A Brush With The BBEG

[the Jester]

One way you might be able to pull this off is to have the pcs encounter one of these guys with a bunch of wolves, also possibly with innocents nearby so that when the bad guy flees, his wolves charge the peasants. Instant devil's choice! Go after the werewolf or save the peasants?

 

[Mesh Hong]

I see 2 potential ways to make it interesting.

1: Just you and me!
Instead of introducing the werewolves to the entire group, split the PCs up and confront them when they are seperated. 2 PC vs 1 werewolf (with lurking support) should be enough to scare them and maybe encourage them to run instead of the werewolf.

This would heighten their paranoia and press home the belief that the werewolves are tough, but if the PCs work together they can take them.

2: Parallel Fight
Introduce the werewolves as having a seperate fight that is going on in the same location that the PCs are having a fight in. If the werewolves are higher up fighting on a walkway, balconies, rooftops etc you can describe them doing cool things that will fill your PCs with a sense of dread.

I actually did something similar early on in my campaign, my PCs were springing a trap on a group of cultists that thought they were spinging a trap on the PCs. But the BBEG was there menacing the PCs until another mysterious stranger burst in and started fighting him. It set the scene of introducing a BBEG and also a mysterious ally which at low level openned their eyes to a bigger world picture, whilst allowing me to let loose with some great banter!

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Werewolves must have a reason to try to escape.

If the werwolves start the fight and are losing, how should the players feel threatened by them then?
If they are winning and just flee, this is unreasonable.

The only reasonable fight would be if both sides turn out to be about equal in power, and as evil as they are they don´t want a fair fight.

As this is a bit dependant on luck, you could try easier solutions:

- werewolves are already worn down by something (a fight before)
- something reasonable happens (the fight attracts the city guard etc.)
- werewolves are on a set timeline and just don´t have time to waste with killing adventurers.

Or, if you go for Mesh Hong's "just you and me", the fight of PC`s vs a single werewolf which is favourable for the werewolf could attract the rest of the party. Realizing that he is now outnumbered too much, he decides to tell the players that their time will come rather sooner than later and flee before the rest of the party arrives.

Be careful of immobilization powers!

 

[the Jester]

Be careful of immobilization powers!

...and slow, too!

I recommend that, whatever you do, the terrain be such that the fleeing werewolf can duck behind a corner or something to break line of sight/effect without too much work.

 

[Chzbro]

There are a lot of really good suggestions here.

Don't rule out the potential for a good skill challenge here in place of the combat, or even a combat intermixed with a skill challenge.

You could, for instance, have the WWs when first encountered be protected by a powerful ritual--maybe one that halves all damage they take--and the party has to not only fight the WWs, but also spend actions trying to unravel the ritual. I'm thinking standard action Arcana/Religion checks with a few story-dependent ways to assist, perhaps. This way, 1) the fight is scary-tough, but your bad guys are probably relatively safe, 2) you've got a skill challenge where everyone can participate since there's also a fight going on, and 3) you've got a compelling reason to have the WWs run away: with their magical protection broken (skill challenge succeeds), they decide to retreat, regroup, and come at the PCs later with different tactics. Plus, not only will the PCs have a reason to fear/hate the WWs, your bad guys now have a reason to feel the same toward the PCs.

Now I don't know all the particulars of your campaign, so obviously the details of the skill challenge and why it is necessary are up to you, but coming up with something shouldn't be too hard (if the ritual protection doesn't appeal, for example, the fight could be in town and the challenge is to protect an individual victim the WWs appear to want dead; the goal really is for you to make the PCs split actions between fighting/staying alive and completing the challenge--it makes the fight harder, keeps your villains safer, and puts pressure on the players to juggle more balls than they're used to).

This also lets you come up with story-related ways for the WWs to escape. Perhaps the unraveling of the ritual releases a clap of magic that stuns the PCs for a round (you can make it an attack roll if that seems too cheap to you) giving the WWs a chance to book. Or, you can just decree the challenge success or failure to end the encounter. I know that sounds a little cheesy, but players who achieve a skill challenge success are generally pretty happy with themselves even if you tell them the bad guys run off when they achieve it.

However you choose to run it, a combat running simultaneous to a skill challenge can be all kinds of awesome and might work really well for you in this case.

 

[catastrophic]

Perfect opportunity to develop the players' hatred of your villian(s) Should the villains escape (and they should do so as soon as one of them is bloodied), they should revise their plans (now that they are familiar with the PCs' tactics and abilities) to really mess with the pcs effectively, frequently, and very noticably. Escape should not be a problem, because they should not go into any fight with the PCs without plans to escape, but if they are killed you can always have henchmen/followers raise them later.

