D&D General Do I need an attitude adjustment? (They're gonna nova the BBEG)

[Shiroiken]

Not knowing what the adventure is, I can say you've fallen into the Leomunds Tiny Hut problem. Using LTH in dangerous territory is a stopgap measure, not an automatic success. If they attempt to rest in a hostile area, have someone notice them, who then reports it. After the first time they do this, they watch in horror as an army of bad guys camp outside the hut waiting for it to end. Theoretically they could cast it again before it falls, but unless they can teleport, they'll either run out of supplies or time. If the party can teleport, the next time there's a caster who simply dispels the hut before they finish the rest (they can't counterspell from within). The fight should be in the Deadly category, but just so. If the party doesn't learn their lesson from this, the next time is almost twice as hard. The players should hopefully get the hint.

We're playing BGDiA, and we use LTH for long rests. However, we also seek out secluded areas where we could naturally hide. LTH is the backup plan, not the primary one. One time we were forced to rest in a lair using LTH, and obviously a trap was laid for us. After the trap we were actually worse off than we were before the long rest! You only rest when you can or when you must, otherwise bad stuff can (and probably will) happen.

EDIT: @Oofta you already can't cast spells out of it, per the spell description.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Does the BBEG have the option to...just walk away? If the party is walking around its domain, mopping the floor with its minions, have it just move to another one, where it will prepare better for the next encounter, hopefully.

 

[BacchusNL]

The mythic monster encounter examples from the Theros book could be an option.

 

[Dausuul]

I'm also among the folks who thinks they're leaning way too hard on Leomund's tiny hut. There are a number of ways to deal with that, even for enemies without dispel. The simplest is just to set an ambush. Gather your minions just out of sight of the hut, wait for it to come down, and then attack at full force the instant it does. Ambushes are brutal in 5E.

As for the BBEG himself, is there a reason to not just crank up his stats to fit the party size? Or, as @DemoMonkey suggested, use a decoy BBEG to soak the party's alpha strike? You can be pretty aggressive with monster stats in the final battle of a campaign.

 

[Oofta]

Not knowing what the adventure is, I can say you've fallen into the Leomunds Tiny Hut problem. Using LTH in dangerous territory is a stopgap measure, not an automatic success. If they attempt to rest in a hostile area, have someone notice them, who then reports it. After the first time they do this, they watch in horror as an army of bad guys camp outside the hut waiting for it to end. Theoretically they could cast it again before it falls, but unless they can teleport, they'll either run out of supplies or time. If the party can teleport, the next time there's a caster who simply dispels the hut before they finish the rest (they can't counterspell from within). The fight should be in the Deadly category, but just so. If the party doesn't learn their lesson from this, the next time is almost twice as hard. The players should hopefully get the hint.

We're playing BGDiA, and we use LTH for long rests. However, we also seek out secluded areas where we could naturally hide. LTH is the backup plan, not the primary one. One time we were forced to rest in a lair using LTH, and obviously a trap was laid for us. After the trap we were actually worse off than we were before the long rest! You only rest when you can or when you must, otherwise bad stuff can (and probably will) happen.

EDIT: @Oofta you already can't cast spells out of it, per the spell description.

The attacks are more for the archer types that peg the bad guys or the "I stick my hands out and cast a spell" schtick.

Oh, and there are at least two other ways of stopping teleport, depending on what's available. Forbiddance is 40,000 square feet and can be made permanent. Many keeps have this in my world - it's just a standard cost of construction. Another option is Hallow which is a smaller area (60 ft sphere) but a lower level to cast.

 

[Leatherhead]

Well there are two things you can do:

1. Dispel the Tiny Hut after an hour, allowing for a short rest but not a long rest. (If the PC's are just topping off and barely down any resources totally do this anyway) That way they have to fight for their lives on the back-foot (or at least perceive it that way.)
2. Make the BBEG Mythic. After the PC's come in and Nova down the First form, Introduce the Second form so they have to deal with a real boss fight without their biggest guns.

 

[ccs]

If you want any sort of meaningful help/advice you're going to have to give up some info.
1) WHAT are you running?
2) Why can't you have the BBEG come to the PCs atm?

 

[nevin]

think like you are a PC. you know the party has retreated to Leomunds Tiny hut.
If you want to force the fight, Dispe] magic, Disjunction, anything that will cancel the spell and boom they are sitting in a circle talking strategy and surprise round.

If you don't want to force the fight. I'd bring in lots and lots of minions surround the area, I'd put glyphs in front of exit, Contingency one wall of force encircles them, Contingency Two Highest level damage spell available. Contingency 3 Acid pit, exactly the size of the wall of force. Contingency 4 Minor Globe of invulnerablity to prevent flight and levitation out of the pit. When they get out of that the Minions start attacking. All of that should require a decent amount of resources to deal with, then BBEG fight, with rest of minions.

If you really wanna mess em up, let em walk into the final encounter and see a mirror of opposition and boom final battle with their doppelgangers and BBEG starts.


Just remember to make it fair.

 

[nevin]

think like you are a PC. you know the party has retreated to Leomunds Tiny hut.
If you want to force the fight, Dispe] magic, Disjunction, anything that will cancel the spell and boom they are sitting in a circle talking strategy and surprise round.

If you don't want to force the fight. I'd bring in lots and lots of minions surround the area, I'd put glyphs in front of exit, Contingency one wall of force encircles them, Contingency Two Highest level damage spell available. Contingency 3 Acid pit, exactly the size of the wall of force. Contingency 4 Minor Globe of invulnerablity to prevent flight and levitation out of the pit. When they get out of that the Minions start attacking. All of that should require a decent amount of resources to deal with, then BBEG fight, with rest of minions.

If you really wanna mess em up, let em walk into the final encounter and see a mirror of opposition and boom final battle with their doppelgangers and BBEG starts.


Just remember to make it fair.

But fair also includes if you know the enemies watching and you turtle up, they get time to do things as well.

 

[jayoungr]

The adventure is Curse of Strahd, and I particularly hate seeing Strahd go down with a whimper. I do have a souped-up version of him that I was planning to use, but the fight would be more exciting if the PCs didn't have ALL of their tricks.

The reason he can't come to the PCs right this moment is because he's currently getting married. (My campaign is deviating pretty far from the book in some ways.) Not to Ireena--she's being played as a PC--but to Esmae Amarantha, who spent last year's campaign transforming herself into the likeness of Tatyana. He also has a hostage: Ireena's brother Ismark, who has already been bitten twice. My plan was for Strahd to spring a surprise during the ceremony: He'd bring out Ismark and threaten to have Esmae give him the third bite immediately before the congregation unless Ireena agreed to step forward and marry him as well. However, once the PCs got into the castle, they made a beeline for the crypts, which they spent a whole session systematically looting one by one. When Cyrus Belview came down to say the ceremony was starting, the PCs gleefully shoved him into the tomb reserved for Ireena, shut the door, and went back to looting.

Important note:, But the reason I left it vague is because I'm not so much looking for mechanical suggestions on how to make things more challenging ... yet. I have a few ideas about that, but I'm debating myself philosophically as to whether I even should try to make things more challenging, or whether that's just me trying to get in the way of the fun the group wants to have.