So I am starting a brand new campaign with my players. This game is technically the "Part 2" to my 1st campaign that lasted 3 years. The first one was a "Choose your apocolaypse" adventure and now this campaign is the actual apocolapyse. With this version, there are a lot of cults doing nefarious things. I was inspired by Balder's Gate 3 in this approach where all of the characters are thrown into the plot so they automatically have common ground and they are introduced to a storyline. However, my approach is that the characters were all knocked out in different ways at the end of their backstories, and that is how they end up in the arms of a cult. This cult is intending on sacrificing them in a long process to raise a dead god. The cultists don't have any relations of the players nor do they know what they can do. They simply saw an isolated person and took them in means in the dark ritual. Then this cult is an isolated event where the players will realize that other people throughout the world are also going missing and are probably in the same siutation they were in. But after this, the players will be brought into a story arc that is centered around light hearted themes and quests that seem random but contribute to the plot. That way they have time to build up their team and get to know each other before they hit the harder and darker themes of the main part of the plot.
However, I am aware that when doing this kind of sceanrio players can feel helpless as it doens't make sense for them to have any armor or their weapons on them. I was planning to let them keep small things on them that the cultists could of missed like a lock picking kit, a few coins, maybe spell casting focuses. They are starting as level 14 and I aimed to have a lair map so they have to go to different areas in the map to obtain their items and kill off the evil cultists. I plan for the cultists to be a low level with a higher level cult leader that they will have to face off to escape. They are all veteran players so my hope is that they will rely on persuassions methods, creative ideas and other things until they find their items randomly thrown into a junk room. I am looking for advice to successfully pull this off without frustrating my players but still make it challenging. Does anyone have any advice?
The character classes are going to matter a lot here. Warlocks mostly don't care about being held captive, between not needing a focus for most spells and being able to summon a weapon at will.
Moon druids and other druids mostly are unaffected.
Monks don't need anything.
Sorcerers and wizards are also in a similar situation where they may not need a focus.
Melee characters are basically dead weight until they get their weapons and armor.
The issue here is largely the level you are starting at, the casters will be incredibly powerful while the martials will be useless without equipment. As a more even balancing (and to make it actually an escape rather than "I cast Teleport and we are all free") I'd recommend having them all in chains that nullify magical powers as well as physical abilities until they find their gear. Or having them start at level 1-3 rather than level 14.
By my understanding of your description, the players should feel helpless and hopelessly out-classed by the enemies and have basically no chance of fighting against them only of escaping - BG3 doesn't allow you to kill a mindflayer on the nautiloid. Otherwise, I don't know why they wouldn't immediately just go after the cult rather than messing around with little light hearted quests.
In general the rule about capturing your PCs is "don't", but there's an exception for plot device start of campaign. That said, there's a huge difference in the capabilities of PCs without gear, particularly at higher levels -- even setting aside spells that don't have a material component requirement, a fighter without gear, being reduced to using an improvised club, is a lot more nerfed than a monk.
Yeah it does, people have killed the mindflayer and all the cambions.
Not without cheesing the AI/mechanics (that were later patched) because the whole point is for the player to start out feeling weak and helpless so they can experience the growth of their character's power as they reach a point where they can fight multiple mindflayers at once.
If you kidnap your PCs they should be running for their lives to escape wherever they got captured into otherwise it makes little sense for them to have been captured in the first place.
Not without cheesing the AI/mechanics (that were later patched)
Killing everything requires a fair amount of cheese, but killing the mindflayer just requires letting it and Zhalk fight it out until they're both chewed up, then backstabbing the winner.
The cultists don't have any relations of the players nor do they know what they can do. They simply saw an isolated person and took them in means in the dark ritual.
They are starting as level 14
This is a huge amount of disbelief to suspend to get things started, at least for me
How does a level 14 character -- isolated or otherwise -- get knocked out and captured like that? A level 14 wizard has access to teleport to pick the most obvious escape method. And if the answer is, "well, the cult was able to counter their spells/abilities", that kind of contradicts the whole 'the cult was just grabbing random people' thing. "Yeah, we were out looking for easy prey, but we had counter-measures to handle 14th-level adventurers. Y'know, just in case"
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I wouldn't worry about how to capture your players. Instead I would open your campaign on them already captured and ask each player "how did they get you?"
