I have a problem. I am a fairly new dm, only being doing it for a few months. One of my players who has been playing and dming for years somehow overthrew a kingdom and became a king. Then he became a lich. Then he united the cloud giants, duergars, vampires, werewolves, shadowns, (my own creation) and the ashenfolk (my own creation) under a common banner of dark magic and evil. He also somehow now has the strength of a tarrasque. And he's only level 4. I don't know how I allowed any of this to happen, but what do I do now???
Hahaha. I'm sorry I can't stop laughing. Not at your predicament, but the way you told the story.
I'm so sorry that things got to this point. But is has possibly led to the best post I've ever read asking for DM help.
We can definitely give advice on where you might have gone wrong if you give us some more details about how it happened. So you can avoid those things in the future. And we could potentially offer help salvaging this campaign with a little more info. This character still has weaknesses. But he is certainly a villain now, not a PC.
But honestly, I think the best thing to do is bring the game to a close. Tell him "Congrats, you won DnD," and let the players write a nice epilogue. Start a new game with the lessons learned and everyone can look back on the time and smile. Maybe for your next game you can have the big bad guy be and evil lich king with the strength of a tarrasque that united all the horror monsters under his banner.
haha yeah it's definitely been a learning experience for me as a newer dm. Some more information is that he is the king of one of three kingdoms on the continent. The other rulers agreed to not try to overthrow him because he is not currently posing a great threat to them. (The queen he overthrew would fight him, but her army is not powerful enough alone.) He has gauntlets of ogre strength, a storm giant belt, and a hammer of thunderbolts, which accounts for the tarrasque strength. Letting him have all of that was definitely a mistake on my part for not looking into them enough or realizing what he could do with them. He has made it clear that he is fine with his character dying, but I'm not sure how to kill him in a way that would make sense to the story and give his character full resolution. I kind of feel bad for the other party members because they are also newer players and most of them are kind of quiet players who don't do much on their own. They just follow the lead of their newly appointed lich king. It feels like more his story than all of theirs, which is not what I want. Oh, yeah, and he also managed to destroy two capital cities. One of which only one person knew it was him who did it. The other (destroyed because for some reason I let him summon Tiamat) is now under his rule.
To follow up with some pertinent questions to help you understand how the game ended up here:
Do you feel like the player is taking advantage of the fact that they know the rules better than you? You say that you don't even know how they got the strength that they did. I can't imagine how he became a lich at level 4. There are ways to accomplish these things, but they all require the DM to place the tools in the game.
Do you feel like you have trouble saying 'no' to your players?
Is everyone still having fun? Or is one player taking control of the whole game at the expense of everyone else?
I'm sorry it looks like we were both typing at the same time and you answered a lot of these questions in your followup. Boy, that's a tough spot. I think we can get to the bottom of it though.
I'll add more when I get the chance. One thing I can point out quickly is that both the gauntlets and belt give the character a set strength score, they don't add to strength. He still unfortunately has a 29 from the storm giant belt.
Did he start as the king of one kingdom? Are the other characters also kings? Is that the premise of the game?
I definitely have a problem saying no. I just want people to have fun, and I don't want to do anything to make the game not fun for everyone. I let everyone homebrew their own magic items to go on quests to find. He made his extremely powerful, which I admittedly let happen. I don't feel like everyone is having as much fun as they were before he basically became god. He always finds all the loopholes in everything, and in the spur of the moment when I don't have a lot of time to think about whether to allow something or not, I just automatically say yes. A lot of it is my own insecurities and feelings that if I say no I'm railroading or being a bad dm. I'm a naturally anxious person and I second guess myself a lot. I tend to automatically assume that if there is a disagreement, I am always in the wrong. Especially in a situation where I don't have nearly as much experience as this player so I don't like arguing with him about things he knows better than me.
Nope, no one started out as a king, or noble of any kind. He gained his power from getting rid of the people in the capital city with tiamat, and then seizing the throne while it was unprotected. He just kind of declared himself king, and now he has all this power I don't know how to take away.
I definitely have a problem saying no. I just want people to have fun, and I don't want to do anything to make the game not fun for everyone. I let everyone homebrew their own magic items to go on quests to find. He made his extremely powerful, which I admittedly let happen. I don't feel like everyone is having as much fun as they were before he basically became god. He always finds all the loopholes in everything, and in the spur of the moment when I don't have a lot of time to think about whether to allow something or not, I just automatically say yes. A lot of it is my own insecurities and feelings that if I say no I'm railroading or being a bad dm. I'm a naturally anxious person and I second guess myself a lot. I tend to automatically assume that if there is a disagreement, I am always in the wrong. Especially in a situation where I don't have nearly as much experience as this player so I don't like arguing with him about things he knows better than me.
I can really sympathize with that. I'm sorry you feel that way. But I can assure you that you know more than you think you do. There has been a lot of bad advice thrown around about what constitutes 'railroading,' and how DMs should say 'yes, and.' It makes new DMs terrified to take any form of control. From decades of running games, I guarantee that players have more fun in the end when there are clear limitations.
I'll write a more lengthy post later tonight. And hopefully others will have more to add too. I want you to succeed and gain confidence as a DM. It can be a lot of fun and really fulfilling. Let me leave for now with a couple more questions to help address things the way that's most comfortable for you.
Is this specific game one that you and your players really want to salvage, or is everyone good with starting over?
Is this one player someone you can have a good conversation with? Are they open to a heart-to-heart? Or are you afraid you will feel pressured to cave in, either from the force of their personality, or your own worries?
haha yeah it's definitely been a learning experience for me as a newer dm.
Two nice things here: a laugh and a look on the bright side. If it's fun, you're probably being successful. It's a game. Enjoy it.
You learned something. That might be good. If the players had fun, then you succeeded. You can also try something different next time if you want. Throw in twists. Perhaps the Belt of Storm Giant Strength will be cursed next time! It might give them a dexterity score of 4, and they can't remove them without a Wish spell or something bad. Your experience here can only make things better.
To answer your questions, I'm really not sure if everyone would be ok with starting over. The campaign hasn't been going for very long, but I just don't know where to take it from here. The story was really good in the beginning, but now the story is not really moving forward at all.
The player is a really good friend of mine out of game, so I could probably talk to him. But the fact that we have a relationship outside of dnd is another reason it has been hard for me to regulate his character. I'm a bit scared of hurting that friendship by not letting him play as powerful a character as he wants. And pressuring me into doing something is very easy to do, even if he isn't meaning to. I should probably not be so anxious about this, as it's just a game. But dnd is something I have grown to really love, and I want to do it well without being too controlling.
Hmmm, okay, this is a bit deeper than the usual problems of 'help I gave my PC a good item and now they're too strong.' I'm going to try to help with as much as I can in this post, both for running an adventure, and dealing with your players. But it sounds like a lot of the problem is centered around your relationship with your players and yourself, so I'm not sure how much I can help there. Let's see what we can do though.
