My almost yearlong campaign is coming to a close this week (act 2 of a 3-act story). Due to weaknesses in the source material and party actions the story as drifted from the 3rd party adventure module I picked up.
I am hoping to have a very impactful and cool final battle... but I'm struggling. The final battle is with a vampire, who has made a deal with a devil to keep an empyrion captive (which the party has yet to discover) in exchange for blood magic and soul corruption.
The party is currently split. 4 player characters are in the dining room with most of the vampires and thralls (1 dozen or so). 1 member of the party is negotiating with the vampire lord in their study. I don't want to just slaughter the 1 PC who is alone. but they know combat is near.
I have laid clues that there are potential ally NPC prisoners in the liar to aid in the fight, but they arnt looking for them, just planning to free them after the battle. Clues of the empyrion are also hidden but they arnt really sneaking around that much.
Once combat begins, you can have the vampire lord smile deviously and take on its mist form and fly out of the keyhole of the study, locking it from outside and sealing that single player in the room - forcing them to find a way out to join the fray.
You could also potentially have a hidden trap door in the study that leads down into the dungeons where the ally NPCs are being held. The player might then hear voices or banging coming from below and may be able to escape the study through the dungeons (thereby freeing the prisoners in the process).
I know my reply here is a bit late, and Zyrrel's advice is super good already, but I'll just write some additional stuff just in case.
First, yeah, think of a way to get the players back together, and a reason why the vampire wouldn't just kill the PC (general recommenation would be trapping or monologing). I wrote down a little more further down, but let the players know their situation is bad, and why. Make the solution it's own problem, so it doesn't feel like you are holding back. We want the players to succeed, but we want them to feel like they overcame a challenge.
My ideas:
The vampire could make that PC another prisoner. Given the usual stats of a vampire they could do this without even hurting the PC (charm, or just grapple and take with him, tanking the damage with regeneration. Only if the PC can deal unending radiant damage this would make problems). Once the PC is trapped, maybe even with the helpful NPC, you can change perspective to the dining room. There could be hints for the other players, like "PC has been gone for a while". Something to get them together again, and then rush to the vampire, even maybe with a time limit, like a ritual happening to get more power from the devil.
A good way to do this is the bbeg wants them together to feel a challenge so maybe he gets his minions to push the other members toward him in the study. Another way could be they dismiss the player in the study and send him to go get his friends and then tells them he is waiting in location.
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My almost yearlong campaign is coming to a close this week (act 2 of a 3-act story). Due to weaknesses in the source material and party actions the story as drifted from the 3rd party adventure module I picked up.
I am hoping to have a very impactful and cool final battle... but I'm struggling. The final battle is with a vampire, who has made a deal with a devil to keep an empyrion captive (which the party has yet to discover) in exchange for blood magic and soul corruption.
The party is currently split. 4 player characters are in the dining room with most of the vampires and thralls (1 dozen or so). 1 member of the party is negotiating with the vampire lord in their study. I don't want to just slaughter the 1 PC who is alone. but they know combat is near.
I have laid clues that there are potential ally NPC prisoners in the liar to aid in the fight, but they arnt looking for them, just planning to free them after the battle. Clues of the empyrion are also hidden but they arnt really sneaking around that much.
You say they know combat is near. Allow them to choose their level of risk. They can run away. Or at least try.
This is when it's hard to punch, but you punch. Not to punish the player, but to respect their chosen path of actions.
Once combat begins, you can have the vampire lord smile deviously and take on its mist form and fly out of the keyhole of the study, locking it from outside and sealing that single player in the room - forcing them to find a way out to join the fray.
You could also potentially have a hidden trap door in the study that leads down into the dungeons where the ally NPCs are being held. The player might then hear voices or banging coming from below and may be able to escape the study through the dungeons (thereby freeing the prisoners in the process).
I know my reply here is a bit late, and Zyrrel's advice is super good already, but I'll just write some additional stuff just in case.
First, yeah, think of a way to get the players back together, and a reason why the vampire wouldn't just kill the PC (general recommenation would be trapping or monologing). I wrote down a little more further down, but let the players know their situation is bad, and why. Make the solution it's own problem, so it doesn't feel like you are holding back. We want the players to succeed, but we want them to feel like they overcame a challenge.
My ideas:
The vampire could make that PC another prisoner. Given the usual stats of a vampire they could do this without even hurting the PC (charm, or just grapple and take with him, tanking the damage with regeneration. Only if the PC can deal unending radiant damage this would make problems). Once the PC is trapped, maybe even with the helpful NPC, you can change perspective to the dining room.
There could be hints for the other players, like "PC has been gone for a while". Something to get them together again, and then rush to the vampire, even maybe with a time limit, like a ritual happening to get more power from the devil.
A good way to do this is the bbeg wants them together to feel a challenge so maybe he gets his minions to push the other members toward him in the study. Another way could be they dismiss the player in the study and send him to go get his friends and then tells them he is waiting in location.