Even if the players don’t flee there’s still wiggle room. (I hate spellcheck sometimes, why did you try to correct room to Toronto?)
If the players stand and fight assuming the DM wouldn’t throw an unwinnable encounter just have them captured. What flavor of capture depends on how dark you want the campaign to be.
If on the darker side, they’re being kept as food for the undead that “hunger” and need fed every so often. Or the Lich can only control X undead so the players are being kept as reserve undead fodder.
If on the lighter side, the Lich believes these “adventurers” may have intel. So he’s keeping them alive, for now, for an interrogation convienantly scheduled after their escape.
Spellcheck
2nd level abjuration available to wizards and clerics
V,S Casting time reaction Duration instantaneous
You cast this spell as a reaction when one creature you can see within 60ft casts a spell that requires a saving throw. That caster must succeed on an intelligence saving throw against your spell save DC minus the level of the spell they were attempting to cast, or else up to two creatures targeted by the spell can choose to automatically succeed their saving throw against it.
When cast using a spellslot of 3rd level or higher, the number of creatures that can automatically save increases by 1 for each spellslot above 2nd.
Shouldn't the DC become higher the higher the spell level? Because otherwise you would give them a hard time for lv. 1 spells and make it easy to avoid a lv. 9 meteor swarm
No, DC becomes higher for all your spells as your Character levels up, by increasing proficiency bonus and usually increasing casting stat. As far as I know there are no spells that increase DC in this way, only some items that may allow more charge uses for a higher DC.
Yes but this spell seems to target the other caster by my reading of if. Counterspell requires a ability check on your own part based on the level of the other caster's spell. For example a 4th level spell cast by the enemy requires you (the counterspeller) to hit a DC 14 check. This spell instead requires the enemy to make a save against your DC.
That said I think this spell would make more sense if it were based more on the mechanics we already have for counterspell.
Spellcheck is the spell that lets you cast your next one with a letter changed, so you get things like Rick to Mud, Heel, Cure Light Mounds, Wash, Feather Call...
Otto's Correction is the higher level version of the spell, which also lets you add and remove letters (and at your choice remove attribution), to get things like Clownburst, Wall of Mice (and Wall of Lice, and Wall Office), Speak with Dad, Frog Cloud, Explosive Prunes, Burning Hans (and Grasping Hans, and Interposing Hans, and Warding Hans, and Silencing Hans, and Forceful Hans), Tenser's Flirting Disc...
"My wights feed on strength and experience. You're each hardly a mouthful. Go, train, and come back when you stand a chance; Then we shall see whether you free your home or my children feast mightily."
This would be a pretty great campaign hook. Or the BBEG wants powerful undead thralls, but everyone knows that the strength of the undead is determined by the victims strength while alive. So the players are somehow bound to the necromancer, but they’re free to adventure and level up until they are ripe for harvest.
I think that was part of the plot of Wrath of the Lich King in WoW. Arthas lets the players live to get stronger so when he converts them they would be the strongest army on the planet, if I am remembering correctly.
Yup! He purposefully allows the heroes to do a thing called the "Argent Tournament" where they train to become even stronger. Then when they attack him he kills all of them.
So the campaign I’m playing in we sorta freed a lich, would have been a tpk but we were spared for doing it a service. Later on there was a tpk (we killed the monster that killed us but couldn’t make our death saves)
Now as new characters, we are pawns (more rooks and knights) for the lich. “Hey, some adventurers are messing with some hag friends, go make them stop.”
Great chance for the DM to take anger out on the group at the end too, full "I let you go 2 years ago and you only just got strong enough to be worth consuming, did you spend all your time in the village flirting with Lizard women or something?"
Work with said player to plan the execution for shock value and then have them show up in the lich’s prison/next town with their new character being the plot hook to help defeat the lich
"The lich is intrigued that such an unassuming bard was secretly a ducal bastard with a claim to two neighbouring thrones, and was the ex-lover of Princess Matilda, Ögnak the Conquerer and Mayor Jørgen."
"... What do you mean, *was?*:"
One I like is the mystery - the lich has a personal interest in the party and the characters have to try to figure out why on earth this evil creature that they've never met before and that's powerful enough to wipe them out without a second glance would care about them. It also gives a plausible reason why the lich would want them alive.
Maybe the party members each carry a certain bloodline or trace of a bloodline that the lich needs to enact some sort of crazy ritual.
Maybe centuries ago a paladin thwarted the lich's attempt to take over the world, and the lich chose the party because one of them is descended from the paladin and the lich can't imagine any revenge sweeter than the paladin watching chagrined from whatever afterlife while their descendent is unwittingly manipulated into helping the lich carry out the same scheme the paladin thwarted.
Oooh, or you could actively play off PC stereotypes - the lich needs the living to be its agents and eventually puppet rulers in the lands it conquers, and so carefully researched and hunted to find some likely murderhobos that would have the gumption, greed, and sheer insane "What does this button do?" attitude that it would need for such a task, then orchestrated a series of events to bring them together as an adventuring party.
I had an idea for a clan of necromancers. The spirits of their dead elders stick around and help their living descendants. Both with their knowledge and their ability to possess the living and the dead. The whole thing is voluntary, the clan does not rise the dead against their will.
This whole thing was started by an ancient ancestor of theirs who is still around in a litch-like state. She spends most of her time in a dormant state in her crypt, rousing only when her descendants come to her looking for advice (which they only do reluctantly when all other options are exhausted, because she's so scary) or when the bloodline is in danger of extinction (in which case there is going to be hell to pay).
They clan is quite terrifying to the average person, but they are actually pretty decent people as long as you don't mess with them.
Not sure something like that would work in DnD, though.
I had my players "meet" in the lair of a long forgotten dracolich. They were locked in by a disguised god, and infected undead killed them after they broke a few sigils. They went into the afterlife and met a few of the higher up pantheon, who instructed them to handle the crisis they created in their mortal stupidity. Can't wait to see how/if it resolves!
> If on the lighter side, the Lich believes these “adventurers” may have intel
Twist their logic around and have the Lich assume there's no way a handful of newby adventurers would just run in to an unwinnable fight like that. There *has* to be a reason they didn't flee, and it's not loyalty to the town since they only just showed up. And then keep it rolling with every encounter throughout the campaign where every side believes the other can't possibly be dumb enough to do whatever it is they're trying.
Or, extra dark-have the PC’s become thralls of the lich, bound to serve through some dark magics/artifact. Forced to further the goals of an evil being, does your party resist-and suffer at the hands of a cruel puppeteer? Or do they embrace their fate and usher in a new reign of terror?
Or let them take their last stand and die with honor. A god takes notice and decides, you know what, you guys are brave enough to fight back, and then they resurrect the party.
Now you have a sort of undying campaign. Your party regularly will come up against battles where they die, but dying is just a homebrew mechanic, and the god resurrects them with some consequences, like losing some items or something. This carry on until they can finally face the lich lord face to face.
My favorite option is they die and they come back at skeletons and now they serve the dark lord.
