Last year I returned to D&D after a 20 year break. I played AD&D in my teenage years and now I play with some friends and my son 5E. I must say that the game really developed well. I love the new features and how the characters are so much more fun to play. I am finding my feet in 5E and learning more all the time.
In an adventure I am preparing for a one (or 2) shot with our group of friends, the players will be tasked with protecting a NPC while they do their task (weaving) The setting is in a cellar. I wanted to know if there are any tips to how to run this well. Questions I have:
How would you rate the chances of the NPC being hit while battles are taking place around them? I put it as a roll of 1 on a d20 to a melee attack taking place 5 foot from the NPC or a ranged attack in it's direction. If that happens there is a 50% chance that the NPC was hit (or a DC10 which equates to the NPC AC). Does that make sense?
I would like to players to succeed. I reckon they should create some protection around the NPC- Shield of Faith or Protection from Evil. These last 10 minutes. The players need to protect the NPC all night. Do you have any suggestions? Perhaps a magic item they find or a scroll?I realise I am in danger of directing the game too much.
The other option from complete failure is to allow 3 hits before the NPC has failed in completing the weave and the players failed their mission. Or preparing a scenario that they failed- am angry and vengeful person who will make them pay for failing.
The session is for four tier 2 (level 5) players.
Any other tips for that kind of story would be helpful.
If the enemy are specifically targeting the NPC, then if they are within 5 ft then they will probably be trying to hit the NPC rather than one of the protectors.
You can place scenery so that there are choke points which the PCs can stand in to prevent the enemy moving past (although a strong enemy might try to shove the PC, thus making for a little worry as one gets past).
The NPC should be built to be able to absorb as least 1 or 2 hits, since that is likely over an all-night defender scenario. Ranged weapons would also make it easy to hit the NPC.
If the party are defending all night, then the casters will down to using their cantrips for most of the night.
I wrote out a couple of responses, and decided to be more concise:
The encounter is going to be heavily influenced by the nature of the enemy, the layout of the cellar, and the capabilities of your party.
If they have access to spells like Tiny Hut, then mundane enemies may become entirely obsolete. (Delay for 1 minute, then auto-win.)
If the cellar has a single entryway, then the encounter may be trivialized by the bottleneck.
If the enemy is intelligent, then they may make use of Area Effects or ranged weapons that bypass the party and take out the NPC directly.
If the cellar has multiple entryways, then the party will be stretched thin.
Generally speaking, long duration protection magic either ends up being nearly invulnerable, like Tiny Hut, or trivial during an extended encounter, such as Aid.
You might instead introduce a Plot Device to rework the mechanics of the encounter. For example, the spell Warding Bond allows a Cleric to take half of the damage that the target receives. Rather than making the NPC a soft target, you could have a set of amulets that divert all damage that the NPC takes directly to the players. The fail condition then becomes a TPK, whether achieved directly or indirectly. As additional incentive to protect the Weaver NPC, each time the NPC is hit might trigger some other condition or event. For example, excessive damage might force the players to make Constitution Saving Throws to avoid levels of Exhaustion (DC increased proportional to cumulative damage taken), or the NPC might inadvertently lead to more monsters being drawn into the conflict, upping the difficulty.
A simple cellar probably only has one, maybe two entrances, either one exterior to the structure, one interior and accessible somewhere on the ground floor , or one of each. Those are or that is your chokepoint/s. Party forms around the chokepoint, and they let nothing in. I'd probably declare the staircase a "fatal funnel" granting anyone guarding it a bonus action if they have a ranged attack readied on the stairs. That's a very close defense though. Speaking in terms of conventional armed assailants, have the players move upstairs, chain and/or enchant the door so it won't be opened while the party is still alive. If you got powerful illusions, magical deception may further misdirect and frustrate attackers. Now all you have to worry about is magical or burrowing penetration into the cellar, if that's a possibility. I guess it would be easier to advice on strategy if the forum knew what sort of forces you were planning on throwing into the attack.