As far as no starting equipment, that's not a huge obstacle. The party only has no equipment until the first cultist they kill, then they have their weapons and armor, then making it easier to kill the next one so your friend can have their weapons and armor, and so on and so forth. It's not that difficult for a level 14 PC to take down an enemy without equipment, even a martial, given the right circumstances. I would just make sure there are varied enough enemy types that when the fighting does start, all the players can get what they need as they go. I've done this at level 5 multiple times and never had trouble, so at 14 it should be a breeze.
The cultists don't have any relations of the players nor do they know what they can do. They simply saw an isolated person and took them in means in the dark ritual.
They are starting as level 14
This is a huge amount of disbelief to suspend to get things started, at least for me
How does a level 14 character -- isolated or otherwise -- get knocked out and captured like that? A level 14 wizard has access to teleport to pick the most obvious escape method. And if the answer is, "well, the cult was able to counter their spells/abilities", that kind of contradicts the whole 'the cult was just grabbing random people' thing. "Yeah, we were out looking for easy prey, but we had counter-measures to handle 14th-level adventurers. Y'know, just in case"
You don't need fancy anti-magic fields or counterspells if you simply bind the mouth, hands, and fingers of any casters so they can't make verbal or somatic components. A quick dose of poison from behind and some caster-specific manacles and it's plenty believable.
One way do do this could be to have some of your martial character's weapons be stored rather close so that they can prove useful. Who knows, one cultist might even have a blowgun or a knife! Biggest thing here is make sure all they absolutely necessary equipment can be found with out to much hassle (basic weapons, grimoire, holy symbol, maybe armor). I would also make sure that your players have a clear end goal. You might want to have part, if not all, of the reward be that defeating the cult leader and some other high ranking cultists you will prevent the summoning. Something like that will motivate your players to continue going. You also might consider having a few of the cultists be defective. After all, not everybody who joins a cult knows what they are getting into. That will make your players feel like they are not alone and there is some hope.
I hope these help. If you have any other ideas or questions for this campaign please ask. I am super happy to help!
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- Igglywiv the Wizard
I played every class, now playing every sub-class.
You would not believe how much ADHD helps with creating campaigns!
You don't need fancy anti-magic fields or counterspells if you simply bind the mouth, hands, and fingers of any casters so they can't make verbal or somatic components. A quick dose of poison from behind and some caster-specific manacles and it's plenty believable.
It's not that 14th level PCs can't be captured. It's just that you need tools appropriate to the task, and those just aren't the tools you use to kidnap random people off the street. The average result of "quick dose of poison from behind" against a 14th level PC is an annoyed PC who proceeds to turn the kidnap party into a grease spot.
You don't need fancy anti-magic fields or counterspells if you simply bind the mouth, hands, and fingers of any casters so they can't make verbal or somatic components. A quick dose of poison from behind and some caster-specific manacles and it's plenty believable.
It's not that 14th level PCs can't be captured. It's just that you need tools appropriate to the task, and those just aren't the tools you use to kidnap random people off the street. The average result of "quick dose of poison from behind" against a 14th level PC is an annoyed PC who proceeds to turn the kidnap party into a grease spot.
In the game, I kind of run with the assumption that your class abilities and HP and saves and all that function when you're combat ready. In the downtime between campaigns when a character might be resting on their laurels or deep in study, I can envision them not having every tool at their disposal ready to hand and being less demigodlike.
The cultists don't have any relations of the players nor do they know what they can do. They simply saw an isolated person and took them in means in the dark ritual.
They are starting as level 14
This is a huge amount of disbelief to suspend to get things started, at least for me
How does a level 14 character -- isolated or otherwise -- get knocked out and captured like that? A level 14 wizard has access to teleport to pick the most obvious escape method. And if the answer is, "well, the cult was able to counter their spells/abilities", that kind of contradicts the whole 'the cult was just grabbing random people' thing. "Yeah, we were out looking for easy prey, but we had counter-measures to handle 14th-level adventurers. Y'know, just in case"
You don't need fancy anti-magic fields or counterspells if you simply bind the mouth, hands, and fingers of any casters so they can't make verbal or somatic components. A quick dose of poison from behind and some caster-specific manacles and it's plenty believable.