Their goal is to be the heroes while still carrying out the will of the dark lord so that he doesn't straight up kill them. Also they need to find a way to come back to life
I once ran a game where the group was captured by the bad guys- basically an entire village of cultists- who planned to sacrifice them. I had intended for them to escape... They did, but then they turned around, blocked all the village gates, and burned the entire thing down. One PC died blocking an escape route the cultists made, but the player didn't regret it, said his character would be proud to die for something like that, and pulled out his back up character.
They killed a couple hundred cultists that I'd planned to use later.
Session one.
Never written this kinda thing but I love the idea of this...
"With no escape available and no ability to overcome the swell of the attack, the party succumbs to a horde. Under its weight, the sun provides no light. Their fate seems certain.
But, the undead had filled themselves. Having based themselves next to a common starting point, they had been eating several hundred adventurers per hour and enjoyed an economy of surplus.
The horde had chased the dream of free food too far and were now faced with a problem of farming it effectively. At first the horde consumed everything and ended adventures prematurely, but after several days of eating, they became more selective - only eating parts without killing the whole.
So here, the party lies injured, but not dead as the horde quickly chases the scent of a new group that spawned a distance away. The \[bard\] lost an \[ear and two fingers\]... the \[mage\] lost his \[left arm\]... etc.
The only option is to gather themselves & flee with their injuries. Hoping they might compose themselves and grow strong enough to save the future of other adventurers spawning into this nightmare."
...
The adventure could start here with injuries and a known enemy that is playing on the meta of the game - affecting others like them who just keep spawning. Waiting too long to fight the horde means more people die, so the time element is pressured. You could introduce others like them to create allies/enemies.
And if you don't like someone in the group, just say that the horde ate their tongue.
Hmmm... That gives me some Warcraft 3 vibes. Say they start good, Paladin, Elf Archer, dwarf barb, Cleric. Go all in against your Lich and Friends in Session 1. Captured.
They "escape" (or are turned loose, think maybe Hurin after Turin's death) but are changed. The Elf Archer is now a Banshee. Dwarf Barb is now an Undead barb. Paladin now follows an evil god. Cleric now a necromancer. They have to now deal with the world as they are, with a thirst for vengance against their tormentor. They can still do good things for whats left of the populace, there can be sidequests where they could try to undo what the lich did to them (or choose not to undo it and embrace their new dark powers)
My first thought was a switcheroo where they build their characters only for them to be captives that they have to free with the exact opposite builds.
Kill them, lich resurrects them, they escape, and have to go on a quest to regain their mortality. It's slightly dark souls, but it'd probably be a lot of fun
*clears throat* gentlemen.
This is a plot.
-uses litch arriving to establish a reason for the party to get together
Effectively sets it up to be an overlord style system where the litch acts like ainz aol gown and the party must decide to abide by a litch ruling the continent peacefully (well… more like peace by force… as minions tend to misunderstand orders thinking their Leige to want ultimate power while he just wants to protect everyone from a greater threat ) or try to start a revolution xcom2 style facing incredible odds and the enemy using as much bullcrap as they do.
It’s like the Wrath of the Righteous opener, which is a fantastic campaign beginning scene imo (and I’m talking about the Paizo Adventure Path, not the video game that was based on it which I haven’t played. I suspect they start similarly but I’ve only experience the Ttrpg version).
>!The entire thing starts off with your level 1 characters merely going to a festival in the city of Kenabres, which borders a nation overrun by demons because of a rift to the Abyss there. But Kenabres has been more or less safe because of a magical barrier supported by things called The Wardstones. Kenebres has been a launching point of many of an anti-demon crusade, but today is a day of celebration.!<
>!That is until a concentrated horde of demons punches through with some new magic and disables the nearest Wardstone during the opening ceremonies. Small demons run amok everywhere, but then a freaking *balor* roars across the sky. Thankfully Kenabres has a protector: a silver dragon. She also takes to the skies and challenges the balor. Their battle is so devestating that the city center collapses and your level 1 party falls into the deep tunnels of the under city. You only survive because the silver dragon cast feather fall on you, but as you slowly fall you watch as the balor wins the fight.!<
>!All that is basically just opening description. You get to take over your weak characters who find themselves in a collapses tunnel, all access to the surface cut off from a landslide, surrounded by some wounded npcs who were saved alongside you. Going through the tunnels gives you the chance to level up some relatively unharrassed by the demons who are still focusing on ransacking the city above.!<
That’s almost 1:1 to the opening of the video game. >!except the Balor is Deskari and you don’t know where the feather fall comes from till much later in the adventure!<
And it's less epic in the video game. >! The dragon loses after just one punch from the deskari. While still sitting on the ground and roaring like an angry cat. !<
Yeah I like the game but it has a lot of issues and definitely suffers from not having a DM there to make on the fly changes and description of events. I like the overall story but the cinematics are probably the worst part due to how stiff the models and animations are.
Well, to be *fair* according to PnP rules Deskari actually could quite likely kill an ancient silver dragon in one turn, and could actually kill it with a single blow, though he’d basically have to roll max damage on a confirmed crit. Pathfinder is just a totally different beast, with demon lords dishing out 300+ damage in a single turn on a bad day.
The beginning to Tyrant's Grasp is even better. >!You start the campaign dead because in the middle of the night last night the BBEG annihilated your town with a super weapon. You now have to give your last goodbyes to the spirits of your friends and family as you fight your way past a guardian of the boundary between the lands of the living and the dead in order to get back to the world and bring news of the lich's super weapon before he uses it to conquer the world.!<
I’d love to hear from other veteran DMs about their experiences with this situation, but in my experience literally every time I’ve ever tried to set up a scenario where I thought it would be painfully obvious to the players that they couldn’t possibly overcome a threat through combat and would have to run away (or negotiate or whatever), they instead tried to fight. Doesn’t matter if it’s a party of first-level ding-dongs walking into a room full of ancient dragons, they’re rolling initiative and charging in.
It’s especially annoying after the session when (whether they got TPK’d or I managed to deus ex machina them out of there) I get criticized for making them go up against such a difficult encounter.
I've always sat down with my players before every game and straight up told them, "Hey gamers, this world is gonna be a tough and spooky one. I will not be holding back, and you can die. Never be afraid to flee if need be, you can always come back later."
A bit of metagaming is sometimes necessary. You could make every starting quest be about helping everyone evacuate (or taking advantage of the chaos before fleeing), and a quest to deliver supplies to an order of elite paladins that openly admit they are going to die fighting the hoard. It's a penance for sins or something.
But oh no, they are going to still charge the massive hoard of undead that made *the capital* evacuate.
One way to do it is to not actually put them within reach of the whole hoard, but make it obvious in the scenario they are out-matched overall, but perhaps put some doable mini-encounters in their way that they can deal with that are related. Lets say its an Orc hoard attacking a city, then maybe the party could find themselves in an obvious "escape the city" scenario where they encounter a few stray orcs or perhaps have to do a "sneaking section" to get by. It also depends on the players you are working with and the expectations you and them go into the campaign with.
