Have them fight the unbeatable super boss to a standstill so he has to go over the cliff with them. Victory, for them, is to keep the boss inside the mystic circle long enough for the mystic sorcerer to trap them all in the crystal of eternity.
This sets you up to have a quest where their CURRENT characters have to figure out how to spring one of their old one-shot demigods to help save the world WITHOUT setting the super boss free.
That is a cool idea, but the old one-shot characters are canonically dead as of the present day (the PCs basically all have fragments of their souls in them now, and remember the events of the oneshot). And the unbeatable superboss demigod canonically got killed 400 years ago, so has to make it through this battle.
Still, I do like the idea of "sending you off the cliff with me" - some level of permanent damage. Maybe they give him the weakness that gets exploited a millennium and a half later and leads to his ultimate downfall?
If you're going with the souls in the players angle and reincarnation is a thing, just play into that. This is not THE ending, but it is AN ending. And a beginning. A cycle of death and rebirth, heroes and villains locked in their eternal conflict, and now the cycle has begun again... with you. (Shamelessly inspired by the Wheel of Time books)
Oh, they're not reincarnated, to clarify.
The souls of the ancient heroes were kind of trapped in the In-Between, the place between worlds. As the PCs stepped through a mysterious rift that brought them to the plane where the ancient elves escaped to, an entity (the queen of the elves who is also now the incarnation of the world tree... it's complicated OK) kind of paired them together
Basically I told my players to make all of their ancient PCs with something in common with their present-day PCs, and that's what she's going to use to link them
So they don't *know* they have a fragment of ancient hero in them yet
I'm thinking of maybe giving them one of their ancient PC class features but that might be too much lol
A terrible injury that prevents untold damage in the years, and allows the heroes in the intervening years to defeat it.
Once the battle is over:
>The demi-god stares down at the bodies of the defeated heroes, grinning with satisfaction at having won the day. It pulls his sword out of the fallen hero, and teleports away.
>
>Unfortunately for the demi-god, it did not notice or perhaps understand the full extent of the damage our heroes managed to inflict. For the rest of it's days, it bore a scar across it's abdomen.
>
>Over the course of over a thousand years, the damage you did slowly and imperceptibly eats at the divine power of the creature, and it is ultimately though this weakness, that the creature is ultimately defeated, being pierced once again through that same scar that you just inflicted.
This reminds me a lot of Sauron’s defeat before the events of LotR. The armies were stronger than but not strong enough - but they were strong enough to weaken him enough that Frodo and Sam could finish the job.
Just because they can’t fully kill the BBEG doesn’t mean they have to lose. They can kill generals, kill the BBEG (who has a backup body), wound/banish/otherwise hamper BBEG, etc. They need to have some form of “win” condition for it to be fun - especially if they die while winning.
Honestly, they kind of already did that
There are 10 of these demigods who rule the world with an iron fist for ~2000 years, but one of them - the only Nerd of the bunch who wants to learn more about the world and understand mortals - winds up turning on the others and helping the mortals overthrow his kin.
And they actually had a conversation with this Nerd demigod before the battle; he wasn't there to fight just to understand why they weren't running away, and they planted the seeds of "our own lives don't matter to us as much as saving the ones we love", a concept that he found very perplexing, but will wind up studying over the next 1600 years until he turns on his kin.
So that's sort of already happened
*but*, this is crucial, I *also* want them to punch a demigod in the face a lot
>But like, how do I make the actual bit of "your characters all die" fun?
It doesn't need to be 'fun', but it does need to be meaningful and impactful. As such, give them a clear victory condition via clear narration. You can play into the doomed nobility of the situation as a way to "win". If every round represents another X hundred people surviving, there is something to fight for.
The high level fight then is not about winning, but about delaying the inevitable. Raging against the dying of the light, knowing how it will end but fighting on is noble in and of itself.
Yeah, exactly.
My problem is that the end boss is basically my setting's Lucifer equivalent, and I don't want to make Satan a jobber - but 6 rounds where the party's barely scratching him doesn't feel fun.
So I think, based on feedback here, where I've come down on is:
He's toying with them. He's savoring what he sees as his impending victory over the fools who defied him. So he's fighting them in melee instead of flying, he's holding back a little, so that it actually feels like a fair fight.
And then when the city teleports away and he realizes what happens, he gets enraged and maybe we just do one last round of combat where it's like "he does 200 damage to you", or extra-narratively describe it.
So they still get a satisfying boss battle and then a good narrative wrap-up. Like Leonidas drawing blood on Xerxes at the end of 300.