Not if they are a sorcerer with Subtle Spell, not if they are a Shadar Kai or Eladrin that can teleport as a species feature, not if they are a druid that can WS into a mouse at will, not if you are an Enchanter Wizard who can charm a character as an action at will, not if you are a Hexblade Warlock who can use Hexblade's Curse and then Relentless Hex to teleport next to someone without using any components, not if you are a Fey Warlock who can teleport as a reaction to taking damage with no components as well as charm & frightened with no components, and probably others as well...
The cultists don't have any relations of the players nor do they know what they can do. They simply saw an isolated person and took them in means in the dark ritual.
They are starting as level 14
This is a huge amount of disbelief to suspend to get things started, at least for me
How does a level 14 character -- isolated or otherwise -- get knocked out and captured like that? A level 14 wizard has access to teleport to pick the most obvious escape method. And if the answer is, "well, the cult was able to counter their spells/abilities", that kind of contradicts the whole 'the cult was just grabbing random people' thing. "Yeah, we were out looking for easy prey, but we had counter-measures to handle 14th-level adventurers. Y'know, just in case"
To be honest, level 14 characters are not just random people. Anyone who goes after a level 14 PC, is targeting specific people.
I wouldn't worry about how to capture your players. Instead I would open your campaign on them already captured and ask each player "how did they get you?"
As far as no starting equipment, that's not a huge obstacle. The party only has no equipment until the first cultist they kill, then they have their weapons and armor, then making it easier to kill the next one so your friend can have their weapons and armor, and so on and so forth. It's not that difficult for a level 14 PC to take down an enemy without equipment, even a martial, given the right circumstances. I would just make sure there are varied enough enemy types that when the fighting does start, all the players can get what they need as they go. I've done this at level 5 multiple times and never had trouble, so at 14 it should be a breeze.
I wouldn't worry about how to capture your players. Instead I would open your campaign on them already captured and ask each player "how did they get you?"
As far as no starting equipment, that's not a huge obstacle. The party only has no equipment until the first cultist they kill, then they have their weapons and armor, then making it easier to kill the next one so your friend can have their weapons and armor, and so on and so forth. It's not that difficult for a level 14 PC to take down an enemy without equipment, even a martial, given the right circumstances. I would just make sure there are varied enough enemy types that when the fighting does start, all the players can get what they need as they go. I've done this at level 5 multiple times and never had trouble, so at 14 it should be a breeze.
A martial will probably die long before they take out a threat of an appropriate level since they are pretty much stuck to doing like 5 damage an attack, with some rare exceptions. If they are going up against goblins, they might be able to survive long enough to kill one to get a weapon.
You don't need fancy anti-magic fields or counterspells if you simply bind the mouth, hands, and fingers of any casters so they can't make verbal or somatic components. A quick dose of poison from behind and some caster-specific manacles and it's plenty believable.
It's not that 14th level PCs can't be captured. It's just that you need tools appropriate to the task, and those just aren't the tools you use to kidnap random people off the street. The average result of "quick dose of poison from behind" against a 14th level PC is an annoyed PC who proceeds to turn the kidnap party into a grease spot.
In the game, I kind of run with the assumption that your class abilities and HP and saves and all that function when you're combat ready. In the downtime between campaigns when a character might be resting on their laurels or deep in study, I can envision them not having every tool at their disposal ready to hand and being less demigodlike.
That is an absolutely wild assumption
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
You don't need fancy anti-magic fields or counterspells if you simply bind the mouth, hands, and fingers of any casters so they can't make verbal or somatic components. A quick dose of poison from behind and some caster-specific manacles and it's plenty believable.
It's not that 14th level PCs can't be captured. It's just that you need tools appropriate to the task, and those just aren't the tools you use to kidnap random people off the street. The average result of "quick dose of poison from behind" against a 14th level PC is an annoyed PC who proceeds to turn the kidnap party into a grease spot.
In the game, I kind of run with the assumption that your class abilities and HP and saves and all that function when you're combat ready. In the downtime between campaigns when a character might be resting on their laurels or deep in study, I can envision them not having every tool at their disposal ready to hand and being less demigodlike.
