Scenario: players just found out about a betrayal that will kill their king, and are trying to return to his castle to warn him before the attack.
What I have so far: players can A) travel overnight and arrive with exhaustion level, but the king will be warned in time for him to assist in the inevitable fight (his stats are VERY good) B) rest for a night and arrive with no exhaustion, but they couldn't save the king in time and run into an ambush in his throne room
My question is: how much help should the king offer? I want the players to do things themselves, but the king IS a ex-warrior who I don't think would run from a fight.
opinions on this and anything else about this encounter?
If the king has good stats, why would the assassin even get into a fight with him? Poison, collapsing balconies, scorpions in the bed, etc., work so much better and with less risk.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Why wouldn't the king being willing to run from the fight? When the enemy objective is "kill one person", removing that person is a great way to make them fail. I would have him somewhere in the back, out of line of fire, and if enemies manage to run past the PCs and reach him he can fight then. The presence of a distraction like that also lets you use more enemy forces than would otherwise be practical.
I like the throne room fight only because it's a party fight, not because it would be a reasonable assassination attempt.
The king holding out behind a couple of retainers, the party comes in, the assassins split their attention. The king runs with a handful of trusted advisors. party kills the assassin. They follow the king to find him dead. Which of the trusted advisors was the true assassin?
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
I like the throne room fight only because it's a party fight, not because it would be a reasonable assassination attempt.
The advantage of a throne room is that you actually know where the target is. The disadvantage is that it's probably inside his castle or similar protected area -- but so are most other plausible locations to do an assassination. As such, plenty of assassinations occur in public places (Julius Caesar was assassinated on the senate floor by around sixty people).
How old is this king? An ex warrior in his 40’s is going to be very different (In terms of willingness to retreat) from an ex warrior in his 80’s, or his 20’s for that matter.
In the end, I guess personality will be the big factor, regardless of age.
Either way, you could have the king leave to check on his heir/family. Gives him a plausible, honorable reason to leave the fight to the PCs.
If you want the players to do the fight themselves, you can remove the king from the equation entirely by using descriptive language to express what the king is doing instead of giving aid. Just say something like "You look over and see the king holding his own in a flashing sea of steel, like the warrior he once was!"
I mean the choice you're offering is: one level of exhaustion for the full help of this NPC OR no exhaustion and no help. And that's good DMing. But you're worried that "no help" seems out of character. And THAT'S good DMing. But now you're second-guessing yourself. Well, don't call your own bluff before your friends get the chance to. Just describe a reason why "no help" isn't out of character. The Assassin has tied the King to a giant piano like '50's Batman, and you have to duel the assassin across the keyboard while never stepping on certain keys which would hammer down and smoosh the King.
TimCurtin that is the best trap ever, give your self inspiration!!
To the OP you could stress to the players how important the king is, and see if maybe they would try and keep him out of the fight, unless of course it involves giant pianos....but we can only dream of playing something like that......
Throw in a twist - they arrive and find the king, alone, being faced down by the assassin. When the assassin drops to a certain health, have them kill the king (throw a dart, slash his throat, etc) and then attempt to escape. If the players don't manage to stop them, then they get out of the window just as the guards arrive to see the party, weapons out, standing around the dead king. Now they have to escape and clear their names.
The assassination of the king is actually a set up. He already been kidnapped and an imposter sits the throne. The assassins are waiting for the party.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Or, re-contextualize entirely. The assassination attempt was to prevent him from being available to another necessary thing. Like, leading his troops into a battle that the assassins' masters are using as their opening move. So, the players set the ambush, and the King prepares for a skirmish or war, really rewarding the players for their sacrifice.
Another twist - the king is the one who has arranged the "assassination", and is either doing so to get out of being king (an ex warrior might get very bored with the tedium of politics), faking his own death and then making a fresh start, or, he could be arranging an assassination attempt, paying the cheapest ones to do so through various bookers, to then frame someone else for his own assassination attempt. His plan is to successfully fight off the assassin, and them blame someone - maybe they are the only ones speaking against his warmongering, and he wants them out of the way, an elder who represents the people perhaps.
Perhaps there will be a further twist, where the king is expecting the assassin to be a fake one to fake his death, but it turns out another party happens to have paid for a real assassin and knew to do so on this day, so the king would think he wasn't really being assassinated.
Ultimate twist - the king has hired a likeness of himself to be fake-assassinated, with the real king dressed as the assassin, and then the party arrive to save the day, inadvertantly killing the real king.