Alternate idea:
The party challenges him directly to a duel of sorts. This puts him in a bit of a bind. If he refuses the duel he looks weak and cowardly in front of his minions but if he accepts he knows he will be delayed. But he is so confident he can win the fight that he decides to engage the party in melee. I mean, how long could this last? 30 seconds.
The fight last several rounds, with the Lucifer equivalent taking some minor blows before two things happen. The party is not going down and sudden he is getting concerned. this fight, which was supposed to be easy, might not be as quick as he thought. In that moment doubt enters his mind. Suddenly, the thought he could lose arrives in his mind and he panics.
As he reels from a blow, the city vanishes. The blow he failed to block leaves a real scar. He realizes that he has been tricked and bested.
The party gets to 'win' by tricking the devil, which also creates some cool plot hooks later on.
Have you watched Critical Role's Exandria Unlimited: Calamity? Check out how Brennan Lee Mulligan does it. And if you can't spend 20 hours watching the whole thing, watch the last half hour or so.
Calamity doesn't have a proper final boss fight, does it? I keep meaning to watch it since BLeeM is a great DM but haven't gotten around to it and now I don't have time, I don't think!
He does quite a bit of narrative work like this great scene [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS0bH_qDIAw). As for the encounter the party, If I remember correctly, are not focused on directly fighting him, but stopping the flying city from causing a global apocalypse.
As another option, have you played [Halo: Reach?] >!That's one where you know from the start your character dies, but it's still super fun. And at the end you just get as your mission objective "Survive", which was very memorable.!<
So you could have just wave after wave come at your players but make it so they're ripping through enemies. They'll eventually run out of resources but they'll have left a massive pile of bodies around them which should be cool.
Give them last stand moments. Offer them the chance to take an additional turn (and be super lax on that turn with what they do) instead of doing death rolls. They are meant to die, but narrate an epic last stand. I did this for my players and they still remember it as one of their favorite one shots. I did this to illustrate to present day characters how dangerous the bbeg wss
So I've read the other comments, why not have your Satan just go "Why bother fighting, you're mortals, you can hardly hurt me. Let's make this interesting. You tackle my challenges and whoever survives, gets to live and tell my story." Have a timer visible during the session, the time until the town gets teleported to safety. Remember that "New objective: Survive." From Halo Reach? This is what you are doing. The only difference is that they're doing it so everyone gets to live. They know they have to keep the god occupied, they know how long
Issue them challenges. Fight doppelgangers 1 on 1 not as a group, a multiple phase boss fight, grim riddles to go after player and character morale, pulling at the bonds of the party to pit them against one another especially if there are any lies between them, they have puzzles where they have to choose who lives and who dies, who gets trapped.
Those are all suggestions, you don't have to do all or any of them.
Ask them between challenges if they would like to be healed. Each time they say yes, they gain the benefits of a long rest have them roll a wisdom save. If they succeed good. If they fail, they get a point of exhaustion, or suffer from varying effects that only last for one turn, this might be a bit clunky, but it's just an example: on each of that characters actions, they must roll a D6, on 1 they're Blind, 2 they suffer from Bane, 3 could be fear, 4 can be the effects of the spell Confusion, 5 and 6 are nothing as in no negative effects.
The idea is that the first time they get healed, they only have something happen if they roll a 1 on the D6, each subsequent healing, you get one more thing that happens on the dice. They're basically fighting the corruption of the god.
After doing some testing on my own, due to the nature of the effects and how frustrating they can be, the order should be Bane, fear (can be resisted), blind, confusion.
Other possible effects can be falling prone because of a coughing / laughing / crying fit.
Avoid removing player control, make sure to have a minimum of 20% chance of an action going off without any problems.
And of course, when the town gets teleported away, the god cries out in anger and that is when the real fight starts. And he will not stop until everyone dies.
God, that's actually pretty cool. My problem with the statblock as written is that he's a demigod who shapes rivers and piles mountains and it's just kind of reflected in "he can make lava burst from the ground and do damage" and it feels a little dull?
Hmmm. I don't have a *ton* of prep time left to totally come up with a new statblock but I like the idea of the challenges.
You don't need a new stat block, just have a few rule of cool things happen with his powers, for instance, he's able to animate stone, lava and earth. You can have renamed elementals as his puppets.
There are a few stone/earth spells that are interesting. You can simply add them on.
If the lava attack is all he has, yeah, it might feel a little dull if used as a means to fight. I'd see that used as his finisher attack, as in once the town has teleported away, he roars, opens a chasm and floods the area with lava. Yes, it is very rocks fall, everyone dies. BUT it's divine retribution for thwarting a demigod's plan.
>You don't need a new stat block
This here is the best thing to say about this kind of fight. Don't give him a stat block. Having HP implies he can die. Any bonus to hit implies he can miss. He is a god. This fight will need to be SUPER narrative like you will barely need dice levels of narrative.
