Ask any Game Master what the most dangerous thing in a game is, and I’ll bet the majority come back to you with “the players.”
Characters range in power and abilities more than any monster, and players always find the cracks in any system and crawl through.
Players think outside the box more often than not, and work around problems you might think they need to face head on. I remember playing a video game forever ago, and the most frustrating encounter was fighting a shadowy mirror image of yourself.
If you’re stuck with how to resolve an evening’s encounter you can pull from this resource without worrying about level requirements, Challenge or terrain. All you need is the right setting.
The one drawback to something like this comes down to the same resource — the players. Some players can be defensive about their characters and may not be open to sharing character information, or they may worry their character concept will somehow be violated or disrespected.
This is sensitive ground. Tread carefully.
However, with their cooperation and agreement you could use this sort of encounter with rewarding results. This encounter requires a little bit of preparation. Players may have private information on their character sheets like alignment or secret flaws. You may be able to get the players to more easily cooperate with the mechanics behind this encounter if you respect their privacy.
Therefore, you should look at the character sheets at some point and record publicly known information like ability scores, saving throw, armor class, hit points, hit dice and a few trademark abilities, attacks or spells. Create an alternate character sheet with this limited information and hold it in store for when you need it. When the time is right, you can spring this almost like a trap.
Encounter Type: Puzzle, social, combat... Could be almost anything depending on the players.
Map: Dungeon room
Lighting: Dynamic lighting
System: 5E
Length: One shot
Installation Type: Addon
License: Roll20 End User License Agreement
(Personal Use Only, Do Not Distribute)