First I think you really need to study more rules, especially the DMG. It has a lot of advice for what kind of things belong in each level of play. I'm not sure if you've heard of the Tiers of play yet, but essentially there are 4 general power tiers as characters level up.
Tier 1 is levels 1-4 - Characters at this level are usually solving small-town problems. From clearing rats out of cellars up to maybe taking on the ogre family that is threatening a village. By the end they are local heroes. Everyone in the town knows them but that's about it.
Tier 2 is levels 5-10 - Characters get a big boost in power at level 5. I don't mean turning into liches. But fighters get an extra attack, wizards can cast Fireball now, etc. They go on to travel outside of the local area, and by the end might be known as heroes of the kingdom even. This is usually the range most games are played in, and even end after. Characters feel strong, but not invincible. They might save the king and be rewarded with a title and some land. But they don't become the king usually.
Tier 3 is levels 11-16 - Characters now usually travel the world. They are starting to get very strong abilities. They are resurrecting the dead and teleporting from one continent to another. But they end they might help win a major war, defeat a terrible foe bent on world domination and gain the admiration of multiple kingdoms.
Tier 4 is levels 17-20 - Characters are extremely powerful. They might be traveling to other planes to stop even greater threats. They are like demi-gods. This is the highest level of achievement.
Read up on the tiers. Other people have explained it much better in more detail in articles online. The important part for now is that you have Tier 1 characters with the abilities, political power, and items of high Tier 3 at least. This is a huge imbalance, and you can feel it. Magic items and rewards are given rarity ratings in the DMG, for example. That tells you when you can reasonably give them out without messing up the balance. Your player's Storm Giant belt is not supposed to be given out until around Tier 4. And if they have more experience DMing, I think they know that.
To get a better understanding, try looking through The Lost Mine of Phandelver. It's a low level adventure that I think is a free download here on DnD Beyond. You can see what characters are expected to be doing from levels 1-5.
Next, we need to address bad advice on 'railroading.'
What Railroading really is - The players say they want to go explore the old ruins they saw outside of town. But you wanted them to go to the tavern because you want them to get captured by guards there. So you have a wandering wizard appear in their path and stop them with a wall of magic. He says "This road is off limits. Go to the tavern instead." And they can't do anything about it. They reluctantly go to the tavern, where you don't give them a chance to resist and you throw them all in the dungeon.
What railroading is not - Your player says I want to become a lich. You tell them that it takes very high level magic, secret rituals they have to discover, and very difficult ingredients to find in dangerous realms. Their character doesn't even know where to start, and they do not have the skill to even attempt it. But if they keep leveling up in their Wizard class, and get the spells needed, they can attempt to find the secret rituals to do it. If they try real hard, they might compete it by the end of the game. If the character declares themselves king, you are not railroading them by having everyone in the kingdom object. It is not railroading for nearby kingdoms to raise armies to defeat the evil warlord that just rose up. It is even not railroading to tell a character they need to make a Stealth check and an Acrobatics roll to quietly climb a castle wall. If they fail, they have to try something else. That's literally just how the game is played. At level 4, a character might try to overthrow the mayor of a village. They might even beat all his guards. But the king won't be happy. And he'll send an army of much stronger soldiers in response.
Here's the thing. Players might say they want to be as powerful as possible. But they really don't. Power means nothing if it's as easy as picking the best items from the book. That's like using cheat codes in a video game. And the other players won't have fun either. The rules are there to give players a chance to slowly advance. Limitations are what make them get creative. It's all the hard work and 'nos' that make the success in the end feel satisfying. That's the 'game' part of the game. (Not to be applied to real life problems, just the game)
Lastly for now, you need to have a serious talk with your players. Either alone or together. Talk to the others to find out how they feel about one hogging the spotlight, and the game they would really like to play. Who knows, they might want to be generals in the kings evil army and take over the world with him. Talk to the problem player. It doesn't have to be confrontational. Ask him what he wants from the game now. Does he feel satisfied conquering the realm? Tell him your concerns. That you're having a hard time as a new DM dealing with this level of power so soon. That you're worried the other players aren't having fun anymore. Does he really need this much power to enjoy the game?
You might find out he was just caught up in the moment. He might be willing to let his character become an NPC and make a new character. One that can join the rest of the party to eventually take down the evil lich king. If so, your campaign is saved and you can reset expectations. If not, then ask him how he can help get back on track in other ways. He has abused the rules and your lack of experience, whether intentional or not. He's going to have to be part of the solution. And at the risk of sounding like a parent here, if your friendship is really dependant on his character breaking the game with power, then he's not really your friend.
Even a lich king with powerful items and an army of undead has weaknesses. He can be defeated. And there are definitely heroes in the world ready to storm his gates. Actual high level Wizards and Fighters and Clerics who can break his toys and obliterate him. Trust us, high level characters can easily destroy a lich. Normally DMs spend more time trying to make their cool monster survive longer than one turn against the PCs. But it might be more fun for everyone if they get to be the heroes that stop him.
I'm sorry you are in this predicament. Without all the details I can't really give you the step by step answers to correcting it. I don't know the players or the world. But for your sanity and everyone's fun, you need to be able to reset the power level or raise it to meet his. For a new DM, a lower power game is much easier. But if everyone wants to try a fantasy world war, you could let them all control armies and fight to the bitter end. If it was me though, I'd prefer a level 4 group to fight ogres to save a town. Let the level 20 character ruin the world.
Good luck. Let us know how it goes. And if you have any more questions, I'm happy to listen and offer what I can.
Talk to your players about their expectations and specially the problem player about the situation and how you feel about it. Dont be afraid to say no, or explain what you want out of the game.
As for some examples to "solve" the level 4 lich king with legendary items...
- a party of high level adventurers go take him out, paid by opposing kingdoms (or the deposed queen).
- Tiamat, who is a Chaotic Evil God, now wants payment or will eat the Lich King guy. Either she herself shows up again, or one of his agents, pick any ancient chromatic dragon that will want the guys kingdom as payment.
Just keep the rest of the party away from those events, jeje.
But seriously, talk to your players it seems your friend just took advantage of you instead of helping you out in your first run as DM.
+1 for Tiamat wanting her payment. You can't just summon a goddess, and an evil one at that, and have her do your bidding like some bond creature. She cleared out the kingdom, and she considers him her slave until she is ready to put him on the throne. Have her take away his magical items and demand that he does her bidding to win them back.
This would send the campaign down a potentially different story, and may not be to the other players tastes sering an evil goddess. Alternatively, have Tiamat oust him from the castle, and say "did you really think that I would let some nobody take the throne os a kingdom?", and now the campaign is about revenge. Perhaps she takes his Phylactery and holds it hostage (being a Lich, he will have a Phylactery which, id destroyed, will kill him).
The other option is to say "ok, I appreciate how you did this, and your character is now a king, a lich, and extremely powerful. This being a level 4 game, we are going to have to promote him to NPC, he becomes a part of the world with folklore attached to him, and you make a new character".
