Didn't see that coming

[Rofl-Falafal]

This thread's purpose it to gather all those weird stories of times when a DM's well-laid plans go awry because the wizard in your players' party took the exact spell to foil that situation, or someone has the item they bought back in town that will get them out of it! I know other people have had this happen to them, so spill any stories of frustration here!

My campaign is 10th level with a rogue, a wizard, a cleric and a ranger who is currently annoyed because he took 3 levels in 2 different prestige classes attempting to get the most ripped build ever, only to realize that they both suck unless you go all the way to 10th level. (I don't know the classes offhand.)

My bbeg just lost a fight against the party, so he's kinda weak and all his henchmen are dead. This is like, thier second time meeting him, so they still have no idea how significant he is to the story. As soon as the bbeg vanishes into the forest, my ranger goes "I track him!" Of course I don't want the players to persue him, since the encounter is over, so I decide that bbeg was really hard to track, and after some prying from ranger to get at just exactly how hard he was to track, I just finally tell him he has trackless step. Aha! Apparently the ranger neglected to tell me that one of his prestige classes gives him the power to track things even if they have that exact class feature. A little miffed, I let him do it because I wanted to keep myself from making my villain so powerful that he trancends the rules. The ranger has an ungodly survival bonus, since he skill-mongered it in every way possible (max ranks, skill focus, high wisdom, that synergy feat, etc), so he rolls in the 40s.

Of course the rules say he could track this guy over rocks if it had snowed yeasterday, but I decided to try to hint at bbeg's power by saying the trail was so faint that all they found were a few stray hairs on a tree and a single cracked leaf. Well, that's no problem! The wizard of the party can now scry the villain using the hairs he found, and since he has technically "met the subject firsthand" there's no will save bonus, and since the wizard chose divination as his favored school, he gets a bonus to his roll (does he really, or was he just screwing with me? ).

The next day they scry bbeg and of course, wizard rolls really well and villain bombs his saving throw. So now they know where he is. Well, the cleric has Travel domain (the most annoying of ALL domains!!!) and can requisition a Teleport spell the next day. Most of the party is either Lawful aligned or Good aligned, so they have to report their knowledge of the villain's hideout and current disorganized state to the authorities. They intend to get the authorities on their side and come up with a few dozen soldiers to follow them into battle against the wounded bbeg. Okay, fine. This time I'm calling the shots since I, as the DM, get to roleplay the police, right? I decide police won't come, so the players ask the local churches to send thier holy warriors along. Since I don't feel like rolling up 3-6 level d4+1 Paladins right now, the church also says no. They ask the theives' guild, the local taverns, anywhere that might garner them some extra support. Damn that cleric's +16 to diplomacy! Eventually one of the groups has to cave and come with them. It makes no sense that every organization they talk to, especailly the rogue's own thieves' guild, as well as the local authorities, would be totally unhelpful in eliminating the most major threat to their city, especially with the players' help, especially when he's wounded. Fine. You can have a few low level fighters come along with you. What about wizards? Surely the city must have some wizards in its employ? Okay fine, one low level wizard! Great, now the party not only can reach my campaign's main villain while he's injured and alone, but they have meat shields and a walking bucket of low-level offensive spells to kick around.

So we left the capaign hanging for the evening with the whole party fully healed and spells charged with six 2nd-4th level fighters and a 3rd level wizard in tow, ready to surround and kill the only major plot hook in the whole story. I can't let them not do it either, because then they can accuse me of bending or just ignoring rules to ensure I get my way as a DM, and therefore am railroading the plot. Ugh.

[Mike_Lemmer]

Well, who is the BBEG heading to? Any chance you can whip up a potential ally of the BBEG that he'll reach just as the PCs are ready to go, turning a whipping-boy fight into an all-out brawl?

Or, if you don't want to seem so blatant, why not just have him surrender once he sees what he's up against? Surrendering screws with players all kinds of ways. They can't even cut him down in cold blood because they brought witnesses! Oh, this could be delicious. They'd have 2 choices: bring him in to the authorities (where he would have time to plan an escape or be freed by corrupt, perhaps demon-possessed, politicians) or kill him and the witnesses, which would drop their alignment like a rock.

