The point I think Leper is dancing around without ever outright stating (for some reason) is that if someone wants to play a Thri-Kreen it isn't hard to adjust the setting slightly so that Thri-Kreen are as common to the world as say, Dwarves or Eladrin. Just another non-human race that doesn't mingle a whole lot, but still one that people are pretty familiar with.
With any of my settings, if someone wants to play another race that isn't from the DnD core or original settings (Or DnD at all), I just say "While expensive, many people from other Realms travel to <Insert Realm Name Here> through portals to Sigil." Its why I've had Pathfinder races in my DnD before.
I have a question. I'm working on a game idea for a group of players to be the ghost of themselves trapped inside the Shadowfell since the gates to Letherna are sealed shut. My question is, is there already some sort of rules for what happens when the ghost of someone is "killed"?
I'm really not sure. I thought about something like they have for the Despair Deck and add it where you return after a time, but you lose something about yourself; a memory, hope, something important that is RP related and not Stat related.
That sounds better than the only rules I've seen for this, which was in Ghostwalk. There being a ghost was your second chance, dying again mean you were gone. Not a good way to handle it.
Yeah, I thought about that but it seems like if I run a DnD game, someone dies within the first 3 or so levels of gameplay, normally do to bad judgement or bad luck. And since my idea is that all the ghost are trapped here until Letherna is open again, I didn't want people to just disappear. Plus, you might think twice about "killing" another spirit when he might return rage-filled.
Yeah, I thought about that but it seems like if I run a DnD game, someone dies within the first 3 or so levels of gameplay, normally do to bad judgement or bad luck. And since my idea is that all the ghost are trapped here until Letherna is open again, I didn't want people to just disappear. Plus, you might think twice about "killing" another spirit when he might return rage-filled.
Pitch: They return after a little while (a few hours/days/whatever you want) but their personality has changed in some way related to their death.
I'm really not sure. I thought about something like they have for the Despair Deck and add it where you return after a time, but you lose something about yourself; a memory, hope, something important that is RP related and not Stat related.
This isn't a terrible idea at all.
What you may want to think about doing is looking for an old copy of Wraith: The Oblivion, or just seeing if you can find some resources on it and how it describes... erm... *thinks* Harrowing? I think that was the name.
Steer clear of the mechanics, but there's some excellent ideas on how something like that might work, and the whole book is filled with some interesting (and macabre) imagery. You may find something that inspires your game.
EDIT: One of the things about White Wolf's Harrowing that won't work as well for 4e: it was pretty much a one/two player scene. (see: The Decker Problem)
You may wish to run it with the whole group. Other players stand in for some of the foes, or even themselves--each other player represents a part of that individual's psyche, embodied by their closest aquaintances: the other PCs. I'm sure something like this has happened in various sci-fi/horror shows about a billion times. "Oh, that's not Riker, since I'm in a coma. It's my libido... which just happens to look like Riker in my mind."
Leper on
If my role play is hindered by rolling to play, then I'd prefer the rolls play right, instead of steam-rolling play-night.
Yeah, I thought about that but it seems like if I run a DnD game, someone dies within the first 3 or so levels of gameplay, normally do to bad judgement or bad luck. And since my idea is that all the ghost are trapped here until Letherna is open again, I didn't want people to just disappear. Plus, you might think twice about "killing" another spirit when he might return rage-filled.
Pitch: They return after a little while (a few hours/days/whatever you want) but their personality has changed in some way related to their death.
I like it except there isn't a day/night/true sense of time in the Shadowfell. But its something to run with.
I'm really not sure. I thought about something like they have for the Despair Deck and add it where you return after a time, but you lose something about yourself; a memory, hope, something important that is RP related and not Stat related.
This isn't a terrible idea at all.
What you may want to think about doing is looking for an old copy of Wraith: The Oblivion, or just seeing if you can find some resources on it and how it describes... erm... *thinks* Harrowing? I think that was the name.
Steer clear of the mechanics, but there's some excellent ideas on how something like that might work, and the whole book is filled with some interesting (and macabre) imagery. You may find something that inspires your game.
EDIT: One of the things about White Wolf's Harrowing that won't work as well for 4e: it was pretty much a one/two player scene. (see: The Decker Problem)
You may wish to run it with the whole group. Other players stand in for some of the foes, or even themselves--each other player represents a part of that individual's psyche, embodied by their closest aquaintances: the other PCs. I'm sure something like this has happened in various sci-fi/horror shows about a billion times. "Oh, that's not Riker, since I'm in a coma. It's my libido... which just happens to look like Riker in my mind."
Yeah, I was reading up on it and it might work, but I'd have to really think about it first.
You can always just use Harrowings as a narrative framework for a skill challenge or even another combat. (which is pretty much what they were in WW anyways)
Skill challenge of some sort. Pass=return stirred, not shaken. Gain a lost healing surge or two. Fail=harrowing combat.
Harrowing Combat... Pass=return shaken, but unharmed. (narrative) Fail=Return, diminished. Lose some memories, passion, and maybe find a way a la DA's suggestion to make the changes related to their mode of 'death' in some way.
Or, you can always just say screw it, and have them just pop up again later for no reason. I mean, where are they gonna go, Detroit?
Leper on
If my role play is hindered by rolling to play, then I'd prefer the rolls play right, instead of steam-rolling play-night.
I like the Harrowing idea because it would show the way the PCs fall further down the rabbit hole until they themselves become one of the feral ghost that attack others because its the only time they feel.
*nods* One important thing to remember here is to avoid stacking the deck in th players' favor. As DMs, a lot of people want to slant challenges towards PC victory--especially for combat.
In this case, the stakes aren't a 'final' death. You can be a little tougher on them. If you go with the framework I mentioned above, you may want to actually make that skill challenge a pretty rough one: returning from a second death empowered, rather than diminished should be a difficult accomplishment.
If my role play is hindered by rolling to play, then I'd prefer the rolls play right, instead of steam-rolling play-night.
The story of our campaign means that I need to have an adult red dragon attack the new port town the players are in. They are only 3rd level, so it's going to be the whole town mobilising, with the PCs doing things to help with this. I already have one part where they're trying to get a portal opened to bring some archers through as reinforcements. And I have some other scenes where fire elementals and other dragon minions wreak havoc on the townsfolk and the PCs fight them. And I want to have a skill challenge or two, for example putting out fires.
