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View Full Version : It's moments like these that make D&D so awesome



Deimess
2011-12-18, 11:42 AM
My group finished their first campaign yesterday, and the final battle was so incredible and fun that I have to share it, because it's battles like that that a DM dreams of. The basic premise is the PCs retrieved an artifact to counter the one held by the BBEG (in possession of the party rogue). This campaign was all core with very few house rules, since 3 of the 4 player's had never played before.

The 5 PCs (level 14 each) pinned the BBEG into a throne room and all beat him on initiative. Some of them got hits in and others dwindled down his buffs, but the BBEG opened up with time stop and used his 4 rounds to summon in some help and separate the party with blade barrier.

The goons were quickly killed and the barrier dispelled but the boss used his artifact to turn some the party against eachother, in which the sorcerer, fighter, and bard all failed there saves. The rogue who was dealing a lot of damage with his own artifact was also blinded via PWB. Because of the commands, the sorcerer first disintegrated a nightmare summoned by the bard, then disintegrated the cleric, who luckily made his save and stayed alive. The cleric cured the rogues blindness right as the bard joined the fray, but most of the party got hit by a maximized horrid wilting and brought a lot of them to low HP.

They were getting hits in here and there, but the boss cast heal and continued his barrage. The sorcerer maximize fireballed the party and the boss, but killed the cleric in doing so. The boss cast finger of death on the sorcerer and instantly slew him, leaving only the fighter, bard, and rogue. The rogue finally got a sneak atack full round in and did a lot of damage (since his artifact kept him invisible even though the boss had true seeing) but all 3 survivors were paralyzed by the boss's artifact.

This is where it got really good. the 3 were paralyzed and had a really hard time breaking out because the DC was so high. The boss (although he couldn't see him), used disintegrate in the rogue's square, hit, and brought him to 1 HP, followed by a quickened enrvation which killed the bard. The sorcerer's familiar flew his staff of the magi over the the boss and used retributive strike, killig itself to hurt the boss. the staff had too few charges to kill him though, but the rogue rolled a natural 20 and broke the paralalysis and double moved behind the boss. the boss cast glitterdust to ensure that he had slain the rogue with his disintegrate and when he saw that there was nothing there, turned to the fighter and cast maximized cone of cold, bringing him to 1 HP. Thinking this was the end, he gave his villain shpeel and was about to slay the fighter when the 1 HP rogue did a sneak attack with his artifact (which bypassed all of the bosses buffs) and slew him.

Anyway, it's battles like these that you see in movies and that make D&D so awesome, so I had to share it. I was a very proud DM at that moment :smallsmile:.

missmvicious
2011-12-18, 02:30 PM
*Applause*

Sounds like a great way to end the campaign! Are the surviving PCs going to carry over their characters to the next campaign, or are you starting over with an all new cast?

Sometimes it's cool to see how tragedy would effect adventures (like losing half your party in an epic battle). One of my PCs turned inward to liquor and became a real... witch. Can't type what I'm thinking in my head. The darkness in her made her a weird cross between violent (really short temper) and passive (afraid to fight because she didn't want any of her remaining friends getting hurt) that she spent several levels trying to overcome, and during that time she was really cold and distant to the new adventurers. In a different campaign, one of my PCs became overprotective and dedicated herself to becoming the best in her class so none of her friends ever died again. She became the groups "mother" so to speak and would lash out with all her fury anyone who tried to hurt or even threaten her friends, but was otherwise really sweet and a lot of fun to be around.

Deimess
2011-12-18, 07:22 PM
They are starting all new characters, but the survivors got the other 3 ressurected. I ruled that they can't play the same class as they did last time, and we added a few more players as well.

Synvallius
2011-12-19, 01:36 AM
That must have been an incredible battle to DM. I'm just starting to DM a new campaign, and I sure hope that the players and myself get to have a few moments like that, that are in all ways just epic to behold.

arguskos
2011-12-19, 02:04 AM
My last campaign ended like that. The plot was as convoluted and transparent as a granite octopus. Here's the short background: the BBEG (named Petrarch) was a magically-preserved king from the old days and was possessed by an immortal wraith-like spirit from a race of ancient living constructs I created called Xorth named The Illuminated One.

TIO had a plan to use a spell weaver artifact (for the Xorth and the Spell Weavers once waged a great war under TIO's leadership, leading to the Sundering [a Spell Weaver thing, look it up]) called the Code of Revision to reverse time by hundreds of thousands of years to when the Xorth/Weaver War was still going on, then use his knowledge of the future to change the outcome of the war, winning instead of losing this time. He'd then go on to take over the Prime and be a badass and whatever.

The PC's had accidentally freed Petrarch (who has been locked in a magical prison by usurpers of his throne for the last 300 years, preserved by TIO for his own purposes) and ended up giving him his kingdom back. Petrarch (really TIO in disguise) started a genocidal Pyrrhic war with everybody else in the world, hoping to distract them all long enough for him to complete the Code of Revision (for his copy was incomplete) and activate it. The PCs had found out about TIO when they discovered a secret Xorth city, lost in time and space, and recovered the missing part of the Code (though they didn't fully understand what it was).

Eventually, of course, their path led to Petrarch/TIO's capitol, where they fought for the future of existence. Along the way, they made a deal with Mephistopheles (yeah, Lord of the Eighth) and fought off resurrected foes from every adventure they'd had so far. When they reached the end, Petrarch was waiting.

They were level 10. He was level 14 (all fighter, btws). They had 12 allies. He had one, but the party bribed her (a lich) to not help him. By the time they brought him low, they had 4 allies left. Of course, with the death of Petrarch, The Illuminated One was free to annihilate them personally. TIO was level 16 and a heavily-op'd sorcerer. The first round saw him obliterate all four allies in a single swoop (turns out that free arcane spellsurges is pretty chill). The second saw him dust (literally, via disintegrate) a PC and nearly kill another one. The third one saw TIO use Orbs to blow holes in the floor during the charge of the ubercharger (luckily, he's resilient and lived through the ensuing 200ish foot drop) and kill another party member. Finally, he was brought low by the party, despite having lost almost everyone. Oh, and just when it looked like they'd won, the lich betrayed them, disintegrated the second to last living party member, and almost killed the last one, if not for some clever thinking on his part.

End story? The PCs were all resurrected (except the tiefling, who was taken by Ilmater to serve at his side forever; long story), TIO was defeated, epic campaign was totally awesome.

Deimess
2011-12-19, 02:12 AM
Very nice! it made it really satisfying considering how long it took me to stat the BBEG, because i didn't want to tpk the party (although I would have if the played stupid) but it would have looked too easy if none of them died.

arguskos
2011-12-19, 01:26 PM
Very nice! it made it really satisfying considering how long it took me to stat the BBEG, because i didn't want to tpk the party (although I would have if the played stupid) but it would have looked too easy if none of them died.
I had to keep it down. TIO could easily have wiped everyone, so I used him to trash NPC allies and toy with them a little before he started getting serious. I very rarely pull punches at all, but yeah, that one was necessary.

Novawurmson
2011-12-19, 01:38 PM
Anyway, it's battles like these that you see in movies and that make D&D so awesome, so I had to share it. I was a very proud DM at that moment :smallsmile:.

/applause :D