The classic security detail in movies and TV, stationed within reaction distance of the protectee including one dude whose job is to jump in front of an attack shouting "nooooo!" in slow motion is hard to render in D&D mechanically, I might allow a close knit bodyguard to surround the protectee and call it total cover, it's a stretch but since this is specifically a body guarding scenario I'd agree to it, though that won't deny area of effect and a few other magics.
Real world executive protection you have a "body team" and then perimeter teams for a static event, and escorts and advances for mobile events (those elements are usually on hand anyway if the protectee has to go mobile for any reason). The body team is at minimum five people, I'd argue seven is more ideal, and the perimeter groups are usually significantly larger, at least double in terms of escorts and perimeters though advances are smaller than the body team as they're just scouts getting a look at what's up ahead. Your average D&D party won't have that capacity unless you have hirelings or allies. I'd probably lean the party into being where you as DM see the action taking place.
Decoys can be fun, if the party can pull off the initial misdirection to lead the adversary to target the wrong location.
I don't think they exist in 5e, but if you're talking more like mindless horde type assault, you might want to look at some zombie/surivival/horror games and adapt some of their barricading mechanics.
There are a couple of 'escort the npc' and 'protect the npc in a static location' in DDO, an online D&D based game, they used to be some of the more hated in the game.
Some of the enemies are coming out of the loom (as the spool of thread unravels different monsters which were locked inside it are released) therefore some of the suggestions will not help the party. Giving the NPC a few more 'lives', protecting it with a barrier/ amulets until it receives enough damage is a good course of action.
I would look at the Wisdom of each enemy to determine whether they would be so against this NPC living that they ignore all concern for their own life (attack the NPC and nothing but the NPC) versus having some self-preservation and confidence that they can take out the players before finishing off the NPC. If the majority of your enemies are the former then it really comes down to the player's toolkits. If you have a caster or two with battlefield control spells or buffs/debuffs then they're likely to have a blast with the encounter where a Barbarian is stuck with Grappling or hoping to beat the crap out of it in one go. You might give the more melee-focused players a magic item that acts as a Taunt of sorts, force one or more enemies in a certain range to attack the player for a round. That way the tank in the group actually tanks something.
Some of the enemies are coming out of the loom (as the spool of thread unravels different monsters which were locked inside it are released) therefore some of the suggestions will not help the party. Giving the NPC a few more 'lives', protecting it with a barrier/ amulets until it receives enough damage is a good course of action.
I like this magic spool thing, since the wheel has kinetic properties I'd have it mechanically project/fling the monsters away from the weaver so the party can create a buffer. I'm assuming you're going to generate monsters on an escalating scale so as the spool gets used up perhaps the monsters are projected further and further. Fun possibilities, maybe not everything spun from the loom is a hostile, so you can have allies make the space more secure as the baddies potency increases. That way you could still stretch the cover rules by allowing the party or part of the party to function as a human shield. Maybe selective, like only those who have taken protective/defender fighting styles or feats can be eligible to "body guard" the weaver. Give them something to do while your mobility combatants and non "stand your ground" types can make other use of available space. A cellar though, my concern would be area of effect magics or attacks. I'm guessing what's being woven is important too so you don't want a lot of fire in play.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Instead of making it strict combat, what about making it a Skill Challenge? Athletics to bar people from coming in, acrobatics to dive in front of a blow meant for NPC, etc.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Instead of making it strict combat, what about making it a Skill Challenge? Athletics to bar people from coming in, acrobatics to dive in front of a blow meant for NPC, etc.
And Performance to do it in slow mo while shouting "nooooooo!"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Some of the enemies are coming out of the loom (as the spool of thread unravels different monsters which were locked inside it are released) therefore some of the suggestions will not help the party. Giving the NPC a few more 'lives', protecting it with a barrier/ amulets until it receives enough damage is a good course of action.
I like this magic spool thing, since the wheel has kinetic properties I'd have it mechanically project/fling the monsters away from the weaver so the party can create a buffer. I'm assuming you're going to generate monsters on an escalating scale so as the spool gets used up perhaps the monsters are projected further and further. Fun possibilities, maybe not everything spun from the loom is a hostile, so you can have allies make the space more secure as the baddies potency increases. That way you could still stretch the cover rules by allowing the party or part of the party to function as a human shield. Maybe selective, like only those who have taken protective/defender fighting styles or feats can be eligible to "body guard" the weaver. Give them something to do while your mobility combatants and non "stand your ground" types can make other use of available space. A cellar though, my concern would be area of effect magics or attacks. I'm guessing what's being woven is important too so you don't want a lot of fire in play.
