So I me and my friends were playing D&D and our DM just kinda ghosted basically. They wanted me to start up a new campaign for them since they enjoyed my first attempt at DM'ing a lot apparently lol that made me feel good because I felt I was awful XD.
Anyways so I have a lot set up but need help with figuring out what my BBEG should be, So this is a short summary of the important info for this questions.
Introduction: The players characters will be locals to the city of Delmora where a festival is going to start known as the festival of hearts. I will have the players create their own masks for the festival since it is about casting away your fears so their masks will be their characters greatest fears and at the end they are supposed to toss the masks into a bonfire after the festivities. As the festival is a little over half way through some patrons will start to scream and moan as shadows claw their way out of their bodies taking physical form of their fears and the party will be forced to fight here.
What I have for the big bad: The Big bad is an entity imprisoned under the city that has awakened from it's slumber and is trying to break free of the seals that imprison it. The rage and struggle is leaking it's magic out which is leading to occasional outbreaks of these manifestations of fear. I don't want this creature or person to have a goal in mind but their existence itself to be a threat to everyone.
My issue here is that I don't know what creature I should make it or if it should be someone cursed or over loaded with dark magic imprisoned to protect everyone. I was thinking maybe it could be a beast that can only be killed by an artifact that the players have to retrieve in order to kill this thing. Any advice from experienced knowledgeable veterans?
I don’t have a lot of experience with high level campaigns or bosses, but I know a good story when I hear it. What you described sounds like a possible instance of a man vs environment struggle. If you can live with all the monsters originating from the same place you could have a rip in the planes. The ancestors of the city had to plug a leak from the the shadowfell. They weren’t powerful enough to close it, but they could plug it, and seal it with magic. Now the magic is weakening. If it fails before they have the means to close it permanently, the area will flood with shadowfellows (shadowfellons? Shadowfellians? We’ll workshop that) So you don’t need necessarily one big boss, though the monsters getting through can be bigger as you go.
Along those lines, the boss could just be a shadowfellon who has been trying to breach into the material in that place for ages. The result of his incursions are shadows and fears that begin to haunt the city. If you google shadowfell 5e, the top hit fandom wiki page, if you scroll way down it has a list of notable inhabitants. One of those might make a good BBEG. Which one you pick will likely determine what he wants when he gets here.
Thanks I like the look of it and this will be a longer adventure starting at level one average joes stepping up and working their way to save their homes becoming heroes from nothing. I am thinking the adventure may end at level 5-7 with spread out levels and good rewards. Then after they are established as the saviors of delmora they will have some reputation built as well as some good connections to start exploring what the lands of coranth has to offer.
So I want the final climax to be handled by a party of 3 that won’t be super high level but very satisfying. So I was thinking of encouraging creativity and brain power over a big final fight which would help balancing it. Maybe I could use the artifact idea to boost their odds fighting something bigger like a temp boost before the artifact crumbles after it destroys the rift to the shadow fell?
I would say you don’t have to define it right away. Let it build organically. You might not even need to define it at all. You could have the fear/mind control work on other (lower CR) lieutenants who are the main foe initially. I usually like to have nested bad guys, i.e. one controlled/influenced by something more powerful.
Since you describe the fear and slumber aspect – you should check out some Cthulhu baddies. And since Cthulhu always has cultists – they could be the initial foe.
Thanks! I like the idea and was thinking of a sick twisted fear cult who seeks to experience and cause fear (or as they call it “enlightenment”, think scarecrow from batman but as a cult rather than individuals).
Hmm, I was initially reminded of the origins of Halloween for your holiday (donning mask to ward of evil spirits), so you could base it on that.
You could also use the burning of the masks as symbolism of overcoming your fears and not needing to hide any more. This could also play into the enlightenment motive of your bad guys. Make it a particular wrathful ghost, or an amalgamation of a colony of ghosts. It doesn't even have to be intentionally malevolent. Maybe it died in the place the village was later founded in after encountering something that terrified it to the bones, so now it's unintentionally seeping memories of that experience outwards, causing the effects plaguing your city.
Or you could go with the a cthulhu cult as mentioned above. though those are usually more about madness rather than fear.
