Final battle in short campaign

[Pinjata]

So, our campaign lasted about 10 sessions, PCs leveled up to lvl 3 and I'm setting up a grand finale. I have an actual plan of "goblins are attacking a village" as final fight. I want to tax the party group to the max. Party consists of ranger, wizard, rogue and bard. They are rather nicely supplied with scrolls and potions.

So I'm wondering: How many encounters and how hard? I was thinking of 7 Deadly encounters (about 5 min in-game time between each) consisting of goblings, worgs and perhaps two bugbears, separated in two different attack waves. Village would offer lots of place for fortification, high ground, etc.

Basicaly, I want to give them an encounter that demands three things of them: to spend all resources, to roll rather well and to play smart (they play VERY smart so far, I'm very happy regarding that).

Are these encounters too difficult? Too easy?

If you need any other info, tell me.

thanks

[R.Shackleford]

In all honesty this is one of those things you are going to have to play by ear.

Also depends on your party set up. What's the party subclasses? They seem mostly long rest types

You could set up a central command post for the village and have the players go to different sections to defend those areas. Have issues along the way from time to time.

Each area would be a mini boss battle and each time they come back from a mission they get to short rest but one of the two next missions gets harder (they can figure this out fast). These missions don't always have to have the same goal, sometimes it can be "grab the mayor and fall back" and others can be "kill invading forces".

At the end when they are finally taxed that is when the main boss comes in. Have this be a dynamic fight where building are falling, smoke plumes come across the battle, and the changes it up once the boss gets to half or less HP.

[MrStabby]

I think a great ingredient of tough encounters is smart enemies. Let the players spot ploys, work around them, anticipate enemy plans etc..

Have things like a group of goblins firing fire arrows into the town as bait in a trap. If a force goes out to fight them they hit tripwires and an ambush from the sides, but let them guess its a trap and loop round the outside. Make it tougher but all the more rewarding for the win.

Give the goblins a few scrolls - a fog cloud spell here and there or a leader with the mirror image spell can add character whilst swinging the fight a bit.

I also like to add a clock. Maybe make a big threat visible from a distance. A big ogre or something approaching - the party is probably OK if everything else is cleared up by the time it arrives but they will have trouble facing the ogre and other remnants of the force. Hopefully this pressure will add a bit of extra fun to the encounter.

To be honest, the encounter is fine as it is but i like to add a bit of extra complexity to keep fights interesting and characterful.

Also - have you considered giving the players another level before the fight? It will just let the players feel a bit more important and have new abilities to use for this final fight.

[R.Shackleford]

I think a great ingredient of tough encounters is smart enemies. Let the players spot ploys, work around them, anticipate enemy plans etc..

Have things like a group of goblins firing fire arrows into the town as bait in a trap. If a force goes out to fight them they hit tripwires and an ambush from the sides, but let them guess its a trap and loop round the outside. Make it tougher but all the more rewarding for the win.

Give the goblins a few scrolls - a fog cloud spell here and there or a leader with the mirror image spell can add character whilst swinging the fight a bit.

I also like to add a clock. Maybe make a big threat visible from a distance. A big ogre or something approaching - the party is probably OK if everything else is cleared up by the time it arrives but they will have trouble facing the ogre and other remnants of the force. Hopefully this pressure will add a bit of extra fun to the encounter.

To be honest, the encounter is fine as it is but i like to add a bit of extra complexity to keep fights interesting and characterful.

Also - have you considered giving the players another level before the fight? It will just let the players feel a bit more important and have new abilities to use for this final fight.

Clock = Village on fire.

[gfishfunk]

So, our campaign lasted about 10 sessions, PCs leveled up to lvl 3 and I'm setting up a grand finale. I have an actual plan of "goblins are attacking a village" as final fight. I want to tax the party group to the max. Party consists of ranger, wizard, rogue and bard. They are rather nicely supplied with scrolls and potions.

So I'm wondering: How many encounters and how hard? I was thinking of 7 Deadly encounters (about 5 min in-game time between each) consisting of goblings, worgs and perhaps two bugbears, separated in two different attack waves. Village would offer lots of place for fortification, high ground, etc.

Basicaly, I want to give them an encounter that demands three things of them: to spend all resources, to roll rather well and to play smart (they play VERY smart so far, I'm very happy regarding that).