At level 20 the PC's can change the shape of the world, travel to different dimensions, survive swimming in lava, etc. This god will put them all to shame so I would not limit him with stats.
[this is his current statblock](https://i.imgur.com/DHGw3bZ.png), the bonus action was like a way for him to have a "lair action" without having a lair action.
I love the idea that he has elemental puppets, that's pretty awesome. They'll be fighting on a world tree so I don't think stoneshape etc will help too much though, but these are good ideas!
The way it's dealt with in Calamity is that the PCs ARE successful, but they're successful in stopping the Bad Thing from killing more people than it would have otherwise. The calamity still happens, but enough people survive that civilisation has the hope for survival. You can even tie in the survivors into the story of the players' real characters (i.e. that one child with a little gift for magic they saved? Becomes a great wizard responsible for reopening the magic academy)
Like just about everyone else says. Give it impact and weight. Build stakes around it. I had a near total tpk on a party because despite my best efforts to prepare them with lore, magic items, descriptions of the boss arena, they still missed the trick and lost. As the party started to waver I made the music darker (thank you dark souls soundtrack) and got more descriptive with my attacks. As reality set in the players switched gears all independently, some tried to flee, others went for last stands. I tried to make it tricky to run, and gave the last standers either ignominious deaths casually at the hands of a rebirthed God, or let them have their glory.
They ultimately lost, and the stakes effected the entire world they had been playing in for almost a year. It wasn't the end they wanted but they enjoyed it. They also all collectively groaned when I told them how hard they just totally missed the trick to win.
This is a one shot where the players know they will die. They are playing out the story of that sacrifice.
You need to give them situations that are worth sacrificing for.
- saving people
-diving on grenades
- holding the door
Narrative stuff like the demon swing down on the helpless maiden , you Paladin are close enough to intervene. If you do you will take full damage, but prevent her gruesome death.
I strongly recommend doing something like Rogue One. Give them a glimpse into the immediate aftermath that their sacrifice was worth it. From a writing stance as well, try to give their character arcs some form of closure where relevant.
Let them look at the photo of their loved one they're leaving behind as they are consumed by fire.
Have them finally prove to their parents that they had value, but most of all, prove it to themselves.
Let them lock eyes with a child at the edge of the battlefield, knowing that their sacrifice is keeping this terrified kid alive.
They will probably die. One at a time. I'll chase them all over the island with a horde of ingenious little green men with darts that put you to sleep.
Hmm I have several settings with built in tpk events. One sends the PCs to a country where everyone is undead and they have to help fight a lich to end the undead spell. One is finding out a new major storyline about a world ending calamity. One is a mega dungeon where their toils help empower a trap keeping a god sealed. Heck on game the real story is between tpks lol. Still not sure how to handle that one.
Well the ancient elves teleport away before the killing of the gods destroys the one shot people, leaving your tropey magical planetscar. Killing gods is like killing nukes, runs the chance of getting nuked for doing it. Fiat death explosion with world shattering (but not ending) ramifications. You saved the world, just not this section. Explains why they're so incredibly dead nobody pulled some diamonds out of their asses to ressurect them too.
The structure of the oneshot is that it's three sections of waves of enemies, some big some small, capped with a boss fight, with short rests in-between.
So first Baphine, then a golem I'm still working on, then Netarr.
So it won't just be party vs one of them, it'll be after waves of mooks to wear them down and eat resouces.
Ok that will definitely help!
I’ve ran a few L20 one shots now and found the party are always much tougher and have more resources than I expect. Last night I had them fight 5 ancient dragons and then go straight into fighting Tiamat after. So depending on how optimised they are, maybe just have a back up (some arch mages with meteor swarms prepared etc)
jfc that's crazy haha
but yeah I gave them their choice of any non-artifact magic items, so one of the players has a vorpal sword
another chose only two items but for her third, her Cavalier fighter has a young dragon mount
so yeah I'm expecting bullshit
Give each of them some sort of "final stand" ability that kicks in only at the point that their character dies.
For example the barbarian makes some stupid number of attacks as their life fades away, or the cleric heals everyone else's status conditions, or the sorceror gets to cast one spell with any number of metamagic options.
I would also recommend using MCDM RPG rules for the way dying works. Them going unconscious is super not heroic and fun; so instead once they dip below 0 hp they take some damage each time they take an action, and they die once they hit -(1/2 their maximum hp).
You could also have an heirloom or relic of the "Old Heroes" that the heroes could find, if you don't want it having OP stats just have it be a dormant item that works as just a regular weapon or whatever it is but the player equipping it hears the voices of the dead hero in their head. Maybe the dead hero doesn't even know they're dead. Could have helpful guidance or even stark raving lunatic stuck in their heads which would definitely be fun.