That was my plan the campaign will start around my worlds "hollows eve" basically and btw also I have been creating the cult I figured I would share a bit of the info I have and yes I realized I can spread them out as a small threat to a big threat to add more content of trying to take them down as an adventure while keeping the idea of an entity but it's more of them using it's power making it an even bigger problem.
The cult of Phobias
Actions: They spread intense fear with an ancient curse in order to weed out the weak from the strong.
Hierarchy: Their leaders are made up of a council all separate but united, governing with meritocracy.
Goal: To strengthen the hearts of the people by culling the weeds (the weak)
Founding: Founded by their leader who experienced a magical fear and nearly died to it's physical manifestation before killing it. They recruit by discreetly scouting those who survive their fears manifestation.
The leaders will be in positions of power outside of the cult like a court mage, the one who runs the human trafficking, the one who runs is the right hand to the leader of the merchants guilds, ect.
The city was built as an ancient seal to trap an unmentionable demon, over the years it has weakened and the demon has slowly infected the minds of some of the people creating a cult (with Warlocks of course), the cult has been going around breaking parts of the seal allowing the demon to slowly regain its strength. But since the parts of the seal can only be broken during this particular festival it has taken years for this level of power to show itself.
The PC's now have a year until the next festival to break the cult and reseal the breaches as there is only one more part of the seal left!
Thanks the seal idea was something I was thinking about to begin with but you helped a lot with getting everything put into place for our campaign!!! getting everything finished up in the next few days hopefully!
This will be my 1st and a half session experience as a DM... first campaign (4-5 sessions in) life got into everyones way sadly so hopefully I can get this to run well since they enjoyed last time.
Glad I could help, to be fair I have been thinking of running something similar and the advantage of giving them the year to solve the problem is there is urgency, but not URGENCY lol
You could make this year in game or real time and so at your one year point either celebrate success or destruction lol
If you make it real time, try and leave each session in a town or somewhere that isn't "you walk into the room and standing before you is ...... right see you next week!" if you leave them in town with some plot hooks, get them to spend the next two days working out what they want to do in town and get them to send you the details. So then you can either RP them in next session or if it is just shopping trips they can be done off table (unless the shopkeep is a valued NPC). Doing this keeps them in the game throughout the week not just on game night.
Well been fleshing it out more hope you enjoy what it came up to and that it may even allow me to help you out too idea wise XD. Also never thought about real time I now really want to do that, it will allow me to add more to their experience like when the are at home they may message me wanting to start a small business or something to run and I can toss them updates!
So the cult are a mix of cultish fans and opportunists doing the bidding of a famous author that is beloved by many seeking to bring his creations to life! So he is having the cult release the seals on parts of the lay lines to tap into the power he needs... but although morally good and good intentioned his obsession breaks him over time and as he gets closer to succeeding his path leads to his demise and his creations become twister mockeries of what they once were. The one leading the horde of these abominations of inky black tar was once a lovable rogue trickster that played pranks on others to get fun reactions to a psychopathic twisted version satisfied off of the screams of those who suffer greatly!
Keep in mind one of the players characters will be a bookworm so I plan for him to be her favorite author and will even have a meeting with him for an autograph eventually so in the end the impact of finding out his involvement as he rots into black ink his eyes empty she will be impacted having to fight one of her favorite fiction characters as the BBEG!
(yes a little inspiration is from bendy and the ink machine lol)
I like it, and yes it has given me ideas. I love the author twist and I suppose it could be anything writer, artist, singer, blacksmith so you could fit it to any character really. And the "voice" in their head that helps them create, their muse is in fact a demon and the more influence gained over the artist, the stronger he/she/it becomes. Maybe the author/artist blacks out every now and then and during these blackouts the demon is in control and leading the cult, mask them up and they could even fight the party a couple of times. Pulling a Moriarty and escaping at the last minute until the big reveal.
I wish I was this creative at the table, but my mind seems to go blank lol
Actually instead of the cliche demon I was thinking of making him a kalashtar in my campaign. Basically the world I have is low magic fantasy because the lay lines were sealed during the planer war to end it limiting magic like a small tiny funnel locking other planer entities out. So basically when he unseals one of the lay lines to tap into that power to reach his innocent goal the (forgot the name of the dark ones in the dream plane) infect his mind driving him mad with his obsessions.
So I me and my friends were playing D&D and our DM just kinda ghosted basically. They wanted me to start up a new campaign for them since they enjoyed my first attempt at DM'ing a lot apparently lol that made me feel good because I felt I was awful XD.