That is an absolutely wild assumption
The rules of the game aren't intricate enough to present a 100% realistic simulation of physics and all the necessary caveats that make up a single combat encounter, let alone narrative structure.
The rules exist to approximate in the moment the elements that make up gameplay so you can narratively fill in the blanks as you go (i.e. your characters aren't just standing around taking turns in combat, just hitting or missing wildly, etc), so I think it's entirely reasonable to imagine a scenario off screen where something happened to your character when they weren't at peak readiness that they could've been captured.
The rules shouldn't hamper the story, they should act in service of it.
You don't need fancy anti-magic fields or counterspells if you simply bind the mouth, hands, and fingers of any casters so they can't make verbal or somatic components. A quick dose of poison from behind and some caster-specific manacles and it's plenty believable.
It's not that 14th level PCs can't be captured. It's just that you need tools appropriate to the task, and those just aren't the tools you use to kidnap random people off the street. The average result of "quick dose of poison from behind" against a 14th level PC is an annoyed PC who proceeds to turn the kidnap party into a grease spot.
In the game, I kind of run with the assumption that your class abilities and HP and saves and all that function when you're combat ready. In the downtime between campaigns when a character might be resting on their laurels or deep in study, I can envision them not having every tool at their disposal ready to hand and being less demigodlike.
That is an absolutely wild assumption
The rules of the game aren't intricate enough to present a 100% realistic simulation of physics and all the necessary caveats that make up a single combat encounter, let alone narrative structure.
The rules exist to approximate in the moment the elements that make up gameplay so you can narratively fill in the blanks as you go (i.e. your characters aren't just standing around taking turns in combat, just hitting or missing wildly, etc), so I think it's entirely reasonable to imagine a scenario off screen where something happened to your character when they weren't at peak readiness that they could've been captured.
The rules shouldn't hamper the story, they should act in service of it.
Just my opinion of course, but nerfing characters during their downtime isn't "acting in service" of the story, it's actually doing the opposite. It's forcing square pegs into round holes
If the story begins with "a bunch of powerful, experienced adventurers got kidnapped by a cult", then "I guess they weren't as experienced or powerful as we thought?" is an incredibly unsatisfying explanation for how that happened -- unless you're doing some sort of parody campaign I suppose, where the Great Heroes of the Land are actually frauds or idiots, but then they'd be better off as NPCs that need to be rescued by the actual party
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I wouldn't worry about how to capture your players. Instead I would open your campaign on them already captured and ask each player "how did they get you?"
As far as no starting equipment, that's not a huge obstacle. The party only has no equipment until the first cultist they kill, then they have their weapons and armor, then making it easier to kill the next one so your friend can have their weapons and armor, and so on and so forth. It's not that difficult for a level 14 PC to take down an enemy without equipment, even a martial, given the right circumstances. I would just make sure there are varied enough enemy types that when the fighting does start, all the players can get what they need as they go. I've done this at level 5 multiple times and never had trouble, so at 14 it should be a breeze.
I wouldn't worry about how to capture your players. Instead I would open your campaign on them already captured and ask each player "how did they get you?"
As far as no starting equipment, that's not a huge obstacle. The party only has no equipment until the first cultist they kill, then they have their weapons and armor, then making it easier to kill the next one so your friend can have their weapons and armor, and so on and so forth. It's not that difficult for a level 14 PC to take down an enemy without equipment, even a martial, given the right circumstances. I would just make sure there are varied enough enemy types that when the fighting does start, all the players can get what they need as they go. I've done this at level 5 multiple times and never had trouble, so at 14 it should be a breeze.
A martial will probably die long before they take out a threat of an appropriate level since they are pretty much stuck to doing like 5 damage an attack, with some rare exceptions. If they are going up against goblins, they might be able to survive long enough to kill one to get a weapon.
Most of them won't be just doing 5 damage per round though. Fighters have 3 attacks by then, so even at absolute unarmed base damage (assuming they have +5 strength by then, which they do) that's 15 damage per round, but in addition most subclasses have bonus damage they can add. Battlemaster superiority die, hunter colossus slayer, divine smite (which doesn't require a holy symbol to cast), hunter's mark (also no material component), and also the big one-- action surge.