This way their achievement is acknowledged, but the campaign does not become about the character. Bring them back as an NPC later on, once you've gotten your original story back on track.
Don't be concerned to say no - I had to start recently, and the players still say it's brilliant fun. No, just because I let you target the giants privates with storm of daggers doesn't mean he becomes prone. No, your character is not immune to damage because they're a werebear. That sort of thing. Sying to your player who wants t osummon Tiamat "no, you don't have anything that can do that" is game-fixing, not game-breaking. The other players will appreciate it more if the guy pulling the silly get-away-with-anything stuff is reigned in. It sucks when one player keeps asking for more when you're playing within your constraints - better to nip it in the bud next time.
It's also never too late for a session 0 - talk to them all, explain what you think went wrong and what you're putting in place to prevent it - homebrewed magic items can break at any time if you consider them to be doing things you weren't forewarned about, for example. Explain that you need characters who want to help and have heroics in them, rather than mercenaries or evil characters, which this appears to be. There's nothing wrong with saying "I have an adventure for level 5 characters who will tend towards doing good.", as it basically says "If you are evil, your character will go home after they miss the plot hooks because they don't do that sort of thing". It's like forewarning people of the type of food they will be havng - people who don't like chinese food don't need to come to this one, we're eating chinese.
Talk to the players, tel lthem what you want from the game, explain that as you're new you'd prefer it if they lay along somewhat with the plothooks offered and try not to derail the game too badly. Most people (spelt "anyone decent") will agree to this without concern. If the only way they can enjoy the game is to derail, then their playstyle doesn't match yours - and that won't end your fiendship.
Please tell this player 'no' next time they have a crazed request/demand. If they argue, don't give in and don't argue back. Just say that it's your table and your word is final. Sounds more like one person living out a power trip while you and the others sit around and watch. That doesn't seem fun.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
1) If everyone was having fun then there is nothing wrong but it seems this isn't the kind of game you want to be running and at this point the lich king character is entirely dominating the game to the possible detriment of the other players who are also new. I'd also guess that you folks are relatively young :)
2) Lots of good advice above. The best is to have an honest talk with your players. The biggest problem is I have no idea how mature your players are. Honest talks really work well when folks are interested in listening :)
3) The experienced player/DM absolutely took advantage of your lack of knowledge. You could ask him if he would have ever let this happen in a game he was running and if he is being honest, his answer will likely be no.
4) Characters can only attune three items at a time. The hammer of thunderbolts, the gauntlets of ogre strength and the storm giant girdle take all three slots. Even a lich can only attune three magic items. Unless you've changed the rules up for your campaign.
5) The role of the DM is to create a world of adventure - the players assume the persona and abilities of the characters they create and go adventuring in that world. The DM has events happening in the world that the players might find interesting and when the players decide to follow one of those ideas the DM impartially adjudicates how the interaction between the PCs and the world (NPCs etc) turns out. The relationship between the players and the DM is not adversarial but it is also not "the players tell me their smallest wish and I give it to them". That isn't how the real world works and most DMs don't have their fantasy worlds working that way either (though it could be fun for a short adventure).
For example, if someone suddenly started saying "Hey! I'm the new king!" what are folks likely to say or think about them? "Why can they be king? They aren't even part of the royal family! We're not going to do anything for them!". If the character used the abilities of a powerful creature to assist them then that powerful creature is going to want something.
Anyway ...
If you want an interesting way out :)
"The lich king has succeeded in conquering the known world. All hail the lich king. Everyone heads to bed knowing that evil has prevailed, the world will never be the same, commoners will be ground to dust and millions turned to undead to fuel the lich king's lust for power. The lich king's eyes glow red staring out across the lands that are now his and the people that will be the fodder for his future experiments. The party takes a long rest and even the lich king himself nods off for a few moments.
The party wakes up the following morning in the beds of the inn the night after they first met. They stare in horror at each other recalling the shared nightmare of death, destruction, undead, demons, evil dragons, vampires, dark elves and every force for evil in the world united and serving the one character in their party. They don't know whether it is a foretelling, a warning, a diety speaking to them letting them know what should never happen, what should perhaps never have happened or perhaps occurred in an alternate reality.
Either way, the nightmare is finally over and the characters sigh in relief. The impossible things that occurred in the dream, just imagine that one character declaring themselves king and having the entire kingdom follow them willingly, could ever happen. If this insignificant character, little more than a commoner at this stage of their adventuring, can call upon demons then far more experienced adventurers in the world could have called upon even more powerful creatures and the character's career to become a lich king would have ended before it could begin.
The characters look around at each other, knowing that the events of their dream will never happen, but what put the dream into their heads in the first place, what true evil is lurking that the characters might need to fight to prevent someone else from becoming a lich king."
Make it all a dream, hard reset on the campaign, then take it from there. Perhaps allow the characters to keep some or all of the levels gained in the dream because it was so realistic but none of the other events EVER happened. Then start the campaign off in another direction and perhaps not say Yes to every request before you've read up on them a bit more.
You can still run a fun high fantasy adventure where everyone gets to grow and become important nobles/lords/ladies/land owners - maybe even eventually a king - but it will be on your terms as DM and not at the bidding of the players.
Anyway, I wouldn't use a hard reset like that without talking to all of the players about how you feel the campaign has gone completely off the rails and you think it could use some adjustments. Try to get the quieter new players to speak up and express some opinions too.
If the players would rather not do that then the experienced player could retire the lich king to ruling the kingdom and create a new character at the level of the party. Then the party of adventurers could go off and have adventurers in the newly minted world of the lich king. The lich king becomes an NPC - that player will never play them again. The party could also decide whether their characters are evil and like the evil of the lich king or whether they think the lich king (even though they used to be a friend) is far too evil and powerful for the world and needs to be defeated. You then have the makings of the big bad evil guy for the adventure in the former character - and the party can work through a campaign you create with the ultimate goal of growing powerful enough to overthrow the lich king, restore peace and prosperity to the lands and remove this vile source of evil.
Most players aren't that keen on being evil, especially when they first start playing, so I suspect a lot of them may be quite happy using the start of the campaign to create the basis of the much of the rest of the campaign while they go off to find allies, grow more powerful and eventually defeat the lich king they helped to create.
Both of those might be decent options for continuing the campaign depending on what folks want to do after you chat to them ... but you'll need to learn not to say Yes so often :)
To answer your questions, I'm really not sure if everyone would be ok with starting over. The campaign hasn't been going for very long, but I just don't know where to take it from here. The story was really good in the beginning, but now the story is not really moving forward at all.
The player is a really good friend of mine out of game, so I could probably talk to him. But the fact that we have a relationship outside of dnd is another reason it has been hard for me to regulate his character. I'm a bit scared of hurting that friendship by not letting him play as powerful a character as he wants. And pressuring me into doing something is very easy to do, even if he isn't meaning to. I should probably not be so anxious about this, as it's just a game. But dnd is something I have grown to really love, and I want to do it well without being too controlling.