Are these encounters too difficult? Too easy?

If you need any other info, tell me.

thanks

7 deadly is too much; instead do 6 medium 1 deadly or something like that. You do not want your players blowing all of their best stuff on encounter 1. If you have every encounter end with more enemies appearing, forcing them to retreat consecutively, you can still achieve that same level of heightening tension.

Let them see from somewhere up high at the beginning all the places that are under attack. When they finish one encounter, give them updates on other areas, letting them know that things are looking bleak, and show them where the Big Bad is hanging out, much further behind lines.

Removing short rests will likely hurt the fighter, wizard, and bard. After encounter three, have someone call a retreat to the fortified interior. this gives them a place for a short rest. And then have an NPC point out where the Big Bad is, and that they are likely to resume attacking. "We need to get someone down there...." Etc. etc.

[Pinjata]

7 deadly is too much; instead do 6 medium 1 deadly or something like that.
Will do.


After encounter three, have someone call a retreat to the fortified interior. this gives them a place for a short rest. And then have an NPC point out where the Big Bad is, and that they are likely to resume attacking. "We need to get someone down there...." Etc. etc.

Great idea. Also ads pacing.

And I'm including an ogre.

[ruy343]

For clocks - what have the adventurers been trying to stop this whole time? In a campaign of mine, there was a villain who had a plan, and was going to enact the plan if the characters weren't fast enough. Consider how you could make your clock a fitting end for the adventure.

In my case, the villain was planning to blow up a volcano, and the players needed to either disrupt his explosives or confront him directly, and soon, before he was finished with preparations. They chose to take out his explosives folks, then work their way to the center, knowing that he might have a backup plan (which helped them to not take rests - increasing the tension by reducing their resources).

[Pinjata]

One more question. Say that goblins are cowardly. And there is a group of 3 goblins + 3 half-ogres. If half-ogres are dealt with, then goblins flee. Should I because of this "flaw" make attacking groups stronger/more numerous?

[gfishfunk]

IMO: yes, but you have to clue them into this somehow, otherwise its a game of guess-what-I'm-thinking. I know my initial thought is to kill off the small ones first because they likely have less HP and I can get rid of them more efficiently before turning to the large guys.

Also IMO: don't make the goblins cowardly for the final battle - make them organized and elite. Bloodsworn! Or something like that. Make them sound like the bad@sses that you would expect to see in a final confrontation.

There are other options for adding more enemies and yet making the battle more PC favored at the same time: Provide the PCs a terrain advantage and then you can add more enemies to compensate; add terrain disadvantage to the goblins (similar, but slightly different) can do the same.
- Advantages: cover, elevation that the enemies cannot readily access, narrow avenues of approach
- Disadvantages: hazards, difficult terrain, climbs, out of control fires

[Laserlight]

One more question. Say that goblins are cowardly. And there is a group of 3 goblins + 3 half-ogres. If half-ogres are dealt with, then goblins flee. Should I because of this "flaw" make attacking groups stronger/more numerous?

If you want that sort of group, yes, I'd send in a few more goblins and have them break after a couple of casualties. Although I don't know that I'd send that sort of group in the first place. If I were a warlord attacking a village, I'd consider sending a mass of goblins as the first wave, with a line of my good troops behind them to a) prevent the gobbos from retreating or b) exploit any breakthrough the goblins make. But I might instead assign the gobbos as archers/slingers to harass the whole village's perimeter, keep anyone from sneaking out, maybe use fire arrows.

Make sure you telegraph to your players "This will be several encounters and maybe only one short rest" so they don't nova on the first one and think they're done.

Also, make sure you have reasons for them to move around. A battle where everyone just stands in one place and rolls to hit is boring; find reasons to force them to maneuver. "You're defending this wall and gate, run to that gate tower, someone's got to sprint down to the end of the left wall, that group got inside so someone go chase them down!" If they've made it inside the walls, or if the PCs are trying to pull down the houses that are built up along the outside of the walls, you can have burning, collapsing buildings to add to the fun. Old abandoned wells, maybe the cover will support a goblin but not an ogre. If you're fighting on the east wall, maybe the PCs know that archers manning the south wall can help shoot at any invaders who get over the wall in Zone Red but not in Zone Green.