Anyways so I have a lot set up but need help with figuring out what my BBEG should be, So this is a short summary of the important info for this questions.
Introduction: The players characters will be locals to the city of Delmora where a festival is going to start known as the festival of hearts. I will have the players create their own masks for the festival since it is about casting away your fears so their masks will be their characters greatest fears and at the end they are supposed to toss the masks into a bonfire after the festivities. As the festival is a little over half way through some patrons will start to scream and moan as shadows claw their way out of their bodies taking physical form of their fears and the party will be forced to fight here.
What I have for the big bad: The Big bad is an entity imprisoned under the city that has awakened from it's slumber and is trying to break free of the seals that imprison it. The rage and struggle is leaking it's magic out which is leading to occasional outbreaks of these manifestations of fear. I don't want this creature or person to have a goal in mind but their existence itself to be a threat to everyone.
My issue here is that I don't know what creature I should make it or if it should be someone cursed or over loaded with dark magic imprisoned to protect everyone. I was thinking maybe it could be a beast that can only be killed by an artifact that the players have to retrieve in order to kill this thing. Any advice from experienced knowledgeable veterans?
I don’t have a lot of experience with high level campaigns or bosses, but I know a good story when I hear it. What you described sounds like a possible instance of a man vs environment struggle. If you can live with all the monsters originating from the same place you could have a rip in the planes. The ancestors of the city had to plug a leak from the the shadowfell. They weren’t powerful enough to close it, but they could plug it, and seal it with magic. Now the magic is weakening. If it fails before they have the means to close it permanently, the area will flood with shadowfellows (shadowfellons? Shadowfellians? We’ll workshop that) So you don’t need necessarily one big boss, though the monsters getting through can be bigger as you go.
Along those lines, the boss could just be a shadowfellon who has been trying to breach into the material in that place for ages. The result of his incursions are shadows and fears that begin to haunt the city. If you google shadowfell 5e, the top hit fandom wiki page, if you scroll way down it has a list of notable inhabitants. One of those might make a good BBEG. Which one you pick will likely determine what he wants when he gets here.
Thanks I like the look of it and this will be a longer adventure starting at level one average joes stepping up and working their way to save their homes becoming heroes from nothing. I am thinking the adventure may end at level 5-7 with spread out levels and good rewards. Then after they are established as the saviors of delmora they will have some reputation built as well as some good connections to start exploring what the lands of coranth has to offer.
So I want the final climax to be handled by a party of 3 that won’t be super high level but very satisfying. So I was thinking of encouraging creativity and brain power over a big final fight which would help balancing it. Maybe I could use the artifact idea to boost their odds fighting something bigger like a temp boost before the artifact crumbles after it destroys the rift to the shadow fell?
I would say you don’t have to define it right away. Let it build organically. You might not even need to define it at all. You could have the fear/mind control work on other (lower CR) lieutenants who are the main foe initially. I usually like to have nested bad guys, i.e. one controlled/influenced by something more powerful.
Since you describe the fear and slumber aspect – you should check out some Cthulhu baddies. And since Cthulhu always has cultists – they could be the initial foe.
Thanks! I like the idea and was thinking of a sick twisted fear cult who seeks to experience and cause fear (or as they call it “enlightenment”, think scarecrow from batman but as a cult rather than individuals).
Hmm, I was initially reminded of the origins of Halloween for your holiday (donning mask to ward of evil spirits), so you could base it on that.
You could also use the burning of the masks as symbolism of overcoming your fears and not needing to hide any more. This could also play into the enlightenment motive of your bad guys. Make it a particular wrathful ghost, or an amalgamation of a colony of ghosts. It doesn't even have to be intentionally malevolent. Maybe it died in the place the village was later founded in after encountering something that terrified it to the bones, so now it's unintentionally seeping memories of that experience outwards, causing the effects plaguing your city.
Or you could go with the a cthulhu cult as mentioned above. though those are usually more about madness rather than fear.
That was my plan the campaign will start around my worlds "hollows eve" basically and btw also I have been creating the cult I figured I would share a bit of the info I have and yes I realized I can spread them out as a small threat to a big threat to add more content of trying to take them down as an adventure while keeping the idea of an entity but it's more of them using it's power making it an even bigger problem.