If your friend is an experienced DM, I would talk to them about the problems that arise for you, the DM, and how they might try to run for a character like them. If anything, it might wake them up for how hard they've made things for you, a first time DM. Or they might be able to share some insight that could help. Just have a talk and ask them "how would you run for your character in my place?"
Another thing to consider is that your friend might be more experienced, but that doesn't mean you have to let them have everything they want. Like, just because they killed a queen doesn't necessarily make them king, I'm sure plenty of NPC's would be upset about their queen's death and not rush to coronate the one who killed her (unless you already set up in the story that rulership passes through murder) -- at best this situation would have ended up with some npc's in the kingdom supporting the player, and multiple factions using the situation to gather support for themselves, plunging the kingdom into civil war. It didn't have to be "I killed the queen that makes me the new king!" unless the player's actions were a loooot more elaborate than that.
As far as them becoming a lich, there are no official canon rules for PC's becoming one, so whatever rules they might have submitted when they asked if they could become one were probably homebrew. You want to be very skeptical of homebrew rules as a new DM until you learn how to tell balanced homebrew from unbalanced homebrew, and I would err on the side of caution. Many new DM's don't allow any homebrew until they understand better the difference between the two kinds. A good question to ask your players anytime they ask to do something or include something in the game you don't recognize and sounds OP is just to ask "is this homebrew?" Most rational players will understand a new DM not allowing a piece of homebrew and if your friend is one of them, then telling them no shouldn't be a problem.
Finally though, if all your players are all still having fun (and I'd double check with them individually), then there is less of an urgent issue that needs to be solved. Because if the players are having fun, then the biggest remaining question is are YOU still having fun? Your fun still matters, so it's up to you to determine if this is a game you could have fun with if you adjusted the style of the campaign and maybe amped up the challenge factor to account for the player's strength, and shift the focus more to the story the players have selected for themselves, or if you decide that this is too much and you'd prefer to go back to basics and pace yourself as a DM.
If the former, then have fun, try to anticipate where the players are headed and try to introduce conflicts and plot hooks based on that, adding onto the campaign as you go between sessions.
If the latter, then just be honest about your feelings with your players and explain to them that you're not having fun. You don't owe anyone a game you don't enjoy running. Hopefully you can come to an agreement on the kinds of games got want to play in the future!
in the novel Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg, the main character wakes up with no memory and sorta just joins a circus based on talent for juggling he didn't know he possessed. to quickly spoil a 40 year old book, he's actually the planet's near-godlike ruler but body-swapped and abandoned. he was to remain amnesiac, if i recall, yet who would believe him if he did begin to remember and protest?
perhaps your player might agree to this sort of twist (and he can pick his new race, class, etc). will he tell someone or stay quiet to gain strength? what if there's a traitor amongst them who was paid handsomely to quietly foil his plans (or assassinate him if worse came to worst)? does that "traitor" even have the full story or have they been fed a lie?? will this character refuse to go quietly and instead gather friends covertly or maybe even an army... but to what end? to become again the evil tyrant or perhaps, having seen the other side of things, overthrow his former government entirely to free the people?
seems like this would also uproot your other players, but perhaps not. maybe the tyrant king sent them all away unexpectedly to explore, to retrieve a macguffin, or as envoy to a powerful nation or something. all the old characters except the king come with. but, there's a rumor that one among the group is spying for the king because he fears someone there has the means to betray him. the horse handler with the head wound sent to guide them is certainly is suspicious. so too is the shifty-eyed functionary who won't let a sheaf of official documents out of his reach (peace treaties or death warrants??). the characters won't know it, but the body-swapped amnesiac former king is one of the support staff. I feel like it would be even more fun if the player didn't know he was still technically (the mind of) the true king. the group's actual duty (known only to one person) is to escort them all to their doom.
Do all of the other players have equally over powered magical items? Or is it just the one player?
How did the player become a lich? What is their phylactery and where is it?
How was the player able to summon Tiamat.
Would you be willing to post their character sheet?
Without knowing the answers to those questions, and many more. My suggestion for getting things on track are:
Tiamat doesn’t like how much power such a weak being is acquiring. Tiamat takes control and sends the party to a different plan of existences…. Without anything. Now the party has a new objective. They have to spend the next 10-12 levels figuring out where they are and finding a way to unbind themselves from that plane so they can return.
Bahamut doesn’t like that a lich has allied with Tiamat. So an aspect of Bahamut shows up. Tiamat and Bahmut fight and everything gets destroyed. The Party barley escapes with their lives.
Someone or something steals the PC lich’s phylactery and destroys it, or does some ritual with it that significantly enfeebles the PC lich.
All of the surrounding kingdoms decided they don’t want a Lich ruling near them so they all muster their armies, and attack. No matter how strong the PC lich is, they can’t survive thousands of soldiers. They are forced to escape, without anything, or they are captured everything is taken from them and then they are given some opportunities to escape.
Hopefully some of these ideas are helpful to you. I’m just going to say this because it did not look like anyone else did. If the person playing the PC lich has significant experience with DnD and DMing, then they took advantage of you being a new DM. Anyone who has DMed 5e knows the consequences of players getting magical items to early or at all. Magical items in 5e are extremely rare and not meant to be handed out like they were is some previous editions.
If all of your players are happy with what is happening as far as one player being the king lich and them all being somewhat subservient to that player then that is fine if that is the game they want to play. But I would ask them individually as there are a lot of people who are not comfortable saying they are unhappy in a group setting. Lastly if they are all happy with how things are going, are you as the DM happy and willing to continue running the game as is.
Update: A LOT has happened since I last posted, and this is unfortunately going to be a rant.
The player who was a lich (I'm going to call him Shaun) got rid of that character because he didn't want to play him anymore. Now he's playing a paladin. And of course, he designed his own magic axe that I again didn't look into properly before giving him. He wrote this huge thing with all of its abilities, and I looked it over, but apparently missed some key things. It's hard to look over everything he sends me because I have a lot of other campaigns I'm running or playing in, and I barely have time to plan for those. I've felt burned out for months. think I just trusted him too much to not make an extremely overpowered object. (I really should have seen that coming.)
So the story today went like this:
After killing the rulers of every province on the continent including himself, Shaun asks for the highest paying job on the job board. I say killing the tarrasque for a million gold, thinking the party of course is not going to take it. But then he says they should try it. So of course, I'm thinking there's definitely going to be a TPK because there is no way in hell a level five party can kill a tarrasque. They prepare for a bit, and buy some teleportation amulets "in case something goes wrong". No one knows what's happening except for Shaun. The other party members always just follow his lead. Then Shaun's character who is an Asimaar flies into the air above the tarrasque and charges one of the effects given by the homebrew axe. He calls it Kinetic Slam.
