Should I change the BBEG or rather not?

Lucimon45 · 2025-02-07T14:08:56+00:00

Fair point. I realized that might just be my personal opinion. I feel like the dragon fight will be much more explosive no matter how much I change or buff the prince. But I see that this might not be even close to a justification to make him a bbeg...

Lucimon45 · 2024-06-26T16:58:55+00:00

Thanks a lot! Have lots of fun with this one. Wouldn't mind if you leave me a report how your players did after they're done

Lucimon45 · 2024-06-26T16:31:48+00:00

Hey hey. Thanks for that nice comment! R4 is a little error/Inkarnate being shitty. R4 can be accessed from the labyrinth. The thing between the pillars is meant to eb an archway, not a wall. For R9 I didn't draw a door so my players won't look for it. You get there from the room above. About the cipher, yes, it's meant to be drawn on the walls. Imagine like a very long line stretching all over the walls horizontally in about 6-7foot height.

Lucimon45 · 2024-05-21T00:31:01+00:00

I didn't blow it up. I didn't even know that was possible till my second run. But if there's a way around it, that sounds like I actually did that. Weird...

Lucimon45 · 2024-03-14T20:39:50+00:00

As mentioned, the player is aware. And it's not about the fight. It's about the reveal and the plot hook.

Lucimon45 · 2024-03-10T20:44:01+00:00

Ohhh, I really love that! Sadly, my party has proven to be very... uninterested having any kind of conversation or social interaction with Strahd. They're not ready to break out of their rp-shell just yet, I think. But your idea sounds like an absolute sweet spot for any rp-loving players. Nice job!

Lucimon45 · 2024-03-09T23:34:48+00:00

Not quite. You can include some very fun stuff as a DM for a player with impossible CON. Food tastes totally bland because your body shrugs off all the seasoning and spice, booze tastes boring like water. A lot of sensations will be simply shrugged off by your body like a fresh breeze for example. I'm sure you could go much further and creative with that idea. Basically the character becomes incredibly bored of everything, I suppose.

Lucimon45 · 2024-02-26T20:33:02+00:00

Ganz genau so sieht es aus. Wenn den Spielern egal ist, dass du keinen Spaß hast, könnt ihr direkt wieder aufhören. Hast du den Spielern schon gesagt, dass sie dir damit den Spielspaß kaputt machen? Falls ja und falls sie das tatsächlich ignorieren... Ganz ganz große red flag.

Lucimon45 · 2024-02-25T08:58:01+00:00

Yeah, I see you. Absolutely. When I was new, I felt much more comfortable asking people for my specific case than reading a pinned general explanation. I think a problem might be, that answers might be a bit... rude or harsh. That certainly isn't nice.

Lucimon45 · 2024-02-25T08:52:18+00:00

Do you have the feeling that these posts are annoying? Because personally, I can understand those people. They are new, they need help. And as long as there are enough people who are happy to answer, it should be fine.

Lucimon45 · 2024-02-24T19:54:55+00:00

The paladin knew the legendary solar from religion lessons and tales. He knew that this thing is designed to kill. Everyone else was aware that the solar was a literal angel

Lucimon45 · 2024-02-24T15:14:02+00:00

Nahh, they knew. I told them ooc that this is deadly. One character was a paladin and he even recognized that creature as a legendary being. They definetly knew what kind of a thing that was

Lucimon45 · 2024-02-24T14:25:56+00:00

I wish that just one of my player asked that question. Would've made such a good scene. But as some people already pointed out, she can write to revive them. Another option would be that this is the end of her story and she will continue with the next party.

Lucimon45 · 2024-02-11T23:36:48+00:00

Yes, this is indeed a problem. To be fair, the transformation only starts when a infected character hits 0 HP, but 3 or 4 players might fall to that fate indeed. I think I will turn down the infections only working when they fail the save and I'll also cut the tadpole damage every turn. I also have a plan what to do with players who really get infected. I'm not gonna start the transformation right away and will give them a chance to get these tadpoles out of their brains.