[Xuincherguixe]

So my Shadowrun character is in some kind of weird house of death. There's this extremely deadly slide I'm supposed to go down.

I punch through the floor.

[CyberWyld]

Our last campaign when I was playing my Ranger/Fighter/Lasher character we went up against a Glabbrazue (spelling). That funny look'n demon with the crab hands. Anyways, we weren't suppossed to attack the thing, and if we did we definately were not suppossed to win, the DM told me after the fact. Our fighter decided to charge in, so we rolled initiative. I rolled insanely good...then proceeded to roll 3xNat20's in a row....it was a bad night for the DM. To say the least he was a little pissed. He told me after the fact also that he had planned that Demon to be the main villian of the campaign..he had to change it up a bit. :) To this date that's the only time I've ever rolled and confirmed 3xnat20's.



hasta

[Behold_the_Void]

I like Mike_Lemmur's suggestion of him surrendering, that's a good way to do it I think.

Oh, and unless they're using a variant that you're unaware of, Specialist Wizards only get an extra spell slot for a spell of their chosen school and +2 to spellcraft checks to learn spells from that chosen school. No DC boosts or anything else of the sort.

[Irreverent Fool]

The real BBEG sent out a simulacrum of himself either crafted by himself if he is a high-level spellcaster later on, or crafted on his behalf by his pet wizard. Of course, he can still surrender.

[Culwch]

So we left the capaign hanging for the evening with the whole party fully healed and spells charged with six 2nd-4th level fighters and a 3rd level wizard in tow, ready to surround and kill the only major plot hook in the whole story. I can't let them not do it either, because then they can accuse me of bending or just ignoring rules to ensure I get my way as a DM, and therefore am railroading the plot. Ugh.

Well, the surrender is a great idea.

You can create additional mayhem if the backup for the players comes from different factions, e.g. the thieves guild and the arcane guild. The players should accept the surrender and deliver the BBEG to justice; the thieves may want to kill and loot the prisoner, or convert/blackmail him to their cause. The arcane guild may want to squeeze information and spells from the prisoner, resorting to unlawful torture.

Also, the BBEG may be an associate of an even bigger BEG, who is competent enough to detect his lackey's in trouble and send help, either to fight, or perhaps teleport him to safety?

"Just as your rag-tag team of enforcers breaches through the door to the villain's chamber, you see him standing in a blazing octagram smelling of sulphur and bile. You reach for your weapons, but before you let the arrows fly, the BBEG utters the final word of the incantation and disappears in a flash of black light. When your sight returns you spy a large, intricate rune on the floor where the portal was." And the rune may point them towards the vile half-demon half-dragon vampire cryohydra demilich Braxtymandrias, who just managed to strike a very lucrative bargain with the disadvantaged villain. (Your continued existence for your unquestioning loyalty in servitude, that kind of a deal).

Also, if all else fails, let them kill the BBEG and have a spiritual successor pick up the plot where the last one left the stage. ;)

[new1965]

Well there always the "comic book" last minute escape

I cant remember its name but theres a magic item that allows the user to enter a dimensional space that is comfortable, has food, water, etc... for almost a year. The more people that are brought with hi, the shorter the duration. I think 100 people could only stay an hour

If the characters are distracted JUST before they can get to your villains inner sanctum (maybe a mirror of opposition). That gives him time to sneak out the back door, cast FLY to get some distance so he can activate this item in safety and have all the time necessary to heal

The use of fly means theres nothing to track and I think that scry wont work in this case, but even if it did it would only show the bbeg in some field under an apple tree relaxing

Hopefully... that kind of escape will give your players the hint

[Roderick_BR]

Hah, this one was funny, happened to my wizard, and I was not even playing that day!
The group went to some castle, and I said they could use my mage's spells, as long it didn't cost XP (components was alright, since we had a gold pool for the party). When they got to the last room, the crystal they had to retrieve was in some pedestal. The druid used a spell to make a stone bridge from the door to the crystal to avoid the traps, grabbed the crystal, and when the monsters started to show up to stop them, they made my wizard use a charge from his staff to teleport everyone away.
Our DM was fuming XD

[nerulean]

The party's going through some caves and they hear a knocking noise. They follow it, and there at the end is a little copper dragon. Now, our group has a tendency to be a might unpredictable, so the DM's carefully chosen a creature that's CR appropriate for the party just in case we try to turn it into copper pieces.