A single fighter could do up to 30 damage in a round, which would be enough on its own (i belive the OP said they wouldn't set hard encounters during the breakout to account for missing gear) for a fighter to kill one low level guard and take their stuff, but it's also not like everyone in the party has to 1v1 for their gear. Multiple party members can work together to take down one enemy, have one of them take their weapons, use them to kill another faster, give the other party member that enemy's stuff, rinse lather repeat.
Again, I've run this scenario at level 5 against encounters that were level appropriate and I've never had a player even drop before they could get a weapon.
You don't need fancy anti-magic fields or counterspells if you simply bind the mouth, hands, and fingers of any casters so they can't make verbal or somatic components. A quick dose of poison from behind and some caster-specific manacles and it's plenty believable.
It's not that 14th level PCs can't be captured. It's just that you need tools appropriate to the task, and those just aren't the tools you use to kidnap random people off the street. The average result of "quick dose of poison from behind" against a 14th level PC is an annoyed PC who proceeds to turn the kidnap party into a grease spot.
In the game, I kind of run with the assumption that your class abilities and HP and saves and all that function when you're combat ready. In the downtime between campaigns when a character might be resting on their laurels or deep in study, I can envision them not having every tool at their disposal ready to hand and being less demigodlike.
That is an absolutely wild assumption
The rules of the game aren't intricate enough to present a 100% realistic simulation of physics and all the necessary caveats that make up a single combat encounter, let alone narrative structure.
The rules exist to approximate in the moment the elements that make up gameplay so you can narratively fill in the blanks as you go (i.e. your characters aren't just standing around taking turns in combat, just hitting or missing wildly, etc), so I think it's entirely reasonable to imagine a scenario off screen where something happened to your character when they weren't at peak readiness that they could've been captured.
The rules shouldn't hamper the story, they should act in service of it.
Just my opinion of course, but nerfing characters during their downtime isn't "acting in service" of the story, it's actually doing the opposite. It's forcing square pegs into round holes
If the story begins with "a bunch of powerful, experienced adventurers got kidnapped by a cult", then "I guess they weren't as experienced or powerful as we thought?" is an incredibly unsatisfying explanation for how that happened -- unless you're doing some sort of parody campaign I suppose, where the Great Heroes of the Land are actually frauds or idiots, but then they'd be better off as NPCs that need to be rescued by the actual party
I just don't find it as impossible as you do i suppose. I can imagine a scenario when it works.
Think of the opening of Baldur's Gate 3. None of the main characters of that game were actually level 1 when they were abducted by mind flayers. Gale was a powerful wizard with his own tower, Wyll talks about being able to cast Cloudkill in the past, and Karlach spent 10 years fighting in the blood war. They all had their abilities drained when they were implanted with tadpoles effectively bringing them back to level 1, true, but they were all basically around level 12-14 when they were kidnapped.
Even without a nautoloid, everyone sleeps. Most people bathe. Some people trust folks they shouldn't. I don't think anyone is always immune from that kind of thing, especially if the pitch the DM sold the players on for the campaign is "you start out captured and get to escape."
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So I am starting a brand new campaign with my players. This game is technically the "Part 2" to my 1st campaign that lasted 3 years. The first one was a "Choose your apocolaypse" adventure and now this campaign is the actual apocolapyse. With this version, there are a lot of cults doing nefarious things. I was inspired by Balder's Gate 3 in this approach where all of the characters are thrown into the plot so they automatically have common ground and they are introduced to a storyline. However, my approach is that the characters were all knocked out in different ways at the end of their backstories, and that is how they end up in the arms of a cult. This cult is intending on sacrificing them in a long process to raise a dead god. The cultists don't have any relations of the players nor do they know what they can do. They simply saw an isolated person and took them in means in the dark ritual. Then this cult is an isolated event where the players will realize that other people throughout the world are also going missing and are probably in the same siutation they were in. But after this, the players will be brought into a story arc that is centered around light hearted themes and quests that seem random but contribute to the plot. That way they have time to build up their team and get to know each other before they hit the harder and darker themes of the main part of the plot.
