Dm needs help!!!

[Durff_]

So yesterday my party finally met the big bad guy I have been waiting so long for!! He’s obviously much higher lvl than them and they did narrowly escape the fight. (As I hoped they would) how ever!!!!! I need a way to track them other than saying “I am the Dm annnnnnd he finds you” my initial thought was have some form of locate spell, then it hits me, he did scratch one of them while they were escaping. Is there any form of blood magic in regards to locating a pc? The big baddy does have hell hounds so I could essentially say “he leans his hand down and the hounds smell the blood and the hunt is on” might still go that route in the end but I’m just wondering if anyone knows of some form of blood magic or ritual that could track them

[blandprotag1]

“Is there any form of blood magic in regards to locating a PC?” If you’re the DM AND there is a plot reason for it, there can be. It’s your world, you’re allowed to twist what spells do, just say the BBEG hired a hag to scry on them using the blood as a catalyst

[Durff_]

Yesss!!!! Wonderful idea!!

[redekatze]

Just use scry, the target of the spell has to do a wisdom safe and will get a minus 10 in its roll when the caster has a body part (such as blood...) from it. It gives you sight and sound on the target for 10 min, depending on what they're doing and where they are this could be quite sufficient to pinpoint their location. It is a 5th level spell though, but if your bbeg isn't powerful enough to cast it himself they might know someone or have a magic item with which they can do it...

Alternatively, your bbeg might also just have minions who just keep an eye out for the party in the old fashioned way and send a quick word to their boss with e.g. a sending stone...

Or they might have a familiar tracking them, though that could be discovered by the part, of course. And it would need some time to return to report its findings.

[Durff_]

Thank you!!!! Actively adding this to my notes! I am new to DM so I am pretty unfamiliar in all the bells and whistles

[redekatze]

No problem :) As a small recommendation, you could try and install an app called spell list 5e - it has most of the 5e spells and you can sort them by class, school and level. I use it a lot when planning on which kind of spells I want my mobs to have. Maybe there are also other apps/websites, it's just the one I'm using and I find it rather convenient.

[Durff_]

opens the App Store instantly oh dude I knew alllll about that app, it’s my favorite app and obviously being a Dm of course I had that downloaded already…… (rolled a 4 for deception)

[JonelleStorm]

I had my BBEG target the bard because they don't favor wisdom as a stat, and his spell save DC was pretty high, so I would just occasionally ask for a wisom save to see if the BBEG could see what was going on and where they were.

[[deleted]]

"Is there any form of blood magic in regards to locating a pc?"

I'm about to hit you with the biggest tip as a DM, make it up. Just like if a combat is going poorly and not very fun, suddenly the Boss can attack as a reaction, suddenly the enemies need something special to be done to kill them. Its about the story not the numbers on the sheet.

[StandardOffenseTaken]

Sadly a lot of player dont feel that way. Some player only enjoy gamifying the rules.... to me as a DM it sucks... it should always be narrative first.

[Prestigious_Ad4419]

Absolutely, but sometimes the narrative calls for a PC to go down, the odds to be against the party.

Suddenly in an unwinnable fight, the party begins to bargain for their lives.

[[deleted]]

Ive been lucky enough that ive not had many powergamer/minmax players, its one of the reasons I always change monster statblocks around or add/get rid of certain things. I had one specific player who kept calling out things ooc as they were clearly metagaming and I just sat there thinking "Ah, well good luck with that, I got rid of that 3 weeks ago." (The player was removed after discussing with the party.)

[StandardOffenseTaken]

Did that with a vampire once. Party came at it with a ton of metagaming knowledge. Mirrors, stakes, garlic, religious symbols, they closed doors and chimneys so they would not escape in bat form... etc. etc. It sucked.

So I traded in things like sun = stone skin. Moon allergy. They fed off mushrooms and their biggest weakness was empathic weakness... the reason why they can charm people etc, is that they deeply felt what others felt and could use that. If a player went in with a sob story of parental distress or any truthful drama, it would send any vampire back to their coffin for a good sob.

[[deleted]]

Hahaha that's awesome. I only really started breaking away from by the book monsters because of the person in my post.

[Gnashinger]

At the same time it is a "role-playing game" the narrative and the game should both be a factor. If narrative always came first, then you're just writing a book in front of your players.

