So I just started DMing after not playing for a couple years. Most of my group are new players to the game. I spent a lot of time on the story and the world (did not go incredibly indepth but left room for the characters to tell the story them selves) I did not give many restriction on where to go or what to do, but offered the basics of a story. There are there Major cities, and one of the cities is a King, well this Kings holy advisor is actually "The Archefey Price of Fools" In disquise. They went through some story and we have had fun, but I feel stuck. Where they are at now is the "Advisor" is now King, the old king resigned his throne to him, and I have two very powerful villians that the party knows about, however they are only level 2 and cannot deal with them yet...How do I get out of this rut!? I feel like my players constantly feel like they are losing because I have 2 high level villians they can do nothing about.
1) If your story is at its climax (i.e., the party has to confront your villains), you can let them play their characters plus some NPCs of support (don't knows, an example would be some NPCs from the factions (Hapers, Emerlad Enclave...)).
2) If it is not mandatory this confrontation, after few rounds, let the party escape somehow. Then, after some levelling, the party comes back for the real final confrontation.
They have only discovered who the villians are, there has been no confrontation yet, only because I am afraid ill kill them. I like the second one, so try a confrontation where they escape? Also, the group has won in combat with enemies, but they have not had a solid victory in anything yet. The story keeps going down and I want to try and give them some hope and maybe a minor victory.
Yes, the thing here is that they must understand that it is not a fight they can win: Otherwise, you see them charge into the battle , heads down. To avoid this, let them fight a few rounds. Should be enough to let them understand how the villains are powerful (you can make these villains laugh as they fight). Then, you have to choose something that can make the party escape (a friendly npc come to save the day, a twist with a npc that till that time seemed an enemy and now turns out good, a natural or magical event...) . Obviously, the party can escape on their own if they figure out how powerful are the villains, but if not, you have to intervene somehow.
Okay, here is the deal. If you put your villain against the PCs one of two things is going to happen either the PCs will kill the villain or they will die trying. Since your PCs are only 2nd level they have a lot of adventuring left to do. The trick is to throw some other things in their path to distract them and help them become strong enough to take on the villains. Players are very much in the here and now and if you toss a band of goblins, a group of bandits, and a zombie horde at them over the next few adventure sessions they won't worry too much about the two main villains. You could somehow tie in these lesser threats to the Big Bad somehow but it really isn't necessary. The most important thing to remember is keep your PCs away from your villain until you are ready for one or the other to die.
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As for me, I choose to believe that an extinct thunder lizard is running a game of Dungeons & Dragons via Twitter!
Well...since the players do realize they aren't strong enough to defeat your villains, why don't you send them on a quest with the specific goal of getting stronger? Maybe their new King friend knows of an old dungeon deep under the castle or a tomb that potentially contains magical items that would help them in their main quest (while defeating monsters and getting more xp).
Depending on how cocky and powerful your villains are you could have one of them roll up on the party and snack them around then leave saying they're not worth his time. Introduce plot hook/ npc to help them defeat big bad or train to get better.
Sorry for the lateness. I don't have any experiences with DMing and playing the game ( I made a character and waiting for the start date to play), but I am very creative. You can have them go to the location and fight their level creature, but the villain isn't there at the time or it's their lackey that is there, or it is a rumor location to go to. This will set up the story for them to journey the land to find the villain and give room for side quests to help them level up. If you know a good bit of the players characters, then you can make a side story of the character's' background.
For an example, my character's village was destroyed by a dragon at young age. Besides just the dragon destroying the village, vampires followed the dragon to feast on its victims (and now is afraid of vampires and dragons). And thus, my character is the only survivor by being saved by a priest. Then later in her life (age 10), she found/stole a holy symbol that would help her to protect her friends at the temple's ground by summoning a goddess. With that, she was put into training as cleric with an acolyte background. So, this sets up for the DM to add to the story he already made like adding the vampire clan to the story or having the dragon that was already/ having possible appearance come in to play with my characters history.
Is your home brewed campaign currently a great short story idea or is it a fully formed long campaign idea? If it's the former then there's nothing wrong with picking up a campaign that is finished from the multitude of resources out there and making it fit into your setting. This would both level your players up and give you time to breath a bit while filling in some of the details you need.
Maybe the baddies send your PC's to Barovia?
If that doesn't feel right they could need something from the underdark? Is it possible that the two major villains are associated with the prophets from PotA?
