JoltBlog

You've got a high-level party right? You mention them wiping encounters with high-level spells, so that's what I'm assuming. Generally, in D&D exploring the wilderness is a challenge for low-to-mid-level characters. "Dangerous" wilderness exploration isn't something typically associated with high-level D&D... I could definitely see it if there were a war, a supernatural event, or the players were in a hostile plane, or something like that. From the encounter examples you gave, a theme of your setting seems to be demon cultists corrupting the land, pursued by witch hunters. So I'm going to assume that the point of your random encounters in this adventure is to reinforce that theme.

All of your example solutions assume that the main purpose of an encounter is to threaten the PCs' lives.

I'd challenge that assumption.

Especially for random encounters, and especially for high-level characters facing random encounters, the primary purpose of the encounter shouldn't be for the monsters to kill the PCs, and the PCs to kill the monsters. That either feeds the whole 5 MWD issue or necessitates changing the rules. "Threaten the Quest, not the PCs", is a saying I've used before

Let's take your example of cultists in the woods...

The cultists live in a woodland hamlet of poachers and others living outside of the king's law. They're decent enough folk, however, and it makes a good resting/trading spot, as well as a place to do business with a fence known only as The Knave, who is the hamlet's unofficial leader. However, the hamlet folk are dissatisfied with The Knave's leadership — many were hoping to reclaim family lands but The Knave hasn't come to terms with the king due to an old grievance The Knave arrogantly wants the king to apologize for first. Gradually, the hamlet folk are falling under the sway of a charismatic man known as The Traveler. The Traveler offers to violently force the occupying soldiers from their lands and give the disenfranchised folk power they never knew before. All it requires is a little blood ritual in a dark hut in the woods. Most of the hamlet folk have no idea they're actually worshipping a demon, even though they're shifting toward Chaotic Evil alignment and there are signs all around the hamlet and surrounding woods.

This random wilderness encounter can threaten several things (instead of the PCs):

• It can threaten the relationship between the king and other squatters/bandits/poachers.
• It can threaten The Knave who has information the PCs need.
• It can threaten the nearby land-owners if the demon cult reaches critical mass.
• It can threaten the hamlet as a safe resting/trading place in the future.
• It can threaten the PCs' morality...can we justify killing misguided "cultists"? Is that a good or evil act?

When I run random encounters, I prefer to present a challenge which can be solved through multiple avenues, and if combat is the PCs' preferred approach, I set up combats where there is something else at stake besides whose side hits 0 hit points first.

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