We gave it a name.

Then we asked it to join us.

That dragon's been in every campaign since.

[Kurald Galain]

When I was DM'ing, a bunch of characters from a low-level party (a bard and thief) decided to rob the local jeweler to make a load of cash. Of course jewelers aren't stupid and tend to employ well-made locks, guards and possibly a magical protection or two.

This one simply started at the lock on the door, which the thief quickly determined was way beyond his skill. So the bard, because he often did, casts Nahal's Reckless Dweomer.

I roll d%, and the result indicates that "all doors within 20 feet swing wide open"... er, okay!

[Overlard]

It was the final session of a mini-campaign, that was going to open up into a huge campaign later on. We had just hit level 4. Our group's mentor had been kidnapped by the BBEG and was forcing us to find an artifact (one of a set) to get him back. We had found the artifact in a cave, and started to climb up the rope out into the fresh air again.

My character got out first (he was the only one with a decent climb check) and saw he was surrounded by some ogres. Also visible was the BBEG, clad in fullplate armour and holding our mentor by the neck. He was also hovering off the edge of a cliff.

BBEG demanded the artifact, or he'd drop the mentor (40ft drop), and wasn't going to negotiate. My companions were still at the bottom of the 40ft rope in the cave, so I did the only thing I thought feasible.

I ran past the ogres (their AoOs missed) and leapt off the cliff, smacking into the BBEG. Holding on to him and our mentor, the weight was too much for the spell and we began to descend. BBEG couldn't get a weapon out, and failed casting a spell on the way down.

When we landed, I enfeebled the BBEG (rolling max) and began a duel. With his now-crappy strength, he could barely hit me normally, and resorted to some damaging spells. I was rolling well and hit him often. By now my comrades had clambered up the rope and were dealing with the ogres. The cleric heard my duel so came running over, leapt of the edge of the cliff (taking minimal damage). It was good timing as I was down to 1 hp, and after being healed, continued beating down the BBEG, who was looking very bloody. At which point, the BBEG turns tail and disappears.

Apparantly the end of the campaign was meant to be the BBEG getting the artifact & killing our mentor anyway. The bigger campaign was/is going to be a race for the other artifacts, with BBEG as the hated enemy who we wanted revenge on. The didn't expect us to leap off cliffs, saving the mentor, keeping the artifact and seeing off the BBEG with his tail between his legs.

Never underestimate a chaotic character with a good jump check.

[wowy319]

Well, our party's paladin had been captured, and I was forced to masquerade as one of the enemy soldiers to get into the tavern they held her at. I was playing a half-bronze dragon bard/fighter, so the disguising took little to no effort.

Well, inside the tavern, I decided that there was a very easy way to take out all of the enemy soldiers in there. I asked them to get into a straight, single-file line (see where this is going?). The DM, knowing what I was planing, asked me to make a diplomacy check (at an amazingly high DC, knowing I only had 5 ranks) expecting me to fail miserably.

I rolled a natural 20.

After the troops got into a straight line, I used my breath weapon, and literally vaporized the enemies.

I love it when a plan comes together!

[ndragonsbane]

For the OP:

So what if the PC's kill the BBEG. Unless you are playing on a world were there are no resurrections, let them kill him and feel like they've gotten rid of him. Then just have a "friend" or ally of the BBEG scry out his body and res him. Unless the PC's capture his soul or feed him to a barghest he can be raised (or maybe he can just come back as a death knight or something).

