How Do Your Villains Escape?

Norfleet · Sep 13, 2003

Greybar said:
Well, maybe it's a style thing, but I really dislike this. As a player I remember realizing that this sort of logic drove the game I was in. It totally took the fun out of it. Success and Failure was irrelevant, since reality morphed in front of us.

So maybe for some it is a "great DM secret", but only so long as used very sparingly and kept a deep deep secret so the players never notice it.

Sounds like your DM didn't have enough ranks in his Bluff skill.

The key here is, that, as the DM, you must vary your reaction to the player's "discovery" of "the solution", from neutral disinterest, as if this was expected, to surprise, as if the player had come up with something you didn't think of(which is true, because you didn't think of anything, but try not to let on). If the latter, shuffle your papers as if to confirm the viability of the player's solution against your own before "permitting" it. Plus, sometimes, a player will manage to concoct a brilliant theory rivalling that of any Kennedy Assassination Theory to connect elements of the plot that you, in fact, randomly generated on a table last night. This is a good thing, and should be rewarded.

Leopold · Sep 13, 2003

teleport
Gate
Improved Invisibility

S'mon · Sep 13, 2003

Norfleet said:
I am at a complete loss for where you come up with the idea that pre-3E editions strongly favored offense over defense.

My (basically 1e) campaign, I guess. IME save-or-die rolls were often failed. In 1e spells like fireball had no damage cap, so a 20th level magic-user fireballed for 70 damage, 35 on a save - but had an average ca 36hp (11d4+9). Harm took all but d4 of your hp, of course. Haste always doubled attacks. To compensate for the immense power of 1e magic-users, I let high-level Fighter classes ultimately get up to 4 attacks (at 20th level), somewhat as in Basic/Expert/Masters D&D. Not a huge stretch, since 1e Paladins & cavaliers already could get 3 attacks with weapons of choice, or 6 hasted. Fighters got 5/2 with specialised weapons, 5 hasted.

Edit: To clarify, I'm thinking basically of the high-level 1e (w bits of 2e) campaigns I ran, with PCs at levels 10+. At those levels further advancement provided very few extra hp.

Silver Moon · Sep 14, 2003

I'm afraid that I don't buy into the 1E/2E vs. 3E position that one game favors offense and the other defense. It would seem to me that as long as The DM and The Players are both playing by the same set of rules then each side should have an equal chance of winning and or losing.

Now back to the topic at hand, I try to play my villains intelligently, and am also a big comic book fan so want to have the bad guys escape to come back later, however I would caution DM's about using this technique too much. Especially if it has been a very long and drawn out module, to have the bad guys escape leaves the players feeling unsatisfied and without a sense of closure to the module. This is particularly unfair if the players have done an excellent job throughtout.

Sanackranib · Sep 14, 2003

NewJeffCT said:
Send a horde of minions at the PCs to tie them up while slipping out the back door.

Thats always a good bet if they don't have "Moon Powder" or some other meens of teleporting away. fly and d-door are good too.

some of my pc's got pretty good at foiling moon powder as an escape tactic by using called shots. invisibility is a good escape if the party isn't ready for it.

fusangite · Sep 14, 2003

I might recommend that a villain be outfitted with a staff of passage. Now that 3.5 lets everyone have a use magic device skill, anyone can reap the benefits thereof.

Dr. Strangemonkey · Sep 14, 2003

Don't escape, reincarnate!

ThomasBJJ · Sep 14, 2003

Have your villain wear a mask. If the PC's attack the villain in his lair, he should have a small cell nearby with a kidnapped commoner dressed up like him, mask and all, but gagged under the mask so he can't talk.

The fleeing bad guy runs past this small cell, opens in and casts Fear on the captive duplicate, who now runs off in a panic. The really bad guy, pulls his mask off, drops his cape and flees like he's just an ordinary underling.

In the event the PC's catch the duplicate bad guy, there's a chance they kill him. Finding out they killed an innocent could be a big deal.

Chalk this idea up to both "Mission Impossible 2" and "Halloween Ressurection".

Other ideas are:

Invisibility plus illusions.

Escaping down a predetermined route with some thugs set up to slow the party down along the way.

Cedric · Sep 14, 2003

Depends completely on what level you are talking about...could be anything from drink a quick flying potion...to oh darn, they just killed my simulacrum, now I need to make a new one. (I don't know about 3.0, but in 1.0 a simulacrum would collapse to snow when killed).

Cedric

edit: To be fair, I should mention that only those villains which really should have escape plans are going to have them. The mindless crazed barbarian axe wielder that is terrorizing the village is going to have the all so subtle escape plan of kill everyone, loot them, eat, leave.

S'mon · Sep 14, 2003

Silver Moon said:
I'm afraid that I don't buy into the 1E/2E vs. 3E position that one game favors offense and the other defense. It would seem to me that as long as The DM and The Players are both playing by the same set of rules then each side should have an equal chance of winning and or losing.

All I would say is that high-level PC-class characters in 3e seem much more durable relative to their typical damage output - Wizards output less damage and have _far_ more hp at higher levels. It's very easy for a losing NPC wizard to 5' step back and teleport or dimension door away from his attackers, although of course there are ways to prevent this. Fighters have a lot more hp at higher levels, whereas their damage output is constrained by the full-attack rules: they can output huge amounts of damage in the right circumstances (eg great cleaving fanatical horde of mooks) but have a lot of difficulty preventing foes escaping.