Dragon Heist TPK
Greg Benage
Legend
He has multiple options. There’s basically no way a 1st level party stops him from leaving, which is what the DM is told he’s trying to do.
It doesn’t matter if the PCs are dumb or bloodthirsty or whatever — they lack the ability to prevent the “villain” from leaving. So the DM had to change the encounter to get a TPK out of it — at least one involving that “villain.” His minions could still cause a TPK, in theory.
Demetrios1453
Hero
Yeah, the two other minions are a tough fight - but then again, this is supposed to be the climactic encounter for the 1st level party, so it's presumably designed to be tough.
But as for the big "villain", yes, he should be able to escape easily before most of any regular-sized adventuring group should be able to get into a position to potentially block him. One of his minions is positioned in the center of the room well in front of him, and should restrict access to the back of the room where the "villain" starts out. I can only assume that the members of the OP's group had some decidedly lucky rolls (well, lucky only at first, considering what the rolls ultimately led to), while the "villain" and minion #2 got exceptionally unlucky in initiative for there to be enough PCs to be able to get in position to block him leaving the room.
The simplest way to counteract this would be to have the "villain" simply act and leave as the party enters the room, or have the party momentarily stunned by what they see (as 1st level characters they probably aren't prepared for that sight, even being from Waterdeep), and have him escape even before initiative is rolled...
I don't know the encounter/adventure yet but: Just have him stop the fight for an instant (i.e. on his first turn) and threaten the PCs with whatever higher level ability can kill them unless they back off NOW. Back it up with 'your insight tells you he/she means it'
There is a similar encounter in PotA although there is less incentive to attack that NPC. He basically announces that unless they immediately stop attacking, he will <words to the effect of> cast Cloudkill on them, seal the exits and leave them to die.
The players might be confused and ask "what, aren't we supposed to attack him now" in which case you reply..."perhaps not..."
There is a similar encounter in PotA although there is less incentive to attack that NPC. He basically announces that unless they immediately stop attacking, he will <words to the effect of> cast Cloudkill on them, seal the exits and leave them to die.
The players might be confused and ask "what, aren't we supposed to attack him now" in which case you reply..."perhaps not..."
Ymdar
Explorer
This is really good. I even suggest a funeral instead of a memorial with flowers and rain and everything. You could play the sound of silence and the new characters would get the trinkets of the old one from one of the NPCs.
I love this setup to the adventure,even without an initial TPK! Much more distinctive than the one in the book.
Eltab
Lord of the Hidden Layer
You can even foreshadow the tone of the adventure: use Simon and Garfunkel* if the PCs will overcome Evil in the end. Use the Disturbd remake** if the PCs should expect not to.
* light and dreamy, emphasizes the warning nature of the vision
* heavy and ominous, emphasizes the wrong / bad / misguidedness aspects of the vision
Paul Farquhar
Legend
Just like the way Frodo charged in to Mordor and killed Sauron.
Or not.
D&D has never been just about that. Some D&D players have been just about that, but it is a waste of time running a carefully plotted adventure with them.
Frodo was never a D&D character. In fact in todays D&D its impossible to create Frodo because thanks to the class system everyone will eventually be a extremely good combatant which Frodo definitely was not. But after a few adventures which he certainly had he would be in D&D.
In D&D you get XP from killing things, nearly all the rules are about killing things, all classes are geared towards killing things and the DMG even tells you how many things you should kill each day (which is quite a lot) for the rules to work best.
Killing things is the core of D&D and you see it in the rules, the flavour text, the adventures, basically everywhere.
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