Kinetic slam: instead of attacking, you can spin the axe above your head. For each turn you spin you will deal an extra 1d6 damage. As an attack, you can bring the axe down and deal damage to every creature in a ten foot radius. Any creature in a ten foot radius makes a dex save (dc 19)
On a nineteen or a twenty it hits a critical
On a natural 20 you decapitate the creature you are attacking. If they cannot survive without a head, they die.
I had assumed that this had a time limit. It does not. So Shaun charges the axe for 8 hours. His character is just up there flying on her spectral wings for 8 hours spinning the axe. He seemd worried like a tarrasque fight would make someone. He later told me he was just acting worried and that he knew he could deal an insane amount of damage the whole time. And predictably, he one shots the freaking tarrasque. It just dies. No one else gets a single turn in because I let this person practically run my game for me. (wait now that I think about it he can't even technically fly for more than like one minute what was I thinking.) So now, yay everyone has a million gold. Am I crazy to feel kind of manipulated by this?
I seriously can't tell if I am just an idiot, or if he's just insanely good at manipulating the game like this. Every time I DM now I feel really stupid, and my confidence is really low.
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I have a problem. I am a fairly new dm, only being doing it for a few months. One of my players who has been playing and dming for years somehow overthrew a kingdom and became a king. Then he became a lich. Then he united the cloud giants, duergars, vampires, werewolves, shadowns, (my own creation) and the ashenfolk (my own creation) under a common banner of dark magic and evil. He also somehow now has the strength of a tarrasque. And he's only level 4. I don't know how I allowed any of this to happen, but what do I do now???
Hahaha. I'm sorry I can't stop laughing. Not at your predicament, but the way you told the story.
I'm so sorry that things got to this point. But is has possibly led to the best post I've ever read asking for DM help.
We can definitely give advice on where you might have gone wrong if you give us some more details about how it happened. So you can avoid those things in the future. And we could potentially offer help salvaging this campaign with a little more info. This character still has weaknesses. But he is certainly a villain now, not a PC.
But honestly, I think the best thing to do is bring the game to a close. Tell him "Congrats, you won DnD," and let the players write a nice epilogue. Start a new game with the lessons learned and everyone can look back on the time and smile. Maybe for your next game you can have the big bad guy be and evil lich king with the strength of a tarrasque that united all the horror monsters under his banner.
haha yeah it's definitely been a learning experience for me as a newer dm. Some more information is that he is the king of one of three kingdoms on the continent. The other rulers agreed to not try to overthrow him because he is not currently posing a great threat to them. (The queen he overthrew would fight him, but her army is not powerful enough alone.) He has gauntlets of ogre strength, a storm giant belt, and a hammer of thunderbolts, which accounts for the tarrasque strength. Letting him have all of that was definitely a mistake on my part for not looking into them enough or realizing what he could do with them. He has made it clear that he is fine with his character dying, but I'm not sure how to kill him in a way that would make sense to the story and give his character full resolution. I kind of feel bad for the other party members because they are also newer players and most of them are kind of quiet players who don't do much on their own. They just follow the lead of their newly appointed lich king. It feels like more his story than all of theirs, which is not what I want. Oh, yeah, and he also managed to destroy two capital cities. One of which only one person knew it was him who did it. The other (destroyed because for some reason I let him summon Tiamat) is now under his rule.
To follow up with some pertinent questions to help you understand how the game ended up here:
Do you feel like the player is taking advantage of the fact that they know the rules better than you? You say that you don't even know how they got the strength that they did. I can't imagine how he became a lich at level 4. There are ways to accomplish these things, but they all require the DM to place the tools in the game.
Do you feel like you have trouble saying 'no' to your players?
Is everyone still having fun? Or is one player taking control of the whole game at the expense of everyone else?
I'm sorry it looks like we were both typing at the same time and you answered a lot of these questions in your followup. Boy, that's a tough spot. I think we can get to the bottom of it though.
I'll add more when I get the chance. One thing I can point out quickly is that both the gauntlets and belt give the character a set strength score, they don't add to strength. He still unfortunately has a 29 from the storm giant belt.
Did he start as the king of one kingdom? Are the other characters also kings? Is that the premise of the game?
I definitely have a problem saying no. I just want people to have fun, and I don't want to do anything to make the game not fun for everyone. I let everyone homebrew their own magic items to go on quests to find. He made his extremely powerful, which I admittedly let happen. I don't feel like everyone is having as much fun as they were before he basically became god. He always finds all the loopholes in everything, and in the spur of the moment when I don't have a lot of time to think about whether to allow something or not, I just automatically say yes. A lot of it is my own insecurities and feelings that if I say no I'm railroading or being a bad dm. I'm a naturally anxious person and I second guess myself a lot. I tend to automatically assume that if there is a disagreement, I am always in the wrong. Especially in a situation where I don't have nearly as much experience as this player so I don't like arguing with him about things he knows better than me.
Nope, no one started out as a king, or noble of any kind. He gained his power from getting rid of the people in the capital city with tiamat, and then seizing the throne while it was unprotected. He just kind of declared himself king, and now he has all this power I don't know how to take away.
I can really sympathize with that. I'm sorry you feel that way. But I can assure you that you know more than you think you do. There has been a lot of bad advice thrown around about what constitutes 'railroading,' and how DMs should say 'yes, and.' It makes new DMs terrified to take any form of control. From decades of running games, I guarantee that players have more fun in the end when there are clear limitations.
I'll write a more lengthy post later tonight. And hopefully others will have more to add too. I want you to succeed and gain confidence as a DM. It can be a lot of fun and really fulfilling. Let me leave for now with a couple more questions to help address things the way that's most comfortable for you.
Is this specific game one that you and your players really want to salvage, or is everyone good with starting over?
Is this one player someone you can have a good conversation with? Are they open to a heart-to-heart? Or are you afraid you will feel pressured to cave in, either from the force of their personality, or your own worries?
Two nice things here: a laugh and a look on the bright side. If it's fun, you're probably being successful. It's a game. Enjoy it.
You learned something. That might be good. If the players had fun, then you succeeded. You can also try something different next time if you want. Throw in twists. Perhaps the Belt of Storm Giant Strength will be cursed next time! It might give them a dexterity score of 4, and they can't remove them without a Wish spell or something bad. Your experience here can only make things better.
Just don't rage quit. That's bad.
To answer your questions, I'm really not sure if everyone would be ok with starting over. The campaign hasn't been going for very long, but I just don't know where to take it from here. The story was really good in the beginning, but now the story is not really moving forward at all.
The player is a really good friend of mine out of game, so I could probably talk to him. But the fact that we have a relationship outside of dnd is another reason it has been hard for me to regulate his character. I'm a bit scared of hurting that friendship by not letting him play as powerful a character as he wants. And pressuring me into doing something is very easy to do, even if he isn't meaning to. I should probably not be so anxious about this, as it's just a game. But dnd is something I have grown to really love, and I want to do it well without being too controlling.
