GM trial ballance/survivability advice

[Aaedimus]

My group is going to be entering a shrine to Ashardalon, which will (if they complete the trial) let one them meet him on another plane of existence (for a few seconds), and also end up in them receiving a pretty awesome temporary version of the Red Dragon Mask from Rise of Tiamat reflavored as an Ashardalon cultist priest mask. They will be level 9. The trial is as follows:

If the players enter the shrine with the ruby statue and spear in their possession, the entire room goes dark, and all light is suppressed except for the Dragon alter in the middle.

Once dragon statue is set on the alter it crumbles into dust in a flash of flames and the words: "We shed our lesser skin, to face our Lord in purity" in Draconic appears in flames above the altar, as a hole for the spear appears in the altar.

A hole appears under the ruby dust.
Insert the spear into the hole and grab the handle

"Fire Purifies" appears in flames above the altar and over 6 rounds the following happens (they can let go ar any time and they fail the trial). If they did not come in naked, and/or brought their equipment into the room (they received a warning) anything flammable including anything worn ignites and burns. Metal in the room is subjected to heat metal for all 6 rounds dealing 1d12 damage every turn:

R1: Fire leaps from the statue and envelops the room
>Everyone in the room:
-Dexterity Saving Throw (11)- 1d12 Fire damage

R2: The statue (and character holding spear) are encased in a sphere of extreme heat
>Player holding spear and anyone within 5ft:
-Strength Saving Throw (12)- 2d12 Fire damage

R3: Image of a Red Dragon climbs out of the ground and spits fire at altar:
>Everyone in 15ft cone:
-Intelligence Saving Throw (13)- 3d12 Fire damage

R4: Sphere surrounding the alter intensifies:
>Player holding spear and anyone within 10ft:
-Constitution Saving Throw (14)- 4d12 Fire damage

R5:Dragon Image rushes towards alter and bites down on player holding spear than disappears
>Player holding spear
Charisma Saving Throw (15)- 5d12 Fire damage

R6: Wisdom Saving Throw 16 - on success: advantage on charisma checks in encounter with Ashardalon.

The one holding the spear is transferred to Ashardalon.

In the encounter they must "prove their worth" to Ashardalon.
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-They just got level 9 (7 player party)
-They're not sure what to expect
-About 1/2 of them have racial fire resistance.
-None have evasion.

Questions:
Should I raise the damage?

Should the save be for 1/2, or for no damage?

How should I have them "prove their worth" to Ashardalon??? (It's a side quest with a juicy temp reward so story wise it's not that important how it happens)

Do you have any other advice?

[Fredaintdead]

Well, I did some maths on a sort of average scenario and it seemed fine with half damage on a pass, but it might be more useful to consider a sort of maximum possible damage scenario, where everything hits a single character.

So, scenario:
The person who picks up the spear does not have racial fire resistance, is wearing metal armour, and fails all their saves.
Said person is going to take 15d12 damage from the various hazards, and then 6d12 from the heat metal effect, for a total of 21d12. That's an average of 136 damage. Now, that IS over the course of 6 rounds, amounting to about 22 fire damage a round.
Based on the party being Lv9, and assuming that anyone in metal armour is going to be on the heftier side of things (Assumption: d10 HD, +3 Con Mod), we can say that person is going to have ~85 hit points. I'm gonna call them Meatmetal from this point on.
So,
Round 1: Meatmetal takes 2d12 fire damage (13 points) from Heat Metal and the first burst of flame. 72/85hp.
Round 2: Meatmetal takes 3d12 fire damage (19 points) from Heat Metal and the burst of fire around the spear. 53/85hp.
Round 3: Meatmetal takes 4d12 fire damage (26 points) from Heat Metal and the cone burst. 27/85hp.
Round 4: Meatmetal takes 5d12 fire damage (32 points) from Heat Metal and the second spear burst. Meatmetal will go down at this point if they received no healing in any of the previous rounds (unlikely to happen). Even if this happens, a single Healing Word can bring them up.
Round 5: Meatmetal takes 6d12 fire damage (39 points) from Heat Metal and the final blast of flame. Meatmetal will probably go down a second time from this. Even from 1hp, the 5d12 burst only deals 60 damage at most, which won't be an insta-kill to Meatmetal.
Round 6: Meatmetal takes 1d12 fire damage (6 points) and probably drops for a 3rd time.

