Need ideas for encounters in an evil-infested forest for level 1 four-PC parties

[Jadefang]

Just one thing: no human/demi-human or humanoid (kobold, goblin, etc.) enemies.

I already have worgs and owlbears appearing. Except in playtesting, I found that two worgs could cause a TPK on a bad day. (If the Sleep spell actually worked as intended, the whole difficulty balance could shift, but as of now...)

I thought about giant black squirrels, except I have no idea of why they would want to initiate battle on the PCs instead of vice versa.

[Dinonykos]

So you have not seen this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4489792.stm ?

[Uatu]

Well, besides giant black squirrels (why WOULDN'T they want to rip apart your fledgling party?), I have some other forest baddies:

Wolf-in-sheep's-clothing (bizarre fake-tree creature - too strong, maybe?)
Al-mi'raj (kind of like the giant black squirrels, but think vorpal bunny )
Stirge (freaky blood-sucking bat-birds)

[Dinonykos]

Originally Posted by Uatu Wolf-in-sheep's-clothing (bizarre fake-tree creature - too strong, maybe?) Al-mi'raj (kind of like the giant black squirrels, but think vorpal bunny ) Stirge (freaky blood-sucking bat-birds)

I'd like all of them, and Uatu's icons of these three are really convincing...

[SilentThief]

Dinonykos (got tha spelling right ), that news story is insane!

Jadefang, since you are dealing with 1st level characters, and you don't want the little humanoids that are the cannon fodder for most low level mods; I would suggest:

-carnivores such as Giant Toads,stirges, non-poisonous snakes, wolves, solitary panther, Giant Lizards, ect;
-giant insects/insect-like creatures such as Giant ants, carrion crawler (difficult combat), spiders (don't all have to poison), centipede, beetles, Pernicorn, ect
-dangerous plants/Plant-like creatures such as vegepygmies, Archer Bush, Vampire Rose, bog blokes, ect.
-humans/Humanoids other than goblin-kin: Lizardmen, Kenku, bullywug, Gibberlings, bandits, NPCs
-evil fairy-Kin such as Buckawn, quickling
-mammals like Aurumvorax, Solitary Bears, Solitary Carniverous Ape, Wild Boar, Wolverine, ect
-were-creatures like Were-rat and Jackalwere
-birds such as Blood Hawk, Boobrie, Condor, Crow/Raven, Eagle, Eblis, Falcon, Flightless
-low-level undead such as Skeletons, Zombies

Your desire to stay away from the goblin-kin (as the "standard" enemy for low level) doesn't mean you have no enemies available. You could also make your own creatures if you wanted...

I hope this at least helps.
ST

[Dinonykos]

Originally Posted by SilentThief Your desire to stay away from the goblin-kin (as the "standard" enemy for low level) doesn't mean you have no enemies available. You could also make your own creatures if you wanted... ST

Carnivorous tree kangaroos!

Carnivorous tree kangaroos!!

Carnivorous tree kangaroos!!!

(Compare http://www.jstor.org/pss/1306529)

[Dinonykos]

Ekaltadeta (see link above) was a carnivorous rat-kangaroo, not a tree kangaroo, but nevertheless, I take up the cudgels for a carnivorous tree kangaroo!!!

[manikus]

I think the above posts really cover just about everything.

Is this random combat or plot related? Or something in between? For a plot related encounter, you could have party face a big beasty who has been (severely) injured. Or you could borrow from Secret of the Silver Blades and the party could happen upon a battle between two parties where they have to fight the victor who has been greatly weakened.

@Jadefang: here's how to fix the sleep spell. Open the spell editor, select "sleep" and edit. Delete the entry at the bottom in the "Affected Character Attrributes" section. Click on the "Special Abilities" button. In the box that appears, choose "sleep" from the drop-down menu and select "add". Click "Okay" for everything and you should be good to go. I've only tried this in two combats, so there might be situations where it doesn't work properly, but it might be totally fine.

[Jadefang]

WTF at those squirrels. Now I'm convinced they should belong and be kill-on-sight. Funny how the article picture is a giant black squirrel.

I guess stirges should work, though the bloodsucking thing doesn't work in DC. Are al-mi'rajes rabidly aggressive or something similar?

Other regular animals should work too I guess. Never thought much about killer plants and such; I normally tend to skip over those entries in the monstrous books. Aurumvoraxes are actually pretty scary though IIRC (or else that 9000 xp reward wouldn't be justified). And carnivorous trees kangaroos...no comment.

These combats are supposed to be "scripted random encounters". No bearing on the plot I guess. Undead might be a litte too shocking to appear randomy in that regard (or does everyone else not bat an eye when undead monsters start appearing in random places?)

I tried the Sleep fix, and it works now! ...except now it's overpowered and works on monsters up to 16 HD. Better than Stinking Cloud cheese! Such is life I guess...

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

[Uatu]

Al-mi'rajs are not aggressive or violent, just stupid and erratic (so they may simply decide to kill and impale your party for reasons that only make sense to their pea-sized brains).

I saw stirges in one of the Gold Box games (Savage Frontiers?), and I don't think they sucked there, either (just were like normal (weak) monsters)...

But yeah, giant black squirrels apparently really do live in our reality, so... (Barring carnivorous tree kangaroos...)

You can also have boobries appear and just massacre your 1st-level party...