Dream dungeon?

[RittenRemedy]

Oops, I did it again. I had a wild idea to make the chapter boss battle more than just another dungeon crawl with a giant meat sack at the end.

I almost pulled it off last time, but it didn't go great. The players didn't realize that I forced a weapon with the damage type that would take down the wall on them and also described, twice, the piles of coal stored there. Nope, their tactic was to cast light on an arrow and shoot the arrow. Oops. I need help.

This chapter is all about enchantment. What I would love is instead of a conventional dungeon have them face some encounters or trials specific to their characters, so we can drop some hints about past and future personal plots and stuff.

But mechanics wise, how do I set this up so one of them doesn't think they're gonna be smart and disbelieve the enchantment and just drop out with nothing to do or so they think? At the time this would happen, the... chapter... meddlers?? are doing a ritual to charm a bunch of people similarly, and I'd like to be more prepared if they try to break it than just "no you can't." Is there maybe another way to go about this, or would it be better to just scrap the whole idea?

[Hellpyre]

But mechanics wise, how do I set this up so one of them doesn't think they're gonna be smart and disbelieve the enchantment and just drop out with nothing to do or so they think?

Well, for starters you disbelieve illusions, not enchantments, so they can't do that by normal rules anyways.

If you want to avoid saving throws entirely without DM fiat, why not make it come in the form of magical rays affecting the characters. Give it a good spell attack bonus, and you can reasonably hit an entire party quickly, then just don't have it be an effect that calls for a throw each round.

Alternatively, you could do something drastic like talking to your players. Seriously, just run by them first that you have a campaign beat that involves magically being faced with their past and get some buy-in. Then you can do something as simple as "You walk into the room and suddenly your sight dims, and the familiar faces around you shift and waver, becoming others you recall from your past." Then just run them through the revelations or what have you, with everyone feeling happy and in-control.

[Kurt Kurageous]

I've seen this done with a god "testing" the characters separately, then together in short mostly no-win scenarios with some kind of dilemma. It's not that you win, it's that you try.

Definitely interesting concept. Good luck, DM.

[jojosskul]

This is an adaptation of something I've actually seen in published material, so I think it could work.

This works best if the characters are trying to achieve some goal, like retrieve an item/macguffin of some kind.

An ancient temple guards the macguffin, but after descending into the dungeon it is one single room. As they enter a number of doors exactly equal to the number of party members appear on the walls, and the way they came from dissapears. In an ancient language written somewhere in the room (on the ceiling, on an altar at the center of the room maybe?) is the phrase, "To Claim Your Future, Face Your Past" Maybe this was a temple to a dead god of time, as an idea.

Each door is marked with a different characters name, in the same language. No one but that character can open that door. As soon as the door is opened, blinding lights flash, and the characters are in whatever Quantam Leap encounter you envisioned and it can be set anywhere you like.

After the party has completed all of the flashback encounters, a new door appears, and it leads to the MacGuffin. That can either be it, or there could be an ancient guardian set to be a final test of their resolve. Making the final boss somewhat time based seems thematic as well.

To prevent mid dungeon long rests and do a full adventuring day of encounters here, I'd recommend stealing a page from Lost Temple of Tamoachan (not sure if I spelled that right). There's a mist that fills the room that deals them one damage every two hours. So they can short rest, but not long rest. After the next to last room, the mist begins to do one damage a MINUTE, so no more resting. Maybe have a new line appear saying something like, "Time is Precious, To Waste it is to Waste Life."

Hope this helps!

[Unoriginal]

Not sure if it's what you want, but how about this:

The dungeon only exists in the dream, and the PCs need to stay asleep and dreaming (possibly with a NPC helping with a ritual to get in the dungeon) in order to do anything about the issue that is ongoing in said dungeon.

[Dienekes]

Oops, I did it again. I had a wild idea to make the chapter boss battle more than just another dungeon crawl with a giant meat sack at the end.

I almost pulled it off last time, but it didn't go great. The players didn't realize that I forced a weapon with the damage type that would take down the wall on them and also described, twice, the piles of coal stored there. Nope, their tactic was to cast light on an arrow and shoot the arrow. Oops. I need help.

This chapter is all about enchantment. What I would love is instead of a conventional dungeon have them face some encounters or trials specific to their characters, so we can drop some hints about past and future personal plots and stuff.

But mechanics wise, how do I set this up so one of them doesn't think they're gonna be smart and disbelieve the enchantment and just drop out with nothing to do or so they think? At the time this would happen, the... chapter... meddlers?? are doing a ritual to charm a bunch of people similarly, and I'd like to be more prepared if they try to break it than just "no you can't." Is there maybe another way to go about this, or would it be better to just scrap the whole idea?

Establish beforehand what the method of getting out of the enchantment is. If the players know right and away that the method of obtaining freedom is seeing what’s at the end of the dungeon then they will be more likely to push onward. If the goal is presented as “find a way out” then their instincts will go into overdriving trying to figure out how to bypass the dungeon immediately.

Personally with this sort of dream nonsense I like using Hags of various sorts because “weird magic” comes with the notion that it can’t be dispelled through normal means but instead involves well weird magic stuff to break from their charms and curses.

[Unoriginal]

Beholders are also nice to use with dream magic.

[RittenRemedy]

This is an adaptation of something I've actually seen in published material, so I think it could work...


Not sure if it's what you want, but how about this...


Establish beforehand what the method of getting out of the enchantment is. If the players know right and away that the method of obtaining freedom is seeing what’s at the end of the dungeon then they will be more likely to push onward...

These are brilliant thank you!