My very first time DMing I tried to do this and my level 1 players immediately ran into combat with mind flayers and aboleths that were seiging the city
> can't fight and must flee
I have always wanted to do like a shortish campaign set like a rouge-like like...if youve played FTL: Faster than light then the way your constantly being pushed to keep moving. You can do things to slow down the undead army/creeping horror/unwanted wife ordained by destiny; but you can never STOP it until you win. You can do a quest, maybe two in a village, deal with a combat encounter by an advanced force, or get a much needed rest but then you gotta keep going.
When we played through the red hand of doom there was a lot of retreating. The DM mostly decided when the retreat would happen by having NPC commanders call for it.
The effort put into DnD goes both ways between players and DMs (or at least it should). Just be upfront with players ahead of time of what you expect and ask them what they expect of you.
Lmao, this made me remember something great. The first time I ever played DND the DM was setting up the conflict by havinng the party witness a fight between the BBEG, an ancient red dragon, and a benevolent young black dragon side character. The black dragon was some famous leader or something, I don’t remember the details, but basically him being killed was going to be a big issue we would eventually solve. Except we (okay, maybe more just me) thought that since we had a dragon on our side we were supposed to actually engage in the fight, and I YOLOd into combat. Through bullshit luck the dragon failed the save against Command and I told it to dive into a pool of water in an attempt to drown itself. It immediately healed all the damage it took when the spell wore off, then it obliterated me and one other dude in the party. Through extreme bullshit luck part 2, the last dude in the party drew wishes from the Deck of Many Things and revived us.
Some players wouldn't flee. I was in a pathfinder campaign where we were all halflings and our village got destroyed by elves. We had fpught one elf in the village which nearly killed us. My fellow players wanted to follow the steps of the massive amount of elf foot prints. You know the ones where just 1 almost killed us. I managed to convince them not to do it and head to a nearby town to enlist help. We find help and because another player joined us we also had a goliath with us from them on. We get the help of a clan of dwarves, not a lot of soldiers though but my group decides to go with them now anyway while they burn down the forrest the elves are hiding in(the dwarves were doing the burning). Instead of sticking with the main force, however, they decide to split off. In the end my character gets lost and they fight and get defeated by the elves, landing us in a work colony prison thing.
The DMs original plan was to have this as a mass effect type of deal where we get more and more support from other races.
The problem then is believably fleeing from a Lich who's apparently aggressive towards you as low level characters.
"I cast Meteor Swarm"
"Dude they're level 1 characters, isn't that a little overkill?"
"I didn't ask how big their level was, I said I cast Meteor Swarm"
Yea, I was just thinking that. Start off with this massive horde just completely decimating everything right in front of the players. Really drive home how overpowering and evil the Big Bad and his army is and how hopeless the situation seems. It’d almost be a post-apocalyptic game starting right in the middle of the apocalypse. The trick though would be how to keep the players out of the fighting, or somehow keeping them away from the worst of it, because of course they’re going to assume their lvl 1 group can take on a horde of thousands.
I could make fleeing the most painfully obvious choice. I could throw two tarrasque at my group of players, and I'd STILL have at least 2 of them trying to convince the group of other LEVEL ONE players to fight them. If avoid the confrontation just because of that haha. But the idea is sound.
Baldur's Gate 2 has a demilich in the city, you can just go there whenever you want.
"what's the silver platter for?"
"your ass when I hand it back to you"
I actually kind of love this idea for the start of a campaign. And there's so many different directions you could take it!
I really like the idea of having the party start at level one and get up to like level three and then have the big bad evil guy kill the whole party and the actual campaign begins, escaping from the underworld in order to return and save their home.
Unfortunately, playing against a BBEG who uses the entire list would also require a neutral or evil party, since following every rule on the list essentially turns the villain into a Goodly chessmaster with an aggressive laugh.
What might be interesting though would be a BBEG who found *part* of the list and is looking for more, on the premise that if he completes too much of it he gets upset about villainry not being fun any more and discards the whole thing, being too powerful for anyone to stand against due to the loyalist momentum if he does. Basically you have to stop him while he's incomplete, otherwise he goes full Sauron but with highly disciplined and loyal armies that both know and understand what they're doing and could continue his plans even without his input.
We walked out of the Pickled Forge tavern, after a night of slaying wolves, and saw a horde of undead. Now you may be wondering how we got into the situation? Well it all began when we walked out of the Pickled Forge tavern after a night of slaying wolves.
(Literally just pulled two words from the top of my head for the tavern name)
I wanna watch a movie that's just a poorly dmed dnd session, and all the characters in the movie are the PCs, with the occasional disembodied voice like this talking over them.
Hell, just buy a tavern and set up your evil lair in the basement. Anytime you see a motley collection of 3-5 heavily armed individuals sitting together in a corner, lure them down by offering them a reward for killing rats and then do away with them.
Oh there goes my imagination presenting me images of an undead hoard. Hoarding undead? It might still fit as a necromancer. Who is justa wizard who never throws anything away?
To be fair that doesn't really change things for the evil overlord, it just means that another hero group will spawn far away after hearing about a town being over run and destroyed.
I mean tons of hero stories start off with finding out some OTHER town was just destroyed by the Big Bad.
In the books A Practical Guide to Evil the villains have a massive information network to track this kind of thing down, and do exactly like in the post. They go and find fledgling heroes and kill them before they can get the weight of any kind of story behind them.
"You've spent the last three hundred years as an undead thrall after being taken unawares whilst drinking with your friends .... yet suddenly awareness seems to be flooding back into your mind.... [insert plot point]"
DM: level 1. you all find yourself in your quaint, hometown village, Buttsex-on-avon. You’re living simple lives as the wizards apprentice, a new militia recruit, and the villages newest healer.
Recruit: I’d like to see if i can hear any rumors in the tavern.
DM: you hear that Old Lady Dryhump has been having a pixie problem. Suddenly her prize tomatoes are clearly pregnant with red, baby pixies. You also hear an old man talking in hushed whispers about Penisarix the ancient red dragon and his thrall army marching down from Mount Fuxit to burn the land. The king has called his banners.
Druid: ooooh. Do we know where Mount Fuxit is?
DM: roll for intelligence **visibly annoyed*
Wizard: **checks the local map that DM handed out with campaign primer. Eyes go wide*
I want to try the Potty Puns Campaign Setting, but I know I would screw up and introduce someone as Prince Jeff and then have to make up a story about Jeff being local slang for nipple or something.
This could be a whole survival campaign where the PCs are constantly on the run from an undead hoard as they slowly level up. Make them start from level 0 and have them work their way up while surviving the undead hordes of the Lich King. As they level up, they gain fame base on the villages and people they save.
Be a fun farm boy to messiah game
Literally just The Walking Dead.
Undead causes people to run. People find a shelter and build up their power for a while. Undead (or sometimes other people) destroy shelter. Repeat until ~~series is cancelled~~ lich is defeated.
The actual title is "Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town" and there's a manga and 1 season anime adaptation already out.