Hmmm, okay, this is a bit deeper than the usual problems of 'help I gave my PC a good item and now they're too strong.' I'm going to try to help with as much as I can in this post, both for running an adventure, and dealing with your players. But it sounds like a lot of the problem is centered around your relationship with your players and yourself, so I'm not sure how much I can help there. Let's see what we can do though.
First I think you really need to study more rules, especially the DMG. It has a lot of advice for what kind of things belong in each level of play. I'm not sure if you've heard of the Tiers of play yet, but essentially there are 4 general power tiers as characters level up.
Tier 1 is levels 1-4 - Characters at this level are usually solving small-town problems. From clearing rats out of cellars up to maybe taking on the ogre family that is threatening a village. By the end they are local heroes. Everyone in the town knows them but that's about it.
Tier 2 is levels 5-10 - Characters get a big boost in power at level 5. I don't mean turning into liches. But fighters get an extra attack, wizards can cast Fireball now, etc. They go on to travel outside of the local area, and by the end might be known as heroes of the kingdom even. This is usually the range most games are played in, and even end after. Characters feel strong, but not invincible. They might save the king and be rewarded with a title and some land. But they don't become the king usually.
Tier 3 is levels 11-16 - Characters now usually travel the world. They are starting to get very strong abilities. They are resurrecting the dead and teleporting from one continent to another. But they end they might help win a major war, defeat a terrible foe bent on world domination and gain the admiration of multiple kingdoms.
Tier 4 is levels 17-20 - Characters are extremely powerful. They might be traveling to other planes to stop even greater threats. They are like demi-gods. This is the highest level of achievement.
Read up on the tiers. Other people have explained it much better in more detail in articles online. The important part for now is that you have Tier 1 characters with the abilities, political power, and items of high Tier 3 at least. This is a huge imbalance, and you can feel it. Magic items and rewards are given rarity ratings in the DMG, for example. That tells you when you can reasonably give them out without messing up the balance. Your player's Storm Giant belt is not supposed to be given out until around Tier 4. And if they have more experience DMing, I think they know that.
To get a better understanding, try looking through The Lost Mine of Phandelver. It's a low level adventure that I think is a free download here on DnD Beyond. You can see what characters are expected to be doing from levels 1-5.
Next, we need to address bad advice on 'railroading.'
What Railroading really is - The players say they want to go explore the old ruins they saw outside of town. But you wanted them to go to the tavern because you want them to get captured by guards there. So you have a wandering wizard appear in their path and stop them with a wall of magic. He says "This road is off limits. Go to the tavern instead." And they can't do anything about it. They reluctantly go to the tavern, where you don't give them a chance to resist and you throw them all in the dungeon.
What railroading is not - Your player says I want to become a lich. You tell them that it takes very high level magic, secret rituals they have to discover, and very difficult ingredients to find in dangerous realms. Their character doesn't even know where to start, and they do not have the skill to even attempt it. But if they keep leveling up in their Wizard class, and get the spells needed, they can attempt to find the secret rituals to do it. If they try real hard, they might compete it by the end of the game. If the character declares themselves king, you are not railroading them by having everyone in the kingdom object. It is not railroading for nearby kingdoms to raise armies to defeat the evil warlord that just rose up. It is even not railroading to tell a character they need to make a Stealth check and an Acrobatics roll to quietly climb a castle wall. If they fail, they have to try something else. That's literally just how the game is played. At level 4, a character might try to overthrow the mayor of a village. They might even beat all his guards. But the king won't be happy. And he'll send an army of much stronger soldiers in response.
Here's the thing. Players might say they want to be as powerful as possible. But they really don't. Power means nothing if it's as easy as picking the best items from the book. That's like using cheat codes in a video game. And the other players won't have fun either. The rules are there to give players a chance to slowly advance. Limitations are what make them get creative. It's all the hard work and 'nos' that make the success in the end feel satisfying. That's the 'game' part of the game. (Not to be applied to real life problems, just the game)
Lastly for now, you need to have a serious talk with your players. Either alone or together. Talk to the others to find out how they feel about one hogging the spotlight, and the game they would really like to play. Who knows, they might want to be generals in the kings evil army and take over the world with him. Talk to the problem player. It doesn't have to be confrontational. Ask him what he wants from the game now. Does he feel satisfied conquering the realm? Tell him your concerns. That you're having a hard time as a new DM dealing with this level of power so soon. That you're worried the other players aren't having fun anymore. Does he really need this much power to enjoy the game?
You might find out he was just caught up in the moment. He might be willing to let his character become an NPC and make a new character. One that can join the rest of the party to eventually take down the evil lich king. If so, your campaign is saved and you can reset expectations. If not, then ask him how he can help get back on track in other ways. He has abused the rules and your lack of experience, whether intentional or not. He's going to have to be part of the solution. And at the risk of sounding like a parent here, if your friendship is really dependant on his character breaking the game with power, then he's not really your friend.
Even a lich king with powerful items and an army of undead has weaknesses. He can be defeated. And there are definitely heroes in the world ready to storm his gates. Actual high level Wizards and Fighters and Clerics who can break his toys and obliterate him. Trust us, high level characters can easily destroy a lich. Normally DMs spend more time trying to make their cool monster survive longer than one turn against the PCs. But it might be more fun for everyone if they get to be the heroes that stop him.
I'm sorry you are in this predicament. Without all the details I can't really give you the step by step answers to correcting it. I don't know the players or the world. But for your sanity and everyone's fun, you need to be able to reset the power level or raise it to meet his. For a new DM, a lower power game is much easier. But if everyone wants to try a fantasy world war, you could let them all control armies and fight to the bitter end. If it was me though, I'd prefer a level 4 group to fight ogres to save a town. Let the level 20 character ruin the world.
Good luck. Let us know how it goes. And if you have any more questions, I'm happy to listen and offer what I can.
thank you so much for taking the time to help me with this, it means a lot. I'll probably update on how things go from here.
Yes. Follow Stegodorkus advice.
Talk to your players about their expectations and specially the problem player about the situation and how you feel about it. Dont be afraid to say no, or explain what you want out of the game.
As for some examples to "solve" the level 4 lich king with legendary items...
- a party of high level adventurers go take him out, paid by opposing kingdoms (or the deposed queen).
- Tiamat, who is a Chaotic Evil God, now wants payment or will eat the Lich King guy. Either she herself shows up again, or one of his agents, pick any ancient chromatic dragon that will want the guys kingdom as payment.
Just keep the rest of the party away from those events, jeje.
But seriously, talk to your players it seems your friend just took advantage of you instead of helping you out in your first run as DM.
+1 for Tiamat wanting her payment. You can't just summon a goddess, and an evil one at that, and have her do your bidding like some bond creature. She cleared out the kingdom, and she considers him her slave until she is ready to put him on the throne. Have her take away his magical items and demand that he does her bidding to win them back.
