Don't you people ever die?! A DMing thread

[Meister]

I think it's time we put the combined experiences of the roleplaying crowd here to a good use! (Not that amusement isn't a very good use by itself.) Let's share DM experiences and, above all, give advice.

I'm planning a boss encounter where the party, in addition to the usual "I hit it with my sword/I cast magic missile", can play the "dodge the charging brute" game we know from so many video games. There will be a few stone columns strewn around the area, and if they can get the boss to run into one of those (or the wall), it'll be good for a medium-high amount of damage. So far, so good, but now I need a way to subtly drop clues to my players that this is a strategy that will work. Any ideas?

[Professor Smarmiarty]

If you emphasise how big and massive he is, and how much momentum he has when he runs the players should get it after the first charges- well I hope so.
I've done similar tactics in the past, and the real trick is to make the pcs think they can't win a straight up fight so they have to try new things. If you can recur the NPC that works well, first time PCs meet him they get asses kicked but have some way to escape, second time they don't have way to escape so need to be creative.

[Meister]

Recurring won't work, but I could maybe have them spot two minor enemies in the same dungeon fighting each other and using similar tactics, just to put the idea in their head. And give the big guy better defenses and maybe damage reduction to

make the pcs think they can't win a straight up fight so they have to try new things

[Corel]

Slightly changing your above idea Meister, work in an enemy that the party have had combat difficulties with in the past before get completely smashed to pieces in the first round when trying conventional combat tactics against the boss. It might make them wise up not to do the same if they are given a strength comparison.

Then again this might remove the suspense of the boss reveal unless the enemies appear the same time you fight the boss. If you don't want to ruin the suprise for later you could have the party find the remains of said enemy killed in a way that players can piece together that something big and mean did it. Maybe a fragmented message/journal entry they could read?

It'll either teach them to run or fight outside the box; either one would be enjoyable I think.

[EVILNess]

Death scrawl of a dead adventurer.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

My other suggestion is to murder the first few PCs who try to fight him normally (assuming you've dropped some hints). But then I'm kind of a bastard as a DM, it totally works though!

[Dauntasa]

Originally Posted by Smarty McBarrelpants

My other suggestion is to murder the first few PCs who try to fight him normally (assuming you've dropped some hints). But then I'm kind of a bastard as a DM, it totally works though!

No, the real bastard move is hinting that making the boss smash into pillars is the way to go, then making the whole place collapse when he breaks too many of them.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

WelL I would do that too to be fair.

[tacticslion]

Meister, read here!

Originally Posted by Meister

I think it's time we put the combined experiences of the roleplaying crowd here to a good use! (Not that amusement isn't a very good use by itself.) Let's share DM experiences and, above all, give advice.

I'm planning a boss encounter where the party, in addition to the usual "I hit it with my sword/I cast magic missile", can play the "dodge the charging brute" game we know from so many video games. There will be a few stone columns strewn around the area, and if they can get the boss to run into one of those (or the wall), it'll be good for a medium-high amount of damage. So far, so good, but now I need a way to subtly drop clues to my players that this is a strategy that will work. Any ideas?

One idea is, when you describe the stone pillars, describe them as either leaning and breakable ("with enough force"), or very sturdy. With leaning/breakable option, it might make a character think "huh, if he ran into those, and it smashed, then it'd fall on him" - do that and you'd have a great way to explain the extra damage, a limited-tactic that the players would inevitably try as often as possible - especially if he was weakened in some way for a round, like prone or dazed or something - and it would be pretty epic for these pillars to get smashed on top of him. The opposite is also possible. If you make the pillars uniquely strong, and identify them as a slightly different material than the rest of the area, emphasizing that it would "probably hurt" if someone hit it (implying testing the pillars, not smashing into them with your ramman/juggernaught boss), than players will probably get the same idea.

Outside of that, yeah, I'd say most of the ideas you've recieved are great. When he charges, to emphasize his momentum, always have him travel a few feet (or a square or two, if you're doing that) beyond where he was "aiming" (constantly using over-run and/or bull-rush) - that would also give them the idea for setting something up behind his targets to run into. One final idea is that if you have an expendable NPC in the group, kill that character. So long as you don't do it cheesily (so long as the NPC isn't, for example, far away from the fighting) it will likely be something remembered by the characters for quite some time. Might even open up a quest to raise them or something, depending on the NPC.

Some notes on the thread: I suggest we use swap tags or spoiler tags in this thread, as players may read the forums, and we don't want to spoil things for 'em. When we swap or spoiler, however, we should make it clear to whome we are speaking before hand, so the right person/people can get their info. Also, since the title of the thread is generic enough, players might not make the connection "oh, I shouldn't go in there" and instead think "heh, it's probably funny DM stories" or "hey, maybe I'll learn how to be a better DM".

More on topic, and spoiler free for my players:
I've got a campaign where my characters just won't proceed any further. They've got an option of returning to the "real" world (they're in another plane of existance) or continuing on to what they expect would be a difficult and violent fight. They are currently a hung party - no one in the group knows what they want to do (and usually oscillate). Further, attempting to force the issue on my part has led to some frustration. So... any advice?

[DarkDrgon]

Originally Posted by tacticslion

Meister, read here!

One idea is, when you describe the stone pillars, describe them as either leaning and breakable ("with enough force"), or very sturdy. With leaning/breakable option, it might make a character think "huh, if he ran into those, and it smashed, then it'd fall on him" - do that and you'd have a great way to explain the extra damage, a limited-tactic that the players would inevitably try as often as possible - especially if he was weakened in some way for a round, like prone or dazed or something - and it would be pretty epic for these pillars to get smashed on top of him. The opposite is also possible. If you make the pillars uniquely strong, and identify them as a slightly different material than the rest of the area, emphasizing that it would "probably hurt" if someone hit it (implying testing the pillars, not smashing into them with your ramman/juggernaught boss), than players will probably get the same idea.

Outside of that, yeah, I'd say most of the ideas you've recieved are great. When he charges, to emphasize his momentum, always have him travel a few feet (or a square or two, if you're doing that) beyond where he was "aiming" (constantly using over-run and/or bull-rush) - that would also give them the idea for setting something up behind his targets to run into. One final idea is that if you have an expendable NPC in the group, kill that character. So long as you don't do it cheesily (so long as the NPC isn't, for example, far away from the fighting) it will likely be something remembered by the characters for quite some time. Might even open up a quest to raise them or something, depending on the NPC.

Some notes on the thread: I suggest we use swap tags or spoiler tags in this thread, as players may read the forums, and we don't want to spoil things for 'em. When we swap or spoiler, however, we should make it clear to whome we are speaking before hand, so the right person/people can get their info. Also, since the title of the thread is generic enough, players might not make the connection "oh, I shouldn't go in there" and instead think "heh, it's probably funny DM stories" or "hey, maybe I'll learn how to be a better DM".

More on topic, and spoiler free for my players:
I've got a campaign where my characters just won't proceed any further. They've got an option of returning to the "real" world (they're in another plane of existance) or continuing on to what they expect would be a difficult and violent fight. They are currently a hung party - no one in the group knows what they want to do (and usually oscillate). Further, attempting to force the issue on my part has led to some frustration. So... any advice?

Lion adviceMake the choice for them. the next time they are RPing their decision making process, cut off their return to the "real" world, or have them forcibly planeshifted there, whatever you think is best. might not work for your group, but mine have sometimes spent 3 sessions deciding what to do.