The cult of Phobias
Actions: They spread intense fear with an ancient curse in order to weed out the weak from the strong.
Hierarchy: Their leaders are made up of a council all separate but united, governing with meritocracy.
Goal: To strengthen the hearts of the people by culling the weeds (the weak)
Founding: Founded by their leader who experienced a magical fear and nearly died to it's physical manifestation before killing it. They recruit by discreetly scouting those who survive their fears manifestation.
The leaders will be in positions of power outside of the cult like a court mage, the one who runs the human trafficking, the one who runs is the right hand to the leader of the merchants guilds, ect.
The city was built as an ancient seal to trap an unmentionable demon, over the years it has weakened and the demon has slowly infected the minds of some of the people creating a cult (with Warlocks of course), the cult has been going around breaking parts of the seal allowing the demon to slowly regain its strength. But since the parts of the seal can only be broken during this particular festival it has taken years for this level of power to show itself.
The PC's now have a year until the next festival to break the cult and reseal the breaches as there is only one more part of the seal left!
Just an idea!
From Within Chaos Comes Order!
Thanks the seal idea was something I was thinking about to begin with but you helped a lot with getting everything put into place for our campaign!!! getting everything finished up in the next few days hopefully!
This will be my 1st and a half session experience as a DM... first campaign (4-5 sessions in) life got into everyones way sadly so hopefully I can get this to run well since they enjoyed last time.
Glad I could help, to be fair I have been thinking of running something similar and the advantage of giving them the year to solve the problem is there is urgency, but not URGENCY lol
You could make this year in game or real time and so at your one year point either celebrate success or destruction lol
If you make it real time, try and leave each session in a town or somewhere that isn't "you walk into the room and standing before you is ...... right see you next week!" if you leave them in town with some plot hooks, get them to spend the next two days working out what they want to do in town and get them to send you the details. So then you can either RP them in next session or if it is just shopping trips they can be done off table (unless the shopkeep is a valued NPC). Doing this keeps them in the game throughout the week not just on game night.
From Within Chaos Comes Order!
Well been fleshing it out more hope you enjoy what it came up to and that it may even allow me to help you out too idea wise XD. Also never thought about real time I now really want to do that, it will allow me to add more to their experience like when the are at home they may message me wanting to start a small business or something to run and I can toss them updates!
So the cult are a mix of cultish fans and opportunists doing the bidding of a famous author that is beloved by many seeking to bring his creations to life! So he is having the cult release the seals on parts of the lay lines to tap into the power he needs... but although morally good and good intentioned his obsession breaks him over time and as he gets closer to succeeding his path leads to his demise and his creations become twister mockeries of what they once were. The one leading the horde of these abominations of inky black tar was once a lovable rogue trickster that played pranks on others to get fun reactions to a psychopathic twisted version satisfied off of the screams of those who suffer greatly!
Keep in mind one of the players characters will be a bookworm so I plan for him to be her favorite author and will even have a meeting with him for an autograph eventually so in the end the impact of finding out his involvement as he rots into black ink his eyes empty she will be impacted having to fight one of her favorite fiction characters as the BBEG!
(yes a little inspiration is from bendy and the ink machine lol)
I like it, and yes it has given me ideas. I love the author twist and I suppose it could be anything writer, artist, singer, blacksmith so you could fit it to any character really. And the "voice" in their head that helps them create, their muse is in fact a demon and the more influence gained over the artist, the stronger he/she/it becomes.
Maybe the author/artist blacks out every now and then and during these blackouts the demon is in control and leading the cult, mask them up and they could even fight the party a couple of times. Pulling a Moriarty and escaping at the last minute until the big reveal.
I wish I was this creative at the table, but my mind seems to go blank lol
From Within Chaos Comes Order!
Actually instead of the cliche demon I was thinking of making him a kalashtar in my campaign. Basically the world I have is low magic fantasy because the lay lines were sealed during the planer war to end it limiting magic like a small tiny funnel locking other planer entities out. So basically when he unseals one of the lay lines to tap into that power to reach his innocent goal the (forgot the name of the dark ones in the dream plane) infect his mind driving him mad with his obsessions.
The Dreaming Dark (agree demon is cliched lol) have a look here
http://keith-baker.com/villains-of-eberron/
From Within Chaos Comes Order!