Thanks MidnightPlat, those are brilliant ideas. I thought to add some physical obstacle. Releasing and ally from the spool would be another good way. My thinking was that the enemies released from the spool are not really interested in the NPC. Most of them would be spirit stuff like Ghosts. being 'flung' further away they would meet the party first. To give some variety, there are going to be a couple of other beings, more physical who are attracted to the cellar from the outside and they would try and get the spool.
I don't think I know enough about a skills challenge to run one.
There are generally two ways that Skill Challenges get done: the official way, and the way most people do it. The first way involves more work by the DM, the second way let’s the players be more creative. (I prefer the “quick and dirty” way like most people.)
The official way is the DM sits down in advance, determines what skills would be appropriate and what the DCs should be for the checks and then the PCs can attempt to make the checks if they are proficient with those skills. Each PC can use each skill once, and they go around one at a time until everyone has gone once, then they go ‘round again until every PC has either made 3 checks, or until Success or Failure has been determined whichever happens first. The party has to collectively achieve X number of success (determined by the DM) before they collectively get three failed checks. If the party hits X successes, they succeeded at the Skill Challenge.
The way most people do it is to tell their players to look at their list of proficient Skills and figure out some play so way to use them in the context of the challenge. They tell you how they intend to use a Skill, you determine how plausible it is that they would succeed and secretly determine the appropriate DC for that attempt, and they roll. Each PC can use each skill once, and they go around one at a time until everyone has gone once, then they go ‘round again until every PC has either made 3 checks, or until Success or Failure has been determined whichever happens first. The party has to collectively achieve X number of success (determined by the DM) before they collectively get three failed checks. If the party hits X successes, they succeeded at the Skill Challenge.
I once ran a skill challenge in a library where every success got the party a clue. One of the party came up with some way to use Acrobatics to do research in a library, I set the DC high because it was a stretch but they rolled super high so I narrated that they climbed to the top of the bookcase and found a slip of parchment almost concealed under a layer of dust.
I have done them both ways... they work pretty similarly.
Most of the time I do Sposta's 2nd one.
For my Astral Sea adventure, I pre-determined what skills could be used and how, and told the party ahead of time what the difficulty and DC of each skill check was. Funnily enough on that one, they succeeded 5-0. No failures.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I ran the adventure on a one shot. I think it went pretty well. The players killed all the monsters and got the garment made. It was a one shot so, I aimed to fit it in one session. My skills as a DM are quite basic and I am sure there are lots of creative ways this adventure can be made more exciting: A skills challenge, a door to another dimension, a sphinx appearing out of the spool asking riddles, a more complex setting. In hindsight, I would have made the monsters more in numbers to make the encounters more challenging. They slaughtered the ghost before it could do anything and finished the Oni quite quickly (they had 2 crits). There was a moment where the loom got hit which I could have played more to my advantage- I didn't release an additional ghost. From the feedback I got in the forum some people thought the idea was good. I wanted to post a pdf of the adventure but can't figure out how. Is there a place to do it?
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Hello,
Last year I returned to D&D after a 20 year break. I played AD&D in my teenage years and now I play with some friends and my son 5E. I must say that the game really developed well. I love the new features and how the characters are so much more fun to play. I am finding my feet in 5E and learning more all the time.
In an adventure I am preparing for a one (or 2) shot with our group of friends, the players will be tasked with protecting a NPC while they do their task (weaving) The setting is in a cellar. I wanted to know if there are any tips to how to run this well. Questions I have:
How would you rate the chances of the NPC being hit while battles are taking place around them? I put it as a roll of 1 on a d20 to a melee attack taking place 5 foot from the NPC or a ranged attack in it's direction. If that happens there is a 50% chance that the NPC was hit (or a DC10 which equates to the NPC AC). Does that make sense?