However, I am aware that when doing this kind of sceanrio players can feel helpless as it doens't make sense for them to have any armor or their weapons on them. I was planning to let them keep small things on them that the cultists could of missed like a lock picking kit, a few coins, maybe spell casting focuses. They are starting as level 14 and I aimed to have a lair map so they have to go to different areas in the map to obtain their items and kill off the evil cultists. I plan for the cultists to be a low level with a higher level cult leader that they will have to face off to escape. They are all veteran players so my hope is that they will rely on persuassions methods, creative ideas and other things until they find their items randomly thrown into a junk room. I am looking for advice to successfully pull this off without frustrating my players but still make it challenging. Does anyone have any advice?
The character classes are going to matter a lot here. Warlocks mostly don't care about being held captive, between not needing a focus for most spells and being able to summon a weapon at will.
Moon druids and other druids mostly are unaffected.
Monks don't need anything.
Sorcerers and wizards are also in a similar situation where they may not need a focus.
Melee characters are basically dead weight until they get their weapons and armor.
The issue here is largely the level you are starting at, the casters will be incredibly powerful while the martials will be useless without equipment. As a more even balancing (and to make it actually an escape rather than "I cast Teleport and we are all free") I'd recommend having them all in chains that nullify magical powers as well as physical abilities until they find their gear.
Or having them start at level 1-3 rather than level 14.By my understanding of your description, the players should feel helpless and hopelessly out-classed by the enemies and have basically no chance of fighting against them only of escaping - BG3 doesn't allow you to kill a mindflayer on the nautiloid. Otherwise, I don't know why they wouldn't immediately just go after the cult rather than messing around with little light hearted quests.
In general the rule about capturing your PCs is "don't", but there's an exception for plot device start of campaign. That said, there's a huge difference in the capabilities of PCs without gear, particularly at higher levels -- even setting aside spells that don't have a material component requirement, a fighter without gear, being reduced to using an improvised club, is a lot more nerfed than a monk.
Yeah it does, people have killed the mindflayer and all the cambions.
Not without cheesing the AI/mechanics (that were later patched) because the whole point is for the player to start out feeling weak and helpless so they can experience the growth of their character's power as they reach a point where they can fight multiple mindflayers at once.
If you kidnap your PCs they should be running for their lives to escape wherever they got captured into otherwise it makes little sense for them to have been captured in the first place.
Killing everything requires a fair amount of cheese, but killing the mindflayer just requires letting it and Zhalk fight it out until they're both chewed up, then backstabbing the winner.
This is a huge amount of disbelief to suspend to get things started, at least for me
How does a level 14 character -- isolated or otherwise -- get knocked out and captured like that? A level 14 wizard has access to teleport to pick the most obvious escape method. And if the answer is, "well, the cult was able to counter their spells/abilities", that kind of contradicts the whole 'the cult was just grabbing random people' thing. "Yeah, we were out looking for easy prey, but we had counter-measures to handle 14th-level adventurers. Y'know, just in case"
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I wouldn't worry about how to capture your players. Instead I would open your campaign on them already captured and ask each player "how did they get you?"
As far as no starting equipment, that's not a huge obstacle. The party only has no equipment until the first cultist they kill, then they have their weapons and armor, then making it easier to kill the next one so your friend can have their weapons and armor, and so on and so forth. It's not that difficult for a level 14 PC to take down an enemy without equipment, even a martial, given the right circumstances. I would just make sure there are varied enough enemy types that when the fighting does start, all the players can get what they need as they go. I've done this at level 5 multiple times and never had trouble, so at 14 it should be a breeze.
You don't need fancy anti-magic fields or counterspells if you simply bind the mouth, hands, and fingers of any casters so they can't make verbal or somatic components. A quick dose of poison from behind and some caster-specific manacles and it's plenty believable.
One way do do this could be to have some of your martial character's weapons be stored rather close so that they can prove useful. Who knows, one cultist might even have a blowgun or a knife! Biggest thing here is make sure all they absolutely necessary equipment can be found with out to much hassle (basic weapons, grimoire, holy symbol, maybe armor). I would also make sure that your players have a clear end goal. You might want to have part, if not all, of the reward be that defeating the cult leader and some other high ranking cultists you will prevent the summoning. Something like that will motivate your players to continue going. You also might consider having a few of the cultists be defective. After all, not everybody who joins a cult knows what they are getting into. That will make your players feel like they are not alone and there is some hope.
I hope these help. If you have any other ideas or questions for this campaign please ask. I am super happy to help!
