To avoid "Unga bunga hit it 'til it dies," have a second objective during the encounter. Evacuate people, secure an escape route, charge a magical device, plant explosives to destroy the site, win over a crowd with charisma or a display of strength, etc. This adds a layer of thought to player turns so they consider when to attack, and when to work towards their other goal.
Fun little technicality you can play off of in Curse of Strahd. At first, have Strahd and the vampire spawn obey the Forbiddance weakness shared by vampires (cannot enter a home without invitation). However, once the party gets to higher levels, or they really infuriate Strahd, have him menacingly declare that ALL of Barovia belongs to him, and then have him cross the threshold into whatever place the party is hiding out in, and then have him "invite" a swarm of vampire spawn inside along with him.
Not surprised there was some sort of wild, trippy shenanigans going on in Minecraft Story Mode considering that Michael Kirkbride was involved. He wrote, among other things, The 36 Lessons of Vivec and The Song of Pelinal. Weird is his brand
Even better is there's an FTB pack that is based around taking this boss down, FTB Inferno. You basically try to summon this eldritch thing from the nether, screw up and wind up instead taking it's place. So you need to corrupt your own soul, basically become a demon to rip your way out of the Nether to take it down while it's been running rampant in the overworld. Good stuff. Edit: Also I've taken this approach with the BBEG of my current pathfinder campaign. Atrien, the name of this commander that's ben harassing the players, is actively going about doing his own thing. People are dying, there are towns being razed, and he's not being subtle about it. The group either tracks him down, goes after him, or cross paths in these actions, all the while he's getting stronger. As such, suffice to say, my players have been more attached to a game than all my past ones because of this one change of making the Villain active, rather than passive. But I also have him react to things the players do, for instance they got into a two way scrying spell with him where he tormented and killed an NPC they were planning to get something from, however.. to 'stick it to him' his love interest in the party, Elora.. kissed his rival who is also part of the party. I rolled a silent will save, to judge how he'd react.. and he nat 1d it. (In Pathfinder 2e this is even worse since it's not just a critfail, it's an absolute nuclear crit fail) So.. In the night while group hunkers down, he razes the town they were staying in.. And that was one of the heaviest hitting moments of the campaign yet. It SHOOK the players. Because they knew that their Active villain, was about to make their lives hell.
The old ttrpg Trinity (AEON before Viacom sued White Wolf over a common word predating bith companies) had adventure books where they outright gave the Storyteller (DM) info on what happens if the player characters aren't there for the events in it. Miss a guy, and there's a huge, setting-shaking scandal. Don't listen to an alien asking for peace, humanity gets embroiled in a huge, pointless war. And so on. I _loved_ that.
One day I have to ask my DM if it was planned or he rolled for it or what, but a session I will always remember is when we were doing a bit of sidequesting, and we had a vague idea where the bbeg was because we saw some of his handy work, but signs were pointing to he shipped out or was at least wrapping up whatever he was doing in the area, and then just on the road we ran into him. Just like the guy and some of his bodyguards and we threw down right there. In the dirt road. We took out some of his guys, he downed two of us and cut off our bards arm so we ran away. Great time.
If you've read the Neverland or Oz 3rd party settings for 5e (and all systems) the big bads have multiple stages. The Wiked Witch of the West in Oz has a transformation when you defeat her standard form. Ozma and Glinda also have this. I thing Captain Hook and a few others have this in Neverland.
First Tip: I uh, actually do tend to have the big bad mess with the players a bunch throughout the arc, plus do things like, with one as an example, slaughter many towns and cities and even ended entire realities. Generally, I look at it as, "These are my player characters. The goal is to eventually lose, but try to win in the process of losing" Second Tip: Literally the things that helped defeat some of the end bosses with my campaigns are things made of their own ichor Third Tip: The final battle in my most liked arc did evolve a lot - Trying to deal with the environment, reality breaking down, etc. Sweet, I got it all down! So uh, guess Witherstorm isn't better than my villain :D
This is a really interesting approach to combat, but very new to me. Would you consider maybe taking a low to mid level boss and kind of mapping/ describing how you would apply this idea to how you would have it fight the battle? I think I would understand better with a more detailed example.
