Angry at players...

[Wraithdrit]

In a thread in the rules forum someone said:

Don't plan around what the players can do. Let them have their fun, allow them to enjoy their powers. If the players use their abilities and win a fight easier then they should, they deserve it.

Which got me to thinking. You see, right now I am a little ticked off at my players. Two sessions ago they managed to sneak past a fairly dangerous encounter. They used Arcane Eye, saw a dragon horde and lots of moving shadows. They were in an area of the Underdark where the plane of shadow was VERY close. They windwalked past the whole thing. After the fact, OOC I was telling them how nasty that fight could have been.

Jump to next session. PCs meet up with an NPC that says something to the effect of, "You are late, I thought you were eaten by the dragon." So now IC they know of a dragon. After a big nasty fight that session a few of the players are advocating going back after the shadow dragon. They are talking about buffing up with level draining protection spells. I know that they will use Wall of Force to block of any reinforcements for the dragon (they always do). So they want to load up on true strikes, wall of force, anti level draining spells etc, and go 'take out' the dragon.

I'm livid, and I'm not sure why, other than I feel the trust of telling them about an encounter after the fact has been broken. So do I:

a) Leave the encounter as is, let them have their little cakewalk (it will still be dangerous but not overly so with those protections) and award them full xp.
b) Modify the encounter to include new things that would not have been detected by their original scouting.
c) Some other option that I am not seeing.

The campaign has many ties to the Shadovar, so I am thinking about having the Shadow Dragon have some sort of way to notify the Shadovar elite that the party is there (one of whom is wanted by the Shadovar) and turn the fight upside by having the Shadovar send a strike team in (or just a single high level BBEG).

Thoughts?

P.S. does anyone have that link to the thread that had PC starting gold amounts and other non SRD tables? I can't find it.

 

[diaglo]

does arcane eye see into the floor or ceiling?

perhaps other incorporeal traps and critters were hidden from view by being inside the stone.

they can still by pass wall of force and such by travelling thru the stone.

 

[Piratecat]

P.S. does anyone have that link to the thread that had PC starting gold amounts and other non SRD tables? I can't find it.

It was deleted, as it was full of stuff that isn't in the SRD and thus can't be posted. Email KaeYoss if you need more details.

If I was in your shoes, I would teach the group not to make assumptions. for one thing, I'd consider making the shadow dragon into actual undead, incorporeal (and thus able to pass through stone) and brilliant and really, really scary. "Oh, it's a shadow dragon, all right. . ." "I know, I just took 2d4 strength drain on a single hit!"

 

[thullgrim]

maybe a high powered emissary and his entourage are meeting with the dragon, when the pc's come upon them. if they win the battle have some plot hook on the bodies(an agreement, diary, journal or some such). If they lose by TPK then at least it was a plotted element rather than something just arbitrary. If some survive and others died or became prisoner you have even more plot hooks.

Its also possible the dragon found out about them and has something prepared or wants them to do something for him...again involving the Shadovar or a mutual enemy.

Thullgrim

 

[wedgeski]

I don't really understand why you're ticked off here. I don't think the players are abusing OOC information by having their PC's put 2 (shadowy dragon horde, proximity of Plane of Shadow) and 2 ("I thought you were eaten by the dragon") together and making 4 ('ere, there's a Shadow Dragon about).

But yeah, I'd go for option [2], but not too much, else you're abusing *your* position and punishing your players for wanting to take advantage of perfectly legit intel.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Maybe the shadow dragon spotted their arcane eye with its blindsense, did a bit of scrying/spying of its own and has prepared a suitable welcome...

 

[Bauglir]

I don't understand the problem.

In character they saw a dragon's hoard, plus a lot of shadows, in an area where the plane of shadow is strong.

Later on, also in character they find out about a dragon, and then they put 2 & 2 together and came to the (perfectly logical) conclusion that a shadow dragon lives there.

So they loaded up on protections in order to take it on - again why wouldn't they? - you don't go exploring the arctic in a T-shirt..

All you actually told them OOC was that they missed a tough encounter - I don't see how that was the lynchpin in their chain of logic.

 

[Oni]

Frankly I wouldn't change too much, if anything at all. Just play the encounter intelligently and leave it at that.

Personally I don't like when DM's start telling you what would have happened if you had gone down such and such a path, because it limits your options by making it harder to change your mind and go down that path afterall in good conscience. Now matter how cool it might of been your better off keeping stuff to yourself for a number of reasons.

 

[Wraithdrit]

Maybe the shadow dragon spotted their arcane eye with its blindsense, did a bit of scrying/spying of its own and has prepared a suitable welcome...

Which brings up a perfectly wonderful question that I have been wondering about for a while. What does someone with blindsense get from an Arcane Eye? Anything? Someone with See Invisible? Arcane Sight?

I know, I'm getting into more rules worthy discussion for the rules board... sorry.

Back to on topic. There are several mysterious (to the PCs) NPCs running around who could have warned the dragon about the PCs. Making it a ghost is just wickedly evil, but also opens it up to the mass of anti-undead they have been preparing for the undead cult they know resides at the end of the module.

Anyways... the consensus seems to be that I should modify the encounter in some way, so that is what I shall do.

 

[Bauglir]

edit: omega post