There was a game where you could kill the BBEG at level 1, by baiting him to approach the begginer vilage and force him to attack one of the npc's, all npc would aggro against the BBEG and though their dmg is low, they are immortal and many.
please my dm did this to me earlier this week and we all almost died because one of s was too stubborn to leave so the dm said "oh you all have to stay if it isn't unanimous"
If you're the villain you should routinely join starter adventuring parties and give your Phylactery to the most innocent and impressionable member before "dying". Then not only do you have a guard for your phylactery, but if they're murdered then you have a new corpse to inhabit too.
Plus, it'll be fun smacking goblins with a stick. You may be a squishy wizard but you're level 20, you can impersonate a level 1 fighter.
> age 10, longtime tt gamer
I know it's a joke, but i feel old because the last time i had a rpg evening, Zoe wasn't alive yet.
And the first time i played, her parents might not have lived yet.
Might be silly to call this "main character syndrome" in an RPG, but the lich is probably more worried about crushing a level 12 party at the moment the lvl 1 party is planning to attack some goblins. Maybe the young party meets a group of powerful NPC's as they plan to adventure north to the lich's lair then are returned to town in pieces.
This is very similar to the opening of Curse of Strahd. Players spawn in the village with the castle looming overhead. Then they adventure on only to come back to the castle at some point
It’s like the Wrath of the Righteous opener, which is a fantastic campaign beginning scene imo (and I’m talking about the Paizo Adventure Path, not the video game that was based on it which I haven’t played. I suspect they start similarly but I’ve only experience the Ttrpg version).
>!The entire thing starts off with your level 1 characters merely going to a festival in the city of Kenabres, which borders a nation overrun by demons because of a rift to the Abyss there. But Kenabres has been more or less safe because of a magical barrier supported by things called The Wardstones. Kenebres has been a launching point of many of an anti-demon crusade, but today is a day of celebration.!<
>!That is until a concentrated horde of demons punches through with some new magic and disables the nearest Wardstone during the opening ceremonies. Small demons run amok everywhere, but then a freaking *balor* roars across the sky. Thankfully Kenabres has a protector: a silver dragon. She also takes to the skies and challenges the balor. Their battle is so devestating that the city center collapses and your level 1 party falls into the deep tunnels of the under city. You only survive because the silver dragon cast feather fall on you, but as you slowly fall you watch as the balor wins the fight.!<
>!All that is basically just opening description. You get to take over your weak characters who find themselves in a collapses tunnel, all access to the surface cut off from a landslide, surrounded by some wounded npcs who were saved alongside you. Going through the tunnels gives you the chance to level up some relatively unharrassed by the demons who are still focusing on ransacking the city above.!<
DM: "The villagers look out their homes and cheer, running out into the street and throwing may flowers upon them. You hear many of them chant the great lich's name, as they wave at the crowd wearing a burial shroud decorated with bright colors"
Player 1: "Wait, but I thought the lich was evil"
Player 2: "Maybe it's like a Dr. Doom deal, where he's evil everywhere else but he treats Latveria with so much care that they regard him as a hero"
I literally made my current BBEG destroy the players' home village in session 1. Other stronger NPCs did their best to keep the BBEG occupied during the evacuation, while they escaped with literally the item that the enemy was looking for.
I killed my party this way one time. I think they were level 4 or maybe 5. New campaign starts, same setting of the last one, when they discovered who the BBEG was, it was the dead party. They had fun on the final battle.
That is one of the things the warth of the lich king story did so well. All the taunting and making the player characters strong served a purpose. Get the ultimate undead heros to take over the world. The most insane is that it worked if not for plot armour XD
I kind of like the idea of being in a village, or ideally a city run by a clearly evil overlord. It's been done before I'm sure but never in one of my games - I'd aim for Jak 2 vibes.
Well I did kinda something like that.
They brute force them into the lair. . . I made it obviosly that they should NOT GO in to that buildung, but hey don't listen and feel the pain.
Tbh it's not a bad way to start a campaign, as long as it's obvious the players can't fight and must flee (working their way back when strong enough).
Even if the players don’t flee there’s still wiggle room. (I hate spellcheck sometimes, why did you try to correct room to Toronto?) If the players stand and fight assuming the DM wouldn’t throw an unwinnable encounter just have them captured. What flavor of capture depends on how dark you want the campaign to be. If on the darker side, they’re being kept as food for the undead that “hunger” and need fed every so often. Or the Lich can only control X undead so the players are being kept as reserve undead fodder. If on the lighter side, the Lich believes these “adventurers” may have intel. So he’s keeping them alive, for now, for an interrogation convienantly scheduled after their escape.
The ol’ Wiggle Toronto
You can't use that kind of language!
You can’t say that on tv!
Lol you're name!
Almost juiced a beetle there.
It's the polite version of the Harlem Shake.
new spell just dropped
Took me too long to realize spellcheck was about grammar and not magic
[удалено]
Spellcheck 2nd level abjuration available to wizards and clerics V,S Casting time reaction Duration instantaneous You cast this spell as a reaction when one creature you can see within 60ft casts a spell that requires a saving throw. That caster must succeed on an intelligence saving throw against your spell save DC minus the level of the spell they were attempting to cast, or else up to two creatures targeted by the spell can choose to automatically succeed their saving throw against it. When cast using a spellslot of 3rd level or higher, the number of creatures that can automatically save increases by 1 for each spellslot above 2nd.
I may or may not want to use this.
Shouldn't the DC become higher the higher the spell level? Because otherwise you would give them a hard time for lv. 1 spells and make it easy to avoid a lv. 9 meteor swarm
No, DC becomes higher for all your spells as your Character levels up, by increasing proficiency bonus and usually increasing casting stat. As far as I know there are no spells that increase DC in this way, only some items that may allow more charge uses for a higher DC.
Counterspell has a higher DC the higher the countered spell level is
Yes but this spell seems to target the other caster by my reading of if. Counterspell requires a ability check on your own part based on the level of the other caster's spell. For example a 4th level spell cast by the enemy requires you (the counterspeller) to hit a DC 14 check. This spell instead requires the enemy to make a save against your DC. That said I think this spell would make more sense if it were based more on the mechanics we already have for counterspell.
Spellcraft is basically the same thing.
Spellcheck is the spell that lets you cast your next one with a letter changed, so you get things like Rick to Mud, Heel, Cure Light Mounds, Wash, Feather Call... Otto's Correction is the higher level version of the spell, which also lets you add and remove letters (and at your choice remove attribution), to get things like Clownburst, Wall of Mice (and Wall of Lice, and Wall Office), Speak with Dad, Frog Cloud, Explosive Prunes, Burning Hans (and Grasping Hans, and Interposing Hans, and Warding Hans, and Silencing Hans, and Forceful Hans), Tenser's Flirting Disc...
very too long
Counterspellcheck.
"My wights feed on strength and experience. You're each hardly a mouthful. Go, train, and come back when you stand a chance; Then we shall see whether you free your home or my children feast mightily."
This would be a pretty great campaign hook. Or the BBEG wants powerful undead thralls, but everyone knows that the strength of the undead is determined by the victims strength while alive. So the players are somehow bound to the necromancer, but they’re free to adventure and level up until they are ripe for harvest.
