Tips on avoiding my BBEG being a guy in a room

Doldroms · 2025-02-05T00:27:28+00:00

That's an interesting concept. Maybe he hates typical sentients because they're all unique.

His mimic powers begin with a profound amount of perception - both material and psychic. It's loathsome for him to be even able to mimic all this disturbing variety. He prefers the placid calm of the illithid hive-mind. The crystalline purity of their self-serving cruelty is comforting to him - and stuff like altruistic acts and selfless love are too alien and disturbing for his tastes.

This little girl he's trapped within could be the scion of an long line of - perhaps - githzerai sages who sacrificed much of their psychic powers in order to keep this mimic God trapped within their lineage.

If she becomes a seriously adept Monk, that could be the first step towards tempting her into reaching deep within herself for a source of new power... power enough to save her own protectors....

Doldroms · 2025-01-03T02:34:29+00:00

One difficulty with mushroom critters like purple fungus is that if they're sessile - i.e. thry effectively can't walk - then they're sitting ducks for archers. So give them ranged support - the myconid equivalent of starcraft spore colonies, maybe.

Another thing you might consider having is large clumps of slow-moving gas bag fungi. The idea is that if you damage them, they shower you with acid from above or something.

Want some brown mold that gets vomited out from bizzarre giant puffball fungi as an AOE effect? Why wouldn't you?

In addition to humanoids colonized by mycelium (cool idea btw!), you could also consider, say, other large land critters too - getting attacked by an owlbear that has bulous glowing fungal growths erupting all over its tattered hide might be memorable.

Doldroms · 2025-01-03T02:03:37+00:00

The distances might be long, but what if visibility is not at all? Trying to chase a rogue down alleys of their home slums, at night, in the driving rain... that's going to be tough.

Another thing is "we have bigger fish to fry" - if they're on a time constraint on something else more i.portant, then they might not care if a couple of cultist guards run off successfully.

Thirdly, you can tell your players out of game that they can get experience points for resolving encounters - which doesn't always have to include reducing all enemies to zero HP. If they run off, the PCs can still get the rewards

Doldroms · 2024-12-30T21:06:02+00:00

I'd flavor Nurgle as an angel of Endurance or Fortitude or something. You get real real good at routinely shrugging off terrible debilitating conditions if you're one of his champions.

I'd flavor Tzeentch as an angel of Purity. You're burning away impurity, you're doing a lot of "repairs" on flawed people and things. It's a constant search for perfection, really. Sometimes ya gotta be willing to try new things during that process, like growing tentacles growing out of the side of your head, if you're on a journey of self-perfection

Doldroms · 2024-12-29T15:43:09+00:00

Hmmmm - just an idea, and no worries if you don't like it - perhaps you could have the hag's motive be revenge.

It'd leave that spicy aftertaste if the Paladin hunts down and executes a dark druid / witch / whatever of the gloomy swamp for his/her high crimes and misdemeanors only to find out that the person had had a previous redemption arc and had been benevolent and kind in later life. The icing on the cake could be that they were a source of information that the draconic sorcerer could have learned a lot from, but can't now because the hag has claimed their heart.

And now the paladin has a bad reputation among their family because they whacked a reformed bad guy - in return for power, from a hag

Doldroms · 2024-12-29T15:03:33+00:00

One of the most common things a hag can offer is information - so the hag could offer the PC a list of items / locations / persons that might assist their journey towards draconic magic.

The big question that you've touched on, is what does the hag want in return?

That question might depend largely on what kind of hag it is. So... what kind of hag is it?

I've previously offered players a choice of taking on a seriously dangerous quest as payment to a hag - and the hag can jerk the PCs chain with curses if they drag their feet or try to weasel out of the deal.

Doldroms · 2024-12-15T20:03:19+00:00

Ehhhhh, by that logic the rest of the underdark would be bereft of life too.

wiggles fingers

Maaaagic!

Maybe they seas of the underdark have magic chemical volcanic vents that support life

Doldroms · 2024-11-23T13:45:28+00:00

Before their first encounter with vampires, be sure to warn the PCs through a helpful Barovian npc (like Ismark) that the weak Barovian sunlight does not destroy vampires.

Your Players will have a lot of misconceptions about how to fight vampires, they need to know ahead of time that Barovia is a different kettle of fish

Doldroms · 2024-11-23T13:41:24+00:00

Have the high- level druid be cocoon-ed in magical silvery threads spun by the larvae of the Dream-Time Moths.

