Flukes!

[Illirion]

Sorry to sound so sappy amongst all the manly "just let it roll" sentiments around here, but if I was in a situation where the party was able to casually do away with the BBEG (which I personally see as the most important and campaign defining of encounters) with just 1 spell, I'd feel like I owe it to the players to fudge that roll.

If I had designed that encounter in such a sloppy manner that 1 disintegrate could do the job, I'd seriously feel that I had let my players down as a DM. Letting the BBEG die and trying to make it sound humourous or something by trying to come up with some kind of lame description would IMO be an insult to everything the players have worked for during the campaign and an insult to the DM for letting it happen so easily.

I asumed in my answer that this would have happened during the final boss fight. The absolute final fight of the campaign. If there was any way that I could give the PC's an even more important fight before the campaign ended, I too would have let the dice roll. But signing off a whole campaign (in which the players invested a whole lot of time and effort) with such an anti-climax, just isn't right in my book :\ .

Cheers,
Illirion.

 

[Pbartender]

If I had designed that encounter in such a sloppy manner that 1 disintegrate could do the job, I'd seriously feel that I had let my players down as a DM. Letting the BBEG die and trying to make it sound humourous or something by trying to come up with some kind of lame description would IMO be an insult to everything the players have worked for during the campaign and an insult to the DM for letting it happen so easily.

There's nothing sloppy about it. You need to be at least an 11th level Wizard to cast something like a Disintegrate. 22d6 damage, if the enemy fails his save, double that if it's a confrimed critcal as suggested in the scenario above. At best, that's 44 points of damage and it's 264 points of damage at worst -- 160-ish, on average.

That's tough to survive, even for a BBEG. And when you consider the fact that any other Save-Or-Die spell has at least a 1 in 20 chance of automatic success, regardless of the BBEG's saving throw modifier, it's bound to happen sooner or later... regardless of the sloppiness of the DM's preparations.

It's a lot more impressive and memorable (at least it has been for my players) to take that Bad Guy down with a spectacular critical hit Disintegration in the first round, than it is to slog it out for a dozen rounds before knocking him over with a measley Magic Missile.

 

[Masquerade]

I am in the camp where I'd fudge a save to make the fight more enjoyable. The players will remember a knock-down, drag-out fight that they nearly lost but came through in the end much more fondly than the time Bob's Sorcerer got off a lucky Disintegrate/Save-or-Die spell and killed the BBEG in the first round (at least *I* would as a player). Just as I would fudge results for the players, I would fudge results for the BBEG to make the battle, especially what is essentially a final battle/season finale, memorable.

Above quote is the perfect answer for me. I will fudge slightly to favor either a PC or BBEG to make an encounter more interesting or memorable.

 

[Kafkonia]

Above quote is the perfect answer for me. I will fudge slightly to favor either a PC or BBEG to make an encounter more interesting or memorable.

See, here's the thing -- in my experience (and that's all it is), the surprising upset wins are more memorable than the long drawn out battles.

In The Speaker in Dreams, me and the other players actually took some time to plan some strategy before facing the ilithid and the ogre mage and, as a result, we defeated them in either the surprise round or the first round of combat -- and that's one of the fights we regularly reminisce about.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Well, let the Disintegration stand. However, have the PCs pay for it a bit later; the BBEG had some important MacGuffin on him when he was Disintegrated, and now the PCs have to find a workaround solution for the problem which would have used the MacGuffin to solve it.

Actually, it won't destroy it.

A disintegrated creature’s equipment is unaffected.

It does, however, keep speak with dead from working very much so.

 

[joeandsteve]

I am in the camp where I'd fudge a save to make the fight more enjoyable. The players will remember a knock-down, drag-out fight that they nearly lost but came through in the end much more fondly than the time Bob's Sorcerer got off a lucky Disintegrate/Save-or-Die spell and killed the BBEG in the first round (at least *I* would as a player). Just as I would fudge results for the players, I would fudge results for the BBEG to make the battle, especially what is essentially a final battle/season finale, memorable.

I TOTALLY disagree. Our group remembers the lucky 1 hit wonder kills FAR more clearly than the tough fights. Those happen so often they fade from memory and into the background fairly quickly.

 

[Zendragon]

I have done it both ways. I don't let the disintegrate spell work, but I do note it as a victory for the party. I will let the party get in its licks and let everyone do a couple of cool things that they have been planning. Once they get that out of their system, then the BBEG goes down. This is really only for the campaign changing encounters. Only 2 or 3 for the whole campaign. If they off a random giant with disintegrate, I'll let them enjoy the lucky kill.

 

[jmucchiello]

To much fudging like that can result in unfortunate player deaths, and that's worse than unfortunate NPC deaths.

Wow, what do you put in your fudge?

Is there less than an hour left in the session or 3+ hours left? Actually, I'd let the death stand. I'm more likely to fudge a less important encounter for pacing purposes. As I rarely stat out my villains down to the last skill point, it's hard to say if this is fudging or just delaying my stat generation action.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Actually, it won't destroy it.... It does, however, keep speak with dead from working very much so.

Suspected the former, confirmed the latter. It affects one whole object (a person, an item, etc.) from what I read.

Then again, the BBEG could always be the MacGuffin (only one capable of disarming a doomsday device/stopping the rampaging beast/etc.), aside from the secret knowledge aspect.

 

[Nyaricus]

Jacta alea est.