So my players recently joined a secret organization that is supposed be taking down the king. Their first mission was to find a piece of the sword that can be used to kill him. They went to the Keep where it was being held, found the transporting circle that took them to the room that held it. Inside, the piece of the sword was being guarded by a dragon. They managed to befriend the dragon, convince him to go with them, and then convinced the guards to let them leave with it. They then flew with the dragon over the city to their base of operation, in which they flew right past the Tower where the King lives. He definitely saw them, since he rolled a natural 20. So now the party has a dragon that is at their base of operations, the king knows that the dragon is there. I, of course, was expecting them to fight the dragon, but now we're here. Please help.
The dragon could turn on them for any number of reasons. The king could send a dragon killing crew there to get rid of the threat to his town. They could just keep the dragon as an asset. There are plenty of options and I'm not sure what you're trying to avoid and/or why.
If the King saw them with the dragon there is no real reason not to send an army to kill the dragon. Knights, adventurers, other dragons if anything That dragon makes the party a target. Be strong with the party some times no matter how well your rolls sometimes the answer will always be no. Depending on how you run your game and what the rules are A fleet of airships will make very quick work of the dragon and then they are back to square one. I made the mistake of giving a player a dragon friend and it bit me hard as I had to keep finding ways or them not to use it to just burn down the city, keep ect and just pick the remains
How many commoners would have seen the dragon? They may not appreciate a dragon being that close and may petition the king to get rid of it. Additionally, anyone that saw the party members on the dragon may turn against the party, which could result in mercenaries and bounty hunters being hired. Different types of dragons could have conflicts with each other and territory battles between animals are common enough if they are on a similar tier on the food chain. This could mean that a beholder is unhappy about its presence.
Sorry, this is the problem type created by allowing dice to be the sole arbiters of what happens in games. 5e is not designed to make "nat 20s" the ultimate trump on actions. They have no effect on saving throws, or ability/skill checks...they only count when you are trying to hit someone. For instance, no one is going to "roll" high enough on their persuasion check to convince me to give them the keys to my car if they are complete strangers that just show up and say they need wheels. I would state my DC in this case would be around 35 or so to the roll, or better yet deny them a chance to roll to convince me, it is just not going to happen.
So no "seducing dragons", no asking the lich to just borrow the phylactery...just no. Keep your dice! Somethings just don't get rolled.
Sorry, this is the problem type created by allowing dice to be the sole arbiters of what happens in games. 5e is not designed to make "nat 20s" the ultimate trump on actions. They have no effect on saving throws, or ability/skill checks...they only count when you are trying to hit someone. For instance, no one is going to "roll" high enough on their persuasion check to convince me to give them the keys to my car if they are complete strangers that just show up and say they need wheels. I would state my DC in this case would be around 35 or so to the roll, or better yet deny them a chance to roll to convince me, it is just not going to happen.
So no "seducing dragons", no asking the lich to just borrow the phylactery...just no. Keep your dice! Somethings just don't get rolled.
This is an important thing to understand when dealing with players who want to find a social solution to a problem. There are times where a No is simply a No, even if the party's face has a massive bonus to Persuasion.
I had a player get absolutely frustrated that everything he tried, verbally, would not sway the NPC he was talking to. He presented some very compelling arguments that this NPC was being used by the leader. The player eventually found something he felt was physical proof that this NPC was behing betrayed by the leader and brought it to the NPC. Even with that in hand, and another round of arguments, the NPC would not change his stance. I actually had the player catch me after the game to tell me he was getting upset with me, as a person, because he felt I was doing this to be mean. I simply told him that his arguments, and the proof wasn't enough to change the NPC's mind, I couldn't tell him anything else because we hadn't resolved the situation yet.
The next session, after a bit of story unfolded, the player finally got his answer as to why he could not persuade this NPC and it made sense to him. The NPC was an Undead creation under the control of a completely different NPC. No amount of Persuasion, proof, or anything else could have made the answer change.
I had let him roll persuasion checks, only because he insisted that he be able to try. I would have simply let the arguments end with the frustration, no roll made, because it's pointless to give the false hope that there might be a chance at success.
---
In the case of your Dragon, you should have asked the question: Why would this dragon ally with the players rather than stay with it's hoard or maintain it's vigil over this protected spot? Followed by, why would the guards willingly let a bunch of strangers walk off with their pet dragon, especially if the dragon is known to be guarding a powerful tool to destroy the king?
The die has been cast, the players have a dragon and this is what we have to deal with.
The fact that the king saw the dragon means the kingdom will be on high alert. There will be a hunt for the dragon. The king will be aware that the tool to facilitate his demise has been found. Defenses will be set up, and a siege against the players will be put into action. Sounds like the players are in for a big fight. Then we have the dragon, how does this work? Does the dragon take it's new found freedom and fly off into the sunset? Will it stick around and help the players? If so, why would it risk it's life for the players? When the battle gets rough, will the dragon cut it's losses and retreat?
Looking into the motivations of the creatures/npcs will help make situations like this much easier to deal with in the future. Sometimes No is No. Sometimes a bribe can get you a little closer to your target, sometimes that bribe will just make you light on coins. Take into account what the players are saying; if a player says something that is offensive to the npc, then make the persuasion harder. If the party has no chance of success, don't fake them out by having them roll, just have the npc/creature flat out refuse them. You tell the players when to roll, they may ask if they could roll, but in the end you can simply say Yes or No without ever having picked up your dice.