- Igglywiv the Wizard
I played every class, now playing every sub-class.
You would not believe how much ADHD helps with creating campaigns!
Happy Pride Month!
It's not that 14th level PCs can't be captured. It's just that you need tools appropriate to the task, and those just aren't the tools you use to kidnap random people off the street. The average result of "quick dose of poison from behind" against a 14th level PC is an annoyed PC who proceeds to turn the kidnap party into a grease spot.
In the game, I kind of run with the assumption that your class abilities and HP and saves and all that function when you're combat ready. In the downtime between campaigns when a character might be resting on their laurels or deep in study, I can envision them not having every tool at their disposal ready to hand and being less demigodlike.
Not if they are a sorcerer with Subtle Spell, not if they are a Shadar Kai or Eladrin that can teleport as a species feature, not if they are a druid that can WS into a mouse at will, not if you are an Enchanter Wizard who can charm a character as an action at will, not if you are a Hexblade Warlock who can use Hexblade's Curse and then Relentless Hex to teleport next to someone without using any components, not if you are a Fey Warlock who can teleport as a reaction to taking damage with no components as well as charm & frightened with no components, and probably others as well...
To be honest, level 14 characters are not just random people. Anyone who goes after a level 14 PC, is targeting specific people.
A martial will probably die long before they take out a threat of an appropriate level since they are pretty much stuck to doing like 5 damage an attack, with some rare exceptions. If they are going up against goblins, they might be able to survive long enough to kill one to get a weapon.
That is an absolutely wild assumption
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
The rules of the game aren't intricate enough to present a 100% realistic simulation of physics and all the necessary caveats that make up a single combat encounter, let alone narrative structure.
The rules exist to approximate in the moment the elements that make up gameplay so you can narratively fill in the blanks as you go (i.e. your characters aren't just standing around taking turns in combat, just hitting or missing wildly, etc), so I think it's entirely reasonable to imagine a scenario off screen where something happened to your character when they weren't at peak readiness that they could've been captured.
The rules shouldn't hamper the story, they should act in service of it.
Just my opinion of course, but nerfing characters during their downtime isn't "acting in service" of the story, it's actually doing the opposite. It's forcing square pegs into round holes
If the story begins with "a bunch of powerful, experienced adventurers got kidnapped by a cult", then "I guess they weren't as experienced or powerful as we thought?" is an incredibly unsatisfying explanation for how that happened -- unless you're doing some sort of parody campaign I suppose, where the Great Heroes of the Land are actually frauds or idiots, but then they'd be better off as NPCs that need to be rescued by the actual party
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Most of them won't be just doing 5 damage per round though. Fighters have 3 attacks by then, so even at absolute unarmed base damage (assuming they have +5 strength by then, which they do) that's 15 damage per round, but in addition most subclasses have bonus damage they can add. Battlemaster superiority die, hunter colossus slayer, divine smite (which doesn't require a holy symbol to cast), hunter's mark (also no material component), and also the big one-- action surge.
A single fighter could do up to 30 damage in a round, which would be enough on its own (i belive the OP said they wouldn't set hard encounters during the breakout to account for missing gear) for a fighter to kill one low level guard and take their stuff, but it's also not like everyone in the party has to 1v1 for their gear. Multiple party members can work together to take down one enemy, have one of them take their weapons, use them to kill another faster, give the other party member that enemy's stuff, rinse lather repeat.
Again, I've run this scenario at level 5 against encounters that were level appropriate and I've never had a player even drop before they could get a weapon.
I just don't find it as impossible as you do i suppose. I can imagine a scenario when it works.
Think of the opening of Baldur's Gate 3. None of the main characters of that game were actually level 1 when they were abducted by mind flayers. Gale was a powerful wizard with his own tower, Wyll talks about being able to cast Cloudkill in the past, and Karlach spent 10 years fighting in the blood war. They all had their abilities drained when they were implanted with tadpoles effectively bringing them back to level 1, true, but they were all basically around level 12-14 when they were kidnapped.
Even without a nautoloid, everyone sleeps. Most people bathe. Some people trust folks they shouldn't. I don't think anyone is always immune from that kind of thing, especially if the pitch the DM sold the players on for the campaign is "you start out captured and get to escape."