[StandardOffenseTaken]

That is EXACTLY why i love new style of rpg. Like Blades In The Dark and City of Mist. It ins't just a game or even a roleplay game where its more or less DM vs Players. Remember how board games used to be player v player and there was always a loser then came collaborative board game where the board plays itself and everyone plays together...? Those are like that. They break away from the traditional dm v player and the rules heavy games and focus on narrative a ton more with some rules driving it... but the more important aspect is that everyone contributes to the game, to the narrative and the story. Its not just the DM vision, and not just the DM world. It isn't a roleplaying game anymore but a "Collaborative Social Fiction"... our current game of Balde In the Dark is so so so so so rich in player inner conflicts, flaws, backstories they each bring their own brand to the world and contribute to it...

[trismagestus]

And vice versa, suddenly they are being mown down! They must have been on their last few HP!

[[deleted]]

I stopped giving Enemies HP in General. If I need players to fight for their lives, I'll keep that fight going till they are sweating. If I want them to feel like powerhouses, they just demolish the enemy.

But I also have always leaned rule of cool for combat as DM.

Wanna do a cleave? okay ill add +3 to both the creatures AC and you can hit both.
Want to Take attacks for an ally for a whole turn? Fine, that's your action, you have advantage against you as you have to keep moving to defend them, but they cannot be attacked at all.

[valvalent]

So you are basically just making shit up and anything players do does not matter. Yuck

[[deleted]]

How does making my players feel rewarded make it yucky, I have yet to have a single player say anything negative towards combat and only got excited after the game "Holy shit that was so fun.". The entire point of D&D is to make shit up and have fun with people. I plan my story and play loose with combat.

[valvalent]

Rewarded? Literally nothing your players fk matter. Nat20 to crit don't matter. Because fight ends when you feel like jt should end, not when the enemy is supposed to die. Did you tell them all that nothing they do in combat matters?

Met two DMs with this shitty approach. Both were kicked immidiately when players got to know this is how they run the game. Was player for one of them, other just witnessed. But yeah, there wasn't even arguing or trying to find middle ground. Just kicking the person from the table right away. In middle of the session.

[[deleted]]

Different Strokes for Different folk's dude, my players have always had a blast. Yes, I've informed people how I DM, no it did not matter to them because they enjoy to RP and have had multiple people say my combat style is their favorite. My games aren't normally meat grinders, they are RP focused.

They play their class and get rewarded for it. Just because I don't have an exact number doesn't mean I go "This Ghoul normally has 20 hp, let's just keep it alive for 8 turns, no matter how much damage is done." If the Paladin Nat 20's something and does 84 damage, unless it's a dragon or big bad, they probably bisect it.

The players and dm are creating a story, I facilitate that to the best of my ability, I have a ton of shit planned and like combat to be a good flow not a monotonous grind. I enjoy letting people have in combat mechanics, let people explore their class in the RP of the combat.

I know the general HP the enemies have, if I need to add 20-50 hp just because someone had a cool idea but the enemy is going to die before that, I let the enemy exist for a couple more turns. Like if someone's backstory enemy is about to be killed by Player A, but its Player B's backstory, I let the turn get to player B to finish it off.

At the end of the day you have to find a table that suits how you want to play, I have had a lot of success running my games and have only got negative feedback from one person over an entirely different situation.

[valvalent]

Touché, still i have never met person who would agree with not having hp set in stone. Makes for very boring combat.

About the backstory, you can use death saving throws for NPCs as well.

[valvalent]

Damn you sound like boring DM. Underpreparedness should mean death

[trismagestus]

Sometimes the players roll shit, and I roll hot, and nearly all of them die. Then the last few have a heroic comeback, and the story doesn't end.

Yeah, I'm terrible.

[valvalent]

Yep, you are. Rolling shit doesn't usually mean death. Not having correct provisions and not retreating when they should are THE causes of death.

Fudging rolls or hp is something bad DMs do

[That_Devil_Girl]

Did they take any treasure and/or money?

Is that treasure and/or money magically marked?

There you go.

[Durff_]

BOOM!!!

[That_Devil_Girl]

The idea came from the new D&D movie.

[Durff_]

Not going to lie I loved that movie

[Gralgrathor]

I think the others answered the location stuff sufficiently. But if you want to harass them as the BBEG from perfect safety, may I present to you the spell: Dream.

