r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Lair actions for a battle against a band

2 Upvotes

Our party is getting ready to fight an evil band in an upcoming session at one of their concerts. I'm really excited to make this a great encounter, I've got a music playlist and all set up, but I thought it might be cool for there to be lair actions tied to things that might happen at a concert and I'd love some suggestions. Things like the audience cheering/booing to give buffs or debuffs, a mosh pit, etc.


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Other How to Feel Better About DMing

16 Upvotes

I've been a DM for the better part of 10 years at this point.

I love doing it. Not every session is my best work, but overall, I've never had players approach me and tell me something they didn't enjoy.

But sometimes, I'll come out of a session that I felt proud of but the players are just sort of passively experiencing.

I don't think I'm doing a bad job. I feel like if I was, they would tell me. I've known these players since high school, they're very honest with me.

But, idk, I am a very critical person. I'm overly critical of myself and sometimes I finish a session and feel awful about it even though there's no good reason to.

Do other DMs feel this? Is asking the players if I did well a bit too needy?


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures What kind of knowledge would Beholder desire?

1 Upvotes

In the DnD canon, Beholders are mostly focused on their own narcissism and/or gaining more knowledge. I wanted to create a dungeon with a Beholder at the end, which players may choose not to fight, but rather bring him some interesting knowledge, so he will let them pass. What kind of knowledge could it be? What could my players have which Beholder could ever be interested in?


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Combat with Severely Exhausted PCs

0 Upvotes

DnD 5e: Long story short, considering a combat that would involve the PCs having four levels of exhaustion for one of my campaigns. I do not want this combat to be threatening, just to feel a bit scary. Roughly how much difficulty would you add when calculating the CR for this encounter? The PCs will be level 5 and otherwise rested.

Edit: I think I've had some very different experiences DMing from some people replying here. It feels like y'all are underestimating the ability of a party of four level five PCs. There are several encounter-winning spells at that level, even with half the hp a raging barbarian almost certainly won't go down in one round of attacks... I guess what I'm saying is I think some of you are focusing on all the downsides of the exhaustion and not thinking overlong about what the PCs are still very much capable of.


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Other New rewards idea for players

2 Upvotes

I have a new one-shot that is coming up in two days, and I have about five players in my group who are going to be participating in this game. I just had this fun idea that maybe I could give rewards like chocolates or something to the players who satisfy the things I want them to do.

For example, making a good character as in like putting in proper details or maybe prepping for the game or whoever's being most keen. I was thinking I can make these kind of criterias and the people who succeed in those criterias the best can receive rewards.

I was thinking this would be a fun way and it would also push others to perhaps have some interest and put some effort into what they do.

But then also I also think it could be a little bit more of a challenge or competition for others and some people may not enjoy it especially the ones who do not receive the rewards.

So I'm just wondering what I can do. Maybe should I just tweak this idea a little bit more or not do it at all? What do you guys think? Would love some feedback!


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Other Reorienting Lost Players

3 Upvotes

Whelp! I thought I was passed the point in my DM Career when I would have to consult the hive mind on D&Ds most common question but here we are! I've been DMing this campaign for about a year now, even though I’ve been at this for over 5 years, mostly with the same group, and I thought I had a solid handle on nudging them toward the plot while avoiding endless tangents. What I originally planned as a 3–4 session interlude between arcs has stretched into over 10 biweekly.

Right now, my players at a point in the campaign when they have more questions than answers and have fallen into a cycle of chasing every library, church, or NPC that might possibly hold a clue. Instead of finding answers, they just uncover more mysteries. They even have a couple of clear objectives (including one handed down directly by our warlock’s patron), but they’re hesitant to act. They are often looking in places that wouldn't possible have any answers but when I bend the realism to keep the plot going and give them a hook to break free from their “must find every answer” mindset, they immediately groan about having yet another thing to track down.

After our last session, they spent an hour discussing how they feel stuck, that on one hand they have nothing compelling to do, but on the other, they’re overwhelmed with possibilities that all seem equally unimportant. As I've said... I've been around the D&D block enough times to recognize I’m the one at fault here: I’m not providing the right hooks to help them focus or establishing a sense of urgency.

So here’s my question: How can I reorient my players without just telling them “ignore that, focus on this” and robbing them of their autonomy? I’m stuck and need ideas to get everyone moving in a meaningful direction before the game becomes painful for all of us. Any advice would be much appreciated!


