D&D story....help!

[hortez the champion of the frozen wastes]

Okay so I' running a campaign in 4.0 and I have the story all set out but it needs meat. I became painfully aware of this after my party hunted down the baddy who had been plaguing them for so long only to be torn apart because he is 10 levels higher then them.


Please help a brother out.

 

[Adrianis]

Well, me and some mates have been playing 2.5 or 3.5 cant remember (like it matters...) and we did a campaign where we fought someone much higher level than us, but he was a recurrent enemy so the dm made it so it wasnt a fight to the death. With enough killing to do elsewhere in the quest it worked well (though frankly, we could have beat the sucker anyway)

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

Give your Big Bad a few things to occupy the players between the start of the campaign and the endgame. Introduce a slightly less powerful but nonetheless daunting minion who refers to their master only in veiled threats and somewhat awe-inspired anecdotes. Have the Big Bad execute some machinations in the local court that makes it seem like the actual potentate is either an innocent-murdering douche or a doddering old coot. Cloak the Big Bad in the illusion of a helpful shopkeeper or a damsel in distress to fool the heroes into doing something that helps further the Big Bad's cause. I could go on.

 

[Abedeus]

Or make it so that one of the attacks made by the players knocks over a column and makes the ceiling collapse on the boss.

 

[Vimbert]

Have them assault what they believe is the Big Bad's hiding place, only to reveal after a difficult battle against him that their villain is in another castle. For bonus "Evil DM" points, have there be an illusion of the Big Bad that stands right on top of a wicked pit trap that dumps the PCs into an acid-filled metal funnel that is nigh-impossible to climb out of.

 

[Voodoomancer]

What game is this?

Dungeons and dragons, a Pen-n-Paper tabletop RPG

 

[hortez the champion of the frozen wastes]

Give your Big Bad a few things to occupy the players between the start of the campaign and the endgame. Introduce a slightly less powerful but nonetheless daunting minion who refers to their master only in veiled threats and somewhat awe-inspired anecdotes. Have the Big Bad execute some machinations in the local court that makes it seem like the actual potentate is either an innocent-murdering douche or a doddering old coot. Cloak the Big Bad in the illusion of a helpful shopkeeper or a damsel in distress to fool the heroes into doing something that helps further the Big Bad's cause. I could go on.

Please do.

 

[lostclause]

How did they manage to track him down at such a low level? He should have appropriate guards around him that people of only similar level would be able to get through to him. That way the PCs will fight the first guards and if they're too tough, flee. Seriously, this guy should have minions to protect him that the PCs encounter first.

 

[Archon]

I like to approach D&D campaigns with an eye for realism in the setting and NPC behavior. So why doesn't the big bad guy just tear apart the player characters when he is ten levels higher than them, rather than let them level up?

The classic solution here is the Rick Hunter/Roy Fokker or Luke/Obi-Wan dynamic, where you introduce a set of well-known higher level heroes that are renowned in the land. These great heroes are occupying/concerning the Big Bad Guy, while his Evil Minion deals with the party. The players are emulating these heroes of the prior generation and aspire to be like them.

At some point the Big Bad Guy kills the aspirational NPC heroes, which puts the land into despair and serves as warning that he's a bad mo-fo. Now it is up to the PCs to succeed where the prior generation failed.

 

[hortez the champion of the frozen wastes]

Let me tell you a little more about the situation.


The people I play with seem to have this weird obsession with building villages, so there are a couple scattered across the land witch serve as a home port. The baddies are trying to make the two human nations destroy each other by getting them to attack but the players manage to convince them to ally. The baddies have inflamed the local tribes against the human nations so the PC's have been given the task of destroying them, which I am running out of material for. There are only so many times you can challenge the leader for supremacy of the tribe.

Again, I could use some help.

 

[hortez the champion of the frozen wastes]

How did they manage to track him down at such a low level? He should have appropriate guards around him that people of only similar level would be able to get through to him. That way the PCs will fight the first guards and if they're too tough, flee. Seriously, this guy should have minions to protect him that the PCs encounter first.

Naw it isn't working like that in my campaign. The deal is that I made this beat master ranger whos lvl 15 go about infiltrating the the senates of the human nations and trying to start war. They haven't even encountered the big baddie yet. He's like Altair crossed with a bag of douche and a wolf. Also, weirdest sentence I have ever said.

 

[CIA]

Have the big bad dude transport them to the dungeons of a castle where his evil right hand man lives. They then must either fight, sneak, or bluff their way out to continue on their quest.