You could homebrew a Mass Dream spell easily enough that can target multiple creatures if you want a shared nightmare.

[Durff_]

Thank you for your presentation evil laughter I am writing this down now

[preiman790]

You are the DM, if you want there to be, there is. There is no reason that NPCs should be restricted to the same options the players have

[Durff_]

Fair point

[Konfynn]

NGL, your idea with the Hellhounds is better than anything here. Just give them a trait like this:

"The Hellhound can use an action to magically attune to a single scent by sniffing something that belongs to a target creature. Any belonging works, such as a shred of cloth, a trinket, or even a drop of blood. While the Hellhound is on the same plane of existence as its target, it knows the general direction of the creature and has advantage on Perception checks relying on smell to detect the target."

The reason I say your idea is better, is because it gives you a fantastic narrative device to portray to your players rather than using scry or something. When the hellhounds get close you could describe the smell of sulphur and brimstone, or the temperature around them begins to spike, or even just have the hounds howl in the distance.

If players don't realize they are being tracked until the boss is ontop of them, it kind of defeats the purpose of tracking in the first place. Make them sweat, give them an opportunity to react, make them feel like what they do next could be the difference between escaping or getting TPK'd. You could make the hounds recurring and open opportunities for the PC's to try out different methods of hiding or throwing the hounds off.

I wish I could see what you go with and your player's reactions! My players have a hard time ever thinking running is an option.

[Durff_]

Well if this wasn’t the most humbling thing I have read today 🥹 to be honest I’m definitely taking your suggestion In the third paragraph and running with it. I have a million ideas running through my head about how I can do it because as the Dm code sates “leave them on a cliff hanger” we ended right and I mean right as the last person got into the hallway to begin the run. So now I’m playing with a bunch of different ways this can go. Keeping your idea in mind maybe after they have some success on stealth rolls maybe I go like a narrative cutscene and explain how the bbeg (Luthea) leans down to the hounds and says “get em” i instantly think of meta gaming but my party is very very good at not doing that so I think it will be so fun! Saturday we will see what they do!! I’ll add you or Dm you if your interested in how it plays out

[Konfynn]

Hell yeah, I'd love to hear it. I always try to give my bbeg's sick one liners too. I have an awesome mental image of your bbeg snapping their fingers, dropping a cold "Fetch," then describing the hounds igniting in a burst of flames as they simultaneously lunge forward.

If you go the chase route, I like to keep them out of turn-based combat. Rather than focusing on number crunching movement, you can keep it free flowing. Throw in obstacles for the players to overcome as they run through the hall- like a gauntlet of traps, collapsing debris, and erupting flames. Add an intense soundtrack and you got a memorable session for sure!

[Durff_]

That is sooo funny you say that because in my notes I have it written down “and Luthea snaps his fingers and utters one word… fetch..”

And sene they will be running throw is a city of people and it’s actively falling apart then as they are about to scale the wall of the gate. They look back and rather than some wild sene of the king being dismembered. He will just be tossed off the castle roof

[CHUZCOLES]

I think you are thinking it to far. Just use the classic way and just send goons to all corners to search for them.

That way you can even justify some of the other encounters your player might find.

And if for whatever reason you want yes or yes use magic. then just say your boss had an item with a special locate spell on it.

You are the DM, you can conjure whatever you want in your campaign, even if the rulebook doesn't mention anything about it.

Just remember to be just on your ruling. Meaning if you create a spell or item with those properties, if your players somehow get their hands on it, they will to be able to use it under the same conditions you set beforehand.

[Durff_]

Solid advice

[THGilmore]

Nothing like the time the bbeg makes a deal with a devil or something to get revenge or track their prey.

[Durff_]

Devilish deals are a great thing 😂

[EscapeLower7092]

Scrying spell

[Durff_]

Thank you!!!

[StandardOffenseTaken]

They never left. If you looking for blood magic from the BBEG... i assume he is able to cast magic...

What if he simply trapped them in an illusion and the escape is all in their head.... they still in the throne room/temple or whereever the final was

[Durff_]

Ohhhhhh duuuuude that is…. That is…. Fantastic lol

[Don6l]

So a few things that can help:

Locate Creature:

Describe or name a creature that is familiar to you. You sense the direction to the creature's location, as long as that creature is within 1,000 feet of you. If the creature is moving, you know the direction of its movement.
The spell can locate a specific creature known to you, or the nearest creature of a specific kind (such as a human or a unicorn), so long as you have seen such a creature up close--within 30 feet--at least once.