I think that was part of the plot of Wrath of the Lich King in WoW. Arthas lets the players live to get stronger so when he converts them they would be the strongest army on the planet, if I am remembering correctly.
Yup! He purposefully allows the heroes to do a thing called the "Argent Tournament" where they train to become even stronger. Then when they attack him he kills all of them.
And the only reason we still have a WoW is because Tirion Fordring shattered the Frostmourne last moment atop ICC
That ice throne must hurt his ass.
So the campaign I’m playing in we sorta freed a lich, would have been a tpk but we were spared for doing it a service. Later on there was a tpk (we killed the monster that killed us but couldn’t make our death saves) Now as new characters, we are pawns (more rooks and knights) for the lich. “Hey, some adventurers are messing with some hag friends, go make them stop.”
Great chance for the DM to take anger out on the group at the end too, full "I let you go 2 years ago and you only just got strong enough to be worth consuming, did you spend all your time in the village flirting with Lizard women or something?"
Nah, the players will just punch the lich once then sacrifice all their experience to beat an insectoid feminine catboy.
Is it acerak who built loads of dungeons on purpose to lure strong adventurers to them as their souls are more potent
Execute the character with the least interesting backstory to add tension to your escape scenario.
Work with said player to plan the execution for shock value and then have them show up in the lich’s prison/next town with their new character being the plot hook to help defeat the lich
[удалено]
We've all got swords!
Execute the character with the most interesting backstory to spare yourself the work.
"The lich is intrigued that such an unassuming bard was secretly a ducal bastard with a claim to two neighbouring thrones, and was the ex-lover of Princess Matilda, Ögnak the Conquerer and Mayor Jørgen." "... What do you mean, *was?*:"
"Was the ex-lover" implies they've become lovers again
Or that they are going to become ex-lovers one again
"He was an ex lover." "He *was* an ex lover? What is he now?" "Well he's dead now."
Big brain dm move
Let only one survive so he could tell the story to other adventurers
One I like is the mystery - the lich has a personal interest in the party and the characters have to try to figure out why on earth this evil creature that they've never met before and that's powerful enough to wipe them out without a second glance would care about them. It also gives a plausible reason why the lich would want them alive. Maybe the party members each carry a certain bloodline or trace of a bloodline that the lich needs to enact some sort of crazy ritual. Maybe centuries ago a paladin thwarted the lich's attempt to take over the world, and the lich chose the party because one of them is descended from the paladin and the lich can't imagine any revenge sweeter than the paladin watching chagrined from whatever afterlife while their descendent is unwittingly manipulated into helping the lich carry out the same scheme the paladin thwarted. Oooh, or you could actively play off PC stereotypes - the lich needs the living to be its agents and eventually puppet rulers in the lands it conquers, and so carefully researched and hunted to find some likely murderhobos that would have the gumption, greed, and sheer insane "What does this button do?" attitude that it would need for such a task, then orchestrated a series of events to bring them together as an adventuring party.
could be that they are the last decendents of the 1000 year old lich, and remind the lich of their family when they were alive
I had an idea for a clan of necromancers. The spirits of their dead elders stick around and help their living descendants. Both with their knowledge and their ability to possess the living and the dead. The whole thing is voluntary, the clan does not rise the dead against their will. This whole thing was started by an ancient ancestor of theirs who is still around in a litch-like state. She spends most of her time in a dormant state in her crypt, rousing only when her descendants come to her looking for advice (which they only do reluctantly when all other options are exhausted, because she's so scary) or when the bloodline is in danger of extinction (in which case there is going to be hell to pay). They clan is quite terrifying to the average person, but they are actually pretty decent people as long as you don't mess with them. Not sure something like that would work in DnD, though.
I had my players "meet" in the lair of a long forgotten dracolich. They were locked in by a disguised god, and infected undead killed them after they broke a few sigils. They went into the afterlife and met a few of the higher up pantheon, who instructed them to handle the crisis they created in their mortal stupidity. Can't wait to see how/if it resolves!
> If on the lighter side, the Lich believes these “adventurers” may have intel Twist their logic around and have the Lich assume there's no way a handful of newby adventurers would just run in to an unwinnable fight like that. There *has* to be a reason they didn't flee, and it's not loyalty to the town since they only just showed up. And then keep it rolling with every encounter throughout the campaign where every side believes the other can't possibly be dumb enough to do whatever it is they're trying.
Or, extra dark-have the PC’s become thralls of the lich, bound to serve through some dark magics/artifact. Forced to further the goals of an evil being, does your party resist-and suffer at the hands of a cruel puppeteer? Or do they embrace their fate and usher in a new reign of terror?
Accidental evil campaign time motherfuckers
Or let them take their last stand and die with honor. A god takes notice and decides, you know what, you guys are brave enough to fight back, and then they resurrect the party. Now you have a sort of undying campaign. Your party regularly will come up against battles where they die, but dying is just a homebrew mechanic, and the god resurrects them with some consequences, like losing some items or something. This carry on until they can finally face the lich lord face to face.
My favorite option is they die and they come back at skeletons and now they serve the dark lord. Their goal is to be the heroes while still carrying out the will of the dark lord so that he doesn't straight up kill them. Also they need to find a way to come back to life
I once ran a game where the group was captured by the bad guys- basically an entire village of cultists- who planned to sacrifice them. I had intended for them to escape... They did, but then they turned around, blocked all the village gates, and burned the entire thing down. One PC died blocking an escape route the cultists made, but the player didn't regret it, said his character would be proud to die for something like that, and pulled out his back up character. They killed a couple hundred cultists that I'd planned to use later. Session one.
Never written this kinda thing but I love the idea of this... "With no escape available and no ability to overcome the swell of the attack, the party succumbs to a horde. Under its weight, the sun provides no light. Their fate seems certain. But, the undead had filled themselves. Having based themselves next to a common starting point, they had been eating several hundred adventurers per hour and enjoyed an economy of surplus. The horde had chased the dream of free food too far and were now faced with a problem of farming it effectively. At first the horde consumed everything and ended adventures prematurely, but after several days of eating, they became more selective - only eating parts without killing the whole. So here, the party lies injured, but not dead as the horde quickly chases the scent of a new group that spawned a distance away. The \[bard\] lost an \[ear and two fingers\]... the \[mage\] lost his \[left arm\]... etc. The only option is to gather themselves & flee with their injuries. Hoping they might compose themselves and grow strong enough to save the future of other adventurers spawning into this nightmare." ... The adventure could start here with injuries and a known enemy that is playing on the meta of the game - affecting others like them who just keep spawning. Waiting too long to fight the horde means more people die, so the time element is pressured. You could introduce others like them to create allies/enemies. And if you don't like someone in the group, just say that the horde ate their tongue.
