Keeping Mid-High Level characters in a dungeon

[BlackMoria]

Sounds like time for a player revolt. If I was railroaded with such a lack of imagination (namely, everything I tried to leave the dungeon was futile), I would state that character would find a nice place to hole up and stay put regardless of the DM intentions - until the DM reconsidered.

Worst case scenario - my character would fall on his sword. Then I would tell the DM to get a grip and try again using some freakin' imagination to convince me to go to the dungeon.

 

[Belbarrus]

The only good way to "make" a high-level party stay in a dungeon is to give them a "reason" to be there. Something like, the party is searching for something (an item, a villainess, a captive, etc) or they are looking for a place (the magical wishing well, the portal to somewhere else) or they are looking for an answer (Why are their hordes of giant, pink maggots coming out of this cave? Why are the local townsfolk going insane nearby?)

If the players with high-level characters dont "choose" to be there (because they dont have a purpose or reason to be there), there is virtually nothing except DM BS to keep them there.


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[Theodoric The Pious]

The DM should take into account the level and determination of the players to leave the dungeon and have them devise a way out. In 3.0-3.5 rules, it should be impossible to keep a group of high level characters from moving virtually anywhere. Even though the DM may be using a module that states that it is impossible to enter/exit this dungeon there need to be a clear explination why they cannot leave (Item, event, quest, etc) or you have to let them go for there is nothing stopping them from leaving.
DM have to keep in mind that if it a campaign or a module they are using that at high lvl characters with creative players, they will find a way to leave a dungeon, so railroading it only going to work if the players go with what the DM says.





Theodoric The Pious

 

[Belbarrus]

Worst case scenario - my character would fall on his sword. Then I would tell the DM to get a grip and try again using some freakin' imagination to convince me to go to the dungeon.

Something similar actually happened to be a few years ago. The campaign was just one long train ride. The PCs were constantly thrown into adventures with little or no decision on our part. Here's an example: The party had had enough and wanted a few days break. So I cast Invisibility on the 3 party members (1st edition, when Invisibility didnt have a duration), we snuck to an abandonned part of the city and camped out on a balcony on the second floor of a deserted building. Later that day, the NPC that "makes" us go on quests STILL found us.

Later, the PCs went through a really stupid module that ended up converting all of the PCs to Chaotic Evil or Chaotic Neutral alignments (long story, the Paladin lost his status, my Ranger lost his status (in 1st and 2nd Edition, Rangers HAD to be Good aligned)). The situation was just getting more and more annoying. Hoping that the DM would get a clue, I wrote a one page essay on how my character was "feeling" about what was going on (which my character thought that the world was crap ). M

So during my last adventure, my stealthy, Improved invisible, Flying Ranger Dimension Doored behind a bad guy. The bad guy instantly was aware I was there and cast a Death spell on me. I failed the save. My character died. And I didnt care anymore. I lost all the will to play the character when the character themself lost the will to live

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