I'm not sure how to hang it all together, though. A long extended skill challenge? Just pure narrative? If they succeed the dragon will be driven off, if they fail the town will be torched and they will have to escape by ship. But I'm not sure how to reach that point without either DM fiat or some kind of skill-challenge-like structure. I could give the town HP and say particular things damage it maybe? E.g. If they don't put out the fire the town will take 3d6 damage?
The other thing is just what kind of vignettes to have. I really want them to engage the dragon with the townsfolk and the reinforcements and so on, but obviously the dragon is too powerful to battle in the normal way. If they were being attacked by an army, it would be easier to do, with scenes where they face enemy squads. But one dragon? That outclasses the town hugely already? Not sure how to do that. I thought of them trying to summon help in the form of a metallic dragon, but I don't want to deus ex machina it. I want them to be the most important line of defense.
Thanks for any ideas at all.
poshniallo on
I figure I could take a bear.
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Goose!That's me, honeyShow me the way home, honeyRegistered Userregular
So is anyone running a game on Roll20 that has open slots? Looking for something in D&D 4e or Pathfinder, but if there's a similar game that's open I am willing to learn.
The story of our campaign means that I need to have an adult red dragon attack the new port town the players are in. They are only 3rd level, so it's going to be the whole town mobilising, with the PCs doing things to help with this. I already have one part where they're trying to get a portal opened to bring some archers through as reinforcements. And I have some other scenes where fire elementals and other dragon minions wreak havoc on the townsfolk and the PCs fight them. And I want to have a skill challenge or two, for example putting out fires.
I'm not sure how to hang it all together, though. A long extended skill challenge? Just pure narrative? If they succeed the dragon will be driven off, if they fail the town will be torched and they will have to escape by ship. But I'm not sure how to reach that point without either DM fiat or some kind of skill-challenge-like structure. I could give the town HP and say particular things damage it maybe? E.g. If they don't put out the fire the town will take 3d6 damage?
The other thing is just what kind of vignettes to have. I really want them to engage the dragon with the townsfolk and the reinforcements and so on, but obviously the dragon is too powerful to battle in the normal way. If they were being attacked by an army, it would be easier to do, with scenes where they face enemy squads. But one dragon? That outclasses the town hugely already? Not sure how to do that. I thought of them trying to summon help in the form of a metallic dragon, but I don't want to deus ex machina it. I want them to be the most important line of defense.
Thanks for any ideas at all.
A simple way would just be a sequence of skill challenges, and then depending on how many they succeed at, or what degree they succeed at them, then the final conflict is easier? You could model it with the town having HP, or just like... maybe a timer, they have a certain number of rounds to down the dragon. If they did this, the timer's longer. If they did that, archers will shoot the dragon for some damage each round. Then have things happen during the dragon fight itself, like the town catches on fire, and you can go take some time to extend the timer or not, etc?
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AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
edited March 2013
@poshniallo , Consider Skyrim in terms of scripted dragon battles for vignettes. For instance, the beginning of the game where the Dragon is constantly strafing the down, occasionally dropping down to breath fire, or pick off individual guards. Or at the first dragon killing, where you're there at the tower with a bunch of guards who collectively bring it down (though mostly because you're there and there are invincible NPCs).
Here is a link (warning: 133-page pdf / warning: King of the Trollhaunt spoilers) to a complete redesign of the King of The Trollhaunt Warrens campaign arc to fit within a custom campaign. The reason I bring this up is that it contains a mechanic handling a siege of a city that could provide some inspiration for your own thing. Starting on page 37 it describes a Victory Point system, in which a number of things done during the course of the siege contribute a set number of VPs for the party. Encounters/Skill Challenges/PC Activity (ie- non-encounter actions taken through PC roleplay, such as training guards or increasing morale of a group of civilians) reward the party an amount of VPs dependent on what the party does in each individual challenge (for instance, encounters could just reward VPs if you defeat all of the enemies, or if you prevent a set number of enemies from accomplishing some goal, or of preventing any # of enemies from retreating and reinforcing elsewhere). Party actions can also have tangible ingame effects (+1 attack during an encounter, terrain features removed/added, monsters placed in different areas, PC-friendly minions added, etc.).
For the redesign, it adds up the number of VPs at the end of the particular siege to determine the end result of the siege, whether the city wins or falls. For your uses, you could have VP checkpoints, in which not having a set amount after X number of challenges causes the dragon to devastate more and more of the city until the "flee by ship" plot triggers. Or if they achieve VP quickly enough, then the dragon becomes more and more desperate until driven off or killed. With a varied number of challenges/encounters/pc-goals-to-accomplish, it avoids railroading in that parties can choose to complete however many and whichever actions they choose in any order, since you're tracking an invisible progress bar.
The story of our campaign means that I need to have an adult red dragon attack the new port town the players are in. They are only 3rd level, so it's going to be the whole town mobilising, with the PCs doing things to help with this. I already have one part where they're trying to get a portal opened to bring some archers through as reinforcements. And I have some other scenes where fire elementals and other dragon minions wreak havoc on the townsfolk and the PCs fight them. And I want to have a skill challenge or two, for example putting out fires.
I'm not sure how to hang it all together, though. A long extended skill challenge? Just pure narrative? If they succeed the dragon will be driven off, if they fail the town will be torched and they will have to escape by ship. But I'm not sure how to reach that point without either DM fiat or some kind of skill-challenge-like structure. I could give the town HP and say particular things damage it maybe? E.g. If they don't put out the fire the town will take 3d6 damage?
The other thing is just what kind of vignettes to have. I really want them to engage the dragon with the townsfolk and the reinforcements and so on, but obviously the dragon is too powerful to battle in the normal way. If they were being attacked by an army, it would be easier to do, with scenes where they face enemy squads. But one dragon? That outclasses the town hugely already? Not sure how to do that. I thought of them trying to summon help in the form of a metallic dragon, but I don't want to deus ex machina it. I want them to be the most important line of defense.
Thanks for any ideas at all.
You could use an Escalation Die mechanic; every round you roll a d10 and if the result is less than the current escalation score then some new narrative piece happens (city walls fail, major section of the town catches fire, etc.). It's one way to pace the larger narrative. Someone posted a link to the idea on this thread or another some time back.
