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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NewJeffCT" data-source="post: 5029589" data-attributes="member: 10784">The climactic session for my 2 1/4 year long D&D campaign is going to be this coming Friday night. It's 3.5E, as that was the current D&D when the campaign started and it was not practical to switch a year later when 4E came out.I am hoping for a very tough and rewarding battle between a large group of PCs (7), and 4 NPC allies against the evil high priest (EHP)of the god of slavery & tyranny.  In coming up with some worthy minions for my EHP, I realized that with just a few good rolls on my part, or a few failed saves by the PCs, it could turn into a TPK pretty quickly.  The party has almost always made their saves vs "Save or Die" effects and has stubbornly made some tough Will saves against domination/suggestion/command type spells... but, there is always the chance things change.  The one time I rolled well and the party did not, it nearly tanked the campaign, as 3 PCs and one major NPC died.The players' task is not necessarily to kill the EHP, it is to destroy the artifact he controls before he can activate it (using the blood of a newborn fathered by the EHP, whose mother is a now fallen priestess of freedom...)That said, has anybody actually come into the final battle of a long campaign only to have a TPK?  I suppose I can pull a DM ex machina out of my rear end to help save them, but would prefer not to do that (there will be innocent slaves about... one could be more than he seems.  And, I mean this like - "slave slips his shackles and trips an onrushing bad guy" or "slave sees chance of freedom for imprisoned family, throws himself in front of onrushing charger to disrupt charge" and not the slave turning out to be Conan or similar)Any other options?</blockquote>

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