This would send the campaign down a potentially different story, and may not be to the other players tastes sering an evil goddess. Alternatively, have Tiamat oust him from the castle, and say "did you really think that I would let some nobody take the throne os a kingdom?", and now the campaign is about revenge. Perhaps she takes his Phylactery and holds it hostage (being a Lich, he will have a Phylactery which, id destroyed, will kill him).
The other option is to say "ok, I appreciate how you did this, and your character is now a king, a lich, and extremely powerful. This being a level 4 game, we are going to have to promote him to NPC, he becomes a part of the world with folklore attached to him, and you make a new character".
This way their achievement is acknowledged, but the campaign does not become about the character. Bring them back as an NPC later on, once you've gotten your original story back on track.
Don't be concerned to say no - I had to start recently, and the players still say it's brilliant fun. No, just because I let you target the giants privates with storm of daggers doesn't mean he becomes prone. No, your character is not immune to damage because they're a werebear. That sort of thing. Sying to your player who wants t osummon Tiamat "no, you don't have anything that can do that" is game-fixing, not game-breaking. The other players will appreciate it more if the guy pulling the silly get-away-with-anything stuff is reigned in. It sucks when one player keeps asking for more when you're playing within your constraints - better to nip it in the bud next time.
It's also never too late for a session 0 - talk to them all, explain what you think went wrong and what you're putting in place to prevent it - homebrewed magic items can break at any time if you consider them to be doing things you weren't forewarned about, for example. Explain that you need characters who want to help and have heroics in them, rather than mercenaries or evil characters, which this appears to be. There's nothing wrong with saying "I have an adventure for level 5 characters who will tend towards doing good.", as it basically says "If you are evil, your character will go home after they miss the plot hooks because they don't do that sort of thing". It's like forewarning people of the type of food they will be havng - people who don't like chinese food don't need to come to this one, we're eating chinese.
Talk to the players, tel lthem what you want from the game, explain that as you're new you'd prefer it if they lay along somewhat with the plothooks offered and try not to derail the game too badly. Most people (spelt "anyone decent") will agree to this without concern. If the only way they can enjoy the game is to derail, then their playstyle doesn't match yours - and that won't end your fiendship.
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Please tell this player 'no' next time they have a crazed request/demand. If they argue, don't give in and don't argue back. Just say that it's your table and your word is final. Sounds more like one person living out a power trip while you and the others sit around and watch. That doesn't seem fun.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Just a couple things to add ...
1) If everyone was having fun then there is nothing wrong but it seems this isn't the kind of game you want to be running and at this point the lich king character is entirely dominating the game to the possible detriment of the other players who are also new. I'd also guess that you folks are relatively young :)
2) Lots of good advice above. The best is to have an honest talk with your players. The biggest problem is I have no idea how mature your players are. Honest talks really work well when folks are interested in listening :)
3) The experienced player/DM absolutely took advantage of your lack of knowledge. You could ask him if he would have ever let this happen in a game he was running and if he is being honest, his answer will likely be no.
4) Characters can only attune three items at a time. The hammer of thunderbolts, the gauntlets of ogre strength and the storm giant girdle take all three slots. Even a lich can only attune three magic items. Unless you've changed the rules up for your campaign.
5) The role of the DM is to create a world of adventure - the players assume the persona and abilities of the characters they create and go adventuring in that world. The DM has events happening in the world that the players might find interesting and when the players decide to follow one of those ideas the DM impartially adjudicates how the interaction between the PCs and the world (NPCs etc) turns out. The relationship between the players and the DM is not adversarial but it is also not "the players tell me their smallest wish and I give it to them". That isn't how the real world works and most DMs don't have their fantasy worlds working that way either (though it could be fun for a short adventure).
For example, if someone suddenly started saying "Hey! I'm the new king!" what are folks likely to say or think about them? "Why can they be king? They aren't even part of the royal family! We're not going to do anything for them!". If the character used the abilities of a powerful creature to assist them then that powerful creature is going to want something.
Anyway ...
If you want an interesting way out :)
"The lich king has succeeded in conquering the known world. All hail the lich king. Everyone heads to bed knowing that evil has prevailed, the world will never be the same, commoners will be ground to dust and millions turned to undead to fuel the lich king's lust for power. The lich king's eyes glow red staring out across the lands that are now his and the people that will be the fodder for his future experiments. The party takes a long rest and even the lich king himself nods off for a few moments.
The party wakes up the following morning in the beds of the inn the night after they first met. They stare in horror at each other recalling the shared nightmare of death, destruction, undead, demons, evil dragons, vampires, dark elves and every force for evil in the world united and serving the one character in their party. They don't know whether it is a foretelling, a warning, a diety speaking to them letting them know what should never happen, what should perhaps never have happened or perhaps occurred in an alternate reality.
Either way, the nightmare is finally over and the characters sigh in relief. The impossible things that occurred in the dream, just imagine that one character declaring themselves king and having the entire kingdom follow them willingly, could ever happen. If this insignificant character, little more than a commoner at this stage of their adventuring, can call upon demons then far more experienced adventurers in the world could have called upon even more powerful creatures and the character's career to become a lich king would have ended before it could begin.
The characters look around at each other, knowing that the events of their dream will never happen, but what put the dream into their heads in the first place, what true evil is lurking that the characters might need to fight to prevent someone else from becoming a lich king."
Make it all a dream, hard reset on the campaign, then take it from there. Perhaps allow the characters to keep some or all of the levels gained in the dream because it was so realistic but none of the other events EVER happened. Then start the campaign off in another direction and perhaps not say Yes to every request before you've read up on them a bit more.
You can still run a fun high fantasy adventure where everyone gets to grow and become important nobles/lords/ladies/land owners - maybe even eventually a king - but it will be on your terms as DM and not at the bidding of the players.
Anyway, I wouldn't use a hard reset like that without talking to all of the players about how you feel the campaign has gone completely off the rails and you think it could use some adjustments. Try to get the quieter new players to speak up and express some opinions too.
If the players would rather not do that then the experienced player could retire the lich king to ruling the kingdom and create a new character at the level of the party. Then the party of adventurers could go off and have adventurers in the newly minted world of the lich king. The lich king becomes an NPC - that player will never play them again. The party could also decide whether their characters are evil and like the evil of the lich king or whether they think the lich king (even though they used to be a friend) is far too evil and powerful for the world and needs to be defeated. You then have the makings of the big bad evil guy for the adventure in the former character - and the party can work through a campaign you create with the ultimate goal of growing powerful enough to overthrow the lich king, restore peace and prosperity to the lands and remove this vile source of evil.
Most players aren't that keen on being evil, especially when they first start playing, so I suspect a lot of them may be quite happy using the start of the campaign to create the basis of the much of the rest of the campaign while they go off to find allies, grow more powerful and eventually defeat the lich king they helped to create.
