Player Bad Luck (Nearly) Ruins Boss Fight, News at Eleven

[Ralif Redhammer]

Heh, yeah, that’s happened. It’s okay and totally cool for the PC to trounce the enemies now and then. But then other fights ought to be ones where they start wondering if they’re going to make it this time.

I actually did have the dragon arrogantly provoke an OA from the one lower level PC. Doing that, and mentioning the sneering look on its face was enough to get folks fired up. If not the dice, alas.

Would you rather have that or a cakewalk that'll leave the players going "that? that was a dragon?"

To answer your question though:

If the luck is really running that bad, or worse if the HP or something else in the situation was miscalculated to make the fight much harder than it was intended to be, I may have certain things happen that would even the odds.

For example, White Dragons are arrogant to the extreme and yet not particularly bright (for Dragons). I might have the dragon open itself up to an AoO or 2 because it can't conceive of these puny beings hurting it.

And/or I might have it position itself in such a way that the PCs can flank it (and thus really mitigate bad rolls).

 

[Dausuul]

Once you're in that situation, there isn't a lot you can do without cheapening the victory, except surreptitiously reduce the monster's hit points, which you did.

Though with a boss monster like a dragon, you could throw in some "limit breaks." Say the dragon goes berserk at a certain hit point threshold (which you choose on the fly), and starts Reckless Attacking, making all its attacks with advantage but granting advantage on all enemy attacks. That would reduce the slog, without feeling cheap.

 

[shadowoflameth]

We DMs have all been there I think. I once had a party of 12th level or so fighting CR 1 Orcs as little more than a warmup. The fighter in heavy armor is on a warhorse using a lance and whiffs everyone. The first orc that attacked him got a crit with max damage, knocked him off the horse for more and on the ground he got crited again. Everyone attacked that orc because they thought it was the boss monster.

Then there was the drow vampire (in 4e) who the party was spanking handily. The vampire then dominated the rogue, blood drained him, crited on the blood drain which recharged because the rogue was bloodied, used his action point, did it again, and crited the rogue again. Healed him back to full and the rogue was helpless with 9 HP left.

Sometimes it is just not your day. Player slaughter should be rare but possible. If it isn't challenging and harrowing at least once in a while, it isn't that heroic. and it's less fun.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Ooh, that's a good idea. Very Bloodborne, too, which is a game I love. Other than an increased chance of criticals for the dragon, it wouldn’t have changed much, since with their high attack bonuses, the dragon was already hitting more often than not.

Though with a boss monster like a dragon, you could throw in some "limit breaks." Say the dragon goes berserk at a certain hit point threshold (which you choose on the fly), and starts Reckless Attacking, making all its attacks with advantage but granting advantage on all enemy attacks. That would reduce the slog, without feeling cheap.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Heh, sometimes an orc gets promoted on the spot, I guess.

I don’t mind throwing tough fights at them. That thrill of danger makes victory all the sweeter now and then. But this, a whole table with single-digit dice rolls, again and again, just was unbelievable.

We DMs have all been there I think. I once had a party of 12th level or so fighting CR 1 Orcs as little more than a warmup. The fighter in heavy armor is on a warhorse using a lance and whiffs everyone. The first orc that attacked him got a crit with max damage, knocked him off the horse for more and on the ground he got crited again. Everyone attacked that orc because they thought it was the boss monster.

Then there was the drow vampire (in 4e) who the party was spanking handily. The vampire then dominated the rogue, blood drained him, crited on the blood drain which recharged because the rogue was bloodied, used his action point, did it again, and crited the rogue again. Healed him back to full and the rogue was helpless with 9 HP left.

Sometimes it is just not your day. Player slaughter should be rare but possible. If it isn't challenging and harrowing at least once in a while, it isn't that heroic. and it's less fun.

 

[cbwjm]

Something similar happened in a game I was playing in. It wasn't that we had horrible rolls, just that the rolls weren't quite good enough. We were fighting some guards in chainmail and we just couldn't quite hit them, however, they also couldn't quite manage to hit us so it took a while for us to finish.

 

[Nevvur]

Can't fix cursed dice, and that sounds like the core issue here based on your OP and follow up replies. Sometimes it happens and you just need to suck it up and move on.

There was one combat I ran with a similarly frustrating string of bad player rolls. After the 10th miss in a row, I decided the constant whiffing was making the bad guy overconfident. He taunted them mercilessly, but he also lowered his guard a bit. Translation: attacks against him had advantage that would last until the next time a PC scored a hit. I'm sure the players knew what I was doing and why, but no one complained, least of all the rogue who scored a critical sneak attack for nearly maximum damage.

 

[Eltab]

Arauthator, yes?

My group beat him by max'ing out a Staff of Healing and starting fresh for HP*, half-way through the fight. They also got a CRIT with their Arrow of Dragon-Slaying on Round One; vocalizing the result gave me a sore throat for the night.
On the plus side, I had half the group making Death Saves before their magical recovery. I kept the dragon airborne and mostly 15 feet away (using Breath weapon when available otherwise Tail attack's Reach) - I was deliberately taunting one PC who refused to dirty her hands with a bow-and-arrow, preferring a greataxe. I should have remembered Lair actions and been moving around more than I did.

The archer had a 'feast or famine' night: he got his crit at the beginning, failed to save vs. Frightful Presence, spent most of his actions circling at a respectful distance and missing his shots, got his second hit as Arauthator flew into the fog (retreating) … to hear the sound of a slushy sloppy wet crash and slide.

* The Staff put out so many HP of healing, I could have fully-restored Arauthator, too, after all the downed PCs were topped off !

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Yes! That’s some right proper deduction!

I actually kept him mostly on the ground – the last dragon they fought, Glazhael Cloud-Chaser, mostly kept to the air, so I didn’t want the fight to be the same thing as the last white dragon fight. By fighting on the ground, he was able to keep most of them boxed up in the choke point, too.

I think this group suffers from not having a dedicated healer (the paladin and ranger have some healing ability, but that’s about it, other than potions). They have a pretty strong damage output (when the dice oblige), but if combat lasts longer than a few rounds, that’s when they really start to feel the lack.

Arauthator, yes?

My group beat him by max'ing out a Staff of Healing and starting fresh for HP*, half-way through the fight. They also got a CRIT with their Arrow of Dragon-Slaying on Round One; vocalizing the result gave me a sore throat for the night.
On the plus side, I had half the group making Death Saves before their magical recovery. I kept the dragon airborne and mostly 15 feet away (using Breath weapon when available otherwise Tail attack's Reach) - I was deliberately taunting one PC who refused to dirty her hands with a bow-and-arrow, preferring a greataxe. I should have remembered Lair actions and been moving around more than I did.

 

[Imaculata]

If the players are on the ropes during a boss fight, yet they are having fun, then I think you are doing it right. Just because the players are having bad luck, does not mean the DM should go soft on them. This is a dragon after all, and dragons are supposed to be scary. Instead of thinking of ways to make the fight easier on them, I would think of ways to make the fight even more desperate. Fleeing is always an option... or that is to say, it usually is... it probably isn't when I'm controlling the dragon. I would probably just outright murder their characters, but I would also drop enough clues leading up to the fight that this isn't going to be a walk in the park.