Any recommendations for a frost themed lair

[CapnZapp]

Lair, dungeon delve or HQ - I'm looking for a memorable finish to the fight against a Chosen of Auril.

That is, ice cold frost snow themed dwelling and servants.

I'm running this for a strong level 6 party in 5th edition. But source recommendations are welcome from any dnd edition.

Any pointers?

PS. It's the ice witch Hedrun from Legacy of the crystal adventure, but I want a beefier finale than the sparse tower described in the module.

 

[iserith]

I wrote an ice-themed short-form scenario: Frigga's Lament. It might provide you with some ideas you can use.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Rise of Tiamat has the frosty lair of the dragon Arauthator which has a whole bunch of cold-based encounters in it.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Reskin a pumpkin fella (can't remember the name, d'oh) onto a snowman monster?

 

[steeldragons]

Frost giants.
Winter Wolves.
Ice Mephits.
White dragons, like a pack of feral/animal intelligence ones. Cunning, but not smart.
Ice Trolls. They double [or add a point of two] regeneration as long as they are in contact with ice/snow/freezing mist.

K. Couple of "big" ideas.

Ice/snow fairies/pixies/sprites that have some kind of ice magic. I'm seeing a swarm [6? 10?] of "snow pixies" that are normally invisible and can at-will cantrip Ray of Frosts on a bunch of the group each round...damage or no, one or two characters getting slowed each time they're up (until they figured out some way to get rid of the pixies) would/could/should make for a TOUGH fight! If you want to go the full normal pixie stat-block, just swap out Druidcraft for Ray of Frost. Maybe swap out Sleep from the normal pixie list for a [Freezing] Fog Cloud for half of them as a 1/day. Entangle could just be fluffed as snow/ice tendrils, snowflake chains/handcuffs, etc...

Ice/Snow Golems/Constructs. Harmless-seeming, but remarkably detailed snow/ice sculptures of a diversity of creatures...set up like a statue garden or lining a large hall or something innocuous where they just appear to be decoration. A snowy white unicorn with crystalline ice horn and hooves. Giant swans with razor sharp clear ice beak and ends/edges of their wings. Maybe a giant white stag [megaloceres-sized] with ice antlers. etc...

Non-threatening poses and creatures that do not make the party think "danger" [no lions, bears, dragons, etc...] The statues won't Detect as Magic until the snow witch animates them (Maybe make it a lair action?). Or use them as a [simple?] trap if you prefer, activating when the first character gets to the center of the garden/chamber. They just turn into snow drifts/chunks of ice when they're killed. If taken from the ice fortress, the ice/snow will melt as normal....except, perhaps, the unicorn's horn...hmmm...

"Conjured/Animated Snow Monster." I'm thinking of ye olde cryo-hydra...ice breath weapon and all. But made of snow! A snow-chimera could work (also with an ice breath weapon). Or a snow "white" dragon. A way to get the ice-breathing dragon encounter that would be expected/trope in there without having to use an actual white dragon. A few "ice trolls"...that are actually all ice! Or ice skeletons! Knock them into pieces, other ice/snow gets pulled into the form to create multiple (however many peices there were) new ones!

The "monster" actually made/swirls/builds into form and is maintained (regrowing hydra heads, replacing lost limbs) from existing snow/ice in the area...(maybe another lair action?) maybe held together by the witch's concentration if you think she and the monster would be too much. That might be too limiting. Better to just have a damage threshold that, once achieved, it just falls apart/back into harmless snow. So she can still act independently.

 

[steeldragons]

Reskin a pumpkin fella (can't remember the name, d'oh) onto a snowman monster?

You mean a scarecrow?

 

[ExploderWizard]

An ice elemental servitor for certain, and Hedrun needs to sing Let it go.

 

[steeldragons]

(This was an edit to the previous post,better as it's own)

OO! One more...
Ice-Min (cryo-fied Magmins): Just switch all damage (including their Death Burst) to cold/ice. Damage immunity to cold/ice. Resistance stays the same.

Make their Touch: melee weapon attack cause cold damage and impose slowness, reduced speed by 10'...cumulative! When you reach 0', you are encased in ice and can not move!

Their Ignited Illumination feature becomes "Freezing Fog" allowing them to intensify their innate cold, so much so an icy mist forms around them to a distance of 20'. This is still a bonus action. It creates a heavily obscured area for 10' radius and a lightly obscured area for another 10'. Naturally, the Icemins see fine through this mist. All creatures within the Freezing Fog take 2 HP of cold damage and suffer another 5' cumulative to the movement slowing for each turn they are in it.

The image of a pack of these guys swarming all over a character at a time to caccoon them in a sheathe of ice just tickles me. Or laying down a number of smacks before the whole melee area (10' radius per icemin) is engulfed in freezing impenetrable icy blue fog. The party feels their joints getting tougher and tougher to move. Already they can't feel their feet or fingers. The cold is biting down into their bones. If they don't get out soon, they won't be able to get out at all! What ARE these little icy blue gremlins!?!

 

[Remathilis]

White-furred bugbears to act as yetis?

 

[jgsugden]

Advice #1: Keep the theme light. If you go full hog on a cold theme, the PCs can load up with fire offense and cold defense. That makes it too easy for them. There is no reason you can't mix it up with cold themed monsters and non-cold themed monsters. You can also use traps and dungeon features that do not rely upon the cold...

Advice #2: Consider misdirection or defying expectations. I had the PCs hunt down a rarely seen dragon in his arctic lair to obtain an artifact from his horde - a cave in a lonely arctic mountain. When they arrived, they prepared their fire spells, put up their cold defenses, and ventured into the lair... only to be surprised by how warm it was. As the went deeper, they found themselves wandering through lava tubes. They wondered whether the dragon was red or white? It was neither - it was a remorhaz sorcerer. However, what it was isn't why I bring up this story - it was that the PCs encountered something that defied their expectation of a "cold dungeon" and it made it more interesting for them.

Advice #3: Keep it short. Themed dungeons that go on too long, even when you mix up the monsters, get repetitive.