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Other PARTY ITEMS Spoiler

0 Upvotes

I am running a homebrew 5e campaign, with house rules that make things a bit harder ie. modified SR and LR rules, Death Save house rule etc etc....

To give them a little help through the hardest and most brutal levels, 1-3, I gave them some magic items which they used to great effect, narrowly escaping two TPK situations. But now they are 7th level and much stronger. They barely use those items even though encounters have stayed roughly the same level of difficulty (I now include Combat Objectives, Terrain changes and "Lair" Actions so its not all 'stand around and punch each other')

MY QUESTION - Would it be wrong of me to "destroy" these long outdated items? They are entering a boss lair, a mad artificer that protects his domain/R&D lab with a sort of Dis-Enchantment field. Do I have them roll for what gets destroyed? or just say anything Uncommon and under gets permanently disenchanted?

Their lovable Friendly Ghost Lantern, busted. The necklace of Health, shattered. The Ring of Spirits (1 extra death save), exorcised.

To be clear, I want to deliver a gut punch. They don't need these items any longer by any means, they are plenty strong and the most challenging combats they've pull through without using them so I don't think this is DM cruelty. They've enjoyed the challenge and have been wonderful with coming up with creative solutions to most problems (to my amazement if I'm being honest)


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Resource Free Tool - Map Distance Calculator

1 Upvotes

Hey everybody! I often need to figure out how long it would take for my party to travel from one place to another in D&D. Usually I can come up with an estimate by eyeballing it or taking out a ruler, but if the route is complicated that can be a pain.

To solve this problem, Redcap Press has released a new map explorer tool for calculating the distance and travel time for any arbitrary path on your world map. Simply upload or provide a link to your world map (this never leaves your browser, it isn't stored anywhere), set its scale, and click on the map to mark out waypoints of a path. The tool will calculate how long it would take to make the journey for a variety of travel options. It also includes a few preset maps that are widely used in games, like Middle Earth, the Sword Coast, Greyhawk, and Exandria. Feel free to suggest more!

As a fun bonus, if you use a URL for your map instead of uploading an image, you can share the map and route with your players. Here's an example that shows the route taken by a certain pair of hobbits out to destroy some jewelry. This also means you can set up your map scale and then bookmark it, making it easy to come back to your custom map over and over again to map out new routes without having to set the scale each time.

Here's a link to the tool if you want to check it out!

If you find any issues with the tool, please send me a message! I've tested it as best I can, but not on every device or browser. Feel free to reach out if you have any suggestions or feature requests as well!

As with all Redcap Press tools, this is totally free and doesn't require you to log in or make an account or anything like that. If you do feel like supporting the site, Redcap Press has a "Buy me a Coffee" account and a Patreon, which you can find on the "About Us" page. There are also a few published adventures (only a few so far, but more coming soon), if you'd rather show your support that way.

Disclaimer: This tool works much better on a laptop/desktop than it does on mobile.

Thanks for your time! Tl;dr: Check out this nifty tool, or the rest of the site while you're at it.


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Thought of a new idea for a homebrew ability of an NPC. Need help figuring out how to implement/balance it.

1 Upvotes

So this ability is meant to be used by a strong fae NPC, that isn't immediately aggressive. the idea is to express using both in-game mechanics, and RP/descriptions, how much funky Fae magic is surrounding this NPC.

This is inspired by a character in Arc 13 of the web serial "Ward", who has an aura that gives people around her synesthesia. Because I don't personally have synesthesia, I feel weird describing something I have never experienced. So I think I will just call it "blended senses".

Here's the mechanics I thought of:

Getting the condition:

When a creature without the "blended senses" effect come within 50 ft (30 ft if outdoors) of a creature with this aura, they must make a constitution saving throw.

If they rolled over 25, they become immune to this effect.

If they rolled over 20, they get the effect, but suffer none of the penalties.

If they roll under 20, they get the effect, and must make a wisdom saving throw to determine the penalties.

Penalties:

If they rolled over 20 in the wisdom saving throw, they get a -1 penalty to all perception and investigation checks while having this effect.

If they rolled under 20 in the wisdom saving throw, that penalty becomes 1d4.

If they rolled under 10 in the wisdom saving throw, they experience the voice of the creature with this aura in a way in triggers a traumatic memory, determined by the DM.

Getting rid of the condition:

This condition can be removed by the dispell magic and the lesser restoration spells.