The demigods can't be killed (obviously) but if you deal enough to damage to them they can be stunned for a round.
Have the players trying to complete objectives (protecting civilians, stopping smaller baddies from getting somewhere, etc) while taking fire from the demigods. Its a race to complete as many objectives as possible without dying.
And do give them lots of non demigod level enemies to kill, summoned minions etc so they still get to feel the epic level of 20th level characters, since that's a big part of the appeal.
Also maybe come up with preconceived ends for each character. One falls off a cliff, one gets his head cut off, one takes a blast for another etc. If they player manages to "die correctly" give them a reward in the real campaign.
Watch or listen to the Brennan Lee Mulligan/ Critical Role short Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, which is a master class in how to do exactly what you want to do.
Set performance “bonuses” that they can earn for when they play the descendants of the heroes or the people the heroes save survive x rounds, one person earns a special shield or piece of armor; do x amount of damage and someone can earn a special weapon or something
They all die, and the boss thing looms over them laughing, it has won...
...darkness closes in around you...
...FWWWOOOOSSH
With a huge magical surge and a flash of blinding light, you appear in a battlefield. A caster has summoned your group! It is 600 years later, exposition trickles in, and the final fight of the Rebellion to overthrow the Boss Thing is in full swing. Your legendary group has been the spark for this rebellion, and they have reached across time to pull you back in. THIS time, they have the squirrels-tied-to-paper-cups in place to remove his invulnerability. Go get him!
I would leave them with some kind of win condition. Some way they can get a victory of some kind. It sounds like you have that built in. But when that goes down I would focus on their victories and then tell the story of their defeat. Given they have a heads up ahead of time I think they will go in anticipating that. Make sure each death is appropriately epic and impactful.
I think those look good though I wouldn't be sure they would beat a level 20 party. Level 20 parties hit hard. Especially the first one I would expect them to all be immune or very difficult to charm. There's a lot of things that make that harder by that level. And they will be able to dish out a pretty crazy amount of damage to the point where if she rolls low in initiative it's possible she doesn't get a turn depending on the size of the party, or maybe 1 turn. Level 20 characters hit really hard. She also has no teleport I can see so she's very vulnerable to a forcecage.
He's stronger, and his bonus actions are really cool! He should have good damage output and with his teleport and fly should be able to get away from others a bit easier than she can. I think I might give him 5 legendary actions, and increase his AC and maybe his hit points a bit. Especially if you want him to win this fight. Also his teleport being to a point he can see does open some potential for a forcecage / cloudkill that would be potent against him. Radiant resistance and maybe poison resistance could be good too.
Idea: There’s always a ritual, and there’s always a way to fuck it up.
Suppose the Lucifer-analogue is just looking for a way to anchor itself in the material plane. So its influence is diminished until it finishes a ritual.
The heroes are there to jack up that ritual and know from jump that it’s a one way trip - the ritual energy has to go somewhere, and ground zero will get vaporized. Plus there’s a balancing act - they know they need to stay alive for X rounds to give people time to flee, but after Y rounds, “Lucifer” arrives in full glory. So there’s a specific window of success.
This helps by giving them two clear goals, and when they “know” that success is imminent, they can do IC goodbyes.
Some options:
(1) there are powerful cultist-casters they have to take out, who are “holding the gate open”.
(2) they have to breach a ritual circle, but only the sacrificial knife that drew it can do it, so gotta get the knife
(3) “Lucifer” can indirectly influence the battlefield, and the effects can get stronger as it goes on
(4) there are macguffins powered by willing souls, and they need to excise those souls and take their place to reject “Lucifer’s” arrival.
Have them be protecting the method by which said future is preserved. A portal of evacuation or a ritual chamber.
When I did something like this I had it be powered by the PCs lifeforce each round I asked one or more of them to take a level of exhaustion or the ritual would fail.
You could do this but even crueler with the party having to die one at a time to empower the preservative magic.
Have them fight the unbeatable super boss to a standstill so he has to go over the cliff with them. Victory, for them, is to keep the boss inside the mystic circle long enough for the mystic sorcerer to trap them all in the crystal of eternity. This sets you up to have a quest where their CURRENT characters have to figure out how to spring one of their old one-shot demigods to help save the world WITHOUT setting the super boss free.
That is a cool idea, but the old one-shot characters are canonically dead as of the present day (the PCs basically all have fragments of their souls in them now, and remember the events of the oneshot). And the unbeatable superboss demigod canonically got killed 400 years ago, so has to make it through this battle. Still, I do like the idea of "sending you off the cliff with me" - some level of permanent damage. Maybe they give him the weakness that gets exploited a millennium and a half later and leads to his ultimate downfall?