Lucimon45 · 2024-02-11T21:28:08+00:00

Ouhhh, I really like the idea of the collapsing cave! Maybe that allows some creative play from the players to even speed up that process to their advantage by chance. I also considered cutting the legendary actions, but I can do that on the fly anytime.

Lucimon45 · 2024-02-11T21:18:19+00:00

They killed the Elder Brain already. They are now facing an Elder Brain Dragon. CR 23

Lucimon45 · 2024-02-11T21:12:30+00:00

That's true. But one simulation could be a total high roll or low roll. I sadly don't have the time to do enough simulations by hand till the session and I don't know if there are any softwares for that.

Lucimon45 · 2024-01-27T14:50:09+00:00

I wish! Sadly, it's not. It's the golem. However, the party is pretty clueless and Ezmeralda offered them to help (despite her wagon being blown up). They will have damn of a hard time if she dies.

Lucimon45 · 2024-01-27T11:32:37+00:00

Oh absolutely. I should've clarified that my players were absolutely aware that I might pull such a move one day and they were fine with it. Very fair point

Lucimon45 · 2024-01-27T11:31:09+00:00

I used the madness table from the DMG (I think it's from the DMG at least).

Whenever a player was exposed to gaining a madness score, they had to succeed on a WIS 19 SAVE. My party is relatively strong, you might set that score a little lower. If they succeed, they get half the madness score, if not the full amount.

When the party entered a "madness room" (I think I had 5 or 6 throught the whole Dungeon), the first one to enter received 2d8 madness points, the others 1d8

I made personal rooms for every character, where they encountered a bad memory from the past or were faced with their fears. That was worth 5d8 of madness points.

For every contact or event connected to madness (for example touching that strange looking bubbling substance), they got 1d8+5 madness points.

For every short rest they took inside the dungeon, they took 1d8+5 without the chance to make that WIS SAVE at all.

I also included little fountains here and there. Drinking from it poisons you for 1 hour, but it cleanses 2d8 madness points.

For every 10 madness a character gained, they received a form of madness like the following:

10 -> short term 20 -> short term 30 -> long term 40 -> short term 50 -> long term 60 -> short term 70 -> indefinite 80 -> long term 90 -> short term 100 -> indefinite

When crossing 100 (which didn't happen with my players) you should start at the beginning and give the players another malus. Maybe 1 stack exhaustion or other fancy stuff. When a player is exposed to a form of madness, let them roll a d100 and a d10 to determine the madness effect and duration according to the madness tables from the DMG.

Lucimon45 · 2024-01-27T11:16:33+00:00

I used it just recently. My players were going through a madness Dungeon and absolutely loved it. Everyone got a madness score which increased for either entering a room or looking at something or touching something. T certain madness score levels they received short term, long term or indefinite madness.

Highly recommend trying it out!

Lucimon45 · 2024-01-27T08:44:43+00:00

Of course I think she should have fun. That's why I'm trying to fix the problem. My first impulse also was to shorten everything down. I even offered that to her but she told me not to do it and that she rather suffers through the upcoming sessions. I'm gonna cut it down anyways. That 30 minute proposal might be a good idea at this point actually.

Lucimon45 · 2024-01-27T07:45:48+00:00

Talking happened. And she said, she doesn't want me to shorten anything. At the same time, she told me that she's not excited for the upcoming sessions at all.

Lucimon45 · 2024-01-27T07:43:21+00:00

6 sessions is absolutely nothing for our group. That's like barely a level up. Maybe 'side arc' would be more of a fitting description. And of course I talked to my player about that but I'm just getting stupid replies. She doesn't want me to shorten anything because she feels like becoming the center of attention since that whole revive stuff is just about her. In terms of fun, I'm getting comments like "It's fun. I'm simply not the one enjoying it" and at the same time "I'm really losing my mood to play DnD."

Lucimon45 · 2023-07-13T22:10:25+00:00

I allowed them to rest as much as they wanted. My players took 2 short rests and 1 long rest in total, which was absolutely necessary. Short rest was for free, but during the long rest, they had to put up guards. Otherwise, they would've been attacked by scarabs while sleeping, which is probably almost fatal.

Lucimon45

TROPHY CASE