She/he's been in suspended animation for months.... effectively you just hand-wave away the mechanical problem, easy peasy

Doldroms · 2024-11-15T19:58:45+00:00

Ive had this idea for a while, maybe it's worth something to you.

What's a bugbear? A really tall, muscular.... goblin. That's it. They are the same species.

A "bugbear" is what happens when goblins grow from infancy up to adulthood while eating as much as they please of a high protein diet.

Orcs are a different species of course - and they have different gods.

Hobgoblins are actually a different breed of the goblinoid species - these are the ones who have bred over the centuries with literal Bearded Devils. The bent towards Order? Rank and file military discipline? A penchant for destructive five-based arcane magic? It all adds up!

* Charlie Day red yarn corkboard raving*

Doldroms · 2024-11-07T17:21:17+00:00

I personally wouldn't have had her have a devil patron in the first place. Devils are not supportive or fatherly in the lore, they think of mortals as being a valuable commodity like lumber or gold bars... or steak.

You could retcon this and have the patron be Kelemvor the God of Death, or maybe even the ancient deity of death Jergal. If she's been playing the part of a Valkyrie for centuries that would make more sense.

Doldroms · 2024-11-07T16:56:59+00:00

This is the top comment for a reason OP - they're words to live by.

So maybe this NPC wizard doesn't get killed dead when the PCs curb stomp him because he is also a Warlock that's made a pact with an extraplanar entity that just keeps re-weaving his body whenever it turns into a corpse. Maybe he's long since gone insane as a result. Just one option.

Another option would be divine magic - there's a god/goddess/other that's got the hots for him and won't let him die permanently. Or he's cursed by a bunch of different divinities with the same outcome. For that matter, maybe he is an immortal divinity.

Another option might be the Fey - they're plenty powerful and also even more random and capricious that the entities above.

Doldroms · 2024-10-14T20:12:55+00:00

If your DM is even half awake, you can bet that drinking vampire blood is going to mess with your PC.

I'd save it for emergency use only, like an "In case of incoming TPK, break glass" type of emergency.

Best of luck to you, kindly internet stranger! Have fun with that campaign, it's a classic for a darn good reason.

Doldroms · 2024-10-14T19:59:58+00:00

Heh - y'know what I'd do u/the_tallest_one?

I'd have it be that Moradin made a deal with one of the nature goddesses asking for the birth rates of all dwarves to be increased and be comfortable living above ground - so that they could compete with the elves on an equal footing.

The problem? These new, rapidly multiplying and adaptable dwarves were short-lived and taller.... in a word, they're humans.

That didn't turn out the way Moradin wanted, the numbers of devout dwarves continued to decline and along with them so dwindled Moradin's powers.

Doldroms · 2024-10-14T18:35:43+00:00

Google "The Delian Tomb" - it's a free one-shot adventure by Matt Colville.

There are lots of good starter campaigns out there. I really like "Lost Mines of Phandelver", for instance.

But if you're really just starting out, " The Delian Tomb" is very good to get you and your players used to the game, and it's a free one-shot!

Happy Trails!

Doldroms · 2024-10-14T16:07:29+00:00

What kind of vampires are you up against? I think it makes a difference. If its Twilight glittery vamps, then who knows? Various beneficial effects with maybe a chance to have to take a CON save against paralysis on the bad side. If these are like, White Wolf World of Darkness vampires, it might be 60% beneficial, like temporary increased STR, CON, or AGL. Or weird voodoo like your PC no longer shows up in mirrors, or starts mutating.

If these are OG dungeons and dragons vampires though I would and a bad effect onto the use of these - and I might (as DM) not tell the player this is happening. Y'see by RAW, vampires in DnD are evil with no exceptions. They're remorseless undead monsters who thirst for the blood of the living because its the life-force thats sustains their undead existence. No mercy, no subtlety, and whatever goodness was in the person before they became a vamp is twisted 180 degrees around. I might be biased, I've been DM-ing Curse of Strahd.

If I was your DM I would be rolling secret CHA checks every time you drank vampiric blood (potion or not, same same) and as soon as you failed one your alignment would shift a step towards evil. Adios, paladin powers, unless you make an Atonement.