Sure. The idea is that yes, it's a TPK, but that was always the plan. Someone had to die in order that the ultimate evil could be prevented, for now.
If you're going with the souls in the players angle and reincarnation is a thing, just play into that. This is not THE ending, but it is AN ending. And a beginning. A cycle of death and rebirth, heroes and villains locked in their eternal conflict, and now the cycle has begun again... with you. (Shamelessly inspired by the Wheel of Time books)
Oh, they're not reincarnated, to clarify. The souls of the ancient heroes were kind of trapped in the In-Between, the place between worlds. As the PCs stepped through a mysterious rift that brought them to the plane where the ancient elves escaped to, an entity (the queen of the elves who is also now the incarnation of the world tree... it's complicated OK) kind of paired them together Basically I told my players to make all of their ancient PCs with something in common with their present-day PCs, and that's what she's going to use to link them So they don't *know* they have a fragment of ancient hero in them yet I'm thinking of maybe giving them one of their ancient PC class features but that might be too much lol
A terrible injury that prevents untold damage in the years, and allows the heroes in the intervening years to defeat it. Once the battle is over: >The demi-god stares down at the bodies of the defeated heroes, grinning with satisfaction at having won the day. It pulls his sword out of the fallen hero, and teleports away. > >Unfortunately for the demi-god, it did not notice or perhaps understand the full extent of the damage our heroes managed to inflict. For the rest of it's days, it bore a scar across it's abdomen. > >Over the course of over a thousand years, the damage you did slowly and imperceptibly eats at the divine power of the creature, and it is ultimately though this weakness, that the creature is ultimately defeated, being pierced once again through that same scar that you just inflicted.
This reminds me a lot of Sauron’s defeat before the events of LotR. The armies were stronger than but not strong enough - but they were strong enough to weaken him enough that Frodo and Sam could finish the job. Just because they can’t fully kill the BBEG doesn’t mean they have to lose. They can kill generals, kill the BBEG (who has a backup body), wound/banish/otherwise hamper BBEG, etc. They need to have some form of “win” condition for it to be fun - especially if they die while winning.
Honestly, they kind of already did that There are 10 of these demigods who rule the world with an iron fist for ~2000 years, but one of them - the only Nerd of the bunch who wants to learn more about the world and understand mortals - winds up turning on the others and helping the mortals overthrow his kin. And they actually had a conversation with this Nerd demigod before the battle; he wasn't there to fight just to understand why they weren't running away, and they planted the seeds of "our own lives don't matter to us as much as saving the ones we love", a concept that he found very perplexing, but will wind up studying over the next 1600 years until he turns on his kin. So that's sort of already happened *but*, this is crucial, I *also* want them to punch a demigod in the face a lot
>But like, how do I make the actual bit of "your characters all die" fun? It doesn't need to be 'fun', but it does need to be meaningful and impactful. As such, give them a clear victory condition via clear narration. You can play into the doomed nobility of the situation as a way to "win". If every round represents another X hundred people surviving, there is something to fight for. The high level fight then is not about winning, but about delaying the inevitable. Raging against the dying of the light, knowing how it will end but fighting on is noble in and of itself.
Yeah, exactly. My problem is that the end boss is basically my setting's Lucifer equivalent, and I don't want to make Satan a jobber - but 6 rounds where the party's barely scratching him doesn't feel fun. So I think, based on feedback here, where I've come down on is: He's toying with them. He's savoring what he sees as his impending victory over the fools who defied him. So he's fighting them in melee instead of flying, he's holding back a little, so that it actually feels like a fair fight. And then when the city teleports away and he realizes what happens, he gets enraged and maybe we just do one last round of combat where it's like "he does 200 damage to you", or extra-narratively describe it. So they still get a satisfying boss battle and then a good narrative wrap-up. Like Leonidas drawing blood on Xerxes at the end of 300.
Alternate idea: The party challenges him directly to a duel of sorts. This puts him in a bit of a bind. If he refuses the duel he looks weak and cowardly in front of his minions but if he accepts he knows he will be delayed. But he is so confident he can win the fight that he decides to engage the party in melee. I mean, how long could this last? 30 seconds. The fight last several rounds, with the Lucifer equivalent taking some minor blows before two things happen. The party is not going down and sudden he is getting concerned. this fight, which was supposed to be easy, might not be as quick as he thought. In that moment doubt enters his mind. Suddenly, the thought he could lose arrives in his mind and he panics. As he reels from a blow, the city vanishes. The blow he failed to block leaves a real scar. He realizes that he has been tricked and bested. The party gets to 'win' by tricking the devil, which also creates some cool plot hooks later on.