[kjones]

... or steal his body, or keep him alive while banishing him to an outer plane, or...

Anyway, the OP is a perfect example of the uselessness of the track skill. If it's important for the plot for someone to be trackable, they will be. Likewise, if someone is supposed to get away, they will.

I had this same problem when my players were attacked by some hit-and-run mercs on horseback. The ranger decided to track them, and of course he makes the roll no problem. I had to spend a while convincing him that even if he was moving at full speed (with the corresponding penalty to DC), he wouldn't be able to catch up with someone on horseback.

[Krrth]

Well, you can always turn the tables. You said the party scryed the BBEG the previous day? IF they didn't do it the day of the attack...who's to say he's still there? I don't know what class he is, but wouldn't it be funny if HE scryed the party, realized what was happening, and simply....left. Maybe leaving a nasty note, and perhaps a copper piece for their trouble.

[rollfrenzy]

I really like the surrender idea. The looks on the pcs face would be priceless, have the guys surrender, this little local town convict him and put him in jail. Where they will feed him, give him shelter, nurse his wounds, and protect him form the adventurers!. Then just have him run his evil empire from the safe confines of this little local prison, which he could escape from at any time, and where the PC's know where he is, know, or at least suspect what he's doing, and can't do anything about it.

As for my own story, we made up Cthulu Characters for a campaign, It was one of my friends first times playing any game. Well we got ready to start and the Dm says "you just flew into Egypt and..." The new player goes "THE PYRAMID IS A SPACESHIP!!"

The dm just sat there. Staring. A look of utter Shock on his face.

It was priceless.

[Anxe]

One time my players whacked a whole bunch of vampires turning them all into gaseous form. Due to some magical stuff the vampires did not actually need coffins to sleep in, just had to stay in their crypt to regenerate. Then the cleric in the party pointed out that he had a +1 Mace, and that vampires in gaseous form had DR 10/magic. They cast a fly spell, so they could get to the vamps and proceeded permanently killing each of them one by one. I was very angry...

[Arbitrarity]

That's because you don't know the rules.
1: "A vampire has damage reduction 10/silver and magic."
2: "If reduced to 0 hit points in combat, it automatically assumes gaseous form and attempts to escape. It must reach its coffin home within 2 hours or be utterly destroyed. (It can travel up to nine miles in 2 hours.) Any additional damage dealt to a vampire forced into gaseous form has no effect."

[Anxe]

It was a good plan, so I ruled it worked. They probably would've killed the vamps the instant they reformed anyways. I still screwed them over when they got out of the crypt, so it's all good.

[Keld Denar]

To OP: If the BBEG is a caster, give him some Maguffin of powerful summoning that he tries to use as a last resort. The PCs show up just in time to get a face full of Hezeru demon, and the BBEG gets away in the confusion. Still doesn't remediate the rangers potent ability to track him, nor the wizards ability to scry on him, but it would be a neat distraction for the PCs that would give him another head start. Plus, the summoned thing could drop an Unholy Blight or depending on level, a blasphemy, and kill off all the little henches, thereby making it so that the PCs won't try to recruit any more annoying help. By the Law-of-the-Guys-Wearing-Red-Shirts, henches MUST be caught in some kind of collateral damage and killed off namelessly. Good luck with that anyway!

For my own story, I was in a game last Saturday. One of the party members was an anti-undead necromancer. He just happened to memorize a transdimensional spell Web that day. Bam, 2 Ghosts manifest in and start ghosting, and the wiz wins initiative, slaps on the transdimensional web, and the DM pretty much scooped the encounter. They tried to de-manifest to go etherial to escape the web, only to find that it extended into that plane as well. So then they tried to shift back in, right into the arms of my enlarged ghost touch spiked chain whirlwind of doom. One hasted full attack later, and the combat was over. We then booked it out of there before the 1d4 day rejuvination was up and the angry buggers tried to get us again. Whole combat, and a rather difficult one at that normally, ended effectively in 2 actions. The DM was kind of mad. Just a little.