I would like to players to succeed. I reckon they should create some protection around the NPC- Shield of Faith or Protection from Evil. These last 10 minutes. The players need to protect the NPC all night. Do you have any suggestions? Perhaps a magic item they find or a scroll?I realise I am in danger of directing the game too much.
The other option from complete failure is to allow 3 hits before the NPC has failed in completing the weave and the players failed their mission. Or preparing a scenario that they failed- am angry and vengeful person who will make them pay for failing.
The session is for four tier 2 (level 5) players.
Any other tips for that kind of story would be helpful.
Happy to share the adventure after I test run it.
Thanks,
Rodamir
If the enemy are specifically targeting the NPC, then if they are within 5 ft then they will probably be trying to hit the NPC rather than one of the protectors.
You can place scenery so that there are choke points which the PCs can stand in to prevent the enemy moving past (although a strong enemy might try to shove the PC, thus making for a little worry as one gets past).
The NPC should be built to be able to absorb as least 1 or 2 hits, since that is likely over an all-night defender scenario. Ranged weapons would also make it easy to hit the NPC.
If the party are defending all night, then the casters will down to using their cantrips for most of the night.
I wrote out a couple of responses, and decided to be more concise:
The encounter is going to be heavily influenced by the nature of the enemy, the layout of the cellar, and the capabilities of your party.
Generally speaking, long duration protection magic either ends up being nearly invulnerable, like Tiny Hut, or trivial during an extended encounter, such as Aid.
You might instead introduce a Plot Device to rework the mechanics of the encounter. For example, the spell Warding Bond allows a Cleric to take half of the damage that the target receives. Rather than making the NPC a soft target, you could have a set of amulets that divert all damage that the NPC takes directly to the players. The fail condition then becomes a TPK, whether achieved directly or indirectly. As additional incentive to protect the Weaver NPC, each time the NPC is hit might trigger some other condition or event. For example, excessive damage might force the players to make Constitution Saving Throws to avoid levels of Exhaustion (DC increased proportional to cumulative damage taken), or the NPC might inadvertently lead to more monsters being drawn into the conflict, upping the difficulty.
A simple cellar probably only has one, maybe two entrances, either one exterior to the structure, one interior and accessible somewhere on the ground floor , or one of each. Those are or that is your chokepoint/s. Party forms around the chokepoint, and they let nothing in. I'd probably declare the staircase a "fatal funnel" granting anyone guarding it a bonus action if they have a ranged attack readied on the stairs. That's a very close defense though. Speaking in terms of conventional armed assailants, have the players move upstairs, chain and/or enchant the door so it won't be opened while the party is still alive. If you got powerful illusions, magical deception may further misdirect and frustrate attackers. Now all you have to worry about is magical or burrowing penetration into the cellar, if that's a possibility. I guess it would be easier to advice on strategy if the forum knew what sort of forces you were planning on throwing into the attack.
The classic security detail in movies and TV, stationed within reaction distance of the protectee including one dude whose job is to jump in front of an attack shouting "nooooo!" in slow motion is hard to render in D&D mechanically, I might allow a close knit bodyguard to surround the protectee and call it total cover, it's a stretch but since this is specifically a body guarding scenario I'd agree to it, though that won't deny area of effect and a few other magics.
Real world executive protection you have a "body team" and then perimeter teams for a static event, and escorts and advances for mobile events (those elements are usually on hand anyway if the protectee has to go mobile for any reason). The body team is at minimum five people, I'd argue seven is more ideal, and the perimeter groups are usually significantly larger, at least double in terms of escorts and perimeters though advances are smaller than the body team as they're just scouts getting a look at what's up ahead. Your average D&D party won't have that capacity unless you have hirelings or allies. I'd probably lean the party into being where you as DM see the action taking place.
Decoys can be fun, if the party can pull off the initial misdirection to lead the adversary to target the wrong location.
I don't think they exist in 5e, but if you're talking more like mindless horde type assault, you might want to look at some zombie/surivival/horror games and adapt some of their barricading mechanics.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
An “escort mission,” I thought you said they were your friends? 😂
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Do not presume to know who is in or what goes on in those black limousines and heavy SUVs whizzing around the DC beltway.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
There are a couple of 'escort the npc' and 'protect the npc in a static location' in DDO, an online D&D based game, they used to be some of the more hated in the game.