Put in lots of goblins and weak shit so your fighter (with Great Cleave) can feel like a badass. Also remember that most people don't put traps in a castle that they regularly walk around.

 

[hortez the champion of the frozen wastes]

Have the big bad dude transport them to the dungeons of a castle where his evil right hand man lives. They then must either fight, sneak, or bluff their way out to continue on their quest.

Put in lots of goblins and weak shit so your fighter (with Great Cleave) can feel like a badass. Also remember that most people don't put traps in a castle that they regularly walk around.

This is great.

But I also have another problem. I have this bad ass dungeon all planned out, but I don't know how to make it make sense, because there are kobolds and goblins and orcs and dragons and blah blah blah. Anyway is there some way I could get this to make sense in the story.

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

The people I play with seem to have this weird obsession with building villages, so there are a couple scattered across the land witch serve as a home port. The baddies are trying to make the two human nations destroy each other by getting them to attack but the players manage to convince them to ally. The baddies have inflamed the local tribes against the human nations so the PC's have been given the task of destroying them, which I am running out of material for. There are only so many times you can challenge the leader for supremacy of the tribe.

Here's an idea.

Someone comes out of nowhere and challenges BOTH leaders for supremacy of their tribes. The current leaders are defeated in the ensuing battle leaving the newcomer in charge of both. The newcomer then rallies both tribes into a single fighting force backed up by foreign weapons and tactics, which begin assaulting the nearest human nation.

The challenge, the shipments of weapons and the relaying of messages could each be stretched to a full evening of gaming if you're clever enough. All of it leads to at least one epic battle, and behind it all is your Big Bad, manipulating the newcomer and, by extension, the entire political and military tapestry of the land.

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

I like to approach D&D campaigns with an eye for realism in the setting and NPC behavior. So why doesn't the big bad guy just tear apart the player characters when he is ten levels higher than them, rather than let them level up?

Come to think of it, the "Big Bad in disguise" idea I pitched before suffers from this same line of thinking. Why not knife the heroes in their sleep if they just 'rescued' you and need to go home?

 

[hortez the champion of the frozen wastes]

I like to approach D&D campaigns with an eye for realism in the setting and NPC behavior. So why doesn't the big bad guy just tear apart the player characters when he is ten levels higher than them, rather than let them level up?

Come to think of it, the "Big Bad in disguise" idea I pitched before suffers from this same line of thinking. Why not knife the heroes in their sleep if they just 'rescued' you and need to go home?

Because he is arrogant. He doesn't take them seriously. Of course eventually he does try, but then he would send appropriate lvl assassins. He sees them as a trouble to his plan, but not enough to be bothered to actually fly in and stick chain lightning up their ass.

 

[CIA]

Have the big bad dude transport them to the dungeons of a castle where his evil right hand man lives. They then must either fight, sneak, or bluff their way out to continue on their quest.

Put in lots of goblins and weak shit so your fighter (with Great Cleave) can feel like a badass. Also remember that most people don't put traps in a castle that they regularly walk around.

This is great.

But I also have another problem. I have this bad ass dungeon all planned out, but I don't know how to make it make sense, because there are kobolds and goblins and orcs and dragons and blah blah blah. Anyway is there some way I could get this to make sense in the story.

Have the main evil guy make a deal with the dragons to get them on his side. Then the PCs can take out or reason with (if they can somehow get the dragons fighting against the main evil guy that would be great) the dragon (who I assume is the boss) to achieve their ends.

 

[hortez the champion of the frozen wastes]

Have the big bad dude transport them to the dungeons of a castle where his evil right hand man lives. They then must either fight, sneak, or bluff their way out to continue on their quest.

Put in lots of goblins and weak shit so your fighter (with Great Cleave) can feel like a badass. Also remember that most people don't put traps in a castle that they regularly walk around.

This is great.

But I also have another problem. I have this bad ass dungeon all planned out, but I don't know how to make it make sense, because there are kobolds and goblins and orcs and dragons and blah blah blah. Anyway is there some way I could get this to make sense in the story.

Have the main evil guy make a deal with the dragons to get them on his side. Then the PCs can take out or reason with (if they can somehow get the dragons fighting against the main evil guy that would be great) the dragon (who I assume is the boss) to achieve their ends.

What I was getting at is how do I explain the fact that the orcs and kobolds and warforged and goblins are all in the same dungeon?

 

[Rokar333]

Simple, they're all employed by the big bad. It doesn't have to be a cave in the wilderness, a dungeon can be anything. Like a big bad's vacation resort that they mistake for his doom fortress, thus killing all those in his employ and earning some easy(er) exp.