[horseboy]

Well, it was my first time playing Traveller about 10-12 years ago. We met this Varger that was supposed to deliver a xeno artifact. His contact was killed and he had been badly beaten when we got there. We fend the guys off and try and help him out. Well, everybody wants the artifact of course. It's this little casino chip looking thing with a small crystal in the middle. So we're setting around in the cockpit trying to decide on what to do, who to give it to, who's going to backstab us, yadda, yadda, yadda. Me and Ed (the varger) are making some fake versions while everybody else is all knee deep in the intrigue. All along in the back of my brain I'm sitting there thinking how I'm missing something. Then i realize what it was. I borrow the original and ask the DM "What happens when I shine a flash light through it?" And that's when we found out that it was a "computer disk", and using my 2 in computers found out what was on it about 3/4 of the adventure too soon.

We were playing Chaosium's Call of Cthulthu. Our usual DM was getting to play, so someone else was running. He only thought he knew us. Well the climax took place at this factory where they were going to summon Cthulthu and we had to find a way inside. Not a problem. I was playing an Ace of Diamonds, so I called up their union representative. Told them about how a factory not to far away was having management difficulties and they needed a sympathy strike. He agreed. We called the EPA, claimed there was a toxic spill. We called the FBI with a bomb threat there. We called PETA, told them they were dissecting live animals so they could expose their internal organs to toxic substances so they'd die slowly. We called EVERY news agency with variations of the different stories. We called OSHA with safety violations. We called the NAACP claiming that a black guy had been hit physically and had racial epitaphs thrown at him. We called all the local churches, said that a satanic cult had kidnapped the kid on the milk carton and was about to sacrifice them.

So we've got this HUGE angry crowd outside, demanding to be let in. Of course the guards aren't letting anyone past. Then "someone" throws a rock. That turns the angry crowd into an angry mob. They charge the place. We show up using the paramedic's in our groups ambulance. We drive right through. The DM had his head in his hands and laughing so hard he almost fell out of the chair.

The ONE time they had me Risk. We get everybody started and we're all scattered all over everywhere. The first guy (our usual DM) decides he wants to take Australia. So he attacks my holding. "Hang on a minute. You can have it."
"What?"
"Look, I've got one guy on there. I don't want it. You've got 1 guy on Switzerland. You clearly don't want it. I'll give you western Australia if you give me Switzerland."
"Can you do that?"
"Does it say in the rules you can't? You know me, you know I'm going to take some of your troops with my rolling. Why risk it?"
"Is it okay with everybody else?" Everybody immediately saw the value in it. We all agreed. I went last, so everybody at the table swapped and traded properties with me until at the beginning of my turn I had all of Europe and no one realized it.

[Nevar]

So there we were the party Vs the BBEG as he opens a whole bunch of portals for his army to pour through. Unfortanitly my DM forgot that our Mage has Maximized Fireball. Which he casts, he fails reflex he dies. DM looks at us and goes "I hate you all and were done for the night."

[Tormsskull]

I was a PC a long time ago in a Woodland Creatures game (Old D&D). My character was a Wood Drake (Looks like a mini dragon, no breath weapon, can polymorph into a halfling or an Elf). So I am in Elf form almost all of the time, when the DM throws our party into a forest maze. He describes these 10-foot tall walls made of thorns (Like the movie Labrynth).

I say "I change into Wood Drake form and fly over the walls." The smile on his face went away almost immediately.

[Telonius]

I really like the surrender idea. The looks on the pcs face would be priceless, have the guys surrender, this little local town convict him and put him in jail. Where they will feed him, give him shelter, nurse his wounds, and protect him form the adventurers!. Then just have him run his evil empire from the safe confines of this little local prison, which he could escape from at any time, and where the PC's know where he is, know, or at least suspect what he's doing, and can't do anything about it.

