Hey everyone!
So I've been playing Hoard of the Dragon Queen with a group of friends, and we're about to start Episode 4 this weekend. I'm really excited about the next chapter, since it opens up in a huge way, but I really want to provide my group with a fun night full of action and intrigue. I really want to make the most out of this episode/chapter, and try to chop the journey up into two separate game nights, one this weekend, and one the following weekend, but I don't know what to do for some of the encounters.
I'm wondering if you guys might have any good monster groups/random encounters to supplement the 12 "events" given in the book, considering that there's very little detail given. I'm usually pretty great at thinking on my feet as a DM, so RPing our way through certain social encounters and the like is really no problem. It's building enticing encounters that usually gives me the biggest difficulty.
The group routinely fluctuates from about 4-10 players, depending on the night, and I like to have some variety to make sure that everyone has a decent time while they're here. I know most DMs say that they don't want more than 7 PCs at a time, but our game has grown without the benefit of another DM, so I'm making due with what I've got while I search around for another DM to help accommodate the size. In the meantime, I've been building bigger encounters to cover the extra PCs and maintain that sense of danger. All PC characters are now Level 4.
For this week's game, I got the new Monster Manual, but I haven't quite figured out what monsters might crop up in which region of the Forgotten Realms, and I really would like to try to stick to what makes sense. I've thought about an encounter with some Manticores and Hill Giants, and maybe a few skirmishes with some Orc raiders, and maybe something a bit more exotic like an Owlbear, etc. But I was wondering if anyone else has built up some fun encounters that might fit in well with the kind of terrain built up in the area.
Anybody's ideas are welcome! Thanks in advance!
TheTrevdor wrote:
That's a fun turn of events. I hope they kept one of the eggs to raise themselves. 
Although owlbears don't make very good pets...
If you don't mind encounters that aren't strictly combat, you could have your players encounter a traveling carnival on the road. Stoke a little friendly rivalry, and set up some contests between the carnies and the PC's: a bard might have to compete against the carnival's best musician, a fighter or barbarian might have to wrestle the strongman two falls out of three, the wizard might get into an illusion contest with the carnies' caster, the rogue might have to throw darts, juggle, even do tumbling tricks, etc. Give everyone a chance to compete against their opposite number, and whichever side marks up the most victories wins the wager. It could be gold, supplies, information, or all of the above.
Another fun type of encounter is for the PC's to meet with a distressed traveler on the road, begging for their help. The particulars can vary greatly, depending how elaborate you want to get, but the payoff to the story is when the party finds out the next day that the traveler they helped was a ghost, and all the events actually played out years or decades ago.
If you want a straight-up combat scenario, gnolls are always a good bet: they're nomadic, vicious, and clearly evil, so there's no "grey area" about going after them. Reinforcing a gnoll pack with hyenas, or even howlers, can make for a very eventful fight.
As a general rule, the larger the group the less appealling combat is - there's a lot of down time when you have to sit there while 9 other people take a turn! You might want to have a combat and a non-combat encounter prepared and then run with one or the other based on how many players show up.