Both of those might be decent options for continuing the campaign depending on what folks want to do after you chat to them ... but you'll need to learn not to say Yes so often :)
If your friend is an experienced DM, I would talk to them about the problems that arise for you, the DM, and how they might try to run for a character like them. If anything, it might wake them up for how hard they've made things for you, a first time DM. Or they might be able to share some insight that could help. Just have a talk and ask them "how would you run for your character in my place?"
Another thing to consider is that your friend might be more experienced, but that doesn't mean you have to let them have everything they want. Like, just because they killed a queen doesn't necessarily make them king, I'm sure plenty of NPC's would be upset about their queen's death and not rush to coronate the one who killed her (unless you already set up in the story that rulership passes through murder) -- at best this situation would have ended up with some npc's in the kingdom supporting the player, and multiple factions using the situation to gather support for themselves, plunging the kingdom into civil war. It didn't have to be "I killed the queen that makes me the new king!" unless the player's actions were a loooot more elaborate than that.
As far as them becoming a lich, there are no official canon rules for PC's becoming one, so whatever rules they might have submitted when they asked if they could become one were probably homebrew. You want to be very skeptical of homebrew rules as a new DM until you learn how to tell balanced homebrew from unbalanced homebrew, and I would err on the side of caution. Many new DM's don't allow any homebrew until they understand better the difference between the two kinds. A good question to ask your players anytime they ask to do something or include something in the game you don't recognize and sounds OP is just to ask "is this homebrew?" Most rational players will understand a new DM not allowing a piece of homebrew and if your friend is one of them, then telling them no shouldn't be a problem.
Finally though, if all your players are all still having fun (and I'd double check with them individually), then there is less of an urgent issue that needs to be solved. Because if the players are having fun, then the biggest remaining question is are YOU still having fun? Your fun still matters, so it's up to you to determine if this is a game you could have fun with if you adjusted the style of the campaign and maybe amped up the challenge factor to account for the player's strength, and shift the focus more to the story the players have selected for themselves, or if you decide that this is too much and you'd prefer to go back to basics and pace yourself as a DM.
If the former, then have fun, try to anticipate where the players are headed and try to introduce conflicts and plot hooks based on that, adding onto the campaign as you go between sessions.
If the latter, then just be honest about your feelings with your players and explain to them that you're not having fun. You don't owe anyone a game you don't enjoy running. Hopefully you can come to an agreement on the kinds of games got want to play in the future!
Hope that helps
in the novel Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg, the main character wakes up with no memory and sorta just joins a circus based on talent for juggling he didn't know he possessed. to quickly spoil a 40 year old book, he's actually the planet's near-godlike ruler but body-swapped and abandoned. he was to remain amnesiac, if i recall, yet who would believe him if he did begin to remember and protest?
perhaps your player might agree to this sort of twist (and he can pick his new race, class, etc). will he tell someone or stay quiet to gain strength? what if there's a traitor amongst them who was paid handsomely to quietly foil his plans (or assassinate him if worse came to worst)? does that "traitor" even have the full story or have they been fed a lie?? will this character refuse to go quietly and instead gather friends covertly or maybe even an army... but to what end? to become again the evil tyrant or perhaps, having seen the other side of things, overthrow his former government entirely to free the people?
seems like this would also uproot your other players, but perhaps not. maybe the tyrant king sent them all away unexpectedly to explore, to retrieve a macguffin, or as envoy to a powerful nation or something. all the old characters except the king come with. but, there's a rumor that one among the group is spying for the king because he fears someone there has the means to betray him. the horse handler with the head wound sent to guide them is certainly is suspicious. so too is the shifty-eyed functionary who won't let a sheaf of official documents out of his reach (peace treaties or death warrants??). the characters won't know it, but the body-swapped amnesiac former king is one of the support staff. I feel like it would be even more fun if the player didn't know he was still technically (the mind of) the true king. the group's actual duty (known only to one person) is to escort them all to their doom.
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A few questions:
Without knowing the answers to those questions, and many more. My suggestion for getting things on track are:
Hopefully some of these ideas are helpful to you. I’m just going to say this because it did not look like anyone else did. If the person playing the PC lich has significant experience with DnD and DMing, then they took advantage of you being a new DM. Anyone who has DMed 5e knows the consequences of players getting magical items to early or at all. Magical items in 5e are extremely rare and not meant to be handed out like they were is some previous editions.
If all of your players are happy with what is happening as far as one player being the king lich and them all being somewhat subservient to that player then that is fine if that is the game they want to play. But I would ask them individually as there are a lot of people who are not comfortable saying they are unhappy in a group setting. Lastly if they are all happy with how things are going, are you as the DM happy and willing to continue running the game as is.
Update: A LOT has happened since I last posted, and this is unfortunately going to be a rant.
The player who was a lich (I'm going to call him Shaun) got rid of that character because he didn't want to play him anymore. Now he's playing a paladin. And of course, he designed his own magic axe that I again didn't look into properly before giving him. He wrote this huge thing with all of its abilities, and I looked it over, but apparently missed some key things. It's hard to look over everything he sends me because I have a lot of other campaigns I'm running or playing in, and I barely have time to plan for those. I've felt burned out for months. think I just trusted him too much to not make an extremely overpowered object. (I really should have seen that coming.)
So the story today went like this:
After killing the rulers of every province on the continent including himself, Shaun asks for the highest paying job on the job board. I say killing the tarrasque for a million gold, thinking the party of course is not going to take it. But then he says they should try it. So of course, I'm thinking there's definitely going to be a TPK because there is no way in hell a level five party can kill a tarrasque. They prepare for a bit, and buy some teleportation amulets "in case something goes wrong". No one knows what's happening except for Shaun. The other party members always just follow his lead. Then Shaun's character who is an Asimaar flies into the air above the tarrasque and charges one of the effects given by the homebrew axe. He calls it Kinetic Slam.
Kinetic slam: instead of attacking, you can spin the axe above your head. For each turn you spin you will deal an extra 1d6 damage. As an attack, you can bring the axe down and deal damage to every creature in a ten foot radius. Any creature in a ten foot radius makes a dex save (dc 19)
On a nineteen or a twenty it hits a critical
On a natural 20 you decapitate the creature you are attacking. If they cannot survive without a head, they die.
I had assumed that this had a time limit. It does not. So Shaun charges the axe for 8 hours. His character is just up there flying on her spectral wings for 8 hours spinning the axe. He seemd worried like a tarrasque fight would make someone. He later told me he was just acting worried and that he knew he could deal an insane amount of damage the whole time. And predictably, he one shots the freaking tarrasque. It just dies. No one else gets a single turn in because I let this person practically run my game for me. (wait now that I think about it he can't even technically fly for more than like one minute what was I thinking.) So now, yay everyone has a million gold. Am I crazy to feel kind of manipulated by this?
I seriously can't tell if I am just an idiot, or if he's just insanely good at manipulating the game like this. Every time I DM now I feel really stupid, and my confidence is really low.