otherwise might not.
You could've ended the video with Mr Wizard showing up and knowing the way out of the forest :(
Hello D&DLogs, great video! You could set up 3 encounters in a row using the magical flowers than the sleeping animals and finally the enlarged animals. To me, they all fit together nicely.
Thanks for the video, you have a wonderful day!
Your content is really useful, thank you.
These videos are great. Definitely gonna use some of these for my game
When DMing the looping forest, make sure you don't just say exactly the same thing over and over again. Change up the wording each time while describing the same location. Also don't use a map until they figure out that things are repeating, or cycle between two maps but make sure to keep up a good poker face to make it so that the party members are the ones who realize what's going on before you tell them.
You can combine the flower trail with the endless loop, in case your players character are rolling bad wis checks and have low passive perception. Or you could reverse the rule for increasing difficulty for each roll.
As a DM, I love skill challenges. They have almost as much depth as combat while providing a more creative, utility-based encounter.
I am really glad that I have seen this since I have my players go through a forest a few times. Those are some pretty cool ideas, plus I could even use some of them in plains. I always seem to forget that encounters don't have to be combat related. Especially since my players have already gotten used to me throwing them into combat lol.
I would like to see your top 10 ideas for mountain encounters.
Barkskin seems cool, I may alter it to a d4/d6 reduction in physical damage but increased fire damage.
Sea fairing and underwater adventures would be cool
For sure do more of these!
Oh my! Cant wait for Winter env. encounters since im dming Rime of the frostmaiden
Water encounters? Space encounters for spelljammer?
This video was great. Please make thme for other terrain types (assuming you havent).
About to send my players into a forest so this will be very welcome
I runned an encounter in a small village in the way to Illefarn mountain, the players found a group of bersekers (Ragnar, Floki, Lagertha, Bjorn and so on, Im a big fan of Vikings) just having fun and a little drunk. There was a challenge, a fist fight between one of the players and one of the bersekers, and finally Ragnar went to Illefarn with the party. He had some mushrooms to get his Rage. If some of the party ate the mushroom he had to make a Con save, on a succeed he was on rage formsome rounds …on a failure he was having a allucination for some rounds.
Great video, pretty useful. About future videos, maybe encounters in less known places, like Shadowfell?
A video about various encounters in a city/urban area could be great as well and be different from the forest where it's assumed the population density is much lower.
Think my favorite encounter I've done is the taking the Australian hoax of dropbears by having bears with inflated stealth skills in trees doing stealth checks. It's so simple yet it always gets great reactions out of people when they're suddenly sneak attacked by a fucking bear.
Ice wilderness encounters? I'd love them for my Rime Campain
I love these videos, could you do one for roadside encounters?
cool ideas
More like this please.
One encounter i got is long abandon building . which be their only for flavor. tell the history of the woods and what lives in the woods . it can also be what left after some thing went down. They may find old items worth some thing or not. the bones being slayed long ago . i It may be so old it a death trap if they are to watchful of what they do. maybe they fall into the basement. Right thought the floor and take a little damage.
This is fantastic! I don't suppose you've got anything similar for deserts, do you? My players are in a huge desert with an anti-magic field permeating it.
I have a twist on the lost child encounter. Have it be a 2 day travel and on that night the child tries to kill one of the party members and it ends up being a doppelganger that has been traveling with you the whole time. Pretty good for a low leveled party
I find that leads to Players expecting all wandering\trapped\prisoner NPCs to be disguised monsters and just killing them. I prefer to use is more rarely.
@@gmradio2436 that's the point, now when they could have saved an innocent person but killed or left them to die, there should be consequences to their choices
@@PapiCito You lost me. How does having the kid be a monster trying to kill them save some one. Unless this is schrodinger's encounter. Then the players lose trust in the GM.
@@gmradio2436 I'm talking about, the next time they come across someone else they can help or save it will have them think before doing so. Like they can cast spells or do checks to get more information before just trusting someone for no reason other then taking someone's word. But if they just end up killing someone it would come with consequences. It makes them think more and use resources before a bigger fight in the near future.
This has player trust issues. Not character, player. This is both a teaching moment on how the GM and world work, and a tone setter. The lesson is the world( and possibly the GM) is hostile and out to get you. Expect to be betrayed. The tone is a grimdark.
Then we look at the encounter through the lens of DnD.This is a simple, low Cr encounter. Most likely player are lever 3 or less. Acces to detection spells is limited. Skills to detect a doppelganger are both not high enough and betting on a GM's roleplayed clues or players to pick up on them depends to much on the people involved. The creature itself jas a built-in sneak attack that can one shot some classes.
Betrayal encounters have there place in game, but this not the best spot.
Also I saw you had the spellcards for th xanahar's spell I udnerstand if you don't want to tell me where o get them but maybe you could suggest where I start looking?
The originals and the Photoshop templates are in the video description. I have to use the templates to create a lot of the non-phb spells
Ocean\Sea encounters that ate not pirates.
Top subclass of each class?
Top 10 weapons that deal Slashing damage and aren't Legendary/Artifact
That would basically be a list of magic great swords. Flametounge, Frostbrand, +3, and Dragon Slayer off the top of my head.