One good tip I picked up years ago went along the lines of:
Great encounter = Great fun.
Great encounter + striking setting = Awesome, long remembered fun!

Can't help with the D&D rules, but would suggest that as well as making the bridge slippery, you give the party lots of rope to play with (literally). That way the challenge/encounter will be rife with players sliding off the edge, dangling on ropes, hauling themselves up, finding ways to use the ropes to their advantage, etc. Nothing like a bit of chaos mixed with opportunity to spice up a scene.

You may concider that the bridge may be the only SAFE place for you players. The cliff edge, avalanche, ice flows may make the bridge the only footing they can find. And if it happens to be occupied by the boss's men even better.

awesome ideas everyone! i'm still not sure if i want this to be an indoor or outdoor encounter. the thought of blinding snow, strong winds, and avalanches is a cool thought....but so is an icy cavern with icy tunnel entrances and stalactites hanging overhead. hmmm....still debating.

as for the enemies in the encounter, the story is kind of wide open at this point. my players have just discovered the first major plot point/objective in my campaign. they are on a quest to find a fragment of a "bloodstone" before the major villian does. they were sent to this snow area by a friendly wizard in another town. he basically knew that the fragment was somewhere in this wintery area, but didnt know exactly where, so he opened a portal and this encounter will be the first thing they come to when they come through the portal.

at this point i'm thinking i'll make it outdoor with a slippery bridge, gusting winds, blinding snow, attackers from all sides, and a frozen lake underneath. i read something on a site somewhere where a guy proposed giving the ice squares HP. so if you fell on them, depending on your weight, it would break or just crack. that may add too much complications so i may just get rid of the HP and make it crack if you fall off. then there will be freezing water, ongoing cold damage until you can be warmed/healed. i'll have different monsters attacking them up top...and then different monsters down near the ice lake.

thoughts on those plans?

Don't burden the encounter with excess detail... like cracking ice.

Its cool in movies because it adds tension, but if you're getting into combat, you want action. You gotta keep is moving. The last thing you want is to be the one slowing things down as you try to figure out what is happening next.

I suspect that you are going to have your hands full with everything else going on, like extra rolls to avoid falling, etc.

Everyone has their own preferences. I personally hate the "roll every round, if you miss you fall" type scenarios -- too often one or two players miss repeatedly and their characters are left out of the action.

I prefer things like wind that move you one square every round, or slanted ice that does the same thing. Something that the players need to take into account as they are planning.

If they are seeking a bloodstone, you can set that deep into the ice (maybe only accessible from somewhere else) so that all the ice is tinted blood red.

Steve

okay guys, check out the "map" for this encounter. i plan on getting styrofoam spray paint and painting the stuff kind of a light blue to give it an ice look. but i'm also thinking of just leaving it white. dunno. as you can see though, i tried painting one with some regular acrylic paint yeah that didnt work out so well. but the thing that's painted blue is actually going to be a cave entrance. i plan on putting artillery type guys up on that pedestal. the players can either try to pick them off with range, or try to jump the revene (oh please try that!), or they can cross the bridge and enter the other cave entrance on the ice floor. the tiles and glaciers are from the game Heroscape in case you were wondering. they work out pretty nicely. also, i plan on putting my sheet of plexiglass that i usually mark on during games over the ice tiles to give it an extra shiny glass look.









so now that you've seen what i have for my map, does that change any of your ideas or give you more?

I have to say. that looks awesome.

You need some way for them to get back up if they fall...

just a little update here...this is what i plan on running for my players. the two human mini's you see on the bridge will be killed by the goblins as soon as the players enter the scene. they are miners that were exploring the icy cavern looking a legendary treasure in order to pay ransom for an npc witch that the players are looking for. the miners got trapped by a cave in on one end of the tunnel, and are trapped by a horrible beast at the other end.

anyway, the goblins (unbeknownst to the players) are also searching for the legendary treasure in order to...dont know yet. but the goblins, in their searching and exploring the cavern, have awoken a pack of yeti's! the encounter will start out with just the goblins attacking the players (archers from the side, and frost goblins with melee on the bridge). during the battle i'll have one of the yeti's at the top of the bridge come in (i just put the mini there to show you what he looks like). the yeti has "hurl boulder" ability that i plan on using when he gets there to try to hit people and toss them off the bridge. happy now UHF???

the two cave entrances are options for the players to take out the goblins via melee if they choose. the goblins will be sharpshooters and have the ability to gain bonuses with stealth attacks by darting in and out of the cave.

Well... Its a start....

Don't over do the bowling. Do it once and the players will start to get worried. Maybe do it once per yeti...


I recommend that you do a rough run of this encounter. Complex encounters can go wrong for a variety of reasons, and you need to either tweak it, or at least be ready for it.

To do a rough run.. you need at least a companion style stat block for the characters, and sorta guess what they'll do, and how. Kinda wing it and figure out how it will go.

At the vary least, crunch the numbers and calculate Damage per Round to all parties for At-Will attacks. If you have a 50% chance of hitting, you'll get 50% of your At-Will damage. Careful here... deviate too far from 50% and the encounter becomes hit (boring... can't miss) or miss (yup... just can't hit that boss).


It is worth doing all the extra work. You want the players to fond memories.

You know, I looking at this, and I think you should put the artillery at the other end of this bridge. To the right of that yeti. You should also put the little cave, just beneath the artillery platform. I dunno... call it an Ice ladder.. They can get up in one turn, but always have to roll (medium acrobatics) or fall and take 1D10 damage.

This puts the enemies together which is good, and allows you to rearrange the bad guys if for instance one too many players falls, the top yeti may run down. This also give your players many incentives to cross. i.e. Beat up the Artillery, or beat up the yeti from behind and save the day.

Make sure the Gobbos have long range advantage, and heavy heavy cover. (i.e. more tactical advantage if the players can get in behind.)