When I was driving once I saw this painted on a bridge:
"I don't want the world, I just want your half"
It takes solos and re-skins them as three separate but cinematic encounters, with options for replacing an encounter against the dragon with a series of skill challenges. I think it could combine with some of the other ideas up thread to help you out in this scenario. Best of luck!
Ah, I just thought! I could do a mini-version of the 'gather allies' quests in lots of fantasy literature.
Divide the town up into 'The Dwarves' and 'The Rich Eldarin Merchants and their bodyguards' etc (these groups already exist in the town). The PCs have to do stuff like convince selfish merchants to fight rather than flee, or rescue the burning workshop district. Then each one is an encounter, either a combat or skill challenge. And each one they succeed at gives them an advantage in a big final battle, perhaps support troops or magical blessings or whatever.
Now I need to think how to do the last fight. I think I saw some 'Battle as Skill Challenge thing before in DMG2 maybe.
Ah, I just thought! I could do a mini-version of the 'gather allies' quests in lots of fantasy literature.
Divide the town up into 'The Dwarves' and 'The Rich Eldarin Merchants and their bodyguards' etc (these groups already exist in the town). The PCs have to do stuff like convince selfish merchants to fight rather than flee, or rescue the burning workshop district. Then each one is an encounter, either a combat or skill challenge. And each one they succeed at gives them an advantage in a big final battle, perhaps support troops or magical blessings or whatever.
Remember that this only works if your players buy into it. I remember our DM trying to do this to us, but by then we were epic level and completely full of ourselves, and were all like, fuck it, fuck your annoying ass NPCs and their stupid demands, we're gonna kick everybody's asses! (Much in the same way that the "gather allies" quests get annoying after a while.) The number of NPCs I've wanted to smack, in DnD and other games, because they're all like, "Yeah sure, the apocalypse's coming to kill us all, but if you want us to help, we're going to need...." No! NO! IMMINENT DEATH COMING. Not time to make bizarre demands!
Ah, I just thought! I could do a mini-version of the 'gather allies' quests in lots of fantasy literature.
Divide the town up into 'The Dwarves' and 'The Rich Eldarin Merchants and their bodyguards' etc (these groups already exist in the town). The PCs have to do stuff like convince selfish merchants to fight rather than flee, or rescue the burning workshop district. Then each one is an encounter, either a combat or skill challenge. And each one they succeed at gives them an advantage in a big final battle, perhaps support troops or magical blessings or whatever.
Remember that this only works if your players buy into it. I remember our DM trying to do this to us, but by then we were epic level and completely full of ourselves, and were all like, fuck it, fuck your annoying ass NPCs and their stupid demands, we're gonna kick everybody's asses! (Much in the same way that the "gather allies" quests get annoying after a while.) The number of NPCs I've wanted to smack, in DnD and other games, because they're all like, "Yeah sure, the apocalypse's coming to kill us all, but if you want us to help, we're going to need...." No! NO! IMMINENT DEATH COMING. Not time to make bizarre demands!
They're third level, and basically heroic types. One of them is a paladin of Bahamut. I am quite happy for them to steal out of town in a boat if they wish. I like them to make choices. But they will stay and help, I'm sure.
And these events will be while the dragon is ravaging the town. A dragon that hates the PCs because they killed its newborn wyrming and destroyed another egg. It's simply that if the PCs help the dwarves, they will be able to help the town. If the PCs secure the magic portal, the Aglarond envoy will be able to teleport in some troops. And so on.
After years of trying to get a game together, I played for the first time tonight with the help of Roll20. The group of friends and friends-of-friends I've rounded up are mostly new to the game. Two with no P&P RPG experience, three with minor experience in D&D and other systems. They ended up with Alain the Human Paladin of Bahamut, Aptonym the Tiefling Warlock, Han-Tsu the Dragonborn Warlord, Mort the Dwarven Rogue, and Kevros Oaklord the Human Psion.
I started them off with the "Missing Husband" plot hook from Keep on the Shadowfell, but immediately presented them with the detour of an ambushed trade wagon along the road, an unconscious dwarf merchant, and the stolen dragon hide that leads them into the Kobold Hall from the DMG1.
We only had time to get through the first encounter, but it sounded like everyone had a lot of fun and was looking forward to next week. I was really happy that someone (Mort) even got to shove a kobold into the slime pit. They kept him alive and interrogated him on the condition that they let him live after he talked. Though the Dragonborn still provided a bit of encouragement in the form of dangling a rather large rock over his head.
Since they seem to be pretty keen on recruiting him to the party if he's still there when they come back, I named him Meepo from this.
Also, I love the 3D dice in Roll20. We had a pretty good laugh when I rolled for a monster and it looked like it was going to land on a 20 for a character with low HP. It eventually tipped over to something too low to hit and everyone let out a sigh of relief at the same time, followed by the laughter.
Can I pick your D&D brains?
...
Thanks for any ideas at all.
Gonna make you regret that.
Personally, I'd avoid the Skill Challenge mechanic entirely because I don't like it very much. I do like mechanical structure for challenges, though, so I might whip something up like this:
The entire event is broken up into "turns" where a turn is roughly the time it takes for an adult red dragon to destroy a part of town. So it will take the dragon X turns to completely wipe out the town.
The player's job, then, is to marshal enough of the town's resources to prevent the dragon from destroying it and them. The town has R+Y resources, where R is what you think up, and about 3/4ths of X, and Y is whatever the players come up with.
Why is R = .75*X ? Because the dragon's wrecking up the town; there's a pretty good chance that it'll set the mage's guild on fire before the PCs get there. Resource lost, effectively. Make a chart and roll this or DM Fiat, depending on how you're feeling. But that's it's not a guarantee means the PCs feel like they have some breathing room. "Well it went after the orphanage. That sucks, but it gives us time to organize the town guard."
The players should only need a little more than 1/2 of X to succeed beyond what anyone thought was possible. This means they'd have to move faster than the dragon, and gather the majority of their available resources. Less than that and they succeed, but with some sacrifice, and from there you go down the scale to utter defeat and the dragon captures them for torture at her leisure or whatever.
Gathering each resource is a roleplaying vignette, short fight, (mostly to break up the RP,) skill challenge. Each is basically it's own encounter, but not a complex or difficult one. Each encounter also takes up a turn. Once a resource is recruited, it's mostly safe from the dragon.
Turns should probably be invisible, but your players might figure out what's going on anyway. You probably know your group well enough to figure out that detail on your own.