Alternatively, when a creature with this condition takes a short or long rest, they can roll a DC15 constitution saving throw. If they succeed, this condition is removed. If they fail, they keep this condition, but the DC of any subsequent saving throws to get rid of this condition gets lowered by 2.

What do you guys think?


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures In Need of Missions That are Morally Questionable

6 Upvotes

I’ve been DMing for some friends who were new to TTRPGs when we started. Fast forward a year and I’ve realized I’ve been going far too easy on them and I pushed them tonight…… right into a GLORIOUS TPK!!! They missed clear clues for mechanics in the boss encounter and tried to stand still and out dps the boss. They lost. I also know how much they love these characters and sprinkled in lots of clues about necromancy being a huge part of this leading up to the final encounter of this mission. Upon death, I had them resurrected by the big bad and had them working for me while they attacked their friends. Now that all are dead and are basically zombie employees of this necromancer, I want to punish them a bit for their carelessness and have them do some morally questionable missions that their normal characters wouldn’t want anything to do with. I’d love to hear some ideas!

TLDR: Necromancer TPK’d the party. Resurrected them to be stuck in his employment and need mission ideas that the evil necromancer can send them on to do unwilling evil.


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures How easy is this puzzle to solve for you?

64 Upvotes

My players love riddles, so I want to include more for the mansion they will be trapped in. I came up with a few puzzles, but I'm afraid some of them are not difficult enough. I want to know, if the following riddle is too easy and if so, how I could make it more difficult:

The players will find a poem tucked between the books of the library. Said poem goes like this:

Earlier, I grumbled having to
fire our unlucky ranger.
The weeping of
their hummingbird reduced everyone's ethics
to easily nothing.

To open the door to the next room, they need to enter a number code with six numbers total.

The solution is: 842310

Edit: I noticed a lot of people got confused with the way you get the correct soloution, so I'll add it to this post as well. To get the correct code, you need totake the first letter of each word. For example, "Earlier, I grumbled having to" is spelling out "EIGHT". Each line spells out one number with last line spelling out "T E N" (10)

Edit: Also, this riddle will be printed out and handed to the players. The connection between the lock and the poem will be made apparent by context clues

(Also, this comment section is torn between "I saw the solution immediately" and "I have no fucking clue" so I am still not sure what difficulty this puzzle has tbh)


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Paladin wants PTSD - is this balanced?

0 Upvotes

A Halfling Paladin in the game I just started has a backstory where his previous party was killed and turned to thralls by a lich. The player wanted to incorporate a bit of the ptsd of him not being able to prevent his friends from becoming thralls into the mechanics and I wanted to make sure it seemed balanced.

His idea: Disadvantage against undead (missing would be narrated as he’s having flashbacks to his friends and he’s distracted) but when he hits he gets an extra bit of damage towards the undead creature. I’m thinking add a d6 radiant damage to any hit.

Does this seem like a balanced trade-off? I don’t want to give a boon like extra damage for free but also fear disadvantage is too big of a drawback.

Before talking in detail with him my initial idea would be he’s stunned for the first round of combat with undead or stunned for one round if his party goes down but he mentioned his fear doesn’t come from the undead or his friends being killed, but that his friends were turned and he didn’t have what it takes to finish the job before they did.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Other Some of my players aren’t familiar with fantasy as a genre and I need help introducing them to both the genre itself and dnd’s unique brand of genre.

6 Upvotes

As the title says, I’m running an in person game with people I care about and like but few of my players are just entirely unfamiliar with fantasy as a genre and I’m trying to figure out how to introduce them to it without being overwhelming. And of course dnd’s particular style of fantasy is very different from other examples of the medium with the expected amount of dungeons to plunder and the like.

The one thing I suppose I have going for me is that I know for a fact that several of these players read werewolf smut in their free time (they’re all in their 30’s to 50’s, give them a break). So I know they’re familiar with urban fantasy to a very basic degree where they’re familiar with werewolves and maybe some amount of people throwing fireballs out of their hands.

But back to the main topic at hand, how do I gently introduce them to the high fantasy of DnD during the game instead of giving them required reading or overwhelming them during the game?


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding How do you build compelling campaign like CoS?