Scenario: players just found out about a betrayal that will kill their king, and are trying to return to his castle to warn him before the attack.
What I have so far: players can
A) travel overnight and arrive with exhaustion level, but the king will be warned in time for him to assist in the inevitable fight (his stats are VERY good)
B) rest for a night and arrive with no exhaustion, but they couldn't save the king in time and run into an ambush in his throne room
My question is: how much help should the king offer? I want the players to do things themselves, but the king IS a ex-warrior who I don't think would run from a fight.
opinions on this and anything else about this encounter?
If the king has good stats, why would the assassin even get into a fight with him? Poison, collapsing balconies, scorpions in the bed, etc., work so much better and with less risk.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Why wouldn't the king being willing to run from the fight? When the enemy objective is "kill one person", removing that person is a great way to make them fail. I would have him somewhere in the back, out of line of fire, and if enemies manage to run past the PCs and reach him he can fight then. The presence of a distraction like that also lets you use more enemy forces than would otherwise be practical.
Artemis Entreri
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Artemis_Entreri
----
I like the throne room fight only because it's a party fight, not because it would be a reasonable assassination attempt.
The king holding out behind a couple of retainers, the party comes in, the assassins split their attention. The king runs with a handful of trusted advisors. party kills the assassin. They follow the king to find him dead. Which of the trusted advisors was the true assassin?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
The advantage of a throne room is that you actually know where the target is. The disadvantage is that it's probably inside his castle or similar protected area -- but so are most other plausible locations to do an assassination. As such, plenty of assassinations occur in public places (Julius Caesar was assassinated on the senate floor by around sixty people).
Ego/"honor." If he's a warrior, he might find the thought of fleeing from a fight to be a worse fate than dying.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
How old is this king? An ex warrior in his 40’s is going to be very different (In terms of willingness to retreat) from an ex warrior in his 80’s, or his 20’s for that matter.
In the end, I guess personality will be the big factor, regardless of age.
Either way, you could have the king leave to check on his heir/family. Gives him a plausible, honorable reason to leave the fight to the PCs.
If you want the players to do the fight themselves, you can remove the king from the equation entirely by using descriptive language to express what the king is doing instead of giving aid. Just say something like "You look over and see the king holding his own in a flashing sea of steel, like the warrior he once was!"
I mean the choice you're offering is: one level of exhaustion for the full help of this NPC OR no exhaustion and no help. And that's good DMing. But you're worried that "no help" seems out of character. And THAT'S good DMing. But now you're second-guessing yourself. Well, don't call your own bluff before your friends get the chance to. Just describe a reason why "no help" isn't out of character. The Assassin has tied the King to a giant piano like '50's Batman, and you have to duel the assassin across the keyboard while never stepping on certain keys which would hammer down and smoosh the King.
TimCurtin that is the best trap ever, give your self inspiration!!
To the OP you could stress to the players how important the king is, and see if maybe they would try and keep him out of the fight, unless of course it involves giant pianos....but we can only dream of playing something like that......
Throw in a twist - they arrive and find the king, alone, being faced down by the assassin. When the assassin drops to a certain health, have them kill the king (throw a dart, slash his throat, etc) and then attempt to escape. If the players don't manage to stop them, then they get out of the window just as the guards arrive to see the party, weapons out, standing around the dead king. Now they have to escape and clear their names.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
The assassination of the king is actually a set up. He already been kidnapped and an imposter sits the throne. The assassins are waiting for the party.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Or, re-contextualize entirely. The assassination attempt was to prevent him from being available to another necessary thing. Like, leading his troops into a battle that the assassins' masters are using as their opening move. So, the players set the ambush, and the King prepares for a skirmish or war, really rewarding the players for their sacrifice.
Another twist - the king is the one who has arranged the "assassination", and is either doing so to get out of being king (an ex warrior might get very bored with the tedium of politics), faking his own death and then making a fresh start, or, he could be arranging an assassination attempt, paying the cheapest ones to do so through various bookers, to then frame someone else for his own assassination attempt. His plan is to successfully fight off the assassin, and them blame someone - maybe they are the only ones speaking against his warmongering, and he wants them out of the way, an elder who represents the people perhaps.
Perhaps there will be a further twist, where the king is expecting the assassin to be a fake one to fake his death, but it turns out another party happens to have paid for a real assassin and knew to do so on this day, so the king would think he wasn't really being assassinated.
Ultimate twist - the king has hired a likeness of himself to be fake-assassinated, with the real king dressed as the assassin, and then the party arrive to save the day, inadvertantly killing the real king.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!