You can retool the published Sword Coast stuff to your setting and and then bring everything back to your main idea whenever you're ready!
Whoops...the bad guys have have the power to send your PC's to the DOOMVAULT? Oh...no, now what will the players do?
(They will have fun and take part in a several session dungeon that gives you the DM time to consider what's happening on the surface.)
There are loads of published materials that can be re-skinned to fit your world which would give you the time you need to fill out your campaign.
Creative plagiarism is an approved part of D&D and it can make short run great ideas into a campaign.
Something that may be an interesting turn for the players is, if the villains are aware of the threat they may one day pose (scrying or augury or something), and they start sending minions after the PCs that forces the PCs to be on the run. Maybe even the fights are really hard to start (getting into CR 3 or 4) and the players have to face actually running from the fight (something I have always found difficult to accomplish without them being comically outnumbered).
From this point, the villains kinda become their own self-fulfilling demise as they send more forces to gut the players and consequentially the players gain more and more experience, leveling up into the final fight. Running also provides great change of scenery to keep side-quests and site-based adventuring fresh. Then your characters get to see themselves become stronger as they can stand up to more fights and it helps with the development of the story.
Let the two big bads keep feeding your players their lieutenants and captains. At first its just a "oh these heroes, I will take care of them easy." Then the players keep winning these small skirmishes. Sometimes with help from NPCs to make the combats unique. Then eventually a captain survives and returns to the big bads and tell his boss that they are not just weak heroes. They are strong. Big bad kills his general. The big bad is all "aaarrrrrrrggggg I will destroy them!" Bam inset minor kickass boss fights as the heroes slowly anger this large enemy. Eventually the group is powerful and all that once surrounded these big bads is already dead. Then the showdown starts with the players and their new found allies. You could also insert a minor confrontation where the big bad on the battlefield, but the players cannot fight him. Make the player choose between a very risky attempt at fighting him, IE crossing a terrible bridge, scaling a giant wall or letting villagers die or simply they can fight whats in front of them while they witness the big bad doing his thing. Then at the end of combat they exchange words and he rides away on a dragon or something.
So I just started DMing after not playing for a couple years. Most of my group are new players to the game. I spent a lot of time on the story and the world (did not go incredibly indepth but left room for the characters to tell the story them selves) I did not give many restriction on where to go or what to do, but offered the basics of a story. There are there Major cities, and one of the cities is a King, well this Kings holy advisor is actually "The Archefey Price of Fools" In disquise. They went through some story and we have had fun, but I feel stuck. Where they are at now is the "Advisor" is now King, the old king resigned his throne to him, and I have two very powerful villians that the party knows about, however they are only level 2 and cannot deal with them yet...How do I get out of this rut!? I feel like my players constantly feel like they are losing because I have 2 high level villians they can do nothing about.
Two things to suggest here:
1) If your story is at its climax (i.e., the party has to confront your villains), you can let them play their characters plus some NPCs of support (don't knows, an example would be some NPCs from the factions (Hapers, Emerlad Enclave...)).
2) If it is not mandatory this confrontation, after few rounds, let the party escape somehow. Then, after some levelling, the party comes back for the real final confrontation.
They have only discovered who the villians are, there has been no confrontation yet, only because I am afraid ill kill them. I like the second one, so try a confrontation where they escape? Also, the group has won in combat with enemies, but they have not had a solid victory in anything yet. The story keeps going down and I want to try and give them some hope and maybe a minor victory.
Yes, the thing here is that they must understand that it is not a fight they can win: Otherwise, you see them charge into the battle , heads down. To avoid this, let them fight a few rounds. Should be enough to let them understand how the villains are powerful (you can make these villains laugh as they fight). Then, you have to choose something that can make the party escape (a friendly npc come to save the day, a twist with a npc that till that time seemed an enemy and now turns out good, a natural or magical event...) . Obviously, the party can escape on their own if they figure out how powerful are the villains, but if not, you have to intervene somehow.
Okay, here is the deal. If you put your villain against the PCs one of two things is going to happen either the PCs will kill the villain or they will die trying. Since your PCs are only 2nd level they have a lot of adventuring left to do. The trick is to throw some other things in their path to distract them and help them become strong enough to take on the villains. Players are very much in the here and now and if you toss a band of goblins, a group of bandits, and a zombie horde at them over the next few adventure sessions they won't worry too much about the two main villains. You could somehow tie in these lesser threats to the Big Bad somehow but it really isn't necessary. The most important thing to remember is keep your PCs away from your villain until you are ready for one or the other to die.