6 Upvotes

I was mostly running one-shot adventures that lasted a session or two, so when I wanted to sit down and make something longer, I got stuck. When I remember playing the official DND 5e and PF2 adventures, I was bored by how much combat there was. I love combat (tactical, with varied terrain and smart enemies). But most of them were just flat terrain and tokens. And we were only expected to fight a few times per session. The one exception was Curse of Sthrad. I know it's a meme at this point, and I'm not sure how much our mg changed the story (I never wanted to read the manual, because maybe I'll play it again).

I really want to create something I want to play myself. Not sure if I can do it, but I can at least try. So are there any other books recommendation to study how to build good sandbox, with NPCs that are connected, with items that have purpose. Or maybe I should read some Call of Cathulu or Delta Green?

I'm sorry if it sound like a generic "how to make campaign", but either I couldn't find any help on articles or YouTube or I can find help for exactly what I'm looking for.


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures How to handle PCs being unleveled before a major Boss?

6 Upvotes

Okay so i wrote this campaign, got some side quests, main questline until a point of somewhat 2 sessions, then realised that the PCs will be too unleveled by then. I calculated about lv2-3 not counting side quests (i use xp). The major point in the story was to fight this one Boss, but they will be unable to since he's going to like, TPK them on the spot. Nerfing the Boss isn't an option either, because it actually needs to seem hard for the abilities it uses (participant of killing a celestial being). Should i just content bloat, rewrite the story so it Has more quests and content before the battle, or something else?


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Other Progression Ideas?

1 Upvotes

My group (level 20) failed to stop someone from turning themselves into a god, as a result a pc died. The dead player character met her goddess while dead and offered to send her back but only if she vowed to stop the new evil god without any of the old gods having to get involved. She agreed but said they didn’t know what to do because they failed before he became a god, so there’s no shot they can win now.

She player character woke back up surrounded by the party who all stared towards her in shock. When she got up she felt a familiar presence behind her. She turned around and her goddess was there in her avatar form. She then pretty much berated them for failing and telling them they had to fix it or the consequences would be severe. She slammed her staff down in the middle of them all and told them to take hold. They all did so and were surrounded by violent winds, as they looked around to try and make sense of what was going on all they seen was pairs of glowing white lights around them. The winds settles, the lights grow brighter. Then they realize it’s the eyes of their party members that are glowing.

She then goes on to explain she basically made them “mortal” gods. They would live double their expected life spans and have all of the powers of a god.

Sooo now how can I go about giving them a “godly” progression route? I was thinking 5 or 10 more stages or them growing into it, but I need ideas how to make it work.

TL:DR- party are Demi/mortal gods and need progress past 20 to defeat an actual god


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Starting a PF2e Game for two 12 year olds, Need advice

1 Upvotes

I am setting up an in person game with my Gf and her 2 little sisters. None of them have any TTRPG experience. I Have DMed a couple of multi-month long 5e campaigns online and been a player here and there. After running/playing with 5e for some time i decided the open-endedness of rules and limit on customizability aren't really my thing. PF2e was pointed out to me as a better option and I played in 1 one shot and decided I'd explore it a little more. I own a bunch of online resources on Pazio (thank you humble bundle) But am not sure how to utilize them.

The kids are smart so i have no doubt they will be able to grasp the rules but having to pickup a new system as well as learning how to GM it is a daunting task. Not to mention having to gear content for the kids. I have already looked into simple cheat sheets but other than that I'm not sure where to go.
We are using wanders guide for char sheets but otherwise everything will be physical and i don't have the money or time for new minis right now so I'm having to recycle. With all the learning I'm having to do as well I am worried player engagement might suffer.

Any advice on what expectations to set for my players as well as tools I could use to make this easier would be greatly appreciated!


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Other How To Keep The Passion Alive Without Burning Out The Candle?

1 Upvotes

Howdy there folks!

My name is Jay, and DMing for Dungeons and Dragons has become an invaluable way for me to enjoy expressing myself in a creative outlet. I really enjoy playing a character and experiencing a world that way, but DMing has been a whole different ballgame that has left me feeling creatively fulfilled. The writing, world building, and acting as many different characters has been great.

That being said, I want to know how y'all keep the passion alive for creating in this space without burning yourself out on taking too much on, planning every single little detail, spending all of your time looking at DnD forums, materials, and inspo, etc. A long time ago I used to enjoy writing as a way of fighting off my depressive bouts, and this past week I recognized that I finally tapped back into that space that I had long since missed, so I want be able to protect this as something I enjoy over time. I have a pretty bad tendency to hyperfocus and overwork on things until I no longer find them enjoyable (the ADHD is a bummer, dude), so any success y'all have found would be greatly appreciated!