Thanks all for the advice.
Some of the enemies are coming out of the loom (as the spool of thread unravels different monsters which were locked inside it are released) therefore some of the suggestions will not help the party. Giving the NPC a few more 'lives', protecting it with a barrier/ amulets until it receives enough damage is a good course of action.
Thanks again,
Rodamir
I would look at the Wisdom of each enemy to determine whether they would be so against this NPC living that they ignore all concern for their own life (attack the NPC and nothing but the NPC) versus having some self-preservation and confidence that they can take out the players before finishing off the NPC. If the majority of your enemies are the former then it really comes down to the player's toolkits. If you have a caster or two with battlefield control spells or buffs/debuffs then they're likely to have a blast with the encounter where a Barbarian is stuck with Grappling or hoping to beat the crap out of it in one go. You might give the more melee-focused players a magic item that acts as a Taunt of sorts, force one or more enemies in a certain range to attack the player for a round. That way the tank in the group actually tanks something.
I like this magic spool thing, since the wheel has kinetic properties I'd have it mechanically project/fling the monsters away from the weaver so the party can create a buffer. I'm assuming you're going to generate monsters on an escalating scale so as the spool gets used up perhaps the monsters are projected further and further. Fun possibilities, maybe not everything spun from the loom is a hostile, so you can have allies make the space more secure as the baddies potency increases. That way you could still stretch the cover rules by allowing the party or part of the party to function as a human shield. Maybe selective, like only those who have taken protective/defender fighting styles or feats can be eligible to "body guard" the weaver. Give them something to do while your mobility combatants and non "stand your ground" types can make other use of available space. A cellar though, my concern would be area of effect magics or attacks. I'm guessing what's being woven is important too so you don't want a lot of fire in play.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Instead of making it strict combat, what about making it a Skill Challenge? Athletics to bar people from coming in, acrobatics to dive in front of a blow meant for NPC, etc.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
And Performance to do it in slow mo while shouting "nooooooo!"
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Thanks MidnightPlat, those are brilliant ideas. I thought to add some physical obstacle. Releasing and ally from the spool would be another good way. My thinking was that the enemies released from the spool are not really interested in the NPC. Most of them would be spirit stuff like Ghosts. being 'flung' further away they would meet the party first. To give some variety, there are going to be a couple of other beings, more physical who are attracted to the cellar from the outside and they would try and get the spool.
I don't think I know enough about a skills challenge to run one.
Again, thanks.
Rodamir
There are generally two ways that Skill Challenges get done: the official way, and the way most people do it. The first way involves more work by the DM, the second way let’s the players be more creative. (I prefer the “quick and dirty” way like most people.)
I once ran a skill challenge in a library where every success got the party a clue. One of the party came up with some way to use Acrobatics to do research in a library, I set the DC high because it was a stretch but they rolled super high so I narrated that they climbed to the top of the bookcase and found a slip of parchment almost concealed under a layer of dust.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I have done them both ways... they work pretty similarly.
Most of the time I do Sposta's 2nd one.
For my Astral Sea adventure, I pre-determined what skills could be used and how, and told the party ahead of time what the difficulty and DC of each skill check was. Funnily enough on that one, they succeeded 5-0. No failures.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Hello all,
I ran the adventure on a one shot. I think it went pretty well. The players killed all the monsters and got the garment made. It was a one shot so, I aimed to fit it in one session. My skills as a DM are quite basic and I am sure there are lots of creative ways this adventure can be made more exciting: A skills challenge, a door to another dimension, a sphinx appearing out of the spool asking riddles, a more complex setting. In hindsight, I would have made the monsters more in numbers to make the encounters more challenging. They slaughtered the ghost before it could do anything and finished the Oni quite quickly (they had 2 crits). There was a moment where the loom got hit which I could have played more to my advantage- I didn't release an additional ghost. From the feedback I got in the forum some people thought the idea was good. I wanted to post a pdf of the adventure but can't figure out how. Is there a place to do it?