Now, I don't know what equipment your party has, but I'd assume that Meatmetal could at least drink/be forcefed a basic healing potion every round for 2d4+2 (7) healing. Only 5 of these would influence survival really (since the 6th round is the end), so we can assume 10d4+10 (35) healing. This gives Meatmetal an effective hp of ~120. So with approximately 4 castings of Healing Word from someone with a +4 spellcasting ability modifier (3d4+12, or 19 healing), they'll survive without dropping.

We can also make some reasonable assumptions about what the party might do. To start with, after the Round 2 burst of flame, they're likely to spread out to avoid further damage, and given the short range of the other effects, that means we're unlikely to see another character take more than 9d12 damage (6 rounds of Heat Metal + 1d12 in the first round + 2d12 in the second), so depending on who that is, they're pretty likely to survive with a little healing.

So, to summarise my input:
1. Making the saves for half damage should be fine.
2. It's not that hard to survive provided that folks act quickly and actually care about their allies (a small, constant stream of healing does more for Meatmetal than burst healing, especially in later rounds).
3. Ashardalon should probably try to get them to deal with a rival. Something that benefits them on the material plane. Maybe build them up take down another dragon's clutch? That way these potential new servants demonstrate their intelligence (waiting for the big dragon to leave the nest), their guile (sneaking past the lair traps) and their might (taking down the guardians of the clutch). With proof of their deed being a necessary part of obtaining any reward. Ashardalon is busy and doesn't want to have to take the time to check whether they've succeeded after all.

However, most of my issue with this part is well... the party is basically sitting there for 6 rounds, taking damage. There's nothing for them to actually do during the process other than try to heal.

[Aaedimus]

The encounter is supposed to be built to feel deadly, and make them consider letting go in the final 2 rounds. If they do go down or let go, than they fail and it ends. The idea is to make the event feel like an epic battle of will.

I won't tell them the image of the dragon isn't real for example, might even give it a corporeal nature, and they know that they'll fail if they let go.

Also plan on just 6 straight rounds with no initiative, so I don't think that it'll feel drawn out.

I might use a D6 as a counter to increase suspense.

I do like your ideas though.

[OzDragon]

The encounter is supposed to be built to feel deadly, and make them consider letting go in the final 2 rounds. If they do go down or let go, than they fail and it ends. The idea is to make the event feel like an epic battle of will.

I won't tell them the image of the dragon isn't real for example, might even give it a corporeal nature, and they know that they'll fail if they let go.

Also plan on just 6 straight rounds with no initiative, so I don't think that it'll feel drawn out.

I might use a D6 as a counter to increase suspense..

Neat idea here, just a few questions/statements.

If you allow a save either save for no or half damage.

So do you plan on them just sitting there doing nothing and taking all that damage or are you going to allow them to act?
If so that kinda sucks for them as they have no choice inthe matter that may kill them. like dead dead.

Does this purification stop or fail if they heal themselves or just if the one with the spear drops it?

Can they have more than one person hold the spear at the same time?

[OzDragon]

Questions:
Should I raise the damage?

Should the save be for 1/2, or for no damage?

How should I have them "prove their worth" to Ashardalon??? (It's a side quest with a juicy temp reward so story wise it's not that important how it happens)

Do you have any other advice?

1: No the damage is enough to outright kill them all.
2: Yes the save should be for either. Due to the low number needed to save I might be tempted to go with 1/2
3: Just surviving is not enough? What exactly is Ashardalon looking for or what would impress him in this situation that he would act to assist them with said item?
4: I worry about PCs saying eff this due to the increasing nature of the damage.

