Reviewing the Lumber Mill Delve, Part 2

I'm spending some time reviewing and updating my Lumber Mill delve and now it's time to work on the second encounter. I have to admit, I love the thought of this encounter. But I'm not sure the original version gives me what I want from it.

So, what am I envisioning? I want a crazy looking gnome with the ability to direct the saw blades at the PCs but who also has a few powers to use when the blades are all gone. I also want to give the PCs a chance to play with the saws because, well, who doesn't want to play with flying saws.

Here's how I think the encounter should unfold. The PCs finish with the previous room and enter this one. In the dim light, they see a gnome standing in the opposite corner, laughing at them. That's sure to make their blood boil. Next, they hear the sound of buzzing from near the ceiling. The PCs notice the gnome pointing at them and one or more of them feel like the saws are looking at them.

Rethinking the Saws

Originally, I thought the saws would be controlled and powered by the gnome using his psionic powers. While that's cool, we can do much better. By discussing this over Twitter, I came up with a better idea. A small magical box in the center of the room powers the saws and the gnome is able to influence the power to control the saws. The box is bolted to the floor firmly and only can power the saws if they remain in that room.

This twist means that the PCs can attempt to seize control of the saws for themselves. My thought is that a PC trained in arcana, religion or psionics can use a skill check as a standard action to take control of a group of saws (the 12 saws will be divided into 4 groups of 3) if they meet a DC of 15. Since there is no psionic skill, we'll need to make one up. Characters with the psionic power source are automatically trained in it and they'll get a bonus equal to their charisma modifier. During his turn, a character determines the target for each saw group in his control as a free action.

In addition to taking over groups of saws, the PCs can attempt to disable the box using a skill challenge. They can use any combination of thievery (DC 15), dungeoneering (DC 15), arcana (DC 10), religion (DC 10), psionics (DC 10) and brute force (Defenses: 8, HP 30) to disable the mechanism. Each successful check deactivates one of the 4 groups of saws in this order, 3, 2, 4, 1. A failed check causes the current group to attack its target if possible. So if no groups have been deactivated, group 3 will attack on a failed check. If 2 groups have been deactivated, group 4 will attack on a failed check. After 3 failed attempts, the machine regains control of all the remaining buzz saws and targets the last character to fail the check. Characters can attempt to gain control of the saws at that point.

This gives the PCs a few interesting choices to make. Do they risk attacks by the saws in hopes that they can gain control over a group of them? Do they try to take over groups of the saws or do they try to deactivate all of them? Or do they just attack everything and leave the thinking to others?

Improving the Saw Master

Now that we've changed how the saws are powered and controlled, we can work on the saw master. First, he no longer needs a special power to set the targets of the saws. Let's also upgrade him to a quarterstaff instead of a dagger. I think he's a mean SOB and a dagger just doesn't do him justice. The Stinging Thoughts power is still pretty good, and since he's supposed to stand in for two monsters, I think having a recharge attack like that as a minor is fine. However, let's give him a cool at-will that he can use when the buzz saws are in play. Allowing him to give a group of saws and extra attack fits him pretty well.

So, when the PCs first enter, he'll attempt to hit them with blinding pain, point the buzz saws towards the PCs, giving preference to those who seem the squishiest, and then spend his action point to use guided strike to command one of the groups to strike at their target.

Now let's give him a little personality. This guy is actually the highest level bad monster in the delve. He's proud of what he does and takes a fair bit of joy in it, especially when it means attacking interlopers. However, he doesn't feel the need to fight to the death. When he gets bloodied, recharging his blinding pain power, he might want to run. At the very least, he might hide out and make the PCs think he ran and then rejoin the fight in the next room.

Well, those are the changes I would make to this encounter. Which ones would you make?

Also, thanks to a bunch of folks on twitter who helped me brainstorm, including @gamefiend, @rdonoghue, @WolfSamurai, @deadorcs, @Level30yinzer, @d20monkey, @tirianmal, @alanwilliams, and @Zelgadas.