Um. This seems a little abstract, right now. So I'm gonna model this out to see if it works like I think it will.
X = 10 turns for the dragon to annihilate the town
R = 10*.75 = 7 resources that could help fight the dragon
Resources: Docked ships (harpoons, cannons, crew, etc.); Town Guard; Mercenary Troop; Kromulous Redbane, Paladin of Bahamut; Dwarf Miners; Elven Allies
+ Stuff Players Come Up With
Turn 1
Party: The town guard is panicking; Party calms them down and gets them ready for dragonslaying
Dragon: Kromulous Redbane charges the dragon with his Spear of Dragonslaying. He loses, because he is not a PC.
Turn 2
Party: The elven ambassador has been captured by kobolds; Party frees him; He gets a portal open to bring in some elves with arrows or whatever
Dragon: Eats some orphans
Turn 3
Party: Give the dwarves a pep talk, but low rolls and bad arguments mean the dwarves stay hidden underground.
Dragon: Attacks the mercenaries, who immediately flee forever
Turn 4
Party: splits up to try and beat dragon to resources
A: Head to Mages guild, get in short fight with fire elementals
B: Paladin + healer finds Redbane, Lay Hands on him until he can fight again
Dragon: raids a jewelry store
Turn 5
Party: still split
A: "Okay, we need a horse, a cart full of mirrors, and like twenty guys in blonde wigs and frumpy dresses"
(Say yes to every stupid plan)
B: Goes to the docked ships to OHSHITTHEDRAGON'SHERE
Dragon: "Hey these sailors are pretty tast--hey, it's those nerds I hate!!!"
B: Escapes with their lives
Turn 6
Time to fight the dragon. With 5/7 resources, they've done pretty well. Have the PCs figure out how this goes: they're probably creative enough to formulate a plan out of what you've given them and what they've come up with. Possibly suggest the NPCs weaken it enough for the PCs to fight it.
Let's say the wizards bring the dragon to the ground, the elves shut down it's breath weapon, the guards fill it with arrows and Redbane cripples it before getting killed for real.
Then the PCs charge in, one of them picks up Redbane's magic artifact that hates dragons, (and will also help you segue into the next story,) and get into their EL+2 or 3 or 4 Solo fight against a custom Wounded Red Dragon you cooked up specifically for the occasion.
That seems like it might work, and not require too much extra effort on your part if you can improvise individual encounters well. Give them a level at the end of this because they will probably deserve it.
Can I pick your D&D brains?
...
Thanks for any ideas at all.
Gonna make you regret that.
Personally, I'd avoid the Skill Challenge mechanic entirely because I don't like it very much. I do like mechanical structure for challenges, though, so I might whip something up like this:
The entire event is broken up into "turns" where a turn is roughly the time it takes for an adult red dragon to destroy a part of town. So it will take the dragon X turns to completely wipe out the town.
The player's job, then, is to marshal enough of the town's resources to prevent the dragon from destroying it and them. The town has R+Y resources, where R is what you think up, and about 3/4ths of X, and Y is whatever the players come up with.
Why is R = .75*X ? Because the dragon's wrecking up the town; there's a pretty good chance that it'll set the mage's guild on fire before the PCs get there. Resource lost, effectively. Make a chart and roll this or DM Fiat, depending on how you're feeling. But that's it's not a guarantee means the PCs feel like they have some breathing room. "Well it went after the orphanage. That sucks, but it gives us time to organize the town guard."
The players should only need a little more than 1/2 of X to succeed beyond what anyone thought was possible. This means they'd have to move faster than the dragon, and gather the majority of their available resources. Less than that and they succeed, but with some sacrifice, and from there you go down the scale to utter defeat and the dragon captures them for torture at her leisure or whatever.
Gathering each resource is a roleplaying vignette, short fight, (mostly to break up the RP,) skill challenge. Each is basically it's own encounter, but not a complex or difficult one. Each encounter also takes up a turn. Once a resource is recruited, it's mostly safe from the dragon.
Turns should probably be invisible, but your players might figure out what's going on anyway. You probably know your group well enough to figure out that detail on your own.
Um. This seems a little abstract, right now. So I'm gonna model this out to see if it works like I think it will.
X = 10 turns for the dragon to annihilate the town
R = 10*.75 = 7 resources that could help fight the dragon
Resources: Docked ships (harpoons, cannons, crew, etc.); Town Guard; Mercenary Troop; Kromulous Redbane, Paladin of Bahamut; Dwarf Miners; Elven Allies
+ Stuff Players Come Up With
Turn 1
Party: The town guard is panicking; Party calms them down and gets them ready for dragonslaying
Dragon: Kromulous Redbane charges the dragon with his Spear of Dragonslaying. He loses, because he is not a PC.
Turn 2
Party: The elven ambassador has been captured by kobolds; Party frees him; He gets a portal open to bring in some elves with arrows or whatever
Dragon: Eats some orphans
Turn 3
Party: Give the dwarves a pep talk, but low rolls and bad arguments mean the dwarves stay hidden underground.
Dragon: Attacks the mercenaries, who immediately flee forever
Turn 4
Party: splits up to try and beat dragon to resources
A: Head to Mages guild, get in short fight with fire elementals
B: Paladin + healer finds Redbane, Lay Hands on him until he can fight again
Dragon: raids a jewelry store
Turn 5
Party: still split
A: "Okay, we need a horse, a cart full of mirrors, and like twenty guys in blonde wigs and frumpy dresses"
(Say yes to every stupid plan)
B: Goes to the docked ships to OHSHITTHEDRAGON'SHERE
Dragon: "Hey these sailors are pretty tast--hey, it's those nerds I hate!!!"
B: Escapes with their lives
Turn 6
Time to fight the dragon. With 5/7 resources, they've done pretty well. Have the PCs figure out how this goes: they're probably creative enough to formulate a plan out of what you've given them and what they've come up with. Possibly suggest the NPCs weaken it enough for the PCs to fight it.
Let's say the wizards bring the dragon to the ground, the elves shut down it's breath weapon, the guards fill it with arrows and Redbane cripples it before getting killed for real.
Then the PCs charge in, one of them picks up Redbane's magic artifact that hates dragons, (and will also help you segue into the next story,) and get into their EL+2 or 3 or 4 Solo fight against a custom Wounded Red Dragon you cooked up specifically for the occasion.