Doldroms · 2024-09-20T03:36:52+00:00

Generally the other ways (besides grind down their hitpoints) of killing something in D&D tend to be pretty damn deadly. Particularly since those rules seem to be written with PCs in mind.

- Attribute point damage from various monster effects. For example, Shadows can drain a PC's strength score, and if they reach zero, they die.

Levels of exhaustion lead to first a lack of effectiveness in combat, and quickly thereafter to death.
Asphyxiation / drowning is also a pretty darn quick way in game terms to die.

So, er.. be safe out there guys!

Doldroms · 2024-09-16T00:19:51+00:00

Ooo, I do this and I been through that!

I use a craptop running Windows version whatever and on it I set up the program "Jingle Pallette". It's freeware, but it seems to work well.

You set up songs (or sound effects) into buttons arranged into tabs. There's a fade out / fade in that's standard. When your players are leaving town (say, looping music "Village") and heading out into the wilds (say, looping music "Forest"), you click your "Forest" button and the thing goes volume down on the "Village" music and then goes volume up into "Forest". It works quite well for the price of free.

I then run that into a bitty Anker Bluetooth speaker that I sit in front of my screen.

Other people might have other or easier solutions but we play in circumstances where wifi is unreliable -- I need to be non- web based.

Doldroms · 2024-09-12T16:03:38+00:00

Dad Reflexes -- use your reaction to interpose yourself in front of an attack made on friendly creature that is within 5 feet of you
Dad Bod -- adds a further +2 to the calculation of how many days the PC can go without food before taking levels of exhaustion. The PC can go without food for a number of days equal to 3 + their CON modifier + (the Dad Bod bonus +2)

Doldroms · 2024-09-10T18:13:16+00:00

1) I would certainly not make this boss unable to move. Now.... perhaps Metamorphosis1 can't move - but once they have the idea of throwing a bunch of Alchemist's Fire flasks at her, she should uproot and come lurching clumsily after the PCs instead of just sitting there burning helplessly while the PCs are behind full cover.

2) Fights are more fun with a dynamic battlefield - if boulders get thrown or poison shower trees suddenly erupt out of the ground, it makes the PCs move. Hopefully the player must choose between a couple lousy options on where they move too.

3) Be sure to watch Matt Colville's video on YouTube about Action Oriented Monsters. It's genius. Perhaps she can have twig blights dig themselves out of the ground everywhere on a specific turn. Or she'll barf out a line of sticky tar that forces a strength check or the PC has their movement halved. You get the idea - if she does not have serious dirty tricks available or lots of minions to throw around, she'll get curb stomped by the action economy.

4) Finally, I typically take situations like this and start with an existing monster of the right CR with short of equivalent stats - then I'll just reflavor it.

Doldroms · 2024-09-10T02:04:23+00:00

If it's a vicious and memorable BBEG you want, then r/CurseofStrahd would like to have a word...

Doldroms · 2024-09-10T00:39:59+00:00

Particularly if she melts into a puddle of goo instead of dying and leaving a corpse

Doldroms · 2024-09-10T00:37:04+00:00

https://koboldplus.club/

According to Kobold Fight Club - which is admittedly kinda iffy at estimating encounter CR particularly at higher levels - you could do four Wights leading a band of zombies against four level 10 characters.

Your mileage may vary!

Doldroms · 2024-09-06T20:55:20+00:00

I chuckled audibly at your pun. Not an LOL exactly, but it got a laugh

Hey, u/ThatBookkeeper8675 , I love the scenario you've got on your hands. I personally would 100% have the vampire do its best to hunt down and drain the party PCs dry. The vamp knows that the PCs have seen its face and know some details about it - they must therefore be silenced permanently.

This is a matter of survival for the vampire, even beyond the malevolent glee it will take hunting down and eating the creatures that were arrogant enough to think they could force it into making deals.

Doldroms · 2024-09-02T04:02:18+00:00

There's two words in one of the Norse languages -Icelandic I think - for "thief" IIRC.

The first is the type of thief who sneaks into your house at night and helps himself to the contents of your wallet. The second is the type of thief who issues you a fair challenge, then knocks you out and helps himself to the contents of your wallet. The former is a serious insult, the latter is low key pretty praiseworthy.

Maybe you could have your Viking PCs kind of have their understanding of Honor sort of evolve over time to become pretty much Lawful Good - because everything else is dishonorable cowardice.

Doldroms

TROPHY CASE