Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 99typhoons May 12, 2015 21:46:42	The Party has been doing about 1 "Main Quest" Mission every month, my brother (cleric)and his friend(rogue) have been doing more one-shot missions almost every week or so with me, but we have come to the next "Main Quest Line"     Im DM, and our group just reached the temple of their new Ice Goddess, high up in the snow covered mountains, to prepare for the BBEG's arrival with his minions in an attempt to kill the god and take her slot in dietyship as part of his grand plan.    PCs:   -Female Human Fighter  -Male Dragonkin Paladin -Male Human Cleric -Male Human Rogue   NPCs:    -Ice Goddess -The Leader of the Adventuring Company the group works for.   Basically the bad guy is going to attack the temple to try to kill the god, but i dont want this to turn into just a boss battle.    One of the minions is an Ancient Black Dragon, and three PCs have these runes that will allow them to transform into dragons (twice) to fight it.   So its basically one part Protect the Weakened Goddess, and one part take down the dragon.    Any ideas? suggestions?
#2 transcendantviewer May 12, 2015 23:26:30	First: Why do the players need to transform into dragons to fight another dragon? I understand that it's a nice story-telling element, but the point of something like a climactic struggle is for the players to be able to appreciate their own strengths and resources. That aside, my recommendation is to by all means make this a boss battle. Make it a struggle in every sense of the word. This is a coup to commit deicide. It should be exactly what it sounds like. An army advancing, led by a charismatic ruler atop a dragon. Unless you're playing an epic campaign, this should be a boss battle to remember. Don't be afraid to break out the mass combat rules, armies are going to clash for this one.
(Reply to #2) 99typhoons	The ability to turn into the Dragons via Drago-Runes is to be on an even ground with the dragon. This is a battle that they know they cannot win just themselves. They are not high leveled enough to take it on toe to toe, but through the help of other NPCs from past missions they have located these magical runes that allow the transformation.   The very first session in the campaign, the party met this dragon while camping on the road for the night, it wiped out the party and they were rescued by another NPC who had been tracking the dragons for months. This NPC is also the wife of the leader of the adventuring company that they work for. later that NPC died, due to actions of one of the PCs so when they found these magical runes even further down the line, they had to steal some of her ashes, then find someone who would preform an old ritual to send one of the PCs spirit into Limbo to find the dead NPC to figure out how to use these Drago-Runes. They can only transform twice and they have no idea how long it lasts. but the PCs have been anticipating that fight for quite some time now.    As for the BBEG, hes a Dark Wizard that is emensly powerful, aside from maybe some waves of goblins, orges, and giants, hes more than likely to stroll up the mountains on foot to this temple with some of the items he has that are making the Goddess weak (otherwise she'd just snap her fingers and hed be dead) and kick in the door.    This will be the first time that the party will actually have a chance to fight the main villain.
#4 transcendantviewer May 13, 2015 14:10:29	See, the only problem I have with making the BBEG a spellcaster is that they're notoriously weak, meaning, even though they're probably immensely powerful, one clean arrow to the throat and he's dead. No combat, no climactic struggle, just bleeding out on the floor, happy day for the PCs.
(Reply to #4) 99typhoons	i am toying with the idea of the main boss being pretty weak and killed easily, only to transfer his life force into the PC that killed him. The player that killed him would be aware that the villains spirit just went into his body and the other characters wouldnt essentially know that this happened. this way it would be up to that person role playing the character if they wanted to let the rest of the Characters that the villian is now residing in his characters body.
#6 Zalbarthemad May 16, 2015 17:27:33	Grab the Unearthed Arcana for army battles and have at it. This will accomplish a few things. 1. It's new. Anything new is kinda exciting. 2. It's pretty damned epic and allows you to bring a lot more forces into play against the dragon as fodder to weaken it so that when the heroes do manage to finally bring it down you have a heroic Smaug death scene. Dozens of people killed, but the PCs triumph in the end. (or not and they're all acid goop). link: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/unearthed-arcana-when-armies-clash
#7 Kobalus May 16, 2015 19:16:17	Nothing says fun like a crack opening up in the earth and lava start flowing out.   Or an earthquake causes a crack to open up in the earth and the characters fall into the abyss and must find their way to the surface again in time to stop the slaughter in the temple or to get back down the mountain after they save the temple.  Or they could have to travel through drow controlled tunnels to get back down the mountain.
(Reply to #7) 99typhoons	I actually have plans for a volcano on the other side of the world as phase 2 of the bbeg's plan. Its for a later session. An army of goblins are currently digging down into a mountain to get to the hot liquid mag-ma. The BBEG is planning to scortch the planet to obtain all souls before going after the gods of the planet in pusuit of Complete Control.