That seems like it might work, and not require too much extra effort on your part if you can improvise individual encounters well. Give them a level at the end of this because they will probably deserve it.
Thank you. That's sort of what I decided to do already, though your ideas are helping. I was thinking in terms of being able to do X number of things out of Y, so there are perhaps 8 groups who could be brought into the fight, and time enough to engage with 5 of them. Which is basically the same thing as turns.
What I am doing is essentially what you are saying, but the ending will be a battle between units of the people they've helped, skinned as D&D units. So perhaps the grateful dwarves send a unit of Stormhaven Stalwarts. This is basically a high-level dwarf with the powers slightly reworked to seem more like a unit of dwarves than just one. There might be 0-3 units of Stormhaven Stalwarts sent to the fight, depending on how well the PCs helped the fire elementals and resulting blaze in the Artisans quarter. Then the PCs are represented as a small group of powers related to their skills, powers, and RP characters, and they will each choose which unit to join. Then they will divide the units into small groups and each PC will control that group (I'm expecting about 8-10 units total). I'll use a mat to draw a large-scale map, where one square is the size of a house.
If the particular unit that a PC is commanding dies, they die too, although there are death saving throws and healing and so on possible. So Erwain the Paladin of Bahamut can bring his 2 units of Grey Guard mercenaries over to Reth Tinderwood's Church of Tymora unit to stop him dying.
I'll balance it at some median level, so depending on how the PCs do at the various things going on, they will have more or less units, and the fight will be balanced one way or the other.
If they are clearly losing the units will break and flee, and there will be a 'Fleeing the Burning Ruins of Greyport' Skill Challenge.
Stormhaven Stalwarts Level 12 Soldier
Medium natural humanoid XP 700
Initiative +8 Senses Perception +9
HP 126; Bloodied 63
AC 28; Fortitude 28; Reflex 21; Will 24
Vulnerable 10 to area attacks
Speed 4
m Axe Charge (standard; at-will) ? Weapon
+19 vs AC; 3d6 + 5 damage, and the target is marked until the end of the Stalwart's next turn.
M Cautious Advance (standard; at-will) ? Weapon
+19 vs AC; 1d8 + 5 damage, and gain a +2 bonus to AC until the end of this unit's next turn.
M For Moradin! (standard; usable only while bloodied; recharge 6) ? Healing, Weapon
This unit makes a melee basic attack and regains 30 hit points
Stand Your Ground
When an effect forces this unit to move?through a push, a pull, or a slide?it moves 1 square less than the effect specifies. When an attack would knock it prone, it gains an immediate saving throw to avoid falling prone.
Alignment Lawful Good Languages Common, Dwarven
Skills Athletics +18, Endurance +17, Intimidate +14
Str 25 (+13) Dex 16 (+9) Wis 16 (+9)
Con 22 (+12) Int 16 (+9) Cha 16 (+9)
c 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This monster statistics block has been generated using the D&D Adventure Tools.
Also:
Arcanist Clave Level 12 Artillery
Medium fey humanoid XP 700
Initiative +12 Senses Perception +10; low-light vision
HP 81; Bloodied 40
AC 24; Fortitude 21; Reflex 25; Will 27
Vulnerable 10 to area attacks
Saving Throws +5 against charm effects
Speed 6
m Desperate Rush (standard; at-will)
+19 vs AC; 1d8 + 5 damage
r Ritual Blast (standard; at-will) ? Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning
Ranged 10; +17 vs Reflex; 2d6 + 5 acid, cold, fire, or lightning damage. This unit's leader chooses the damage type for each attack
R 5 Winter's Breath (standard; recharge 5 6) ? Cold
; +17 vs Reflex; 3d8 + 5 cold damage and the target is immobilized (save ends)
Fey Portal (move; recharge 6) ? Teleportation
The arcanist clave teleports 5 squares.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common, Elven
Skills Arcana +15, Heal +15, Insight +15
Str 12 (+7) Dex 22 (+12) Wis 19 (+10)
Con 18 (+10) Int 19 (+10) Cha 16 (+9)
c 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This monster statistics block has been generated using the D&D Adventure Tools.
They're pretty simple, as there will be about 2 units per PC, and each PC will add a couple of encounter powers to the unit they are leading.
But I've put one simple tactical aspect into each one - the dwarves can mark and do lots of damage or turtle and do less, and once bloodied they have a small chance of For Moradin recharging, making their last moments more tense. The elves have to get near to use their more damaging rechargable power, which of course is worrying to do against a massive dragon.
Has anyone seen that 'Elminster's Forgotten Realms' book that came out recently by Ed Greenwood? I am somewhat intrigued. I am really starting to enjoy the Forgotten Realms. I thought they would be rubbish, but I find I quite like this high-magic insanity.
I thought he was basically gandalf but he wore red and then years ago I remember seeing a book called Elminster Goes To Hell and presumably the burly shirtless guy choking out a demon like it was a piece of frazetta art on the cover was elminster and I never bothered to look into reconciling those because it's forgotten realms who cares
Apparently Elminster in Hell is exactly what it says on the tin. Elminster is in hell, being tortured by a devil who wants to steal his memories so that he can learn the secret of magic and I assume become the ruler of Metropolis or whatever.
According to one Amazon review, you should read 16 other books first to get the most of this one. So ... yeah.
I thought he was basically gandalf but he wore red and then years ago I remember seeing a book called Elminster Goes To Hell and presumably the burly shirtless guy choking out a demon like it was a piece of frazetta art on the cover was elminster and I never bothered to look into reconciling those because it's forgotten realms who cares
In 2nd he was every class to some extent do to dual classing.
This is nowhere near the top of the list of the bullshit involved with him.
I thought he was basically gandalf but he wore red and then years ago I remember seeing a book called Elminster Goes To Hell and presumably the burly shirtless guy choking out a demon like it was a piece of frazetta art on the cover was elminster and I never bothered to look into reconciling those because it's forgotten realms who cares
In "Elminster in Hell", Elminster and the devil talk back and forth in his head while he's remembering all these boring stories. Apparently, instead of describing things in prose, you just get tags. Oh and the devil talks in all caps. So you get things like this:
YOU KNOW FULL WELL I SEEK WHAT YOU RECALL OF MYSTRA. DON'T YOU? DON'T YOU? [searing fire]
[pain] Aye. [shuddering pain] SHOW ME, THEN, SOMETHING SHE LEFT IN YOUR MIND - OR I'LL TEAR AND REND YOUR WITS IN EARNEST, WISE OLD ELMINSTER!
