RangerWickett
Legend
I'd like the final adventure to take place over a single day, so that the PCs don't get to go into the final encounter at full power. They're max level, so they should be able to survive a few crazy threats in a single day. I want to avoid them just nova'ing and taking out all the foes in one round.
The problem is geography. I have events happening in Flint, and then the party needs to rush to Axis Island, which they can do by airship in the window available to them. But while they're flying, they have plenty of time to take a long nap and recover to full. I've got two possible ways to enforce the 'no rests' idea, but I wonder whether they're good ideas. I think the gameplay goal is a good one, but I don't want to seem like I'm screwing over the PCs for no good reason.
Option One - The Gauntlet
This would be a montage scene representing the hours of the PCs flying to Axis Island, during which smaller Ob airships, summoned monsters, surface-based bombardments, and teleporting attack squads assault their ship every thirty or forty minutes. No threat is serious enough to require an actual tactical combat, but they force the PCs to stay on their toes, preventing them from resting.
The challenge here is balancing it so that the party can't just say, "Eh, put everyone but Bob in a demiplane to recover their spells. Bob will hold them off by himself."
Option Two - Linked Souls
Metaphysically, the PCs in the real world and the version of them in the Gyre were distinct until they both got near the end of their quests - Axis Island and the plane Reida. The result is that once you resolve the battle against the Voice of Rot at the end of adventure 12, the PCs in the real world will be in the same condition when they arrive at Axis Island in adventure 13.
The challenge here is, well, I didn't plan this when I designed the fight against VoR, which I pushed because I figured as long as at least one PC lives, the whole party can win. So do PCs who 'died' at the end of 12 suddenly keel over at this point in 13?
Option Three - No. Just No.
The GM tells the players, you woke up this morning fully rested. You don't get to rest until the campaign ends.
What do you think is the best solution, or do you have a better one? Or I could just plan the fight at Axis Island to be nova-proof.
The problem is geography. I have events happening in Flint, and then the party needs to rush to Axis Island, which they can do by airship in the window available to them. But while they're flying, they have plenty of time to take a long nap and recover to full. I've got two possible ways to enforce the 'no rests' idea, but I wonder whether they're good ideas. I think the gameplay goal is a good one, but I don't want to seem like I'm screwing over the PCs for no good reason.
Option One - The Gauntlet
This would be a montage scene representing the hours of the PCs flying to Axis Island, during which smaller Ob airships, summoned monsters, surface-based bombardments, and teleporting attack squads assault their ship every thirty or forty minutes. No threat is serious enough to require an actual tactical combat, but they force the PCs to stay on their toes, preventing them from resting.
The challenge here is balancing it so that the party can't just say, "Eh, put everyone but Bob in a demiplane to recover their spells. Bob will hold them off by himself."
Option Two - Linked Souls
Metaphysically, the PCs in the real world and the version of them in the Gyre were distinct until they both got near the end of their quests - Axis Island and the plane Reida. The result is that once you resolve the battle against the Voice of Rot at the end of adventure 12, the PCs in the real world will be in the same condition when they arrive at Axis Island in adventure 13.
The challenge here is, well, I didn't plan this when I designed the fight against VoR, which I pushed because I figured as long as at least one PC lives, the whole party can win. So do PCs who 'died' at the end of 12 suddenly keel over at this point in 13?
Option Three - No. Just No.
The GM tells the players, you woke up this morning fully rested. You don't get to rest until the campaign ends.
What do you think is the best solution, or do you have a better one? Or I could just plan the fight at Axis Island to be nova-proof.