I made an active villan and it's so much fun. It was a Wendigo that would often impersonate people close to it's mark. Party got very pissed when a little turned out to be the villian or an old man and they told the villan their plan. So it went out looking to stop em
Your idea for Strahd kind of gives me an idea, those safe area are safe because Strahd never felt like destroying them, they would require resources and effort to do and they've never mattered enough for him to care. So yeah the areas are safe, right up until you start becoming a potential threat and he takes you seriously, at that point he does start investing the time, effort, and resources into destroying those safe heavens so you can't fall back to them.
It's funny this vid comes up as I am trying to plan my first game of Lancer (not D&D but same difference) and considered a evolving enemy faction. Simplest way is to think of the Flood from Halo but fully mechanical. May have pulled some inspiration from William Birkin (I think?) From Resident Evil while workshopping one of them.
The beast in infamous 2 is basicly another example allways active allways festroying its a constant moving threat that is deatroying while u mess around
" Destined to die at the hands of our hero because that's how telltale games work" If you think Telltale = predictable, happy endings, you haven't played "The Walking Dead" which I highly recommend Also I'm Homebrew Statting the Wither storm and throwing it up in D&D beyond this afternoon, and while I do think what you're describing sounds incredibly cool in theory, the reality is that in order for the party to be chased and pursued by a BBEG, they first have to make the choice to run, rather then stand & fight. And in my experience, the party almost never chooses to run.
To avoid "Unga bunga hit it 'til it dies," have a second objective during the encounter. Evacuate people, secure an escape route, charge a magical device, plant explosives to destroy the site, win over a crowd with charisma or a display of strength, etc.
This adds a layer of thought to player turns so they consider when to attack, and when to work towards their other goal.
Fun little technicality you can play off of in Curse of Strahd. At first, have Strahd and the vampire spawn obey the Forbiddance weakness shared by vampires (cannot enter a home without invitation). However, once the party gets to higher levels, or they really infuriate Strahd, have him menacingly declare that ALL of Barovia belongs to him, and then have him cross the threshold into whatever place the party is hiding out in, and then have him "invite" a swarm of vampire spawn inside along with him.
One of my favourite moments in the CoS campaign was when we found out Strahd was pissed and trying to get to us after we found his diary.
Funny how when I rewatch Minecraft: Story Mode for nostalgia’s sake, you end up talking about it.
I’m just so happy!
Not surprised there was some sort of wild, trippy shenanigans going on in Minecraft Story Mode considering that Michael Kirkbride was involved. He wrote, among other things, The 36 Lessons of Vivec and The Song of Pelinal. Weird is his brand
I personally like bosses who wipe the floor with players and talk shit about them
Of all things? No , it's your go to for great dnd ideas
Out of all the channels I watch that produce Minecraft content, this was one that I never expected to talk about the game.
As a MC Story mode (only S1) enjoyer:
This video was an extremely positive surprise!!!
Dungeon World has this system called "fronts" which manages what the enemies do offscreen.
Even better is there's an FTB pack that is based around taking this boss down, FTB Inferno. You basically try to summon this eldritch thing from the nether, screw up and wind up instead taking it's place. So you need to corrupt your own soul, basically become a demon to rip your way out of the Nether to take it down while it's been running rampant in the overworld.
Good stuff.
Edit: Also I've taken this approach with the BBEG of my current pathfinder campaign. Atrien, the name of this commander that's ben harassing the players, is actively going about doing his own thing. People are dying, there are towns being razed, and he's not being subtle about it. The group either tracks him down, goes after him, or cross paths in these actions, all the while he's getting stronger. As such, suffice to say, my players have been more attached to a game than all my past ones because of this one change of making the Villain active, rather than passive.
But I also have him react to things the players do, for instance they got into a two way scrying spell with him where he tormented and killed an NPC they were planning to get something from, however.. to 'stick it to him' his love interest in the party, Elora.. kissed his rival who is also part of the party. I rolled a silent will save, to judge how he'd react.. and he nat 1d it. (In Pathfinder 2e this is even worse since it's not just a critfail, it's an absolute nuclear crit fail) So.. In the night while group hunkers down, he razes the town they were staying in..
