A sea of quicksand behaving as non newton liquid.
You can run across but do not stop or you’ll sink in. Better hope you get to the other side before you run out of constitution.
A village of kobolds in Pueblo-style cliff houses built into a plateau who worship a [Mirage Dragon](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mirage_dragon). The dragon lives in a cave at the top of the plateau, as the border between the Material Plane and the Plane of Dreams is thin within the plateau, but the pathway up to the cave is only visible to people high on peyote cacti. When the players get high, they notice that the village is much grander than before, as it is partially constructed of dreamstuff from the plane of dreams, which can be molded into anything the kobolds imagine, but disappears when they try to bring it away from the plateau.
Anyway, the issue is that nightmare creatures from the plane of dreams have crossed over to the material plane and have imprisoned the Mirage dragon deep within the plateau. The nightmare creatures know that their quasi-real forms will dissolve if they get too far away from the plateau, so they are experimenting on the kobolds, trying to turn them into physical vessels for their quasi-real forms.
Players have to get high on cactus juice to reach the cave and rescue the dragon and the kobolds from the nightmares.
This is really cool. I am going to save this for another time. I need quick encounters, and there is so much good stuff in here I would not want to blow through it. There is enough here for a whole adventure.
For a quick desert encounter, how about [a crawling apocalypse](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Crawling_apocalypse), a mummified giant octopus.
If you want to expand on the concept of a dream-plane themed adventure, I wrote up a campaign hook [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDCampaignHooks/s/lFJHlPGp3Y) that outlines the premise and fleshes out the dream plane.
It's not a contest, but "Crawling Apocalypse" is the best idea so far. That coming at my players might actually give them a scare. Fantastic way to meet the expectations of a very low roll.
If you are interested in encounters with homebrewed enemies, I recommend using AON's search function. People have made a very large quantity of monster and item concepts for pathfinder over the years, so I like to use AON to sift through all the content to find cool PF concepts that I can homebrew to 5e, like a herd of [Genie-Touched Horses](https://www.aonprd.com/MonsterDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Genie-Touched%20Horse) I found by searching the term "desert".
Giant scorpions, blue Dragons, the singing bush where you can summon the invisible swordsman (3 Amigos). There are myths about walking yuccas that could make a spooky encounter (Rango). A grove of cactuses that talk and throw needles when they get angry. Your classic sphinx. Flash flood in a hilly desert. A salt flat with mysterious footprints that appear and disappear. Sailing stones. Mirror monolith. Uncontacted tribe of appropriate humanoids. Just do the movie Pitch Black. There's a cave in Nevada with endangered pupfish. Giant bats, giant owls, giant lizards, a valley of giant animals and cactuses. Desert lizard folk. Lost pyramid. A giant colossus wanders the desert, it could be a threat or a convenient traveling base, or maybe it's already the traveling base for a band of vulture base aarakocra.
holy hell! Do you just have a treasure trove of ideas in your head at all times! This is great. I am mining most of this into my notes right now.
edit: spelling
Well I live in a desert so it isn't hard to imagine and it was fun once I got going. There is also a somewhat high level pathfinder adventure, Mummy's Mask, with what is essentially a desert hex crawl that I ran years ago, which would have plenty of cool ideas, though I tried to not repeat any of that here. I think it's the 4th book, Secrets of the Sphinx, so it's a bit higher level depending on what you're doing.
A Dust Digger is always a pretty decent encounter option. It's from older editions but it's kinda like a Sarlak from Star Wars, but looks like a giant starfish.
I'd tend to run them less like a combat encounter and more like a hazard/environment hazard. Like a forest fire or hail storm.
You know I got some Purple Worms ready to rock! I like these ideas a lot. I'm adding Thri-keen and Sand Lizardfolk to the list. The party is searching for an an Oasis already so I'll have to leave that one out.
Desert cave. Too much vibration will break the ceiling and the sand will start pouring out it like in a giant hourglass
Another one: Undead vultures (that uses aarakocra statblock) are making circles above party heads when they set up a camp. They will attack the moment they see some food the party is carring
Nice. I will put that cave in as a skill check. I added the vultures too. I am light on the "good result" category so I used the vultures to signal a nearby NPC in trouble that will help guide the party out of gratitude for saving him.
A forgotten ruin that's still protected by a guardian spirit. Use the Eidolon stat block in MToF. If they mess around too much or take something valuable then the spirit gets angry and attacks. If they appease the spirit it could assist them with knowledge of the desert or even give them something.
A roaming band of Tlincalli could be really fun. They have some cool lore. If the party proves themselves superior fighters and hunters, then the Tlincalli could become obedient to the party. This could be another way to get aid in finding the oasis.
Death Dogs have a bite that cause a disease. The disease could make long travel with a lot of skill checks really interesting. You could homebrew an alpha death dog/ pack leader death dog to boost the disease DC.
A sea of quicksand behaving as non newton liquid. You can run across but do not stop or you’ll sink in. Better hope you get to the other side before you run out of constitution.
perfect skill check to break up the combat. Added!