As I mentioned above, have them flee as soon as one of them is bloodied, but don't rely on running away as an effective means of escape; they need some more reliable plan (perhaps a flanking force of followers comes up to skirmish with the PCs while they escape). If this feels like a deus ex machana to the players (even though it isn't), good! If they feel that your villains don't fight fairly, they'll hate them more. If you do a good job of hounding them after that fight, when they do get their revenge it will be the sweetest thing ever!

I disagree with this, stuff like this sounds great in theory but waving fiat in the player's faces is a bad idea. You want them hating the villains, not you, and players can and will blame you in such a scenario, and with good cause.

Your villains won't look badass at all if the players can see your giant DM-hands manuvering them around the battlefield and pulling them out of harm's way like beloved toys.

I'll talk in another post about my own idea, which is pretty mcuh the opposite of this.

 

[catastrophic]

Ok, so the key here is to remember that these are werewolves, and werewolves are as tough as nails. Have them escape in a badass and bloody fashion, and it makes the players feel cool, but also impresses upon them that these are some tough creatures.

Working on the lumber mill idea, imagine if the mill is built by a river. . at the edge of a massive cliff and waterfall. The main mill is some distance from the waterfall, but the fight can range out to the edge of the cliff. Along the way, you can give the werewolves a 'tear free' power to use if they get immobilised or whatever.

The power is as simply as them taking damage in exchange for a save vs the effect or a free escape. You can describe them ripping themsleves painfully free of entangling vines, howling and shaking their head to clear a mental effect, and so on. Rather than ignoring these lockdown effects, it emphasises them- but also shows how formidable these creature are, and how much pain and punishment they can take (and how angry it's getting them at the pcs).

So you start the fight however you want, preferably with a scare- they could chase a few bandits in there, hear screams inside, and go in ready for battle, only to find the bandits hanging from the rafters of the saw mill, eviscerated. Build the tension for a moment, with noises and glimpses of something climbing over the battered old roof, peering in theough the gaps- and then have the werewolves smash in through the walls and ceiling, and attack.

Of course, they're only toying with their prey, but as these are PCs, so they're bound to get a tougher fight than they bargained for. Move the fight staedily along the map to the cliff edge, using the 'tear free' ability when you need to.

Then, when you juge it's a good time to finish, the alpha of the three can look at the moon which is sinking below the horizon, howl to the others, and, with menacing backward glances that speaks volume of future conflict to come. . .

They jump off the frikking cliff!

After all, they're werewolves. Is the lake below made of silver? No. You could even let the pcs catch glimpse of them erupting from the water on the distant shore of the lake far below- or just wreath the whole area below the cliffs in fog. Let the howls follow them to the manor, and let the fight be a real "this isn't over" moment.

 

[Rune]

I disagree with this, stuff like this sounds great in theory but waving fiat in the player's faces is a bad idea. You want them hating the villains, not you, and players can and will blame you in such a scenario, and with good cause.

Your villains won't look badass at all if the players can see your giant DM-hands manuvering them around the battlefield and pulling them out of harm's way like beloved toys.

I'll talk in another post about my own idea, which is pretty mcuh the opposite of this.

Fair enough. But, I'm not actually advocating DM fiat. I am advocating that an intelligent (or even reasonably intelligent) BBEG have a plan for escape and use it. If the PCs can foil that plan, good on them! But, they should definitely find it very difficult to do so.

It could be a fair fight, but why on earth (or wherever) should your BBEG fight fairly? The PCs certainly won't (in most cases, in my experience), if given the option. Experience has shown me that such fights do lead to a healthy hatred of the BBEG.

...But, that said, I play fairly, even if the BBEG doesn't. That's important, too.

 

[MortalPlague]

...Have them escape in a badass and bloody fashion, and it makes the players feel cool, but also impresses upon them that these are some tough creatures...

That's pretty cool. I like a lot of what's in here, particularly since I have a six hour session to handle the fight, the build up to it, and the aftermath. If I use the lumbermill like this, I'll probably spring all three werewolves though. It seems like an appropriate battle for it.

 

[Dragon Sin-Camealot]

We're following the plot overcoming the monster. Werewolves are good as long as they don't buy from Acme.

Only so many things can happen in fiction with fixed plots like these. In RL something might happen once. Is there a way to have multiple outcomes?