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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7187826" data-attributes="member: 6778044">And I don't know anything about Castlevania. It's from the original book. Naturally it's a great resource for running a vampire. While your opinion that Cthulhu is a chump, and by extension the original Dracula due to similar circumstances, is certainly not the usual assessment of either of those stories. But then neither of them were specifically about killing the monster, although that occurred in both.Of course in a video game, the criteria is different, in part because of the limitations of the medium (and probably the expectations of the players). Well I build up to climactic encounters all the time, and they don't always require combat, and from what I can tell they definitely don't disappoint. Maybe it's easier to build up to a meaningful combat encounter for some, but not for me. In part because I rarely design a "combat" encounter. Combat is always possible, and sometimes quite likely, but almost never a requirement. More importantly, attempting to design a dramatically climactic encounter is something I find incredibly difficult, because it presumes that you know how the combat will progress. And if there's one thing I've learned over several decades is that I can never predict what the players will do. And that seems to be exactly the problem here. The expectation is that either the DM or the adventure designer has designed a proper climactic combat encounter, and due to the players, the DM, or even the luck of the die, it doesn't meet expectations. It's much easier to design a big reveal than to rely on the combat. As you might surmise from my earlier posts, too, the big villains tend to escape a lot. So the fact that they find a way to finally get him is far more exciting to them than exactly how they did it. And it usually involves a lot more work, use of their skills, and time to get to that very point. So it's the payoff of several sessions (or even years) of work than a single fight. Once they get them in that position, they often already know the outcome - because they've succeeded in getting to that point. It doesn't mean there won't be a combat, and it might be a challenging combat. But the combat itself isn't the climax.As the DM I can control information, I can control the villain, and their organization. I can't control the outcome of an encounter, especially a combat. So I don't rely on the outcome of an encounter to deliver a climax in the narrative (and I actually control very little of the narrative too, that's primarily the domain of the character's decisions and actions). Encounters will provide their own climax and excitement naturally. Finally defeating a major villain is often a surprise to me as much as it is to the players, because like I said, they always do things I don't expect.It has the benefit of avoiding another of the things that I see people complain about - what happens if the PCs kill the BBEG too soon? In CoS they should meet Strahd many times. The chances they'll actually kill him early on is slim, but not impossible. As a published adventure, CoS has to risk that possibility, but for my home campaign that's never a factor. If they manage to kill somebody important, then great for them. The world moves on, and so does the character's story.***Spoiler Alert for Tomb of Horrors***Are you aware that in the original Tomb of Horrors you can gain all of the treasure without actually fighting Acererak? That's right. Once you get past everything, if you simply ignore the ghosty thing, and don't touch him, you can take all of the treasure and just walk out. I've only seen a couple of groups figure that out, and they still talk about it as one of the greatest surprises and endings ever because it was entirely paying attention and smart thinking on their part. The fact that they didn't have to fight the "BBEG" and beat him is what they consider their best moment playing. Incidentally, with the 5e demilich stats along with the fact that you can't interrupt spellcasting in 5e, this possibility is completely gone in the TotYP edition, unless you have a DM that only plays what is written (it's the exact text from the original) and doesn't make Acererak attack as soon as the PCs enter the room. There's a pretty big disconnect in using only the original text, since there isn't anything that tells them when he should attack (only when he uses the trap the soul ability).</blockquote>

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