D&D 5E When you've made the battle too much to handle...

[ECMO3]

So, damn, what do you do? I believe now the PCs should have been 9 or 10th level before this battle, my bad on that part. Too late now to correct. It's game on and if I play the Boss intelligently, it knows it's winning and simply has to spam Toll the Dead until everyone is dead. Looking for ways to throw in some (believable) chances for the PCs rather than mercilessly mow them down. Also, on a tangent, may approach the group again about limiting the # of attack cantrips one can cast between short rests. The fighter PC is probably not happy with cantrip spam at the moment...

Nuke them from orbit. It is the only way to be sure.

When I have made a battle too hard one of two things happen - TPK or a few of the party members flee and survive. Either way I don't pull punches. Players can always roll new characters.

The worst encounter was a 1E encounter I did back in the day with some Devils (I think Erinyes), who could summon devils, who in turn could summon more devils .....

It was a pretty fair fight until a few lucky rolls took out the Rogue, a magic-user and a Dwarf Fighter who needed a 2 to save and rolled a 1.

At that point the remaining 3 characters were still way more powerful than the remaining devils and would have easily won a figtht but with 4 Devils on the battlefield and a 30% chance of each summoning 1 or more every turn and those summoning .... and the remaining party members only being able to take out 1 devil a turn .... and the enemy being Lawful and intelligent, they just started summoning and the number of enemies the party was facing slowly grew every round, they would kill 1 and 2 or more would be summoned. The Bard saw the writing on the wall and fled (this was a 1E Bard) fled, the Dwarf who was charmed or held or something got tortured to death off screen after the fight everyone else got killed in the fight.

We turned the Bard into an NPC who hired some new adventurers (new NPCs) to finish the quest.

 

[ECMO3]

Character Death, when it happens, rarely lasts more than a couple rounds (revivify), or at most a Long Rest (raise dead). With this understanding, maybe we can agree that Character Death in 5e isn't uncommon. PERMANENT character death is very rare, and generally the result of either (a) abandonment (party had to flee/leave), or (b) TPK (no one is alive to rez you). Thus TPK is devastating, because there is no recovery.

I think death in 5E is not that rare at low levels. I have personally had one 5E character I was playing actually die. A 1-1 Wizard-Monk. She failed a death save then rolled a 1 on her second death save. Ever since then I have been terrified to roll a 2nd death save.

I can only recall 1 high level character dying - We had a 14th level Fighter/Barbarian/Wizard dip die, but that happened when he threw himself into a portal to the elemental water plane to close it from the other side and keep the Prince of Water Elementals from entering Ferun.

I do find though that DMs pull punches a bit once characters go down and that keeps them from actually dying. Since every hit is a failed death save, if enemies focus on killing downed characters it is pretty easy to do it. Logically considering the amount of healing - that makes sense at higher levels because usually one of the other PCs is going to heal a downed character to get him back in the fight if you don't kill him.

If a bad guy with multiattack downs a character on his first swing, he can give him a failed death save with his second and the bad guy standing next to him can follow up with 2 attacks to kill him right then and there, but most DMs will not do this and will shift to someone who is up, giving the downed guy an opportunity to get back in the fight. Of course they can still be brought back with Revify as long as the party does not flee.

 

[nevin]

As stated earlier if it's all thier bad choices and they won't run kill em. If you however feel it's your fault for not playing it up enough or leading them there, have an NPC party show up and kick the liches ass and pat them on the head and tell them someday they might be as good as them.

 

[Vaalingrade]

If the DM either lets their mistake punish you or give them a chance to belittle you, find another DM.

 

[toucanbuzz]

Looking at what some folks have offered, did the following (we resume this weekend):

• Sent a private message to party's wizard that he's been "tethered" enough to get a feel for how the energy connection works, and he might be able to "nuke" himself to send an energy surge back, albeit at the cost of his life. It might buy the others time.
• Sent another to the cleric. His connection to the gods has lured spirits that died in this foul place, including their neighboring barony members who went missing months ago and had their brains removed. He can feel their rage. He's not sure what would happen if he gave himself over to the apparitions. The cost might be catastrophic. They might very well consume the cleric, but he can sense they're remnants of vengeance, waiting for a catalyst.
• Sent one to the Bard and current Baron (behind the scenes plot is that the region they settled has never remained settled, it always fails. For eons, a powerful fey has been cursed by the Eldest to make kingdoms rise and fall for their amusement, each in a unique way. She's close to being done, and she needs the PCs to rise, become independent, and then quickly fall in a way that hasn't been done before. Right now, since they haven't become independent from their kingdom, which has pending civil war, she's put a lot of investment in them and doesn't want to lose it...yet). He sees a leprechaun out of the corner of his eye tip his hat and stealthily (exaggerated sneaking) make his way to a back room.
• Sent one to the Druid, who is in the back room. The room has a feature that would weaken the BBEG if damaged/marred/destroyed. He was originally up here to destroy a Shield Guardian that could absorb damage from range for the BBEG.
• Sent one to the Fighter, who wields a unique weapon sacred to the god of the Dead (who hates undead). She's had some other experiences that make this make sense. It becomes clear to her that if she were to sacrifice herself to the weapon, imbue it with her spirit, it would become a mighty weapon indeed. She could get one swing in during the transference, perhaps enough to buy time for her friends or even defeat the BBEG, or give them a powerful weapon to finish the fight (although the rest of the party are not STR characters).

I haven't come up with any mechanics of what might happen if each follows thru, but I figure this is more "cool" than smashing one another till hit points run out.

 

[jasper]

What to do.
TPK. TPK. TPK. It looks like you adjusted, helped, and they missed clues. TPK.