Help a new DM with a One-Shot

[Centik]

Hello fellow DMs and players alike! I'm here today to ask your opinion on my first knock at DMing 5e with a one-shot I'm building. Any tips or ideas for both plot and DMing would be amazingly helpful. I've been playing 5e and pathfinder for two years with the same group and this time I'd like to take the DM seat.

The premise: (I'm not going into any specifics here in order to not make this post horribly long, but know that this will be a bare-minimum description and won't reflect the depth in which I'm hoping to accomplish.)

The party has been hired to find a woman's husband who is a paladin of Lathander. He disappeared in the middle of the night, only telling his wife that he was given a quest by his god and that he was heading for the town of King's Cross some miles away.

They will get to the town, maybe do some RP around the different shops, vendors, and tavern I've created (with my luck, they'll just blast through all my hard work) and eventually head to the temple of Lathander where an older, high-ranking Paladin and friend of the missing paladin will tell the group that many of their order had traveled to a certain old temple hidden deep within a nearby forest. Those who traveled there had seemed quite entranced when questioned, almost as if by a siren's song. The tally of missing paladins and clergymen is large enough to warrant a constant watch of non-order guardsmen flanking the front of the temple. Some had even been locked in their rooms in order to keep them from leaving.

The party will be asked to find the temple and drive out whatever force is effecting the holy men as they search for those who are missing. They will finally reach the old temple which has lost the battle to nature. Overgrown trees and wildlife have half-engulfed the walls and exterior. Inside there will be a combat or two (not entirely sure what these will be yet, so any advice is great.) and finally stumble upon a large room with broken pews and an altar to Cyric, the god of Madness and Trickery. Surrounding the altar is a scattering of bodies that seemed to have been sucked dry by magical means. Kneeling in front of the altar is the paladin they had been tasked to locate, a jagged crown of daggers adorning his head. The crown is showing him visions of his god and generally just driving him insane and has been attracting holy men to become the vessel for the god of lies.

Driven to insanity, the paladin (Level 5) will then attack the party alongside two hooded acolytes.

So, that's the gist of my oneshot. It will be for, most likely, a party of three at third level. What do you think?

Is the final encounter too difficult?

What would make a good precursor encounter in the few rooms before the boss fight?

Should I have another encounter planned before they reach the temple?

[gfishfunk]

If it were me, here is how I would structure it and why:

2 encounters: tangengal but provides backstory and interconnectedness
short rest available
2 encounters: provide related story
short rest available
2 encounters: the hard encounters that are the meat of the story.
- Paladin + 2 acolytes is okay for difficulty. I would trim down the paladin and the acolytes though. I tend to simplify my NPCs so that I don't have too many options during a game, so that it is easier to play them without looking up crap. I make the meaningful choices ahead of time. I would not use a level 5 paladin built out of the Player's Handbook, but I would refluff something from the NPCs appendix in the monster manual.

----

I got carried away and provided a very in depth approach -- I was not writing it for you as much as showing you how I think through things and have the adventure flow so that it is all inter-related. This is basically the planning form that I make when I am coming up with a series of related encounters, and then I build the enemies, and then I build the maps:

The Paladin did not go to another town; rather, the head of the order is in the same town and the wife of the paladin already sought help from the head of the order, but has yet to hear back OR the head of the order (some political jack@) assured her that he was on a pilgrimage and refuses to investigate, but she had a vision or something. WHY: this eliminates needless travel to another town, which will really just eat up about an hour of playing without getting anywhere. Eliminate needless steps for a one shot.

Six encounters:

Forest: Encounters 1 and 2 occur in quick succession, no short rest in between
1. Easy / Medium encounter. A band of goblin scouts riding on top of wolves (or something like that). Possible surprise on the party, possible ability to negotiate out of it. You can use higher level stats. They blow a horn at the beginning of combat, and continue to do so until slain.