As ye command, Lord Nergal.
DO YOU DARE TO MOCK ME? [furious lashing fires]
That's an actual excerpt from the book. The bold and italics are from the book as well.
It takes solos and re-skins them as three separate but cinematic encounters, with options for replacing an encounter against the dragon with a series of skill challenges. I think it could combine with some of the other ideas up thread to help you out in this scenario. Best of luck!
This is just what I needed. My players fought and easily killed a dragon last session because of exactly what he mentions, getting locked down unable to move, the characters hammering 5 actions on him a round, etc.
Make sure you're using the newer solo's. After MM3 they lowered the HP, increased damage when bloodied and increased the defenses against debilitating effects.
The solo fix definitely helped their presence at the table. Fights don't slog for hours, and there's a very strong "oh shit" factor to solo damage after MM3. All damage, really, but solos really felt better at that point.
The enormous dragon got to be scary instead of tedious. Huge step in the right direction.
Posts
With any of my settings, if someone wants to play another race that isn't from the DnD core or original settings (Or DnD at all), I just say "While expensive, many people from other Realms travel to <Insert Realm Name Here> through portals to Sigil." Its why I've had Pathfinder races in my DnD before.
What do you want those rules to be?
Pitch: They return after a little while (a few hours/days/whatever you want) but their personality has changed in some way related to their death.
What you may want to think about doing is looking for an old copy of Wraith: The Oblivion, or just seeing if you can find some resources on it and how it describes... erm... *thinks* Harrowing? I think that was the name.
Steer clear of the mechanics, but there's some excellent ideas on how something like that might work, and the whole book is filled with some interesting (and macabre) imagery. You may find something that inspires your game.
EDIT: One of the things about White Wolf's Harrowing that won't work as well for 4e: it was pretty much a one/two player scene. (see: The Decker Problem)
You may wish to run it with the whole group. Other players stand in for some of the foes, or even themselves--each other player represents a part of that individual's psyche, embodied by their closest aquaintances: the other PCs. I'm sure something like this has happened in various sci-fi/horror shows about a billion times. "Oh, that's not Riker, since I'm in a coma. It's my libido... which just happens to look like Riker in my mind."
I like it except there isn't a day/night/true sense of time in the Shadowfell. But its something to run with.
Yeah, I was reading up on it and it might work, but I'd have to really think about it first.
Skill challenge of some sort. Pass=return stirred, not shaken. Gain a lost healing surge or two. Fail=harrowing combat.
Harrowing Combat... Pass=return shaken, but unharmed. (narrative) Fail=Return, diminished. Lose some memories, passion, and maybe find a way a la DA's suggestion to make the changes related to their mode of 'death' in some way.
Or, you can always just say screw it, and have them just pop up again later for no reason. I mean, where are they gonna go, Detroit?
In this case, the stakes aren't a 'final' death. You can be a little tougher on them. If you go with the framework I mentioned above, you may want to actually make that skill challenge a pretty rough one: returning from a second death empowered, rather than diminished should be a difficult accomplishment.
The story of our campaign means that I need to have an adult red dragon attack the new port town the players are in. They are only 3rd level, so it's going to be the whole town mobilising, with the PCs doing things to help with this. I already have one part where they're trying to get a portal opened to bring some archers through as reinforcements. And I have some other scenes where fire elementals and other dragon minions wreak havoc on the townsfolk and the PCs fight them. And I want to have a skill challenge or two, for example putting out fires.
I'm not sure how to hang it all together, though. A long extended skill challenge? Just pure narrative? If they succeed the dragon will be driven off, if they fail the town will be torched and they will have to escape by ship. But I'm not sure how to reach that point without either DM fiat or some kind of skill-challenge-like structure. I could give the town HP and say particular things damage it maybe? E.g. If they don't put out the fire the town will take 3d6 damage?
The other thing is just what kind of vignettes to have. I really want them to engage the dragon with the townsfolk and the reinforcements and so on, but obviously the dragon is too powerful to battle in the normal way. If they were being attacked by an army, it would be easier to do, with scenes where they face enemy squads. But one dragon? That outclasses the town hugely already? Not sure how to do that. I thought of them trying to summon help in the form of a metallic dragon, but I don't want to deus ex machina it. I want them to be the most important line of defense.
Thanks for any ideas at all.
A simple way would just be a sequence of skill challenges, and then depending on how many they succeed at, or what degree they succeed at them, then the final conflict is easier? You could model it with the town having HP, or just like... maybe a timer, they have a certain number of rounds to down the dragon. If they did this, the timer's longer. If they did that, archers will shoot the dragon for some damage each round. Then have things happen during the dragon fight itself, like the town catches on fire, and you can go take some time to extend the timer or not, etc?
Here is a link (warning: 133-page pdf / warning: King of the Trollhaunt spoilers) to a complete redesign of the King of The Trollhaunt Warrens campaign arc to fit within a custom campaign. The reason I bring this up is that it contains a mechanic handling a siege of a city that could provide some inspiration for your own thing. Starting on page 37 it describes a Victory Point system, in which a number of things done during the course of the siege contribute a set number of VPs for the party. Encounters/Skill Challenges/PC Activity (ie- non-encounter actions taken through PC roleplay, such as training guards or increasing morale of a group of civilians) reward the party an amount of VPs dependent on what the party does in each individual challenge (for instance, encounters could just reward VPs if you defeat all of the enemies, or if you prevent a set number of enemies from accomplishing some goal, or of preventing any # of enemies from retreating and reinforcing elsewhere). Party actions can also have tangible ingame effects (+1 attack during an encounter, terrain features removed/added, monsters placed in different areas, PC-friendly minions added, etc.).
For the redesign, it adds up the number of VPs at the end of the particular siege to determine the end result of the siege, whether the city wins or falls. For your uses, you could have VP checkpoints, in which not having a set amount after X number of challenges causes the dragon to devastate more and more of the city until the "flee by ship" plot triggers. Or if they achieve VP quickly enough, then the dragon becomes more and more desperate until driven off or killed. With a varied number of challenges/encounters/pc-goals-to-accomplish, it avoids railroading in that parties can choose to complete however many and whichever actions they choose in any order, since you're tracking an invisible progress bar.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
You could use an Escalation Die mechanic; every round you roll a d10 and if the result is less than the current escalation score then some new narrative piece happens (city walls fail, major section of the town catches fire, etc.). It's one way to pace the larger narrative. Someone posted a link to the idea on this thread or another some time back.