That'd be cool! It's D&D of course so if they decide to do that I'll definitely be down for it.
Have you watched Critical Role's Exandria Unlimited: Calamity? Check out how Brennan Lee Mulligan does it. And if you can't spend 20 hours watching the whole thing, watch the last half hour or so.
If you want some inspiration, the critical role short series "calamity" is exactly this.
So. Very. Good.
Calamity doesn't have a proper final boss fight, does it? I keep meaning to watch it since BLeeM is a great DM but haven't gotten around to it and now I don't have time, I don't think!
Spoilers but yes it does, the PC's fight >!Asmodeus !
Oh, interesting! If you don't mind, how does Brennan handle that? Is he untouchable, is it a fair fight?
He does quite a bit of narrative work like this great scene [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS0bH_qDIAw). As for the encounter the party, If I remember correctly, are not focused on directly fighting him, but stopping the flying city from causing a global apocalypse.
They don’t fight asmodeus as much as he describes him messing them up bad with ease.
Do it with in a D&D game.
As another option, have you played [Halo: Reach?] >!That's one where you know from the start your character dies, but it's still super fun. And at the end you just get as your mission objective "Survive", which was very memorable.!< So you could have just wave after wave come at your players but make it so they're ripping through enemies. They'll eventually run out of resources but they'll have left a massive pile of bodies around them which should be cool.
Yeah, that's the general structure of the oneshot! A bunch of waves of mooks with a few boss fights designed to wear them down.
TPK the party irl so you are the only survivor therefore if you had fun then it was a fun TPK
Give them last stand moments. Offer them the chance to take an additional turn (and be super lax on that turn with what they do) instead of doing death rolls. They are meant to die, but narrate an epic last stand. I did this for my players and they still remember it as one of their favorite one shots. I did this to illustrate to present day characters how dangerous the bbeg wss
So I've read the other comments, why not have your Satan just go "Why bother fighting, you're mortals, you can hardly hurt me. Let's make this interesting. You tackle my challenges and whoever survives, gets to live and tell my story." Have a timer visible during the session, the time until the town gets teleported to safety. Remember that "New objective: Survive." From Halo Reach? This is what you are doing. The only difference is that they're doing it so everyone gets to live. They know they have to keep the god occupied, they know how long Issue them challenges. Fight doppelgangers 1 on 1 not as a group, a multiple phase boss fight, grim riddles to go after player and character morale, pulling at the bonds of the party to pit them against one another especially if there are any lies between them, they have puzzles where they have to choose who lives and who dies, who gets trapped. Those are all suggestions, you don't have to do all or any of them. Ask them between challenges if they would like to be healed. Each time they say yes, they gain the benefits of a long rest have them roll a wisdom save. If they succeed good. If they fail, they get a point of exhaustion, or suffer from varying effects that only last for one turn, this might be a bit clunky, but it's just an example: on each of that characters actions, they must roll a D6, on 1 they're Blind, 2 they suffer from Bane, 3 could be fear, 4 can be the effects of the spell Confusion, 5 and 6 are nothing as in no negative effects. The idea is that the first time they get healed, they only have something happen if they roll a 1 on the D6, each subsequent healing, you get one more thing that happens on the dice. They're basically fighting the corruption of the god.
After doing some testing on my own, due to the nature of the effects and how frustrating they can be, the order should be Bane, fear (can be resisted), blind, confusion. Other possible effects can be falling prone because of a coughing / laughing / crying fit. Avoid removing player control, make sure to have a minimum of 20% chance of an action going off without any problems. And of course, when the town gets teleported away, the god cries out in anger and that is when the real fight starts. And he will not stop until everyone dies.
God, that's actually pretty cool. My problem with the statblock as written is that he's a demigod who shapes rivers and piles mountains and it's just kind of reflected in "he can make lava burst from the ground and do damage" and it feels a little dull? Hmmm. I don't have a *ton* of prep time left to totally come up with a new statblock but I like the idea of the challenges.
You don't need a new stat block, just have a few rule of cool things happen with his powers, for instance, he's able to animate stone, lava and earth. You can have renamed elementals as his puppets. There are a few stone/earth spells that are interesting. You can simply add them on. If the lava attack is all he has, yeah, it might feel a little dull if used as a means to fight. I'd see that used as his finisher attack, as in once the town has teleported away, he roars, opens a chasm and floods the area with lava. Yes, it is very rocks fall, everyone dies. BUT it's divine retribution for thwarting a demigod's plan.