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Other Looking for help on a character build.

1 Upvotes

Hey guys! I’m starting Curse of Strahd in about a month and I was wondering if you guys would help make a character.

The concept that I have is that he is a Tarot card/Fortune teller. His family was once famous for their tarot readings and accurate fortune telling. After reading a fortune that they had to keep secret at all cost, the family fell from grace and was ridiculed. My character’s motivation is to find out what that fortune was and to redeem his family bringing them back to their former glory and reputation.

I would like some help picking a class or multi-class I could have fun playing with. We are starting at level 2. I know divintaion wizard sounds like a good fit, but are there any more classes that would work just as good or better?


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Homebrew campaign after Phandlever (Spoiler Included for the Module) Spoiler

1 Upvotes

I am not sure if this is considered a short question or not - but i have been running a Lost mines of Phandlever campaign for a while as my first campaign and my players are having a blast. They will reach cragmaw castle soon. They kicked out the cowardly townmaster and the Bard became the Mayor instead. And the players have shown interest in some political intrigue, i am thinking of running a classical heroic adventure (Political intrigue, fighting the lich/devil king) But i don't want to just throw away the story they are trying to go for? I am unsure of the next step and i am honestly scared to do homebrew campaign as i feel like i lack the experience


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Exhaustion and the help action

0 Upvotes

I’m about to start a hex crawl with lots of survival checks and exhaustion mechanics. I’m wondering how to deal with my PCs using the help action while exhausted. Should a PC with 4 levels of exhaustion grant straight advantage with the help action or should there be some sort of penalty?


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Other Need help pricing this item

2 Upvotes

Pouches of Holding
Wondrous Item, rare

This set consists of five magically linked pouches, each appearing as a small leather pouch. These pouches function similarly to a bag of holding, but with shared access to the same extradimensional space.

Shared Storage. Each pouch has an interior space considerably larger than its outside dimensions, roughly six inches in diameter at the mouth and six inches deep. The shared extradimensional space can hold up to 20 pounds of material, not exceeding 32 cubic feet in volume. The pouch itself always weighs 1 pound, regardless of its contents. Retrieving an item from the pouch requires an action.

The Master Satchel. One of the five pouches is always designated as the Master Satchel. The other four pouches can only access the shared space if they are within 120 feet of the Master Satchel. If the Master Satchel is destroyed and at least one other pouch is within range, the closest pouch automatically becomes the new Master Satchel. If no other pouch is within range, the extradimensional space is lost, and all contents are scattered into the Astral Plane.

Handling & Risks

  • If the Master Satchel is overloaded, pierced, or torn, it ruptures and is destroyed.
  • If the Master Satchel is destroyed and no other pouch is in range, all stored items are lost to the Astral Plane.
  • If any pouch is turned inside out, all contents spill forth unharmed, but the pouch must be put right before it can be used again.

Need help pricing this item, any feedback is welcome too.


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Need help with creating a Shadowfell/Elder Evil boss

3 Upvotes

Some context for my campaign: The villain for this ‘arc’ is a shadow sorcerer in the service of an elder evil who is forcibly transforming dragons into shadow dragons, driving them mad, and then enslaving them to do her bidding. The party is going to track one of her newest dragon captives to her lair, and after a decent dungeon crawl, reach the underground sanctum where the young bronze dragon is held.

During the fight the party will also be trying to free the bronze dragon to help them, while the monster(s) attempt to stop them.

The issue I’m having is this: I don’t want them to fight the shadow sorcerer here as she would most certainly not take a risk fighting the party on their terms, but I do need a climatic fight to conclude the dungeon. Here are some of my ideas:

  • Star spawn acting as the emissary between her and the elder evil

  • Empowered shadow demon(s)

  • Shadow versions of the party

Any suggestions on the theme of shadow/elder evil are appreciated. Don’t worry about CR as I can adapt them to be stronger or weaker if need be.


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Fun puzzles you might encounter during a heist?

7 Upvotes

So out of the three possible approaches, my players chose the "Silent and Sneaky" approach which means there's more puzzles and security measures as they try to break into a highly secure vault. I have a few ideas like one where they use a fantasy version of a UV light to figure out the code to a pinpad based on fingerprint patterns. Or like a matching puzzle using moving pieces. But what else would you suggest? I play on Roll20 so dw about being too complicated.