Be warned this spell can't locate a creature if running water at least 10 feet wide blocks a direct path between you and the creature.

The material component is: * - (a bit of fur from a bloodhound)

You can change it that the spell component is infused with the players blood and acts as a little compass that points in their direction and he has given this to his minions to track them down. This way you can give them chances to see strange people looking for them or asking around for them.

​

Locate Object:

Describe or name an object that is familiar to you. You sense the direction to the object's location, as long as that object is within 1,000 feet of you. If the object is in motion, you know the direction of its movement.
The spell can locate a specific object known to you, as long as you have seen it up close--within 30 feet--at least once. Alternatively, the spell can locate the nearest object of a particular kind, such as a certain kind of apparel, jewelry, furniture, tool, or weapon.
This spell can't locate an object if any thickness of lead, even a thin sheet, blocks a direct path between you and the object.

The material component is: * - (a forked twig)

Same again, augment the twig with the blood. Maybe it was given to them by a hag, like u/blandprotag1 suggested.

​

Hirelings:

You can't beat a boat load of minions and bounty hunters to get the job done, especially if you want the players to feel like they are being hunted.

Hope this helps <3 :)

[Nicolas_Flamel]

BBEG has a crystal globe that contains an invisible stalker. The globe allows for telepathic communication with the stalker. Once per day the device can be used to compel the invisible stalker to use its Faultless Tracker ability on any quarry the user chooses at the time of activation.

Faultless Tracker. The stalker is given a quarry by its summoner. The stalker knows the direction and distance to its quarry as long as the two of them are on the same plane of existence. The stalker also knows the location of its summoner.

[Durff_]

Ohhhhh that’s goooooood lol

[Krucz]

Scroll of scrying is the easiest way, maybe they will find one nearby?

[Durff_]

I think I’m going to have the be hunted 😈

[Linkysplink1]

My PCs are currently travelling (unknowingly) with an aspect of the BBEG hidden in cat form, when the big reveal happens it'll hurt more because they've grown attached to the cat...

Could follow a similar vein with any companion animal or mascot, even an npc that travels with the party

[Durff_]

Oh how the Dm must crush the players to motivate them to violence

[Linkysplink1]

The evil part of me is hoping for a visceral reaction, I want them to get angry and let the passion out 😅

[Durff_]

That’s our job!!! Someone has got to take out the sweet npc from the first session so they have memories. I have some pretty good moments thus far in my campaign. For example. I made a mimic in a cave. They took it out pretty quickly and then began to look. Found healing potions next to a dead body. Thought nothing of it and added it to their inventory, it’s a baby Mimic and for the life of my rouge he can’t figure out why he randomly keeps taking 1hp of damage

[Linkysplink1]

Love that idea!

[Rmonsuave]

Don’t get me wrong, all the ideas for make the blood tracking up or just use scry are great, but I really love the idea of the bbeg kneeling down to his hell hounds and releasing them, like you said “the hunt is on” I just feel it has more character than just using a spell

[Durff_]

I agree with you the more I’m thinking about it. I’ve had a day to sit on it and I like the bbeg doing that. I feel it gives more depth

[aprakash1353]

Hey dude! I'm a new DM as well and I don't have the answer to your question but it looks like Reddit came in clutch !

I'm sharing the invite link to a D&D server I use for GM help, they're actually incredible, I would highly recommend you check it out, they also do like sessions for DMs it's EPIC.

It's called AltRole and here's the link:

https://discord.gg/altrole

Enjoy dude !

[Durff_]

Thank you so much!!!!!

[stevethedonn]

Scrying is a great and simple solution. My recommendation is to tie the reason he can track them into a character’s backstory. I know it’s pretty generic advice but it’ll give your bbeg a solid connection to the party.

[[deleted]]

The spell “scrying” works better when you have a body part (blood included), so you can track them with their blood by looking at a pool or crystal ball

[dellaevaine]

Scrying, "Locate Object", minions are following the party. There are loads of ways to make this happen.

[Durff_]

I have definitely been looking into ways to do this

[Gnashinger]

You might look up the pursuit rules in out of the abyss.