The Forest, CR 6 – Random Encounters for Dungeons & Dragons: Fifth Edition

by jmgariepy · April 12, 2016

“A forest made of mushrooms!” Kevric ran forward and kicked one. The mushroom flew through the air and smacked into a massive fungus trunk that shot up and above the treeline, blotting out the sun with its mammoth cap. “Magnificent. We should arrange to have some sort of fight here! I’m sure it would make for an excellent song,” the bard said, as he slid his mandolin from his backpack and plucked a few ideas.

Azlam, the warlock, kept behind his ranger guide. “This fungus is a strange shape and color, isn’t it? I worked enough reagents in my time to be cautious of anything sporting white spots. What are we looking at?”

“I’m not certain,” replied the ranger. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Which means we either discovered a very large patch of a very rare breed, or magic is involved. The grove certainly is beautiful, though most deadly things are. Quiet, too.”

The warlock and the ranger exchanged glances and looked back at Kevric. The bard had tossed his mandolin to one side. In each of his fists was a mound of mushrooms, and he hunkered down upon them, ravaging the fungus while tears shone in his eyes. “I can’t stop!” Kevric gasped between bites, “Someone help! Why can’t I stop eating?!”

Mushroom Forest, by Niksibaksen

Appropriate random encounters for

Nine fourth level characters
Five fifth level characters
Four sixth level characters
Three seventh level characters
Two tenth level characters
Or a lone thirteenth level character travelling through the forest.

For more information on random encounters, when they are appropriate, and how often they should occur, see the Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG), page 85. For more random encounter charts, go to the Random Encounters for Dungeons and Dragons: 5th Edition page.

When determining a random encounter, roll 1d12+1d8 and consult the chart.

d12+d8	Description	Relationship to Players	Result
2	Very Rare	Deadly Encounter	The characters encounter an evil, and potentially more competent adventuring party, consisting of a dwarf berserker, an elf knight, a half-orc priest, a halfling druid, and a gnome spy.
3	Rare	Hard Encounter	The characters wander into an enchanted grove of three awakened trees and five awakened shrubs. The plants are eager to weed out the invasive species.
4	Rather Unlikely	Hard Encounter	A lizardfolk shaman commands three giant constrictor snakes to engulf the party.
5	Unlikely	Hard Encounter	Something is glittering in a tree knot 30 feet above the ground. Whoever investigates is in for a nasty surprise however, since the glittering is caused by a will-o’-wisp teamed with a pair of phase spiders. Feel free to let the players “Roll for Perception” to see the glittering in the trees. If the wisp is ignored however, it will glow brighter and brighter until its presence is unignorable, then dial back down once it is spotted.
6	Uncommon	Medium Encounter	A fanatic, two druids and four cultists are upset that someone stumbled across their secret ritual.
7	Plausible	Medium Encounter	A yuan-ti malison and three yuan-ti purebloods hunt the woods for a new batch of slaves.
8	Common	Medium Encounter	A gnoll pack lord harries six hungry gnolls as they make their way back to camp.
9	Most Common	Friend or Foe Medium Encounter	A cyclops wanders this forest, wishing to be left alone, and furious that the characters are intruding on his peace.
10	Most Common	Easy Encounter	A goblin boss and three goblins ride a brown bear. It sounded like a good idea at the time.
11	Most Common	Easy Encounter	A pair of grick realize their mistake too late.
12	Most Common	Common Roleplaying Encounter	A pixie lost her doggie in the woods, and asks the players for help finding it. Her ‘doggie’ is an alpha grick, that does not play well with others.
13	Most Common	Common Beneficial Find	An unlucky elf scout lies here, dead. On his person are the usual supplies, as well as two potions of healing, two vials of antitoxin, a calling horn, and a spyglass.
14	Common	Piece of Flavor	A roar erupts. Two dragons, one gold and one green, burst through the tree line and tackle each other in the sky. They briefly fight for dominance overhead before plummeting to the Earth, miles away, in a death spiral.
15	Plausible	A Trap!	Magical vines wrap around the character’s legs. Each character must make a DC 10 Dexterity check or be thrown in the air, and land in the center of a patch of razorvine with a fifty foot radius (see DMG, p. 110.) The thrown characters take 2d6 from the fall, and an additional 1d10 from landing in razorvine.
16	Uncommon	Uncommon Roleplaying Encounter	A drow envoy for diplomatic negotiations with a nearby elven city attempts to enlist the characters for help with safe passage. They are not very nice about it. They could really use the help, though, considering their racial sensitivity to sunlight.
17	Unlikely	Environmental Hazard	Unless a random character makes a DC 20 Nature check, they step through a puffball that kicks up a cloud of spores in a twenty foot radius. All creatures inside that cloud must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, or suffer a level of exhaustion.
18	Rather Unlikely	A Barrier	A random character must make a DC 4 Constitution check or gorge on a grove of magic mushrooms. If that character passes their check, they feel normal, but must make an additional check every hour. Each hour, the DC to pass the Constitution check increases by 2, until six hours pass (DC 16 Constitution check.) If the player passes all seven checks, they are no longer affected. But if they fail a single check, they are charmed, and must return to the grove of mushrooms and gorge. A Nature check made at DC 20 confers this information. The mushrooms aren’t poisonous; this is how they reproduce.
19	Rare	A Lucky Find	The characters come upon a tree with a knot on the side that looks like a face. It squints, and asks the characters to get out of its sunlight and leave it alone. If the characters persist, the tree agrees to answer three questions as long as the characters agree to leave when they are done. The tree is quite prescient, with a knowledge that borders on the magical… but it is also incredibly literal.
20	Very Rare	Incredibly Fortuitous Find	The characters encounter a young gold dragon. The dragon knows of a treasure hoard in a nearby cave that it can’t seem to fit into. It’s happy to divulge this information to the characters, assuming they appear trustworthy, and are willing to give the dragon all the precious jewels they find (for his own consumption.)