All or Nothing, DM advice needed badly.

[SMac8988]

I am in the process of building the climatic fight to the end of the first arc of my story, and am in desperate need of some advice.

Currently the fight will be taking place in a small city in the middle of no where. An army of savages is approaching the party will be using the city as a last stand.

They have befriended a brass dragon whom with a small army of his friends will hold most of the troops outside the city, but the 4 commanders and the lead bad will be within the city.

Initially I was going have npcs step in for the 4 commanders and let the party go in at their best for the big boss and just build him as an absolute monster. But now that I designed the 4 commanders and their encounters, if the party decided to help the npcs, I kinda want to have them fight them all.

So would a like spell shield that all 4 generals have to be defeated before they could enter the area with the big bad, or just see if they decide to fight thrm and if not they miss out on loot, exp and a cool fight scene?

[imanidiot]

I am in the process of building the climatic fight to the end of the first arc of my story, and am in desperate need of some advice.

Currently the fight will be taking place in a small city in the middle of no where. An army of savages is approaching the party will be using the city as a last stand.

They have befriended a brass dragon whom with a small army of his friends will hold most of the troops outside the city, but the 4 commanders and the lead bad will be within the city.

Initially I was going have npcs step in for the 4 commanders and let the party go in at their best for the big boss and just build him as an absolute monster. But now that I designed the 4 commanders and their encounters, if the party decided to help the npcs, I kinda want to have them fight them all.

So would a like spell shield that all 4 generals have to be defeated before they could enter the area with the big bad, or just see if they decide to fight thrm and if not they miss out on loot, exp and a cool fight scene?

Just give them the opportunity to get some extra rewards. If they don't fight them you can always reskin the encounter and use it later.

[smcmike]

Fighting multiple enemies sounds like more fun and easier to balance than fighting one enemy. So do that.

[coolAlias]

Set it up so that each commander is doing something the PCs don't want them to do - then they'll have an incentive to try and stop them.

Let fighting none, some or all be a player choice that will affect the game world in some significant way.

Perhaps the players decide that the BBEG is the biggest threat and needs to be taken down first; that's fine, let them try. While they fight, the commanders are wreaking havoc elsewhere, or perhaps come in to reinforce their leader.

If the players take a long time chasing down all the commanders, what is the BBEG doing during this time? Nothing the players will like, I hope!

[SMac8988]

Set it up so that each commander is doing something the PCs don't want them to do - then they'll have an incentive to try and stop them.

Let fighting none, some or all be a player choice that will affect the game world in some significant way.

Perhaps the players decide that the BBEG is the biggest threat and needs to be taken down first; that's fine, let them try. While they fight, the commanders are wreaking havoc elsewhere, or perhaps come in to reinforce their leader.

If the players take a long time chasing down all the commanders, what is the BBEG doing during this time? Nothing the players will like, I hope!

My idea would be they would get away if they party leaves them to go fight the big bad. And eventually they would return, or the party would have to go to their lands and there would be conflict due to this whole incident.

I could make it if they don't stop the commanders the gates of the city will remain open and if they go straight to the boss they would have to deal with constant tribes men joining the battle.

Like 1d4 barbarians will join every so many turns per gates being opened. They would have to either split up and try and 1 v 1 these gate guards, or travel around the city to each one.

[GlenSmash!]

Since I'm a mean DM, I would make it so that the players, can fight the 4 mini-bosses, which would weaken the main boss, but in the time it takes to do so, the city takes a lot of damage, or they could go directly to the main boss but have a much harder fight, but the 4 mini-bosses will flee once the main-boss is down, which will save a greater portion of the city.

[smcmike]

What is the Big Bad's reason for being in the city? If he just wanted to conquer it, one might expect him to fight with his army. So, I'm guessing the army is basically a distraction, while he seeks some goal within the city?

Make the commanders distractions as well. The Big Bad brought them into the city to help him achieve his goal, and he gives each of them some other goal, meant to throw up roadblocks for anyone trying to stop him. If the players ignore them and go right for the big bad, they achieve their smaller goals, then maybe show up halfway through the big bad fight to help out.

Examples of things they might be doing:

Setting fires
Letting in the army
Reasing undead from the crypts
Releasing prisoners
Killing innocents
Opening portals to hell
Blocking the river to flood the city
Retrieving an artifact the big bad wants to further his goal
Capturing specific hostages
Capturing specific sacrificial victims to bring to the big bad
Retrieving an artifact that can control or kill the NPC dragon
Taking control of towers around the city, from which they can fire upon the big bad fight.
Breaking magical seals that allow the big bad to enter his destination
Dominating specific NPCs for specific purposes (the Mayor says "open the gates!")

[SMac8988]

The big bad is marching an army north, and this is the only city in this area for him to make a stop. The next city is at least a days travel by horse back, if not more.

He is coming to check in with one of his other generals and his harem of wives, which the general is dead and the party freed his wives.

The party is there to stop him, hired by the capital city the big bad is marching on.

The main part of his force will be making camp outside when everything kicks off.

The orginal idea was to allow each party member meet up with a commander in a seperate part of town, and let them start the fight. And when things start going wrong have an npc or two show up and step in allowing the PC to head to the big boss.

Figure that way I could burn at least a bit of spell and hp prior to them getting these. Does that seem like a good idea?

[smcmike]

How do they get into the city? Why didn't anyone notice their entrance? What are the commanders trying to accomplish? Do they know about the party, and are trying to take them out? Why is the party split up?

An idea - the big bad and his commanders entered the city a few days before the army arrived. An imposter is leading the army outside of the city, while he plans a coup from the inside. The commanders have been waiting for the PCs to split up, at which point they will each attack their targets, while the battle begins outside and the big bad makes a move on the palace.

After X rounds fighting the commanders, the PCs discover that the palace is under attack, and that they need to get there ASAP, commander or no. If they've killed their commander, great. If they haven't, NPCs will hold him off while they get to the palace. Any commander that lives will retreat from the city, but will cause some sort of havoc on the way out - preplan some negative consequence for each of them that lives.

This could work. Potential problems - 1v1 combat is hard to balance, and could lead to player death or boring victories. Also, 1v1 combat is boring for everyone else at the table.

[SMac8988]

How do they get into the city? Why didn't anyone notice their entrance? What are the commanders trying to accomplish? Do they know about the party, and are trying to take them out? Why is the party split up?

An idea - the big bad and his commanders entered the city a few days before the army arrived. An imposter is leading the army outside of the city, while he plans a coup from the inside. The commanders have been waiting for the PCs to split up, at which point they will each attack their targets, while the battle begins outside and the big bad makes a move on the palace.

After X rounds fighting the commanders, the PCs discover that the palace is under attack, and that they need to get there ASAP, commander or no. If they've killed their commander, great. If they haven't, NPCs will hold him off while they get to the palace. Any commander that lives will retreat from the city, but will cause some sort of havoc on the way out - preplan some negative consequence for each of them that lives.

This could work. Potential problems - 1v1 combat is hard to balance, and could lead to player death or boring victories. Also, 1v1 combat is boring for everyone else at the table.

I like this idea. I could use a good use a good bit of it.

My idea for the one on one combat was to like wait for tthe spilt up and then go up to the fight with each. Then have all four battles set up on the table at once in different t maps, and run it as one combat but in 4 different areas. Does that make sense?