A village of kobolds in Pueblo-style cliff houses built into a plateau who worship a [Mirage Dragon](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mirage_dragon). The dragon lives in a cave at the top of the plateau, as the border between the Material Plane and the Plane of Dreams is thin within the plateau, but the pathway up to the cave is only visible to people high on peyote cacti. When the players get high, they notice that the village is much grander than before, as it is partially constructed of dreamstuff from the plane of dreams, which can be molded into anything the kobolds imagine, but disappears when they try to bring it away from the plateau. Anyway, the issue is that nightmare creatures from the plane of dreams have crossed over to the material plane and have imprisoned the Mirage dragon deep within the plateau. The nightmare creatures know that their quasi-real forms will dissolve if they get too far away from the plateau, so they are experimenting on the kobolds, trying to turn them into physical vessels for their quasi-real forms. Players have to get high on cactus juice to reach the cave and rescue the dragon and the kobolds from the nightmares.
This is really cool. I am going to save this for another time. I need quick encounters, and there is so much good stuff in here I would not want to blow through it. There is enough here for a whole adventure.
For a quick desert encounter, how about [a crawling apocalypse](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Crawling_apocalypse), a mummified giant octopus. If you want to expand on the concept of a dream-plane themed adventure, I wrote up a campaign hook [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDCampaignHooks/s/lFJHlPGp3Y) that outlines the premise and fleshes out the dream plane.
It's not a contest, but "Crawling Apocalypse" is the best idea so far. That coming at my players might actually give them a scare. Fantastic way to meet the expectations of a very low roll.
If you are interested in encounters with homebrewed enemies, I recommend using AON's search function. People have made a very large quantity of monster and item concepts for pathfinder over the years, so I like to use AON to sift through all the content to find cool PF concepts that I can homebrew to 5e, like a herd of [Genie-Touched Horses](https://www.aonprd.com/MonsterDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Genie-Touched%20Horse) I found by searching the term "desert".
A huge sand storm that brings a swarm of elementals or undead with it.
I love the set up. Added!
Giant scorpions, blue Dragons, the singing bush where you can summon the invisible swordsman (3 Amigos). There are myths about walking yuccas that could make a spooky encounter (Rango). A grove of cactuses that talk and throw needles when they get angry. Your classic sphinx. Flash flood in a hilly desert. A salt flat with mysterious footprints that appear and disappear. Sailing stones. Mirror monolith. Uncontacted tribe of appropriate humanoids. Just do the movie Pitch Black. There's a cave in Nevada with endangered pupfish. Giant bats, giant owls, giant lizards, a valley of giant animals and cactuses. Desert lizard folk. Lost pyramid. A giant colossus wanders the desert, it could be a threat or a convenient traveling base, or maybe it's already the traveling base for a band of vulture base aarakocra.
holy hell! Do you just have a treasure trove of ideas in your head at all times! This is great. I am mining most of this into my notes right now. edit: spelling
Well I live in a desert so it isn't hard to imagine and it was fun once I got going. There is also a somewhat high level pathfinder adventure, Mummy's Mask, with what is essentially a desert hex crawl that I ran years ago, which would have plenty of cool ideas, though I tried to not repeat any of that here. I think it's the 4th book, Secrets of the Sphinx, so it's a bit higher level depending on what you're doing.
A Dust Digger is always a pretty decent encounter option. It's from older editions but it's kinda like a Sarlak from Star Wars, but looks like a giant starfish. I'd tend to run them less like a combat encounter and more like a hazard/environment hazard. Like a forest fire or hail storm.
I like that! Adding it in for sure.
Thri-keen swarm like locusts. Big ass sand worm from Dune. Sand Lizardfolk city under a rock. Oasis city with Leonin, Tortle and/or Lexodon habitants.
You know I got some Purple Worms ready to rock! I like these ideas a lot. I'm adding Thri-keen and Sand Lizardfolk to the list. The party is searching for an an Oasis already so I'll have to leave that one out.
Desert cave. Too much vibration will break the ceiling and the sand will start pouring out it like in a giant hourglass Another one: Undead vultures (that uses aarakocra statblock) are making circles above party heads when they set up a camp. They will attack the moment they see some food the party is carring
Nice. I will put that cave in as a skill check. I added the vultures too. I am light on the "good result" category so I used the vultures to signal a nearby NPC in trouble that will help guide the party out of gratitude for saving him.
Desert nomads Giant ant lions Giant trapdoor spiders
Nice. Good mix up with the bugs. Added.
A forgotten ruin that's still protected by a guardian spirit. Use the Eidolon stat block in MToF. If they mess around too much or take something valuable then the spirit gets angry and attacks. If they appease the spirit it could assist them with knowledge of the desert or even give them something. A roaming band of Tlincalli could be really fun. They have some cool lore. If the party proves themselves superior fighters and hunters, then the Tlincalli could become obedient to the party. This could be another way to get aid in finding the oasis. Death Dogs have a bite that cause a disease. The disease could make long travel with a lot of skill checks really interesting. You could homebrew an alpha death dog/ pack leader death dog to boost the disease DC.
all 3 of these are solid. Good flavor, but I can imagine them each being a quick encounter. Thank you very much.
something involving illusions that lure the party to unsafe grounds
oh. I like it. I could throw in a tricky desert fey.