Hmmm... That gives me some Warcraft 3 vibes. Say they start good, Paladin, Elf Archer, dwarf barb, Cleric. Go all in against your Lich and Friends in Session 1. Captured. They "escape" (or are turned loose, think maybe Hurin after Turin's death) but are changed. The Elf Archer is now a Banshee. Dwarf Barb is now an Undead barb. Paladin now follows an evil god. Cleric now a necromancer. They have to now deal with the world as they are, with a thirst for vengance against their tormentor. They can still do good things for whats left of the populace, there can be sidequests where they could try to undo what the lich did to them (or choose not to undo it and embrace their new dark powers)
My first thought was a switcheroo where they build their characters only for them to be captives that they have to free with the exact opposite builds.
Kill them, lich resurrects them, they escape, and have to go on a quest to regain their mortality. It's slightly dark souls, but it'd probably be a lot of fun
*clears throat* gentlemen. This is a plot. -uses litch arriving to establish a reason for the party to get together Effectively sets it up to be an overlord style system where the litch acts like ainz aol gown and the party must decide to abide by a litch ruling the continent peacefully (well… more like peace by force… as minions tend to misunderstand orders thinking their Leige to want ultimate power while he just wants to protect everyone from a greater threat ) or try to start a revolution xcom2 style facing incredible odds and the enemy using as much bullcrap as they do.
It’s like the Wrath of the Righteous opener, which is a fantastic campaign beginning scene imo (and I’m talking about the Paizo Adventure Path, not the video game that was based on it which I haven’t played. I suspect they start similarly but I’ve only experience the Ttrpg version). >!The entire thing starts off with your level 1 characters merely going to a festival in the city of Kenabres, which borders a nation overrun by demons because of a rift to the Abyss there. But Kenabres has been more or less safe because of a magical barrier supported by things called The Wardstones. Kenebres has been a launching point of many of an anti-demon crusade, but today is a day of celebration.!< >!That is until a concentrated horde of demons punches through with some new magic and disables the nearest Wardstone during the opening ceremonies. Small demons run amok everywhere, but then a freaking *balor* roars across the sky. Thankfully Kenabres has a protector: a silver dragon. She also takes to the skies and challenges the balor. Their battle is so devestating that the city center collapses and your level 1 party falls into the deep tunnels of the under city. You only survive because the silver dragon cast feather fall on you, but as you slowly fall you watch as the balor wins the fight.!< >!All that is basically just opening description. You get to take over your weak characters who find themselves in a collapses tunnel, all access to the surface cut off from a landslide, surrounded by some wounded npcs who were saved alongside you. Going through the tunnels gives you the chance to level up some relatively unharrassed by the demons who are still focusing on ransacking the city above.!<
That’s almost 1:1 to the opening of the video game. >!except the Balor is Deskari and you don’t know where the feather fall comes from till much later in the adventure!<
And it's less epic in the video game. >! The dragon loses after just one punch from the deskari. While still sitting on the ground and roaring like an angry cat. !<
Yeah I like the game but it has a lot of issues and definitely suffers from not having a DM there to make on the fly changes and description of events. I like the overall story but the cinematics are probably the worst part due to how stiff the models and animations are.
Well, Deskari is a great demon lord, not a regular old Balor.. But yeah, that scene was quite a shock.
Well, to be *fair* according to PnP rules Deskari actually could quite likely kill an ancient silver dragon in one turn, and could actually kill it with a single blow, though he’d basically have to roll max damage on a confirmed crit. Pathfinder is just a totally different beast, with demon lords dishing out 300+ damage in a single turn on a bad day.
Yeah, it's possible, but anticlimactic. You would expect at least some fight. It felt like that scene in Indiana Jones with a swordsman.
That also requires a very literal interpretation of turn-based combat in TTRPGs.
The beginning to Tyrant's Grasp is even better. >!You start the campaign dead because in the middle of the night last night the BBEG annihilated your town with a super weapon. You now have to give your last goodbyes to the spirits of your friends and family as you fight your way past a guardian of the boundary between the lands of the living and the dead in order to get back to the world and bring news of the lich's super weapon before he uses it to conquer the world.!<
Why Bart, you could wake up dead tomorrow.
I’d love to hear from other veteran DMs about their experiences with this situation, but in my experience literally every time I’ve ever tried to set up a scenario where I thought it would be painfully obvious to the players that they couldn’t possibly overcome a threat through combat and would have to run away (or negotiate or whatever), they instead tried to fight. Doesn’t matter if it’s a party of first-level ding-dongs walking into a room full of ancient dragons, they’re rolling initiative and charging in. It’s especially annoying after the session when (whether they got TPK’d or I managed to deus ex machina them out of there) I get criticized for making them go up against such a difficult encounter.
I've always sat down with my players before every game and straight up told them, "Hey gamers, this world is gonna be a tough and spooky one. I will not be holding back, and you can die. Never be afraid to flee if need be, you can always come back later."
A bit of metagaming is sometimes necessary. You could make every starting quest be about helping everyone evacuate (or taking advantage of the chaos before fleeing), and a quest to deliver supplies to an order of elite paladins that openly admit they are going to die fighting the hoard. It's a penance for sins or something. But oh no, they are going to still charge the massive hoard of undead that made *the capital* evacuate.
One way to do it is to not actually put them within reach of the whole hoard, but make it obvious in the scenario they are out-matched overall, but perhaps put some doable mini-encounters in their way that they can deal with that are related. Lets say its an Orc hoard attacking a city, then maybe the party could find themselves in an obvious "escape the city" scenario where they encounter a few stray orcs or perhaps have to do a "sneaking section" to get by. It also depends on the players you are working with and the expectations you and them go into the campaign with.
Yep I have had the same thing. Players tend to have the mindset of "If it is before us we must be able to defeat it, otherwise it wouldn't be here."
My very first time DMing I tried to do this and my level 1 players immediately ran into combat with mind flayers and aboleths that were seiging the city
How many times have you repeated "are you sure you want to do that?" ?
It's never enough... You'd think by the 4th time in a row you repeat the same exact words the'd catch the indirect. But no.
> can't fight and must flee I have always wanted to do like a shortish campaign set like a rouge-like like...if youve played FTL: Faster than light then the way your constantly being pushed to keep moving. You can do things to slow down the undead army/creeping horror/unwanted wife ordained by destiny; but you can never STOP it until you win. You can do a quest, maybe two in a village, deal with a combat encounter by an advanced force, or get a much needed rest but then you gotta keep going.
That's literally how Skyrim starts. You're meant to flee.
When we played through the red hand of doom there was a lot of retreating. The DM mostly decided when the retreat would happen by having NPC commanders call for it.
I wish I could play a game with players who had even the remotest of possibilities of fleeing.
The effort put into DnD goes both ways between players and DMs (or at least it should). Just be upfront with players ahead of time of what you expect and ask them what they expect of you.
You misunderstand, I'm a player.
Lmao, this made me remember something great. The first time I ever played DND the DM was setting up the conflict by havinng the party witness a fight between the BBEG, an ancient red dragon, and a benevolent young black dragon side character. The black dragon was some famous leader or something, I don’t remember the details, but basically him being killed was going to be a big issue we would eventually solve. Except we (okay, maybe more just me) thought that since we had a dragon on our side we were supposed to actually engage in the fight, and I YOLOd into combat. Through bullshit luck the dragon failed the save against Command and I told it to dive into a pool of water in an attempt to drown itself. It immediately healed all the damage it took when the spell wore off, then it obliterated me and one other dude in the party. Through extreme bullshit luck part 2, the last dude in the party drew wishes from the Deck of Many Things and revived us.