2. Medium / Hard encounter: the goblin war party with a named leader. The PCs will hear people coming and have a change to prepare for a fight (5 minutes to set something up if they want) or try to flee. The leader will talk in a smattering of goblin and basic, throwing out the word 'paladin' and 'Lathander' in basic to key the players in that he might know something. Often, Lathander paladins come through this way to the south, but they don't come back. They kill the goblins who otherwise attack and prey upon travelers.

Ruins of the Temple of Lathander:

Entrance:
3. Easy / Medium. Outside the Temple: a talking statue will allow 'only the pure of heart' to enter, but negotiation checks, religion checks, and history checks show that the statue has been profaned, as has the Temple. A single creature encounter. TIP: figure out what classes the PCs are playing and write the information as being available to that class, like there are profane glyphs written in druidic or the thieves cant, or there are arcane marking or draconic markings or somesuch. The stone guardian is actually easy to defeat - maybe use the stats for a gargoyle but have it look like a paladin. When it is defeated, a vine-y crown falls off its head (foreshadowing!).

4. Traps and a Puzzle. Something something Lathander. Maybe there is a hallway with a meditation walk (or something else you can make up) where there are traps and other proof that the ruins have been profaned.

Main Chamber: these also happen in quick succession, no short rest in between
5. Hard. This is the fight against the paladin. Why now? The main fight will be between the PCs and the thing controlling the paladin. Here is MY fluff, feel free to come up with your own: A withered looking paladin is praying before a twisted statue of Lathander. There is a half open sarcophagus to the side with a dead hand pointing at the statue. A voice from the sarcophagus tells the paladin to defend Lathander and also orders other paladins to arise and fulfill their oaths. Two skeletons stand from the ground. This creates a 3 v 3. Ideas for interesting combat: one of the skeletons has a shield with no weapon, but shoves PCs instead to knock them prone.

This should not be too hard, based on the way I see it: I put in one high damaging NPC (paladin), one damaging NPC (skeleton), and one non-damaging, but debuffing skeleton (shield guy).

6. Medium (it will play as hard because they will likely be low on powers). This is the fight against the Follower of Cyric, a not-undead-looking fellow that has been enhancing his own powers by stealing them from paladins who come to worship Lathander. This is a 1 v. 3 fight, and the follower of Cyric has a 'legendary action' that he can do on a separate initiative slot, but is not overly powered. I would do something like a Faerie Fire zone that the Follower can move around. It doesn't do any damage, but it gives him advantage on his turn to attack PCs in the zone. I would also give the follower multiattack, but then remove it if at the beginning of the encounter your PCs are really beat up.

[Centik]

If it were me, here is how I would structure it and why:

2 encounters: tangengal but provides backstory and interconnectedness
short rest available
2 encounters: provide related story
short rest available
2 encounters: the hard encounters that are the meat of the story.
- Paladin + 2 acolytes is okay for difficulty. I would trim down the paladin and the acolytes though. I tend to simplify my NPCs so that I don't have too many options during a game, so that it is easier to play them without looking up crap. I make the meaningful choices ahead of time. I would not use a level 5 paladin built out of the Player's Handbook, but I would refluff something from the NPCs appendix in the monster manual.

----

I got carried away and provided a very in depth approach -- I was not writing it for you as much as showing you how I think through things and have the adventure flow so that it is all inter-related. This is basically the planning form that I make when I am coming up with a series of related encounters, and then I build the enemies, and then I build the maps:

The Paladin did not go to another town; rather, the head of the order is in the same town and the wife of the paladin already sought help from the head of the order, but has yet to hear back OR the head of the order (some political jack@) assured her that he was on a pilgrimage and refuses to investigate, but she had a vision or something. WHY: this eliminates needless travel to another town, which will really just eat up about an hour of playing without getting anywhere. Eliminate needless steps for a one shot.