[Aaedimus]

Neat idea here, just a few questions/statements.

If you allow a save either save for no or half damage.

So do you plan on them just sitting there doing nothing and taking all that damage or are you going to allow them to act?
If so that kinda sucks for them as they have no choice inthe matter that may kill them. like dead dead.

Does this purification stop or fail if they heal themselves or just if the one with the spear drops it?

Can they have more than one person hold the spear at the same time?

Yeah, each turn I'll let them act, but I'm just not going to roll around the table in an initiative manner. I'd like it to all occur pretty organically.

The only thing that stops the purification is if the player holding the spear lets go or blacks out, so it gives everyone quite a bit of freedom.

The reason I thought I might want to raise the damage is that the rest of the group will have their turns to assist him in any way possible (They have 1 healer. A paladin.)

Also, there's nothing stopping them from leaving the room during the ritual. The door's open.

[Aaedimus]

4: I worry about PCs saying eff this due to the increasing nature of the damage.

That's what I'm trying to cause, is a struggle within the group. The goal is to get them all to struggle with the idea... is this worth it?

If they do say "eff this" than the trial actually created enough stress to freak them out, and although they don't get to meet Ashardalon, the encounter was a success because it was fun, and they get the feeling that they actually missed out on something.

Future encounters will me more exciting because they know not everything's a gimme.

[Aaedimus]

So I just thought of an issue with this and was wondering if you thought it might become a problem...

As a DM not usually telling them how much they have to hit to make a save. Do you think it's possible that they might not understand the concept (that the saves and damage are getting higher) until it's to late to build up that suspense? I've seen enough players make uninformed decisions because they don't understand what's going on that I specifically tend to build to avoid that.

[Slipperychicken]

If so that kinda sucks for them as they have no choice inthe matter that may kill them. like dead dead.

If a 7-man, level nine party can't find a way to handle 97 damage or less (likely much less) over the course of 6 rounds, then frankly that's their problem. A GM can only baby them so much.

Besides they seem to have the option of letting go at any time. Even if the damage reduces the holder to zero hit points, they'd fall unconscious, go into death saves, and automatically drop the spear, so there's really very little chance of actual death from this thing. Even a PC determined to kill himself with the effect probably couldn't because of the requirement to keep holding onto it. Well, maybe if he finds a way to fix his hand clenched over it despite unconsciousness, but still that's a lot of effort to essentially commit suicide-by-trial.

And even if a PC manages to die-for-real from this thing, the party is level 9; there's a good chance at least one of them could cast Revivify and/or Raise Dead.

[Aaedimus]

If a 7-man, level nine party can't find a way to handle 97 damage or less (likely much less) over the course of 6 rounds, then frankly that's their problem. A GM can only baby them so much.

Besides they seem to have the option of letting go at any time. Even if the damage reduces the holder to zero hit points, they'd fall unconscious, go into death saves, and automatically drop the spear, so there's really very little chance of actual death from this thing. Even a PC determined to kill himself with the effect probably couldn't because of the requirement to keep holding onto it. Well, maybe if he finds a way to fix his hand clenched over it despite unconsciousness, but still that's a lot of effort to essentially commit suicide-by-trial.

And even if a PC manages to die-for-real from this thing, the party is level 9; there's a good chance at least one of them could cast Revivify and/or Raise Dead.

Exactly. No real chance of death, but when you're holding onto the spear and don't know if I have another encounter planned, the cost of failure, or the reward, the decision can get REAL stressful. I'm excited to try it out.

I'll tell you on Wednesday how it goes!

Right now they're knees deep in a Vine Blight Dracolitch fight, and because their previous DM didn't understand game balance one of them drank a potion that turned him into a 40 foot tall Abominable Yeti for the encounter.