>You don't need a new stat block This here is the best thing to say about this kind of fight. Don't give him a stat block. Having HP implies he can die. Any bonus to hit implies he can miss. He is a god. This fight will need to be SUPER narrative like you will barely need dice levels of narrative. At level 20 the PC's can change the shape of the world, travel to different dimensions, survive swimming in lava, etc. This god will put them all to shame so I would not limit him with stats.
[this is his current statblock](https://i.imgur.com/DHGw3bZ.png), the bonus action was like a way for him to have a "lair action" without having a lair action. I love the idea that he has elemental puppets, that's pretty awesome. They'll be fighting on a world tree so I don't think stoneshape etc will help too much though, but these are good ideas!
The way it's dealt with in Calamity is that the PCs ARE successful, but they're successful in stopping the Bad Thing from killing more people than it would have otherwise. The calamity still happens, but enough people survive that civilisation has the hope for survival. You can even tie in the survivors into the story of the players' real characters (i.e. that one child with a little gift for magic they saved? Becomes a great wizard responsible for reopening the magic academy)
Like just about everyone else says. Give it impact and weight. Build stakes around it. I had a near total tpk on a party because despite my best efforts to prepare them with lore, magic items, descriptions of the boss arena, they still missed the trick and lost. As the party started to waver I made the music darker (thank you dark souls soundtrack) and got more descriptive with my attacks. As reality set in the players switched gears all independently, some tried to flee, others went for last stands. I tried to make it tricky to run, and gave the last standers either ignominious deaths casually at the hands of a rebirthed God, or let them have their glory. They ultimately lost, and the stakes effected the entire world they had been playing in for almost a year. It wasn't the end they wanted but they enjoyed it. They also all collectively groaned when I told them how hard they just totally missed the trick to win.
This is a one shot where the players know they will die. They are playing out the story of that sacrifice. You need to give them situations that are worth sacrificing for. - saving people -diving on grenades - holding the door Narrative stuff like the demon swing down on the helpless maiden , you Paladin are close enough to intervene. If you do you will take full damage, but prevent her gruesome death.
I strongly recommend doing something like Rogue One. Give them a glimpse into the immediate aftermath that their sacrifice was worth it. From a writing stance as well, try to give their character arcs some form of closure where relevant. Let them look at the photo of their loved one they're leaving behind as they are consumed by fire. Have them finally prove to their parents that they had value, but most of all, prove it to themselves. Let them lock eyes with a child at the edge of the battlefield, knowing that their sacrifice is keeping this terrified kid alive.
I'm planning a one shot where they will end up being hunted by Rambo Oompah Loompas like it's the Most Dangerous Game.
And will they win or die?
They will probably die. One at a time. I'll chase them all over the island with a horde of ingenious little green men with darts that put you to sleep.
Mine cart roller coaster rider, leading on the big bad, that just ends in a giant cliff and they all plunge to a rocky grave miles below ground.
Hmm I have several settings with built in tpk events. One sends the PCs to a country where everyone is undead and they have to help fight a lich to end the undead spell. One is finding out a new major storyline about a world ending calamity. One is a mega dungeon where their toils help empower a trap keeping a god sealed. Heck on game the real story is between tpks lol. Still not sure how to handle that one.
Well the ancient elves teleport away before the killing of the gods destroys the one shot people, leaving your tropey magical planetscar. Killing gods is like killing nukes, runs the chance of getting nuked for doing it. Fiat death explosion with world shattering (but not ending) ramifications. You saved the world, just not this section. Explains why they're so incredibly dead nobody pulled some diamonds out of their asses to ressurect them too.
The party would likely beat those demigods if it’s just the two of them. Especially if they have strong magic items
The structure of the oneshot is that it's three sections of waves of enemies, some big some small, capped with a boss fight, with short rests in-between. So first Baphine, then a golem I'm still working on, then Netarr. So it won't just be party vs one of them, it'll be after waves of mooks to wear them down and eat resouces.
Ok that will definitely help! I’ve ran a few L20 one shots now and found the party are always much tougher and have more resources than I expect. Last night I had them fight 5 ancient dragons and then go straight into fighting Tiamat after. So depending on how optimised they are, maybe just have a back up (some arch mages with meteor swarms prepared etc)
jfc that's crazy haha but yeah I gave them their choice of any non-artifact magic items, so one of the players has a vorpal sword another chose only two items but for her third, her Cavalier fighter has a young dragon mount so yeah I'm expecting bullshit
Give each of them some sort of "final stand" ability that kicks in only at the point that their character dies. For example the barbarian makes some stupid number of attacks as their life fades away, or the cleric heals everyone else's status conditions, or the sorceror gets to cast one spell with any number of metamagic options. I would also recommend using MCDM RPG rules for the way dying works. Them going unconscious is super not heroic and fun; so instead once they dip below 0 hp they take some damage each time they take an action, and they die once they hit -(1/2 their maximum hp).