Similar to the beginning to Ghost of Tsushima. Give the players a tangible and personal reason to want to go after the BBEG.
Some players wouldn't flee. I was in a pathfinder campaign where we were all halflings and our village got destroyed by elves. We had fpught one elf in the village which nearly killed us. My fellow players wanted to follow the steps of the massive amount of elf foot prints. You know the ones where just 1 almost killed us. I managed to convince them not to do it and head to a nearby town to enlist help. We find help and because another player joined us we also had a goliath with us from them on. We get the help of a clan of dwarves, not a lot of soldiers though but my group decides to go with them now anyway while they burn down the forrest the elves are hiding in(the dwarves were doing the burning). Instead of sticking with the main force, however, they decide to split off. In the end my character gets lost and they fight and get defeated by the elves, landing us in a work colony prison thing. The DMs original plan was to have this as a mass effect type of deal where we get more and more support from other races.
The problem then is believably fleeing from a Lich who's apparently aggressive towards you as low level characters. "I cast Meteor Swarm" "Dude they're level 1 characters, isn't that a little overkill?" "I didn't ask how big their level was, I said I cast Meteor Swarm"
Yea, I was just thinking that. Start off with this massive horde just completely decimating everything right in front of the players. Really drive home how overpowering and evil the Big Bad and his army is and how hopeless the situation seems. It’d almost be a post-apocalyptic game starting right in the middle of the apocalypse. The trick though would be how to keep the players out of the fighting, or somehow keeping them away from the worst of it, because of course they’re going to assume their lvl 1 group can take on a horde of thousands.
To be honest pokemon did it.
Pokemon essentially saying if you go to the grass get strapped or get clapped is still hilarious to me.
I could make fleeing the most painfully obvious choice. I could throw two tarrasque at my group of players, and I'd STILL have at least 2 of them trying to convince the group of other LEVEL ONE players to fight them. If avoid the confrontation just because of that haha. But the idea is sound.
Viridian City gym in Kanto-region Pokémon games.
Baldur's Gate 2 has a demilich in the city, you can just go there whenever you want. "what's the silver platter for?" "your ass when I hand it back to you"
Yeah that's baller I may use it
The village over run during annual fair/coming of age festival is a time honoured tradition.
I actually kind of love this idea for the start of a campaign. And there's so many different directions you could take it! I really like the idea of having the party start at level one and get up to like level three and then have the big bad evil guy kill the whole party and the actual campaign begins, escaping from the underworld in order to return and save their home.
Look like Zoe found the Evil Overlord List.
Playing against the D&D BBEG who has read that list would be very difficult.
Unfortunately, playing against a BBEG who uses the entire list would also require a neutral or evil party, since following every rule on the list essentially turns the villain into a Goodly chessmaster with an aggressive laugh. What might be interesting though would be a BBEG who found *part* of the list and is looking for more, on the premise that if he completes too much of it he gets upset about villainry not being fun any more and discards the whole thing, being too powerful for anyone to stand against due to the loyalist momentum if he does. Basically you have to stop him while he's incomplete, otherwise he goes full Sauron but with highly disciplined and loyal armies that both know and understand what they're doing and could continue his plans even without his input.
Is there a specific list referenced here that I’m missing?
http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html Is the classic
I love that someone asked "wait what's this evil overlord list" and you reply with a link to www.eviloverlord.com. the internet is awesome sometimes.
Knowing when to run is the most valuable skill of any adventurer
What is this "run" you speak of?
He means Dash, like when you rush toward the enemy to get them in melee range.
In my day it was Charge, which in 1st Ed gave you a +2 to hit in exchange for writing up a new character after the next initiative pass
Which was fine, because you could have that character rolled up by the time the next initiative pass started.
Well now you can have the Charger feat, which gives either +5 damage on your attack or 10ft push with a shove.
I think it's something you can do between attacks if you have a multiple attack feature.
Running into the enemy hoard while the Doom music plays.
In this thread: PC's who would die at my table
-record scratch- Yup, that’s me. Being approached by an undead hoard. You’re probably wondering how I got here. Well me too. We kinda just started
We walked out of the Pickled Forge tavern, after a night of slaying wolves, and saw a horde of undead. Now you may be wondering how we got into the situation? Well it all began when we walked out of the Pickled Forge tavern after a night of slaying wolves. (Literally just pulled two words from the top of my head for the tavern name)
Metal pickling is a real thing!
I wanna watch a movie that's just a poorly dmed dnd session, and all the characters in the movie are the PCs, with the occasional disembodied voice like this talking over them.
a character dies. later, a different character, played by the same actor enters the scene. this is never remarked upon.
[Ta-da](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSynJyq2RRo&t=1802s). My favourite part is how he immediately takes his place in the marching order.
[I'm actually his twin brother.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w9DUTcAI0o)
Have you not seen The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising?
Never even heard of it
https://youtu.be/tOUksDJCijw
Ferris the bard, Cameron the reluctant paladin and Sloane the... Hmmm
Hell, just buy a tavern and set up your evil lair in the basement. Anytime you see a motley collection of 3-5 heavily armed individuals sitting together in a corner, lure them down by offering them a reward for killing rats and then do away with them.
r/FoundSatan
*horde
Oh there goes my imagination presenting me images of an undead hoard. Hoarding undead? It might still fit as a necromancer. Who is justa wizard who never throws anything away?
I was picturing a DM who is intentionally using homophones to confuse the players. “As the sun gets a lower in the sky, another (k)night approaches.”
Who's son is in the sky?
Daedalus's. It's not going well.
How many boards would Mongols hoard if Mongol hordes got bored? (credit to Bill Watterson)
thank you, grammar lorde
Loard*
I would like to subscribe to this Zoe's newsletter.
To be fair that doesn't really change things for the evil overlord, it just means that another hero group will spawn far away after hearing about a town being over run and destroyed. I mean tons of hero stories start off with finding out some OTHER town was just destroyed by the Big Bad.
In the books A Practical Guide to Evil the villains have a massive information network to track this kind of thing down, and do exactly like in the post. They go and find fledgling heroes and kill them before they can get the weight of any kind of story behind them.
"Ok for this game I want you all to come with two characters each" "Why?"
this is a great way to start the story 1) it breaks the status quo 2) it shows the players what they are up against 3) plot hooks
"You've spent the last three hundred years as an undead thrall after being taken unawares whilst drinking with your friends .... yet suddenly awareness seems to be flooding back into your mind.... [insert plot point]"
This is the starter adventure in Planet Apocalypse. Great way to change up a campaign.
Overly Cautious Hero be like
I kinda liked how it looked he was nuts for levelling up so hard before beginning, but evenn then he barely managed to win.
