DMing a Dark Souls style game

[GreyBlack]

So, for my next adventure, I will be doing a one-shot Dark Souls style game - the players were told that it will be incredibly hard and table-flipping insanity. Mostly, I'm doing this because I like being an evil bastard when I DM. All of the players are on board, and I even have a respawn mechanic in place (If the players die, they will be Reincarnated, as the spell at the end of the fight). So, what are the most grotesque monsters you could imagine sending a group of 3 level 1 characters against? The most overpowered, insane things you could imagine sending players against at level 1?

In terms of CR, I'm thinking the average CR they will fight will be CR: 3+. So, let's hear some ideas!

Some monsters I'm thinking of right off the bat:
Ogre
Wight
A room of wyrmling white dragons (2-3 of them)
Grizzly Bear
Velociraptors (deinonychus)

Any other ideas? I intend to be an evil, evil DM ./evillaugh

[ekarney]

Don't get too overkilly on them that'll get boring and repetitive for the players, consider adding in taint ro sanity or something and taint/insanity increases everytime they die and allow them to respawn instead of having to roll again.

The Dark Souls games themselves are also extremely surreal you have these massive sprawling landscapes that have been devastated and ruined with minimal explanation and that strange convoluted flow of time.
Consider making your environment more surreal, I'm currently in the middle of DMing a surreal campaign myself.

Highlights of the players getting weirded out:
Breaking a statue that covered one of them in a black ichor that allowed him to see the local ghosts, who were still acting as though they were alive.
Being hunted by a chained up thing that they werent sure what it was, or how it was following them.
Cavern walls that reacted like sand when you ran your fingers across it.
Being in a large cave system where in the large caverns you could see a perpetual evening sky.
Said sky turning into a starry purple sky when one of the players desecrated an altar to a good god.
Said sky turning bright and sunny, but causing a massive chill when they destroyed another altar.

I had to tone down the most recent session, because it was getting whack and I was starting to scare myself.

[GreyBlack]

Well, it's likely going to be a one-shot, but that is something to keep in mind. Taint/insanity, mmm? Intriguing....

[ekarney]

If it's a one shot I'd personally implement a respawn system or similar if it's intended to be highly lethal, having to roll characters can really slow down the game.

You'll want really fast, deadly encounters too, maybe try having the players start at like level 8?

I recently played in a one shot that was 8 - 15 in a day and the level 13+ fights were incredible. DM did a great job of making it feel epic as hell.

[Twilightwyrm]

Reincarnate might be a bit too much randomness for even one shot characters. A lot relies on the race a person selects, and to the best of my knowledge Dark Souls still returns your character to you relatively unchanged, and a random switching of the wizard to a half-orc might be a bit too much of a penalty for death. A basic true resurrection at a different location would probably suffice.

[Spore]

Dark Souls is a game about mechanics not overpowered boss fights. If you douse the Greater Fire Elemental in water, he suddenly becomes a fightable Small Fire Elemental. If you distract the brutal ogre he stops attacking to look at the shiny thing and gets flat-footed. If you don't take your move action the Velociraptors ignore you (if you like to perpetuate the urban myth). Don't stand clumped up in the breath of the white wrymlings. USE the potions of cold resistance the ugly hag gave you.

Dark Souls is not about cheap encounters and memorizing patterns. It is about learning the enemies' weak spots. I would even advise a ghostly NPC (another fallen hero) guiding them through the labyrinth of encounters. He would make the appropriate knowledge checks if the players wouldn't bother with them. I'd say about 3-4 rounds of failure in he would spout cryptic help like:

"He who douses the raging flame shall triumph over its consuming heat." or
"The lizards are quick to react to danger but a still rock will sometimes persevere until it is the time to strike."

For the respawning mechanic I would go for some kind of modified astral projection. They will be pulled back through the void to the safe haven but they will loose a part of themselves (an attribute point) or a piece of equipment (lets see how the fighter plans on attacking the fiends with just a club he picked up).