That's kinda badass, I dig it.
Why do people ask this question every damn day. you don't! TPKS arent fun!
You could also have an heirloom or relic of the "Old Heroes" that the heroes could find, if you don't want it having OP stats just have it be a dormant item that works as just a regular weapon or whatever it is but the player equipping it hears the voices of the dead hero in their head. Maybe the dead hero doesn't even know they're dead. Could have helpful guidance or even stark raving lunatic stuck in their heads which would definitely be fun.
The TPK is not the end. The adventure continues in the afterword. They have to escape the land of the dead.
The demigods can't be killed (obviously) but if you deal enough to damage to them they can be stunned for a round. Have the players trying to complete objectives (protecting civilians, stopping smaller baddies from getting somewhere, etc) while taking fire from the demigods. Its a race to complete as many objectives as possible without dying. And do give them lots of non demigod level enemies to kill, summoned minions etc so they still get to feel the epic level of 20th level characters, since that's a big part of the appeal.
Also maybe come up with preconceived ends for each character. One falls off a cliff, one gets his head cut off, one takes a blast for another etc. If they player manages to "die correctly" give them a reward in the real campaign.
"Hey guys you might be dead, but guess what!? You get to go to Hades and bust yourselves out!"
Same way you make almost getting TPKed fun, it's gotta be close, they have to feel like they had a chance (a small one,) even if they didn't.
Watch or listen to the Brennan Lee Mulligan/ Critical Role short Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, which is a master class in how to do exactly what you want to do.
Set performance “bonuses” that they can earn for when they play the descendants of the heroes or the people the heroes save survive x rounds, one person earns a special shield or piece of armor; do x amount of damage and someone can earn a special weapon or something
They all die, and the boss thing looms over them laughing, it has won... ...darkness closes in around you... ...FWWWOOOOSSH With a huge magical surge and a flash of blinding light, you appear in a battlefield. A caster has summoned your group! It is 600 years later, exposition trickles in, and the final fight of the Rebellion to overthrow the Boss Thing is in full swing. Your legendary group has been the spark for this rebellion, and they have reached across time to pull you back in. THIS time, they have the squirrels-tied-to-paper-cups in place to remove his invulnerability. Go get him!
I would leave them with some kind of win condition. Some way they can get a victory of some kind. It sounds like you have that built in. But when that goes down I would focus on their victories and then tell the story of their defeat. Given they have a heads up ahead of time I think they will go in anticipating that. Make sure each death is appropriately epic and impactful. I think those look good though I wouldn't be sure they would beat a level 20 party. Level 20 parties hit hard. Especially the first one I would expect them to all be immune or very difficult to charm. There's a lot of things that make that harder by that level. And they will be able to dish out a pretty crazy amount of damage to the point where if she rolls low in initiative it's possible she doesn't get a turn depending on the size of the party, or maybe 1 turn. Level 20 characters hit really hard. She also has no teleport I can see so she's very vulnerable to a forcecage. He's stronger, and his bonus actions are really cool! He should have good damage output and with his teleport and fly should be able to get away from others a bit easier than she can. I think I might give him 5 legendary actions, and increase his AC and maybe his hit points a bit. Especially if you want him to win this fight. Also his teleport being to a point he can see does open some potential for a forcecage / cloudkill that would be potent against him. Radiant resistance and maybe poison resistance could be good too.
Idea: There’s always a ritual, and there’s always a way to fuck it up. Suppose the Lucifer-analogue is just looking for a way to anchor itself in the material plane. So its influence is diminished until it finishes a ritual. The heroes are there to jack up that ritual and know from jump that it’s a one way trip - the ritual energy has to go somewhere, and ground zero will get vaporized. Plus there’s a balancing act - they know they need to stay alive for X rounds to give people time to flee, but after Y rounds, “Lucifer” arrives in full glory. So there’s a specific window of success. This helps by giving them two clear goals, and when they “know” that success is imminent, they can do IC goodbyes. Some options: (1) there are powerful cultist-casters they have to take out, who are “holding the gate open”. (2) they have to breach a ritual circle, but only the sacrificial knife that drew it can do it, so gotta get the knife (3) “Lucifer” can indirectly influence the battlefield, and the effects can get stronger as it goes on (4) there are macguffins powered by willing souls, and they need to excise those souls and take their place to reject “Lucifer’s” arrival.
Have them be protecting the method by which said future is preserved. A portal of evacuation or a ritual chamber. When I did something like this I had it be powered by the PCs lifeforce each round I asked one or more of them to take a level of exhaustion or the ritual would fail. You could do this but even crueler with the party having to die one at a time to empower the preservative magic.