And that was one of the heaviest hitting moments of the campaign yet. It SHOOK the players. Because they knew that their Active villain, was about to make their lives hell.
The old ttrpg Trinity (AEON before Viacom sued White Wolf over a common word predating bith companies) had adventure books where they outright gave the Storyteller (DM) info on what happens if the player characters aren't there for the events in it. Miss a guy, and there's a huge, setting-shaking scandal. Don't listen to an alien asking for peace, humanity gets embroiled in a huge, pointless war. And so on. I _loved_ that.
One day I have to ask my DM if it was planned or he rolled for it or what, but a session I will always remember is when we were doing a bit of sidequesting, and we had a vague idea where the bbeg was because we saw some of his handy work, but signs were pointing to he shipped out or was at least wrapping up whatever he was doing in the area, and then just on the road we ran into him. Just like the guy and some of his bodyguards and we threw down right there. In the dirt road. We took out some of his guys, he downed two of us and cut off our bards arm so we ran away. Great time.
Good morning/ afternoon Guardian
Feel like I learned something here.
While I've never run a campaign, I feel that if I did, I would take influence from MMORPGs for boss mechanics.
If you've read the Neverland or Oz 3rd party settings for 5e (and all systems) the big bads have multiple stages. The Wiked Witch of the West in Oz has a transformation when you defeat her standard form. Ozma and Glinda also have this. I thing Captain Hook and a few others have this in Neverland.
First Tip: I uh, actually do tend to have the big bad mess with the players a bunch throughout the arc, plus do things like, with one as an example, slaughter many towns and cities and even ended entire realities. Generally, I look at it as, "These are my player characters. The goal is to eventually lose, but try to win in the process of losing"
Second Tip: Literally the things that helped defeat some of the end bosses with my campaigns are things made of their own ichor
Third Tip: The final battle in my most liked arc did evolve a lot - Trying to deal with the environment, reality breaking down, etc.
Sweet, I got it all down! So uh, guess Witherstorm isn't better than my villain :D
This gave me great ideas for my campaign~
This is a really interesting approach to combat, but very new to me. Would you consider maybe taking a low to mid level boss and kind of mapping/ describing how you would apply this idea to how you would have it fight the battle? I think I would understand better with a more detailed example.
I made an active villan and it's so much fun. It was a Wendigo that would often impersonate people close to it's mark. Party got very pissed when a little turned out to be the villian or an old man and they told the villan their plan. So it went out looking to stop em
Your idea for Strahd kind of gives me an idea, those safe area are safe because Strahd never felt like destroying them, they would require resources and effort to do and they've never mattered enough for him to care.
So yeah the areas are safe, right up until you start becoming a potential threat and he takes you seriously, at that point he does start investing the time, effort, and resources into destroying those safe heavens so you can't fall back to them.
So… the Everstorm from Stormlight Archives. Cool :)
It's funny this vid comes up as I am trying to plan my first game of Lancer (not D&D but same difference) and considered a evolving enemy faction. Simplest way is to think of the Flood from Halo but fully mechanical. May have pulled some inspiration from William Birkin (I think?) From Resident Evil while workshopping one of them.
The beast in infamous 2 is basicly another example allways active allways festroying its a constant moving threat that is deatroying while u mess around
The Withered Darkness
The Wither Storm
I personally think Egil from Xenoblade 1 was a better villain, but I see why the wither storm could make for a great campaign as well.
" Destined to die at the hands of our hero because that's how telltale games work"
If you think Telltale = predictable, happy endings, you haven't played "The Walking Dead" which I highly recommend
Also I'm Homebrew Statting the Wither storm and throwing it up in D&D beyond this afternoon, and while I do think what you're describing sounds incredibly cool in theory, the reality is that in order for the party to be chased and pursued by a BBEG, they first have to make the choice to run, rather then stand & fight. And in my experience, the party almost never chooses to run.
Sorry, but I had to be the 70th like. This video is too good.
First