D&D 5E As a DM, do I kill the entire party at the end? Im torn?

[GreyLord]

I would probably have them defeated and CAPTURED by the BBEG and cast into his dungeons. If you want to use the Innkeeper, have the Innkeeper delivering something to the place and secretly talk to the PC's...maybe slip them a key, or something.

You might even be able to move the heart to the keep somewhere, guarded by something fierce which the Innkeeper just knows a secret passage to.

Then, if the PC's go after the BBEG without doing the heart thing again, slaughter them mercilessly...but at least they had a more definite and direct chance there and the light stays on the PC's rather than the Innkeeper.

 

[Gnarl45]

I agree with the others. Player actions should matter!

But that doesn't mean the PCs have to die. You could simply have the bag guy brag during the encounter "You can't defeat me. I'm indestructible mouhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!". It's tacky and cliché but at least your players will understand they missed something and they'll retreat.

Is this the first time these players fail to solve what seems to be a very easy puzzle?

 

[jaffab]

Actually, I am being a fool. In my story, the heart is in a different location that they never traveled to, and they know nothing about. I could just add an 'obvious' secret room in the tower and place the heart in there. they work out there is a secret room, find the chest with the heart, kill the heart, then its off up to kill the big bad.

A nice neat solution to my problem. Then at least if they die in the end, its because they fought badly in the BBEG battle.

Yes, I know this means that their 'missed' actions mean that they can still win (and therefore does not have any consequences), but if it was a film, it would be a Mission Impossible film, Tom Cruse would be running through Egypt to the place where the 'off switch' on the dooms day device was, and (as far as my players played the campaign), decided that the button didnt matter and maybe it was time to visit the pyramids. Ohhh, time for a selfie and look, camels.

I might chicken out and put a teleport mirror in the tower ground floor that takes them to the place with the heart instead.

Thanks all, it helped to hear other peoples thoughts and work it through.

 

[Ancalagon]

12 weeks? So this game started in late 2015 early 2016? That isn't that long... It's not as if it started 2 years ago...

Anyway, just because the big bad is immortal doesn't mean that he can't be defeated. The party might want to beat it up and bury it is alive, for instance, and *then* search for the heart.

 

[jaffab]

12 weeks? So this game started in late 2015 early 2016? That isn't that long... It's not as if it started 2 years ago...

About that - twice a week with day long sessions. But they will need 3-4 weeks to get through the maze, and then another week to get up the tower, and one more week for the final battle.

 

[Celebrim]

Ideally, they flee the battlefield with the realization that the BBEG is unbeatable through ordinary means.

But if you can't arrange that, or they persist in being linear and obstinate, you kill them.

 

[iserith]

Is the villain just sat in his tower waiting to be confronted? Or is he trying to accomplish something to further his goals? If the latter, then have it where the PCs turn up when he's near completion of his task and have an opportunity to set back his plans, even if they can't destroy him. Perhaps he's fashioning some kind of doomsday device or the like.

If you have adequately telegraphed the need for them to acquire the heart to finally defeat the villain and they've failed to do anything about it, they should have to face the consequences of their decisions in my view. But there are more ways to fail than just dying (and those ways can often be worse than death), so I would suggest exploring that as an option rather than putting the heart in their path.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Hi all,

I am between a rock and a hard place in my current campaign. The party playing my adventure missed a whale sized clue, which means that when they face the 'big bad' at the end, if I play it by the campaign story, they cant win - they all die in the end.

I have played the campaign (home brew) 4 other times before and in each time, the PCs have spotted the clue have got what is needed and have won. But this group missed it (even when I slapped 2 of them in the face with the clue again to try and get them back on track), and have headed off to do the battle with the big bad.

In my story, the big bad has found a way to turn themselves into a semi undead, with their heart removed and stored somewhere. All the clues (diary pages they have found during the quest) says that unless the heart is destroyed, the big bad is effectively immortal. Think of it as the Horcrux in Harry Potter world.

There was a big clue about where the heart was, but they decided to ignore this clue, and off they went to do battle.

So, do I kill them all, or somehow change the rules of my campaign so that they can kill the bad, even though the horcrux (heart) beats on in a box somewhere?

How would you feel as a player if after 12+ weeks of campaign, you ALL lost against the big bad? In a way, I feel they deserve to all die for being so stupid, but at the same time, I dont want to upet the (RL) group.

Twelve weeks isn't so bad. I think I could be down with that. Note: I don't consider it a foregone conclusion that the players will lose. What if they find a way to beat him without killing him? E.g. Plane Shift him to the Plane of Elemental Fire, turn him into stone, Feeblemind him and spend a few weeks wiping all of his memories, toss him in a volcano or shackle him to the bottom of the ocean, or something else that "functional immortality" doesn't protect against. Just because you arranged one way to beat him doesn't mean there couldn't and shouldn't be another way--in D&D it should be quite difficult for even a BBEG to protect against all threat vectors.

In the future I suggest you construct more robust clues and use the Rule of Three. But in this specific case I'd just play it out and see what happens.

 

[AverageCitizen]

Kill them, then have them be resurrected a few centuries later by someone trying to defeat the un-killable tyrant.

 

[AverageCitizen]

Or better yet, have him resurrect them out of boredom. GAZE UPON THE WORLD RUINED BY YOUR FAILURE!