"I don't want the world, I just want your half"
"I don't want the world, I just want your half"
D&D 4e Boss Fight
It takes solos and re-skins them as three separate but cinematic encounters, with options for replacing an encounter against the dragon with a series of skill challenges. I think it could combine with some of the other ideas up thread to help you out in this scenario. Best of luck!
Ah, I just thought! I could do a mini-version of the 'gather allies' quests in lots of fantasy literature.
Divide the town up into 'The Dwarves' and 'The Rich Eldarin Merchants and their bodyguards' etc (these groups already exist in the town). The PCs have to do stuff like convince selfish merchants to fight rather than flee, or rescue the burning workshop district. Then each one is an encounter, either a combat or skill challenge. And each one they succeed at gives them an advantage in a big final battle, perhaps support troops or magical blessings or whatever.
Now I need to think how to do the last fight. I think I saw some 'Battle as Skill Challenge thing before in DMG2 maybe.
Hmmmm.
Remember that this only works if your players buy into it. I remember our DM trying to do this to us, but by then we were epic level and completely full of ourselves, and were all like, fuck it, fuck your annoying ass NPCs and their stupid demands, we're gonna kick everybody's asses! (Much in the same way that the "gather allies" quests get annoying after a while.) The number of NPCs I've wanted to smack, in DnD and other games, because they're all like, "Yeah sure, the apocalypse's coming to kill us all, but if you want us to help, we're going to need...." No! NO! IMMINENT DEATH COMING. Not time to make bizarre demands!
They're third level, and basically heroic types. One of them is a paladin of Bahamut. I am quite happy for them to steal out of town in a boat if they wish. I like them to make choices. But they will stay and help, I'm sure.
And these events will be while the dragon is ravaging the town. A dragon that hates the PCs because they killed its newborn wyrming and destroyed another egg. It's simply that if the PCs help the dwarves, they will be able to help the town. If the PCs secure the magic portal, the Aglarond envoy will be able to teleport in some troops. And so on.
I started them off with the "Missing Husband" plot hook from Keep on the Shadowfell, but immediately presented them with the detour of an ambushed trade wagon along the road, an unconscious dwarf merchant, and the stolen dragon hide that leads them into the Kobold Hall from the DMG1.
We only had time to get through the first encounter, but it sounded like everyone had a lot of fun and was looking forward to next week. I was really happy that someone (Mort) even got to shove a kobold into the slime pit. They kept him alive and interrogated him on the condition that they let him live after he talked. Though the Dragonborn still provided a bit of encouragement in the form of dangling a rather large rock over his head.
Since they seem to be pretty keen on recruiting him to the party if he's still there when they come back, I named him Meepo from this.
Also, I love the 3D dice in Roll20. We had a pretty good laugh when I rolled for a monster and it looked like it was going to land on a 20 for a character with low HP. It eventually tipped over to something too low to hit and everyone let out a sigh of relief at the same time, followed by the laughter.
Gonna make you regret that.
Personally, I'd avoid the Skill Challenge mechanic entirely because I don't like it very much. I do like mechanical structure for challenges, though, so I might whip something up like this:
The entire event is broken up into "turns" where a turn is roughly the time it takes for an adult red dragon to destroy a part of town. So it will take the dragon X turns to completely wipe out the town.
The player's job, then, is to marshal enough of the town's resources to prevent the dragon from destroying it and them. The town has R+Y resources, where R is what you think up, and about 3/4ths of X, and Y is whatever the players come up with.
Why is R = .75*X ? Because the dragon's wrecking up the town; there's a pretty good chance that it'll set the mage's guild on fire before the PCs get there. Resource lost, effectively. Make a chart and roll this or DM Fiat, depending on how you're feeling. But that's it's not a guarantee means the PCs feel like they have some breathing room. "Well it went after the orphanage. That sucks, but it gives us time to organize the town guard."
The players should only need a little more than 1/2 of X to succeed beyond what anyone thought was possible. This means they'd have to move faster than the dragon, and gather the majority of their available resources. Less than that and they succeed, but with some sacrifice, and from there you go down the scale to utter defeat and the dragon captures them for torture at her leisure or whatever.
Gathering each resource is a roleplaying vignette, short fight, (mostly to break up the RP,) skill challenge. Each is basically it's own encounter, but not a complex or difficult one. Each encounter also takes up a turn. Once a resource is recruited, it's mostly safe from the dragon.
Turns should probably be invisible, but your players might figure out what's going on anyway. You probably know your group well enough to figure out that detail on your own.
Um. This seems a little abstract, right now. So I'm gonna model this out to see if it works like I think it will.
R = 10*.75 = 7 resources that could help fight the dragon
Resources: Docked ships (harpoons, cannons, crew, etc.); Town Guard; Mercenary Troop; Kromulous Redbane, Paladin of Bahamut; Dwarf Miners; Elven Allies
+ Stuff Players Come Up With
Turn 1
Party: The town guard is panicking; Party calms them down and gets them ready for dragonslaying
Dragon: Kromulous Redbane charges the dragon with his Spear of Dragonslaying. He loses, because he is not a PC.
Turn 2
Party: The elven ambassador has been captured by kobolds; Party frees him; He gets a portal open to bring in some elves with arrows or whatever
Dragon: Eats some orphans
Turn 3
Party: Give the dwarves a pep talk, but low rolls and bad arguments mean the dwarves stay hidden underground.
Dragon: Attacks the mercenaries, who immediately flee forever
Turn 4
Party: splits up to try and beat dragon to resources
A: Head to Mages guild, get in short fight with fire elementals
B: Paladin + healer finds Redbane, Lay Hands on him until he can fight again
Dragon: raids a jewelry store
Turn 5
Party: still split
A: "Okay, we need a horse, a cart full of mirrors, and like twenty guys in blonde wigs and frumpy dresses"
(Say yes to every stupid plan)
B: Goes to the docked ships to OHSHITTHEDRAGON'SHERE
Dragon: "Hey these sailors are pretty tast--hey, it's those nerds I hate!!!"