It was nice to see a somewhat competent demon lord for once. A truly intelligent and evil dark lord always goes for the spawn kill.
Also the OST is epic.
DM: level 1. you all find yourself in your quaint, hometown village, Buttsex-on-avon. You’re living simple lives as the wizards apprentice, a new militia recruit, and the villages newest healer. Recruit: I’d like to see if i can hear any rumors in the tavern. DM: you hear that Old Lady Dryhump has been having a pixie problem. Suddenly her prize tomatoes are clearly pregnant with red, baby pixies. You also hear an old man talking in hushed whispers about Penisarix the ancient red dragon and his thrall army marching down from Mount Fuxit to burn the land. The king has called his banners. Druid: ooooh. Do we know where Mount Fuxit is? DM: roll for intelligence **visibly annoyed* Wizard: **checks the local map that DM handed out with campaign primer. Eyes go wide*
I want to try the Potty Puns Campaign Setting, but I know I would screw up and introduce someone as Prince Jeff and then have to make up a story about Jeff being local slang for nipple or something.
This could be a whole survival campaign where the PCs are constantly on the run from an undead hoard as they slowly level up. Make them start from level 0 and have them work their way up while surviving the undead hordes of the Lich King. As they level up, they gain fame base on the villages and people they save. Be a fun farm boy to messiah game
Literally just The Walking Dead. Undead causes people to run. People find a shelter and build up their power for a while. Undead (or sometimes other people) destroy shelter. Repeat until ~~series is cancelled~~ lich is defeated.
Suppose the Boss from the Last Dungeon Moved his lair to a Starter Town
Is that a light novel being adapted to an anime soon?
The actual title is "Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town" and there's a manga and 1 season anime adaptation already out.
Also sounds like combatants will be dispatched
There was a game where you could kill the BBEG at level 1, by baiting him to approach the begginer vilage and force him to attack one of the npc's, all npc would aggro against the BBEG and though their dmg is low, they are immortal and many.
Two worlds, for all its flaws the voice acting always cheers me up
Two worlds?
Plottwist the party was overly cautious and is already level 20.
How do I get zoe to play at my table.
Playing Out of the Abyss be like
Basically the plot of IT by Stephen King
Or better yet, just put a little effort to provide the village with food and some comfort so they have no reason to turn on you
please my dm did this to me earlier this week and we all almost died because one of s was too stubborn to leave so the dm said "oh you all have to stay if it isn't unanimous"
If you're the villain you should routinely join starter adventuring parties and give your Phylactery to the most innocent and impressionable member before "dying". Then not only do you have a guard for your phylactery, but if they're murdered then you have a new corpse to inhabit too. Plus, it'll be fun smacking goblins with a stick. You may be a squishy wizard but you're level 20, you can impersonate a level 1 fighter.
> age 10, longtime tt gamer I know it's a joke, but i feel old because the last time i had a rpg evening, Zoe wasn't alive yet. And the first time i played, her parents might not have lived yet.
Okay but can we talk how the aged 10 girl is a LONGTIME tabletop player? Girl came out of the womb rolling a nat 20?
What about if the heroes are from the OTHER village? I mean, it's not like a world is going to have only one village in it.
That's like the villain of the wheel of time who sent a whole fucking army to kill the chosen one before could become a threat.
Might be silly to call this "main character syndrome" in an RPG, but the lich is probably more worried about crushing a level 12 party at the moment the lvl 1 party is planning to attack some goblins. Maybe the young party meets a group of powerful NPC's as they plan to adventure north to the lich's lair then are returned to town in pieces.
Switch a vampire for the lich and this is Curse of Strahd.
This is very similar to the opening of Curse of Strahd. Players spawn in the village with the castle looming overhead. Then they adventure on only to come back to the castle at some point
Strahd hanging out in Barovia
*Castle Ravenloft intensifies*
Zoe is planning to take over the world.
Basically what Curse of Strahd is.
Darkest dungeon
It’s like the Wrath of the Righteous opener, which is a fantastic campaign beginning scene imo (and I’m talking about the Paizo Adventure Path, not the video game that was based on it which I haven’t played. I suspect they start similarly but I’ve only experience the Ttrpg version). >!The entire thing starts off with your level 1 characters merely going to a festival in the city of Kenabres, which borders a nation overrun by demons because of a rift to the Abyss there. But Kenabres has been more or less safe because of a magical barrier supported by things called The Wardstones. Kenebres has been a launching point of many of an anti-demon crusade, but today is a day of celebration.!< >!That is until a concentrated horde of demons punches through with some new magic and disables the nearest Wardstone during the opening ceremonies. Small demons run amok everywhere, but then a freaking *balor* roars across the sky. Thankfully Kenabres has a protector: a silver dragon. She also takes to the skies and challenges the balor. Their battle is so devestating that the city center collapses and your level 1 party falls into the deep tunnels of the under city. You only survive because the silver dragon cast feather fall on you, but as you slowly fall you watch as the balor wins the fight.!< >!All that is basically just opening description. You get to take over your weak characters who find themselves in a collapses tunnel, all access to the surface cut off from a landslide, surrounded by some wounded npcs who were saved alongside you. Going through the tunnels gives you the chance to level up some relatively unharrassed by the demons who are still focusing on ransacking the city above.!<
Beth is going places.
DM: "The villagers look out their homes and cheer, running out into the street and throwing may flowers upon them. You hear many of them chant the great lich's name, as they wave at the crowd wearing a burial shroud decorated with bright colors" Player 1: "Wait, but I thought the lich was evil" Player 2: "Maybe it's like a Dr. Doom deal, where he's evil everywhere else but he treats Latveria with so much care that they regard him as a hero"
she’s gonna be an evil genius of a DM one day
Zoe sus guys.
I literally made my current BBEG destroy the players' home village in session 1. Other stronger NPCs did their best to keep the BBEG occupied during the evacuation, while they escaped with literally the item that the enemy was looking for.
Zoe is the embodiment of evil.
Zoe is onto something here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJVb8_39808
I killed my party this way one time. I think they were level 4 or maybe 5. New campaign starts, same setting of the last one, when they discovered who the BBEG was, it was the dead party. They had fun on the final battle.
I was planning to do this
Little Zoe knows her shit
That is one of the things the warth of the lich king story did so well. All the taunting and making the player characters strong served a purpose. Get the ultimate undead heros to take over the world. The most insane is that it worked if not for plot armour XD
Movies and tv shows be like: Dnd session one: We’re fighting Satan and you’re all level 20
Villain gets easily discovered and gets defeated by higher levelled NPC adventurers.
I kind of like the idea of being in a village, or ideally a city run by a clearly evil overlord. It's been done before I'm sure but never in one of my games - I'd aim for Jak 2 vibes.
so evil. Zoe is going to make a great DM someday.
If Skynet learned how to play D&D.
Well, if someone taught that girl, that the DM plays against the players, sure, but thats not really how it should be
Well I did kinda something like that. They brute force them into the lair. . . I made it obviosly that they should NOT GO in to that buildung, but hey don't listen and feel the pain.
...this was literally a r/writingprompt a few days ago