This could work. Basically the entire town refused to help them. I'm assuming that not a single one of the party made a "Sense Motive" roll. There is some reason that the town authorities don't want to be directly involved. You're the DM, so you get to make something up. Perhaps the BBEG has connections in the Thieves' guild. (That would make sense). Maybe there are church politics involved, such that the Paladins wouldn't want to charge in. Or the BBEG knows a terrible secret about one of the town elders. There are literally dozens of reasons you could pull.

Alternately, let them kill him. He is no longer BBEG, he is now Lackey McDiesalot. In his last breath, have him remark in a sinister way that they'll never know the real threat until it's too late, mwahahaha. Then, leave a trail of clues back in town that lead to the real BBEG. Side quest with the Thieves' Guild. Somebody in the midlevels apologizes to your Rogue that they didn't want to be too helpful, because they were afraid Lackey would report them to the real BBEG.

[Recursive]

Advice to the original poster --

It sounds like your players have thoroughly outmaneuvered the bad guy. Instead of stretching to find ways to let him escape anyway, let things play out naturally: the party gets as much help as they realistically should from allies and authorities, and if they continue to act intelligently, there's a good chance they capture or kill the BBEG.

And it doesn't derail the larger plot at all...because you said they don't yet know how significant he is. Just let it turn out that he's not all that significant. He's just a mid-to-high level minion himself. The real BBEG is the one who this guy works for (and any behind-the-scenes plots that this guy is already involved in, you just retroactively transfer to his boss. The players never know the difference.)

In the process of running down the current bad guy, let them learn something about who he works for, or even briefly encounter the real villain for the first time -- under circumstances where they won't be able to immediately track down the boss, of course.

Which is not to say that you make their victory insignificant. They gain the trust of the allies that work with them, they take out a fairly important minion and impede the BBEG's plans by weeks or months, and they rightly feel like their ingenuity in capturing this guy made a real difference...it just didn't destroy the campaign.

[LotharBot]

"Scry and Die" can be defeated in many ways.

Forbiddance blocks teleporting into the area, and will likely kill the low-level guys your party has asked to come along, unless the party dispels the effect before the low-level guys move into the area.

There are plenty of spells that fool scrying, as well -- false image based spells, especially. Maybe the BBEG really isn't where the party thinks he is, because he used an anti-scrying spell.

If this guy is really super-duper plot significant, he should be powerful enough to be able to avoid the standard scry-and-die attack.

[Ceridan]

Well there always the "comic book" last minute escape

I cant remember its name but theres a magic item that allows the user to enter a dimensional space that is comfortable, has food, water, etc... for almost a year. The more people that are brought with hi, the shorter the duration. I think 100 people could only stay an hour

If the characters are distracted JUST before they can get to your villains inner sanctum (maybe a mirror of opposition). That gives him time to sneak out the back door, cast FLY to get some distance so he can activate this item in safety and have all the time necessary to heal

The use of fly means theres nothing to track and I think that scry wont work in this case, but even if it did it would only show the bbeg in some field under an apple tree relaxing

Hopefully... that kind of escape will give your players the hint

The item you speak of is the Rod of Splendour. The problem being that it is an epic magic item. If he has something of that calibur, it was most likely loaned to him by a more powerful BBEG. Thus making the current BBEG a henchman.

[TheAlmightyOne]

Mine was when I had the BBEG appearing in the middle of a dungeon, getting beaten and fighting the PCs at the end again with alot more minions. It was some kind of mage, supposed to be powerful compared to our party, but still beatable. Party (about level 5) walked into the room, criticled both the minions and the rolled a natural 20 on a diplomacy check to ask the wizard to leave the dungeon. End of the dungeon came and the PCs found only a few kobolds and an orc. The party then complained at me for having an anti-climactic ending. Yes its my fault you asked the bbeg to leave.

[Bauglir]

The item you speak of is the Rod of Splendour. The problem being that it is an epic magic item. If he has something of that calibur, it was most likely loaned to him by a more powerful BBEG. Thus making the current BBEG a henchman.

Or possibly the Rod of Security, which creates a pocket dimension paradise for 200 days divided by the number of occupants. Seems to be exactly what he was talking about. 61000 gp, it's in the SRD.