As for me, I choose to believe that an extinct thunder lizard is running a game of Dungeons & Dragons via Twitter!
Well...since the players do realize they aren't strong enough to defeat your villains, why don't you send them on a quest with the specific goal of getting stronger? Maybe their new King friend knows of an old dungeon deep under the castle or a tomb that potentially contains magical items that would help them in their main quest (while defeating monsters and getting more xp).
Love all the ideas! Thank you so much!
Depending on how cocky and powerful your villains are you could have one of them roll up on the party and snack them around then leave saying they're not worth his time. Introduce plot hook/ npc to help them defeat big bad or train to get better.
Sorry for the lateness. I don't have any experiences with DMing and playing the game ( I made a character and waiting for the start date to play), but I am very creative. You can have them go to the location and fight their level creature, but the villain isn't there at the time or it's their lackey that is there, or it is a rumor location to go to. This will set up the story for them to journey the land to find the villain and give room for side quests to help them level up. If you know a good bit of the players characters, then you can make a side story of the character's' background.
For an example, my character's village was destroyed by a dragon at young age. Besides just the dragon destroying the village, vampires followed the dragon to feast on its victims (and now is afraid of vampires and dragons). And thus, my character is the only survivor by being saved by a priest. Then later in her life (age 10), she found/stole a holy symbol that would help her to protect her friends at the temple's ground by summoning a goddess. With that, she was put into training as cleric with an acolyte background. So, this sets up for the DM to add to the story he already made like adding the vampire clan to the story or having the dragon that was already/ having possible appearance come in to play with my characters history.
Hope this helps
Is your home brewed campaign currently a great short story idea or is it a fully formed long campaign idea? If it's the former then there's nothing wrong with picking up a campaign that is finished from the multitude of resources out there and making it fit into your setting. This would both level your players up and give you time to breath a bit while filling in some of the details you need.
Maybe the baddies send your PC's to Barovia?
If that doesn't feel right they could need something from the underdark? Is it possible that the two major villains are associated with the prophets from PotA?
You can retool the published Sword Coast stuff to your setting and and then bring everything back to your main idea whenever you're ready!
Whoops...the bad guys have have the power to send your PC's to the DOOMVAULT? Oh...no, now what will the players do?
(They will have fun and take part in a several session dungeon that gives you the DM time to consider what's happening on the surface.)
There are loads of published materials that can be re-skinned to fit your world which would give you the time you need to fill out your campaign.
Creative plagiarism is an approved part of D&D and it can make short run great ideas into a campaign.
I love this idea, especially since one of the players is a Drow, Underdark sounds perfect
Something that may be an interesting turn for the players is, if the villains are aware of the threat they may one day pose (scrying or augury or something), and they start sending minions after the PCs that forces the PCs to be on the run. Maybe even the fights are really hard to start (getting into CR 3 or 4) and the players have to face actually running from the fight (something I have always found difficult to accomplish without them being comically outnumbered).
From this point, the villains kinda become their own self-fulfilling demise as they send more forces to gut the players and consequentially the players gain more and more experience, leveling up into the final fight. Running also provides great change of scenery to keep side-quests and site-based adventuring fresh. Then your characters get to see themselves become stronger as they can stand up to more fights and it helps with the development of the story.
Heroof Justice nailed it in my own opinion.
Let the two big bads keep feeding your players their lieutenants and captains. At first its just a "oh these heroes, I will take care of them easy." Then the players keep winning these small skirmishes. Sometimes with help from NPCs to make the combats unique. Then eventually a captain survives and returns to the big bads and tell his boss that they are not just weak heroes. They are strong. Big bad kills his general. The big bad is all "aaarrrrrrrggggg I will destroy them!" Bam inset minor kickass boss fights as the heroes slowly anger this large enemy. Eventually the group is powerful and all that once surrounded these big bads is already dead. Then the showdown starts with the players and their new found allies. You could also insert a minor confrontation where the big bad on the battlefield, but the players cannot fight him. Make the player choose between a very risky attempt at fighting him, IE crossing a terrible bridge, scaling a giant wall or letting villagers die or simply they can fight whats in front of them while they witness the big bad doing his thing. Then at the end of combat they exchange words and he rides away on a dragon or something.
MAX
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