Creating a "Final" Dungeon help

[devildog91]

I've been running a game for the last year with a group of friends that I go to college with. Summer is around the corner and everyone in the group is going to be heading home so our game will be put in hold till next semester. Because of this I've been bringing the campaign to a stopping point. The party has just entered a dungeon that leads to a hidden city (Villain's base).

I want the dungeon to be large, interesting, and a little complicated. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give me some advice or ideas for the dungeon? :smallbiggrin:

[Ghost Nappa]

If I remember my own college finals schedule, we were done with everything around mid-may. If you meet weekly, that means you're looking at 6 sessions.

That last session you should probably save as the denouement with wrapping up any character goals and such, so you're really looking at five sessions for this dungeon. The climatic battle with the villain would be the finale of that fifth session in my mind.

[Laserlight]

That last session you should probably save as the denouement with wrapping up any character goals and such, so you're really looking at five sessions for this dungeon. The climatic battle with the villain would be the finale of that fifth session in my mind.

I concur--leave a session for wrapping up and validation ("you're the heroes of the realm! You all get medals and are dubbed as knights! Or at least get a pardon for all your high crimes and misdemeanors up to this point...") and the players' feedback for you (which fights did you like best? Which monster?). That's session 6.

Session 5 is the boss fight, in three phases. You go through the outer guard, you go through the elite guard, you fight the boss himself. Or you fight the boss in her human form, then she polymorphs into her drow form, then she changes into her final dragon form.

Session 4 they realize they're trapped. They're committed to the fight, either because their escape route is closed or because if they decline, some disaster will happen (the plague of spider dragons will be released to the world, etc etc). (Adjust this to your party. I've been known to ask the quest giver "You're paying us to save the world, right? No? Well, if you don't feel it's important enough to, ahem, pay us for..."). When they end Session 4, they should know they're facing the Final Battle in the following session.

Session 3 2 and 1 are basic dungeon stuff. Figure out what your theme is, and what monsters go with that theme. You may want to have a two tier dungeon, where the upper part is bubear thieves and assassins, and then you get to the Door The Bugbears Never Unlock, on the other side of which is the drow, dragon, spider clan kobolds, driderbolds, spider dragons, kobold sorcerors with Web, etc. Plant some clues about the Big Bad and Her Nefarious Plots along the way. Extra points if you have the bugbear miniboss die while laughing "You've killed me, but I'll have my revenge!" and drops the whole party down a trap door / portal / something. Collapses the tunnels on the way out, something like that. Think Cheesy Bond Villain here.

Throw in some loot to help them in the final fight--healing potions, rings of feather fall they might need as they fight in a vertical shaft crossed by webbing ropes, etc. Throw in some roleplaying or skill challenges to vary the pace.

[devildog91]

That was my plan, with the final session being the big boss fight and the "You're the heroes of the realm!!" Thing. Last session they entered the big underground dungeon that leads to the main villain's home. We ended the session just as they were entering the dungeon. I'm dm-ing for a large group (7 player character) who are all pretty low level (level 6 at the moment) do you guys have any advice for creating a challenging dungeon for a group of moderately low-level characters? I really appreciate all of your advice and ideas so far!

Thank you guys :smallsmile:

By the way, we meet every Thursday and play for about 3-4 hours each time. Based on all our schedules we are looking at 4 session before we have to end it for a couple months.

[Decstarr]

Not knowing what your players enjoy, it is hard to give specific advice. I'll try anyway:

1) Everyone will know it's likely coming to a pause/stop/end, therefore expectations will be rather high. I'd try to throw in minor things such as items, scrolls and things that will be handy in this specific dungeon and that your players will have fun with. Moreover, I'd recommend creating situations in which each of the PCs separately gets a chance to shine and to salvage the situation. Maybe a big crowd of zombies somewhere that your caster can immediately blast with only one fireball and that else wise would take a while to be overcome. Cater to their specialties is pretty much what I'm saying.

2) I've had great success running a gauntlet type scenario over the course of almost 4 sessions (we play once a week for 4-5hours each). Sure, the players were exhausted afterwards, but they enjoyed it tremendously. I'd throw in a lot of relatively weak enemies - I picked Kobolds - but make them as obnoxious as possible. There were traps everywhere, nothing too deadly or dangerous, but the party's spearhead kept falling into them. There were also a few Kobold sorcerers, designed for each part of the dungeon, who are just meant to be ready and blast and then retreat, just to lure the party into certain traps - like the collapsing bridge with archer hallways on both sides. Main point of this is: Give them something to do, give them enemies that they dislike and make the enemies obnoxious. Kobolds are not too strong, but the sheer mass of them and all the traps paired with guys throwing fireballs and then just misty-stepping away made my party really angry and relatively careless (the players expected the traps for sure but some of the PCs got really reckless). Boiling it down: Give them some "need to hurry" motivation - like innocent kids about to sacrificed in some cruel ritual - and then have them overcome obstacles (enemies, traps, riddles etc) pretty much 24/7. Be sure not to make the single obstacles too hard, but rather have the number of problems they face add up to a point where the players will be like "WHEN DO WE FINALLY GET OUT OF HERE?".

3) Depending on whether or not you'll end the campaign with this, you might even consider a cliffhanger of some sorts or some kind of open ending. Like a shadowy figure in the background when they fight the BBEG, who just watches the fight and eventually just takes off. I feel like players like climactic boss fights but like it even more when a few hours later they realize "what was that about?" and try to make sense out of some little things they just overlooked in the heat of the battle.