Turncoat
I need to conduct some brainstorming for an encounter in my coming session. I was hoping for suggestions on any way to make this fight cooler. The group includes a star warlock, a controller wizard, an avenging paladin, a ranger, and a rogue who attacks from stealth to gain combat advantage (obviously, we're playing 4th Edition D&D). The encounter in question takes place in the middle of the night in an inn they've stopped in. What happens is at about 1 in the morning, there is loud banging at the front door. A group of armed men are trying to force their way into the building. Once they've managed to break down the door and cut down the innkeeper, they transform into werewolves and begin tearing through the building, slaughtering all they encounter. I want the encounter to be difficult, chaotic, interesting, and desperate, with a real threat of death or serious injury occurring. However, fighting in some standard inn isn't really an interesting locale for a fight. In addition, a bunch of werewolves, at least as presented in the Monster Vault, don't have any particularly interesting abilities (they have a claw attack, a bite attack, and a club attack. Pretty boring stuff)
My question for the forum is what kind of elements can I introduce into the fight in order to make it a truly memorable encounter? I'll consider any and all ideas put forth, so please don't limit yourselves!
Comments
Also prepare the battlefield in advance. Make special note of items and obstacles that could escalate the scene. For example, a load bearing beam that if damaged from, say, an area attack, might bring a wall or ceiling down, drastically changing the battlefield.
Waves - have them stage out front and attack in waves (not sure how many there are). They can retreat as they are injured, fresh wave comes in while the injured ones stand aorund outside healing up with regen.
Pack mentality - have them focus on individuals, maybe weakest looking first (they are predators right?) They'll get opponents to "bloodied" faster if dogpiling (heh, sorry) and activate their Blood Rage faster.
Nit pick - Not a fan of greatclub as a weapon for them - make it a two handed sword or greataxe or something that, well, cuts and "bleeds" people.
They shouldn't be mindless, even wolves are pretty canny as a predators. If the party jumps in and seems tough, fall back and force the group to continue the fight outside where the wolves can use the doorway as a choke point.
Hope that sparks some ideas!
The very first adventure I ran my players through involved a fight at an inn. The characters didn't know each other. They were all in separate rooms. In one room someone started using a magical item which raised the dead and transformed the innkeeper's 3 children into ghouls. Here are the things that make a middle of the night fight in an inn hard for the players.
1. No armor. There isn't time to put it on.
2. Lack of light. Huge disadvantage if they cannot naturally see in the dark.
3. Narrow hallways which prevent multiple PCs from getting in their 'shots'
4. Other guests getting in the way
The adventure in my case was perfect. There was absolute chaos. Two of the PCs went downstairs to see what was going on and freaked out about the children being ghouls and headed back upstairs. The world is very low magic and monsters are things people tell their children not something you run into - ever. They figured out something weird was going on because one guest hadn't left his room. When they barged into his room his guard turned into a person possessed by a demon and there was a nasty fight. It was absolute chaos. Everyone loved it.
I would also like to mention that encounters seems interesting to me by interesting battlefields, in your case - the inn. If its a room with a bar, some tables and a chair it doesn't give you a whole lot of options... One of the guys above mentioned an important structural beam, I think that's a great idea! And second story with the party split, also great idea....
For some drama - make the first story share it's ceiling with the second story, so in essence there is a balcony on the second floor - throw in a chandelier in the middle hanging down and now you got a way for PC's to leap across and swing down -- maybe even giving a sweet kick to the weres! Or, they could cut the rope and have it fall on some.
I also agree with fire... During the were's attacks, they could knock over an oil lamp causing more panic and chaos.
You could also have some thick tapestries hung on the walls that could be cut from above on the balcony, a well timed cut could cause a tapestry to fall on a were for an attack of opportunity and attack bonuses.
That's all I've got, hopefully that inspires you some!
-Ant
Difficult terrain caused by knocked over bar stools and tables, slippery floors from spilt drinks will make it more interesting. the tapesteries could also be used to jump onto in the fashion of pirates with a large knife do with sails to break their fall as they come down.
you could have some of the werewolves being magic users or controllers of some description - they were a sorcerer or wizard in a previous life. the addition of worgs/wolves which move swiftly to attack individuals is another way of doing it - have them as minions or perhaps a swarm of were rats sweep up from the tap room - we've always struggled with swarms in a battle.
As well as he could take it.