B: Escapes with their lives
Turn 6
Time to fight the dragon. With 5/7 resources, they've done pretty well. Have the PCs figure out how this goes: they're probably creative enough to formulate a plan out of what you've given them and what they've come up with. Possibly suggest the NPCs weaken it enough for the PCs to fight it.
Let's say the wizards bring the dragon to the ground, the elves shut down it's breath weapon, the guards fill it with arrows and Redbane cripples it before getting killed for real.
Then the PCs charge in, one of them picks up Redbane's magic artifact that hates dragons, (and will also help you segue into the next story,) and get into their EL+2 or 3 or 4 Solo fight against a custom Wounded Red Dragon you cooked up specifically for the occasion.
That seems like it might work, and not require too much extra effort on your part if you can improvise individual encounters well. Give them a level at the end of this because they will probably deserve it.
Thank you. That's sort of what I decided to do already, though your ideas are helping. I was thinking in terms of being able to do X number of things out of Y, so there are perhaps 8 groups who could be brought into the fight, and time enough to engage with 5 of them. Which is basically the same thing as turns.
What I am doing is essentially what you are saying, but the ending will be a battle between units of the people they've helped, skinned as D&D units. So perhaps the grateful dwarves send a unit of Stormhaven Stalwarts. This is basically a high-level dwarf with the powers slightly reworked to seem more like a unit of dwarves than just one. There might be 0-3 units of Stormhaven Stalwarts sent to the fight, depending on how well the PCs helped the fire elementals and resulting blaze in the Artisans quarter. Then the PCs are represented as a small group of powers related to their skills, powers, and RP characters, and they will each choose which unit to join. Then they will divide the units into small groups and each PC will control that group (I'm expecting about 8-10 units total). I'll use a mat to draw a large-scale map, where one square is the size of a house.
If the particular unit that a PC is commanding dies, they die too, although there are death saving throws and healing and so on possible. So Erwain the Paladin of Bahamut can bring his 2 units of Grey Guard mercenaries over to Reth Tinderwood's Church of Tymora unit to stop him dying.
I'll balance it at some median level, so depending on how the PCs do at the various things going on, they will have more or less units, and the fight will be balanced one way or the other.
If they are clearly losing the units will break and flee, and there will be a 'Fleeing the Burning Ruins of Greyport' Skill Challenge.
I think they are going to really enjoy this.
Medium natural humanoid XP 700
Initiative +8 Senses Perception +9
HP 126; Bloodied 63
AC 28; Fortitude 28; Reflex 21; Will 24
Vulnerable 10 to area attacks
Speed 4
m Axe Charge (standard; at-will) ? Weapon
+19 vs AC; 3d6 + 5 damage, and the target is marked until the end of the Stalwart's next turn.
M Cautious Advance (standard; at-will) ? Weapon
+19 vs AC; 1d8 + 5 damage, and gain a +2 bonus to AC until the end of this unit's next turn.
M For Moradin! (standard; usable only while bloodied; recharge 6) ? Healing, Weapon
This unit makes a melee basic attack and regains 30 hit points
Stand Your Ground
When an effect forces this unit to move?through a push, a pull, or a slide?it moves 1 square less than the effect specifies. When an attack would knock it prone, it gains an immediate saving throw to avoid falling prone.
Alignment Lawful Good Languages Common, Dwarven
Skills Athletics +18, Endurance +17, Intimidate +14
Str 25 (+13) Dex 16 (+9) Wis 16 (+9)
Con 22 (+12) Int 16 (+9) Cha 16 (+9)
c 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This monster statistics block has been generated using the D&D Adventure Tools.
Also:
Medium fey humanoid XP 700
Initiative +12 Senses Perception +10; low-light vision
HP 81; Bloodied 40
AC 24; Fortitude 21; Reflex 25; Will 27
Vulnerable 10 to area attacks
Saving Throws +5 against charm effects
Speed 6
m Desperate Rush (standard; at-will)
+19 vs AC; 1d8 + 5 damage
r Ritual Blast (standard; at-will) ? Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning
Ranged 10; +17 vs Reflex; 2d6 + 5 acid, cold, fire, or lightning damage. This unit's leader chooses the damage type for each attack
R 5 Winter's Breath (standard; recharge 5 6) ? Cold
; +17 vs Reflex; 3d8 + 5 cold damage and the target is immobilized (save ends)
Fey Portal (move; recharge 6) ? Teleportation
The arcanist clave teleports 5 squares.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common, Elven
Skills Arcana +15, Heal +15, Insight +15
Str 12 (+7) Dex 22 (+12) Wis 19 (+10)
Con 18 (+10) Int 19 (+10) Cha 16 (+9)
c 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This monster statistics block has been generated using the D&D Adventure Tools.
They're pretty simple, as there will be about 2 units per PC, and each PC will add a couple of encounter powers to the unit they are leading.
But I've put one simple tactical aspect into each one - the dwarves can mark and do lots of damage or turtle and do less, and once bloodied they have a small chance of For Moradin recharging, making their last moments more tense. The elves have to get near to use their more damaging rechargable power, which of course is worrying to do against a massive dragon.
No I didn't. ^_^
I thought he was basically gandalf but he wore red and then years ago I remember seeing a book called Elminster Goes To Hell and presumably the burly shirtless guy choking out a demon like it was a piece of frazetta art on the cover was elminster and I never bothered to look into reconciling those because it's forgotten realms who cares
According to one Amazon review, you should read 16 other books first to get the most of this one. So ... yeah.
In 2nd he was every class to some extent do to dual classing.
This is nowhere near the top of the list of the bullshit involved with him.
YOU KNOW FULL WELL I SEEK WHAT YOU RECALL OF MYSTRA. DON'T YOU? DON'T YOU? [searing fire]
[pain] Aye. [shuddering pain]
SHOW ME, THEN, SOMETHING SHE LEFT IN YOUR MIND - OR I'LL TEAR AND REND YOUR WITS IN EARNEST, WISE OLD ELMINSTER!
As ye command, Lord Nergal.
DO YOU DARE TO MOCK ME? [furious lashing fires]
That's an actual excerpt from the book. The bold and italics are from the book as well.
You're welcome.
This is just what I needed. My players fought and easily killed a dragon last session because of exactly what he mentions, getting locked down unable to move, the characters hammering 5 actions on him a round, etc.
The next solo fight will not be such a cakewalk.
The enormous dragon got to be scary instead of tedious. Huge step in the right direction.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
anything less is just... miniboss.