D&D 5E Gut-Checking to My Jerk-DM Level (ToA Spoilers)

If you want a check on jerk-gm as you contemplate the last surviving hag's plan, why dont you read the specific scenario instructions from ToA about what the last surviving hag will do. It's fairly clear.

Obviously, a gm is not bound by the encounter specifics snd can change things up, but its maybe odd you left that out as you presented the behavior of your players.

"If two hags die, the third tries to bargain with the characters, offering useful information in exchange for her life."

5ekyu said:

If you want a check on jerk-gm as you contemplate the last surviving hag's plan, why dont you read the specific scenario instructions from ToA about what the last surviving hag will do. It's fairly clear.

Obviously, a gm is not bound by the encounter specifics snd can change things up, but its maybe odd you left that out as you presented the behavior of your players.

"If two hags die, the third tries to bargain with the characters, offering useful information in exchange for her life."

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Maybe, but it seems clear she doesn't need to bargain for her life - she's successfully evaded them and can get the heck out of Dodge if she wants to. The question is - given that expected behavior - would it be in character for her to risk taking another jab at the PCs or just get away?

billd91 said:

Maybe, but it seems clear she doesn't need to bargain for her life - she's successfully evaded them and can get the heck out of Dodge if she wants to. The question is - given that expected behavior - would it be in character for her to risk taking another jab at the PCs or just get away?

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You decide her in-character and since you have already decided to remove the de facto, no it's more de jure, "only need to beat two to get help" part from the scenario, I would say its entirely on you to make that call without needing our blessings or a "forum guys agreed it was ok" excuse once she locks them into the situation and your players react.

I mean, it's not like there is an object in the vicinity that can give the PCs ethereal access to go after her if she doesn't run when she can, right?

EDIT Change references from "you" to "the gm" as i thought references about what the creatures can do or has done were being made by them.

Well if I don't react to their camping and recovering between every fight, the final battle is going to be a pushover anticlimax to a yearlong campaign that is not going to satisfy anyone.
They gave up on trying to meet the impossibly unreasonable timeline of the adventure (their patron has long since died of the Death Curse), random encounters are no longer threatening. And honestly, I hate the pace of that kind of game. Not to mention that the next session will have to be our last due to my work schedule changing. So I want to get on with it, efficiently run the final encounter, and have a hell of a time.

Retreater said:

Well if I don't react to their camping and recovering between every fight, the final battle is going to be a pushover anticlimax to a yearlong campaign that is not going to satisfy anyone.
They gave up on trying to meet the impossibly unreasonable timeline of the adventure (their patron has long since died of the Death Curse), random encounters are no longer threatening. And honestly, I hate the pace of that kind of game. Not to mention that the next session will have to be our last due to my work schedule changing. So I want to get on with it, efficiently run the final encounter, and have a hell of a time.

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So, that makes it really sound like your mind was made up before even showing here and asking for cover.

Ok well, have fun then.

Sealing them in the room with the atropal is one of the least evil things you can do to them. DO IT.

Hell, you were KIND by allowing them even a partial long rest at this point. Think about it. There is zero reason they should've been able to do that if you play the remaining hag as the evil, intelligent & vindictive thing it is.
There's all kinds of ways to mess up the party.

Retreater said:

Right. I had them make "focus" checks and no one did very well. Therfore I had them get a less effect, to fail forward a little bit without a total loss. My thought was that the night was not restful enough so they couldn't focus on their preparations the next morning.
No. The door is impenetrable according to the adventure. Massive stone door, magically reinforced. The design of the dungeon also stops magical teleportation. The magic is keyed to the dungeon creator. When he dies at the end of the encounter (or flees the dungeon) the magical reinforcement will end.

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The problem with the long rest not being as effective, is that they are not running on a clock. They can keep resting until they knock off the effect. The focus checks might make a long rest take longer but we in modern times get up on a clock and get insufficient rest. A group of adventures had no reason to get up until their ready. In fact doing so while fighting battle after battle for your life is foolish.

The hag on the other hand is doing just what a hag should do after watching her coven slaughtered. Steel the key. Have her attack before completing the long rest without benefiting from it. Both fair game as far as I can see. Just ensure the players have SOME choice. Locking them into a direction of a boss fight is fine but if they can't leave the fight and your forcing them into it becomes railroadling. So ensure they can move forward but if they insist they are going to hunt the hag... maybe give them a chance to … or give them a way to back out of the fight if they can't beat it on the first try. They might be fine but if they only have the option to fight and can not run and they lose … the TPK will be on you. If they have an option to hunt for the key or attack fail, reset, and try again but choice not to retreat then the TPK is on them. Another consideration, if they are taking a lot of long rests would be add some patrols and reinforcements in and from old boss rooms so that taking long rests has some danger and encourages the use of short rests when they are not that bad off.

If the place is warded against teleportation, is it also warded against planar travel? That would prevent the night hag from going ethereal in the first place, which might explain the "third hag begs for her life" encounter advice.

If you want a climactic final battle, let the PCs take a full long rest, and then up the difficulty of the bad guys. How many simulacrums can Acererak deploy at one time? Maybe double the Atropal's damage across the board?

I think the first sentence of your post is the important one. It would appear that you and the party are not on the same page from what they want from a campaign. They do not appear to enjoy the campaign you are giving them. So my advice is to perhaps talk to them and see what they issue is, not ask us for our blessings on a particular manoeuvre.

By RAW you can only take one long rest every 24 hours. Is that how you played it? If they are stopping after every room, then they need to wait 15 hours before the next rest...15 hours packed with tomb guardians assailing them if they decide to stand still.

What level are they? Just TPK them and move on to the next campaign.

When my players reach the tomb I intend to announce that from here on in, it is last man standing, and the final character to die wins the campaign prize. Who knows, maybe they'll beat the tomb, but I doubt it and I intend to foster the expectation they won't survive, to avoid setting expectations too much.