So my players recently joined a secret organization that is supposed be taking down the king. Their first mission was to find a piece of the sword that can be used to kill him. They went to the Keep where it was being held, found the transporting circle that took them to the room that held it. Inside, the piece of the sword was being guarded by a dragon. They managed to befriend the dragon, convince him to go with them, and then convinced the guards to let them leave with it. They then flew with the dragon over the city to their base of operation, in which they flew right past the Tower where the King lives. He definitely saw them, since he rolled a natural 20. So now the party has a dragon that is at their base of operations, the king knows that the dragon is there. I, of course, was expecting them to fight the dragon, but now we're here. Please help.
You haven't really presented a problem yet.
The dragon could turn on them for any number of reasons. The king could send a dragon killing crew there to get rid of the threat to his town. They could just keep the dragon as an asset. There are plenty of options and I'm not sure what you're trying to avoid and/or why.
If the King saw them with the dragon there is no real reason not to send an army to kill the dragon. Knights, adventurers, other dragons if anything That dragon makes the party a target. Be strong with the party some times no matter how well your rolls sometimes the answer will always be no. Depending on how you run your game and what the rules are A fleet of airships will make very quick work of the dragon and then they are back to square one. I made the mistake of giving a player a dragon friend and it bit me hard as I had to keep finding ways or them not to use it to just burn down the city, keep ect and just pick the remains
How many commoners would have seen the dragon? They may not appreciate a dragon being that close and may petition the king to get rid of it. Additionally, anyone that saw the party members on the dragon may turn against the party, which could result in mercenaries and bounty hunters being hired. Different types of dragons could have conflicts with each other and territory battles between animals are common enough if they are on a similar tier on the food chain. This could mean that a beholder is unhappy about its presence.
Sorry, this is the problem type created by allowing dice to be the sole arbiters of what happens in games. 5e is not designed to make "nat 20s" the ultimate trump on actions. They have no effect on saving throws, or ability/skill checks...they only count when you are trying to hit someone. For instance, no one is going to "roll" high enough on their persuasion check to convince me to give them the keys to my car if they are complete strangers that just show up and say they need wheels. I would state my DC in this case would be around 35 or so to the roll, or better yet deny them a chance to roll to convince me, it is just not going to happen.
So no "seducing dragons", no asking the lich to just borrow the phylactery...just no. Keep your dice! Somethings just don't get rolled.
This is an important thing to understand when dealing with players who want to find a social solution to a problem. There are times where a No is simply a No, even if the party's face has a massive bonus to Persuasion.
I had a player get absolutely frustrated that everything he tried, verbally, would not sway the NPC he was talking to. He presented some very compelling arguments that this NPC was being used by the leader. The player eventually found something he felt was physical proof that this NPC was behing betrayed by the leader and brought it to the NPC. Even with that in hand, and another round of arguments, the NPC would not change his stance. I actually had the player catch me after the game to tell me he was getting upset with me, as a person, because he felt I was doing this to be mean. I simply told him that his arguments, and the proof wasn't enough to change the NPC's mind, I couldn't tell him anything else because we hadn't resolved the situation yet.
The next session, after a bit of story unfolded, the player finally got his answer as to why he could not persuade this NPC and it made sense to him. The NPC was an Undead creation under the control of a completely different NPC. No amount of Persuasion, proof, or anything else could have made the answer change.
I had let him roll persuasion checks, only because he insisted that he be able to try. I would have simply let the arguments end with the frustration, no roll made, because it's pointless to give the false hope that there might be a chance at success.
---
In the case of your Dragon, you should have asked the question: Why would this dragon ally with the players rather than stay with it's hoard or maintain it's vigil over this protected spot? Followed by, why would the guards willingly let a bunch of strangers walk off with their pet dragon, especially if the dragon is known to be guarding a powerful tool to destroy the king?
The die has been cast, the players have a dragon and this is what we have to deal with.
The fact that the king saw the dragon means the kingdom will be on high alert. There will be a hunt for the dragon. The king will be aware that the tool to facilitate his demise has been found. Defenses will be set up, and a siege against the players will be put into action. Sounds like the players are in for a big fight. Then we have the dragon, how does this work? Does the dragon take it's new found freedom and fly off into the sunset? Will it stick around and help the players? If so, why would it risk it's life for the players? When the battle gets rough, will the dragon cut it's losses and retreat?
Looking into the motivations of the creatures/npcs will help make situations like this much easier to deal with in the future. Sometimes No is No. Sometimes a bribe can get you a little closer to your target, sometimes that bribe will just make you light on coins. Take into account what the players are saying; if a player says something that is offensive to the npc, then make the persuasion harder. If the party has no chance of success, don't fake them out by having them roll, just have the npc/creature flat out refuse them. You tell the players when to roll, they may ask if they could roll, but in the end you can simply say Yes or No without ever having picked up your dice.
You could really do a lot with this still. Now with you ad the DM you could of simply prevented this from happening by just not letting it happen.