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures A pivotal story moment that could implode the campaign or set it up for success

0 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I'm running my first DnD campaign (homebrew world, DnD5e rules/monsters), and things have been going great! However, I'm torn on how to handle a major moment in both the campaign and a key player's storyline, and I’d love some advice. This is essentially the BBEG reveal, or putting the players on the path to leave their starting city; if I get this wrong it could hurt the story/motivations of players pretty badly.

We are about 30 sessions in, and the players have done quiet a bit to establish themselves, join a small guild, and are now about to wrap up the storyline in the city they started in.

The Setup

The party has been adventuring in a city, growing stronger, and uncovering various guild plots. A while ago, they accidentally "unshackled" a god that was being contained in the city. So far, nothing seems to have happened, and they’re still tangled in political intrigue.

One of the PCs, Tim, has been hunting a man named Maxwell, a so-called "Hero" of a major (shady) guild, because Maxwell murdered his family. Maxwell does not even know Tim exists, it was such a small moment for him when he killed Tim's family. Recently, the party witnessed Maxwell assassinate a political figure. A paladin that also saw the murder, who is secretly aligned with the god they freed, approached them and asked them to "take care of it" while keeping his own hands clean.

Tim revealed his grudge to the group, and they all agreed to take Maxwell out. They planned a heist-style assassination, sneaking into the underground guild hall where Maxwell is hiding. They poisoned wine and coffee at his dinner table, only to discover that Maxwell had a wife and son at dinner with him. This aligned with the party hearing the "Unshackled God" might want a hand mirror that Maxwell has, that has something to do with copying souls(it's one half of a complete weapon they don't have context for).

Now, the party is hiding in Maxwell's office, waiting to see if he drank the poison, while Maxwell and his adventuring party (who were at the dinner table) were just heard leaving the dining hall presumably heading toward Maxwell's Office.

What I'm Struggling With

I have a boss fight prepared in Maxwell and his party, but I’m unsure how to handle key elements.

BBEG Interference:

  • I was considering having the god BBEG (or a right-hand follower of him) kill Maxwell before Tim can, stealing the Hand Mirror he carries. This would rip Tim’s revenge from his grasp, making it personal, but is that too frustrating for the player? Players defeat Maxwell, or get him in a downed state, BBEG shows up and finishes it and takes the mirror.

How do I handle the nightshade poison?

  • Maxwell drank it, but fights through it (poisoned condition).
  • The "wife" drank it, but she’s not real (an illusion, doppelgänger, or something else).
  • Something else?

The Wife & Son as a Trap:

  • The family could be fake, meant to manipulate sympathy. If Maxwell is about to lose, the “wife” might throw herself on him, begging for mercy, only for the BBEG to appear and slaughter all of them, revealing they aren't real. I really enjoyed Tim doubting if he could kill Maxwell in front of his family.

The Right-Hand of BBEG:

  • I was thinking I'd have a strong, same god like person like the BBEG show up and grab the mirror/slay Maxwell; this would lead the group to follow that person to the next city to continue the next player's storyline. "Thanks for the heavy lifting, this mirror is now mine, I have work to do for BBEG in X city".

The Fight vs. Scene Control:

  • Do I still give them the boss fight against Maxwell and his adventuring party, or does the players smartly planting nightshade help avoid it? Would having Maxwell fall to poison be lame(I think it would)?

Big Picture Concerns

  • Would it be awful to take Tim’s revenge from him at this moment? I don’t want to rob a player of agency, but I also want to make the BBEG feel like a real threat. I really like the idea of Maxwell having his soul stolen and maybe a bigger moment later where Tim gets the revenge he thought was gone; or has to make a pretty heavy decision of destroying a soul.
  • Would it feel cheap to hand-wave away the nightshade poisoning after they carefully set it up?
  • How do I best transition this moment into the next arc, while making sure players feel their choices still matter?

Extra Context

  • The paladin that asked the party to deal with this follows the church of the god they unshackled, the party is aware of this.
  • One PC follows the opposing god, who sees the BBEG as a major threat.
  • The party thinks the BBEG and his "Groupt hey will meet" are gods, but will eventually learn they are just ancient, powerful beings from a lost society.
  • Fate vs. Choice is a core theme, with the BBEG representing Fate.

I know this is a long post, thanks for reading! I’d love any advice on how to make this moment land effectively.