I am trying out a different approach to a dungeon for my players, and I would love to hear what more experienced DMs think before running it.
My 4 players are level 5 and are delving into catacombs to chase a necromancer who has taken an important document the party needs to recover. The necromancer draws his power from 6 corrupted altars in the catacombs which the players can destroy to make the final boss fight easier. Each altar is a different small puzzle or encounter like a mimic ambush. They can systematically deal with each altar before going to the boss fight, but every 20 minutes (real time), the necromancer magically causes some sort of attack or challenge whether it be a skeleton ambush or a cave-in.
What tips do you have for running a dungeon where players will run into so many brief combats so quickly?
I was thinking about having my players roll initiative on the first combat they encounter and then keeping that roll for the entire dungeon, and I'd love to hear if others have tried that or other approaches for prolonged/multiple combats.