I DM for my kids. Our first dungeon ended with an ogre-mage sending undead after the party.
The heroes made quick work of most of the zombies and skeletons - and critted the ogre-mage so fast that the dungeon was cleared in record time…
And then the party’s necromancer (My oldest) decided to raise the ogre-mage. And made them his undead lich-thrall, with instructions to rule the dungeon until the necromancer’s return to the region…
Huh.
Punch cow instead. It’s safe to eat raw.
Dragon: Now, get in the sack.
Rogue: … The sack?
Dragon: My bag of friend holding. It’s where I keep my hoard. Please just climb in. You’re practically mint condition - I’d hate to damage you.
One thing I’ve been experimenting with is creating archetypal characters ahead of time and then handing each player a couple sheets to choose from. If they don’t like either one, they can grab a sheet someone else discards.
I leave backstory details blank, but the basic mechanics of each character is already laid out.
In theory, it seems like I’m setting myself up for fights with my players, but in practice it hasn’t been a problem.
…of course this might be because my players are all either adults or preteens.
To be fair, nobody is trying to milk the spiders
My players have not yet found this creature. Buuut. In the process of 3D printing a mimic mini, there was an error in scale and I accidentally made a really teenie mimic. And I can’t wait for them to encounter it.
28mm hero fig and actual mimic on the left. Mini mimic on the right. (Painting was still in progress as of this pic)
I’m thinking my kids Necromancer may learn a thing or two about the dangers of powerful, undead underlings…
Liches are a big responsibility. You can’t just create unlife and walk away!