Six encounters:

Forest: Encounters 1 and 2 occur in quick succession, no short rest in between
1. Easy / Medium encounter. A band of goblin scouts riding on top of wolves (or something like that). Possible surprise on the party, possible ability to negotiate out of it. You can use higher level stats. They blow a horn at the beginning of combat, and continue to do so until slain.

2. Medium / Hard encounter: the goblin war party with a named leader. The PCs will hear people coming and have a change to prepare for a fight (5 minutes to set something up if they want) or try to flee. The leader will talk in a smattering of goblin and basic, throwing out the word 'paladin' and 'Lathander' in basic to key the players in that he might know something. Often, Lathander paladins come through this way to the south, but they don't come back. They kill the goblins who otherwise attack and prey upon travelers.

Ruins of the Temple of Lathander:

Entrance:
3. Easy / Medium. Outside the Temple: a talking statue will allow 'only the pure of heart' to enter, but negotiation checks, religion checks, and history checks show that the statue has been profaned, as has the Temple. A single creature encounter. TIP: figure out what classes the PCs are playing and write the information as being available to that class, like there are profane glyphs written in druidic or the thieves cant, or there are arcane marking or draconic markings or somesuch. The stone guardian is actually easy to defeat - maybe use the stats for a gargoyle but have it look like a paladin. When it is defeated, a vine-y crown falls off its head (foreshadowing!).

4. Traps and a Puzzle. Something something Lathander. Maybe there is a hallway with a meditation walk (or something else you can make up) where there are traps and other proof that the ruins have been profaned.

Main Chamber: these also happen in quick succession, no short rest in between
5. Hard. This is the fight against the paladin. Why now? The main fight will be between the PCs and the thing controlling the paladin. Here is MY fluff, feel free to come up with your own: A withered looking paladin is praying before a twisted statue of Lathander. There is a half open sarcophagus to the side with a dead hand pointing at the statue. A voice from the sarcophagus tells the paladin to defend Lathander and also orders other paladins to arise and fulfill their oaths. Two skeletons stand from the ground. This creates a 3 v 3. Ideas for interesting combat: one of the skeletons has a shield with no weapon, but shoves PCs instead to knock them prone.

This should not be too hard, based on the way I see it: I put in one high damaging NPC (paladin), one damaging NPC (skeleton), and one non-damaging, but debuffing skeleton (shield guy).

6. Medium (it will play as hard because they will likely be low on powers). This is the fight against the Follower of Cyric, a not-undead-looking fellow that has been enhancing his own powers by stealing them from paladins who come to worship Lathander. This is a 1 v. 3 fight, and the follower of Cyric has a 'legendary action' that he can do on a separate initiative slot, but is not overly powered. I would do something like a Faerie Fire zone that the Follower can move around. It doesn't do any damage, but it gives him advantage on his turn to attack PCs in the zone. I would also give the follower multiattack, but then remove it if at the beginning of the encounter your PCs are really beat up.

This is exactly the kind of in-depth lesson on structure that I was looking for! Thanks so much for taking the time to actually write up how you would run it, because a few sentences couldn't teach me near as much as this did.
Question time: My group tends to lean more towards roleplay than combat, so it's hard for me to gauge the perfect balance between encounters and time in town / speaking to others and amongst themselves. Will that just come with time, or should I just have the amount of combats change depending on how fast it seems to be going?

[gfishfunk]

This is exactly the kind of in-depth lesson on structure that I was looking for! Thanks so much for taking the time to actually write up how you would run it, because a few sentences couldn't teach me near as much as this did.
Question time: My group tends to lean more towards roleplay than combat, so it's hard for me to gauge the perfect balance between encounters and time in town / speaking to others and amongst themselves. Will that just come with time, or should I just have the amount of combats change depending on how fast it seems to be going?

That is what I tend to do: I cut out encounters if the game is going too long. Additionally, I tend to create some encounters that they can talk their way out of (in this case, both group of goblins), and some encounters that they cannot talk their way out of at all.