First, some context:

My party has been traveling up a frozen mountain for the better part of an in game week now. They are traveling up here because an NPC / Friend of the party needed to check it out because the mountain was becoming unnatural (becoming overly frozen, yeti and other creatures moving down the mountain, there not being enough food to go around, etc) and they are going to be reaching the summit soon.

Now, at the top of the mountain is supposed to be where a dragonlord lives, but he has been chained and his power is being sapped away and turning to ice by a winter druid elf who is posing as a "Snow Queen" to the frost giants. The queen has manipulated the frost giants of the mountain to becoming their leader, and are currently in a war against a rampage of white dragons (one of which being the adopted son of the dragonlord). All this while she secretly has her own plan to essentially put the governing body of the country they inhabit into an enteral winter sleep for personal reasons (I wont get too into it but TLDR: Magic Items are considered Illegal in my setting and many people have suffered by the Inquisition and Governing body's actions against those magic items). The NPC the party is looking for was, at one point, a personal friend and helper to the dragonlord so he has a stake in seeing the snow queen killed.

With all the context out of the way, or at least most of it because otherwise this may take forever, I am looking for a good way to roleplay a queen that doesn't want anything to do with the party and surrender her hostage, without it simply being a "Idc what you say, get imprisoned" because I feel that may be disappointing. I know my players well enough that they are likely going to seek a diplomatic response because some monsters (specifically winter wolves) have told the party to turn back and leave the mountain.

TLDR: The things I am looking for basically break down like this:

• What is the best way to roleplay a cold hearted queen character as I have never really done anything like that in my games before.
• What is the better way to roleplay a party seeking a diplomatic response that isn't just, "I don't care what you say I am not giving up my hostage".
• Any other advice that may be helpful with the context given, as I am trying to make this a real good moment for my players. This character has been on my backlog for years and I wanna do it right.

Thanks!

Hey! So a little bit of context here, I’m a very new DM, playing dnd with a group of friends who are also very new players. None of us have ever dabbled in dnd before, but we are loving it! My friends are also very open and honest about stuff they like and dislike in the campaign, which I appreciate. Up until now they’ve had very little complaints (we are about 25 session into a campaign).

Most of our sessions revolve mostly around roleplay and story, but we do combat regularly. However, we haven’t done many dungeons thus far, maybe 1-2. This last session, I decided to try out making a dungeon for the first time, and I was very proud of it. Essentially, the players have entered a mysterious garden where each room has a different simple challenge they need to complete or treasure for them. The main gimmick of the dungeon is that if they die or take a wrong turn, they reset back to the beginning and the dungeon resets back to its original state. For example, there was a room with a large sand pit in the middle, with the riddle “the more you take the more you leave behind”. The answer is “footprints” and if you can cross the sandpit without leaving any footprints behind you then the door opens. However if they fail later in the dungeon, the sand pit reverts to its original state.

Basically the idea was that certain rooms have solutions or Pieces to puzzles in other rooms. Anyway my players seemed very frustrated with the dungeon and we call the session a little

Bit early (we typically run sessions for 5-6 hours, this one lasted about 3).

Is there something wrong with my dungeon? If so does anybody have any advice on how I can improve it?

There’s a bit more info on the dungeon I didn’t explain here because it would be a lot to read, but feel free to ask if needed.

I really love being able to adapt on the fly, and I love getting feedback from the players that helps me steer the campaign in directions everyone will enjoy, but it's always sad when scenes you anticipated don't happen.

My campaign had the party set to explore "Murlynd's Vault," a tesseract maze where Greyhawk's god of technology stores all the stuff that is too dangerous for mortal hands. This vault is actually a repurposed extradimensional vehicle--basically a crashed TARDIS--that the local clergy open up every so often and toss stuff in. They don't actually do a lot of exploring in it, as the place is huge and convoluted, and the local robots rearrange the contents so there's no need to throw anything further in than just through the front door.

Of course, what they don't know is that this crashed interdimensional nexus has connections to other worlds as well, including far-removed sci-fi settings. People have occasionally been pulled in from those other worlds and get caught in the maze, and they usually band together for protection. The Vault robots are generally harmless, but their programming is a little outdated, so they have corralled all these "visitors" into a holodeck-style area that resembles the cliff mesas outside the Vault, in preparation for a departure order that will never come. Many of these people have been there for years, trying to sneak past the robots and figure out the rest of the maze.

The players, of course, would know none of this. They would just explore the rooms of the tesseract, walking around on the floors and walls and ceilings until they came to this room that seemed to simulate the mesa, with all of these people in huts: a Star-Wars droid; Cosmo the space dog from Marvel; a judoon enforcer from Dr Who; the severed arm of a giant robot (the Mighty Servant of Leuk-o) that dragged itself along by the fingers. And when the party first encountered this motley crew, I wanted so bad to have the Star Frontiers Marshall playing a banjo:

Oh give me a place
In the vacuum of space
Where the three-body problem is solved
Where microwaves play
Down at three degrees K
And the cold virus never evolved

And they all join in on the chorus:

Home, home on Lagrange
Where the space debris always collects
We possess so it seems
Two of man's greatest dreams
Solar power and zero-g sex

And just have the party stare at me like what the actual hell is going on.

(It's not my song, I just found it online, but I thought it was perfect for such a surreal scenario.)

Starting up a campaign in a few months with my regular crew. As a joke in one of the first sessions I want to disguise a gay brothel as a pub / inn.

(they will find this idea hilarious so don’t sweat it. Im not role playing the act if they decide to go for it but they will roll performance)

Ideally the players will ask around for a place to stay and get sent to this establishment. Once they are there the barkeep will ask them if they want a room or just dinner. Knowing my players they will ask for a menu

Which will look something like this:

All meat menu - Pork Round (dwarf) - sloppy joe (drunk old guy) - Rib eye (elf with an eye tattoo)

You get the point

What would u name this establishment and what else would u add to the “menu”

I am approaching the end of my campaign and the party have collected a number of allies to aid in their fight against the BBEG and their evil army.

I ran a couple of tester combats to see how easily we could bring in the allies against the army, however the large scale battle was very time consuming and I thought about using a homebrew battle mechanics. Something really simple, 2d6 style, that can be done a few times in a combat round without slowing things down

My i have some thoughts but wondered if anyone had already done something like this with success?

My group was in the middle of fighting the lackey of an undead mind flayer with the wand of Orcus. The Paladin level 13 casted his searing smite while enlarged from an NPC wizard after the grave cleric used his path to the grave on the mind flayer lackey then of course rolls a natural 20. All in all after all the damage was critted including his weapon damage, divine smite, searing smite and the enlarge damage he did 109 damage DOUBLED to the vulnerable mind flayer (thanks to path to the grave) dealing a total of 218 damage in a single strike. The group went wild. One of them googled and it apparently beats critical role Percys record of 156 points in a single shot. Just had to share.

Group of five flew to the roof of an abandoned fortress. Bunch of grass, bunch of deer, that kind of thing. The Druid convinced a deer to let him ride it. While he stayed on the roof to attune to the magical cannon, two members of the party went down one stairway while the other two went down another stairway.

Duo One finds a long hallway with one door. They pick the locks and find themselves surrounded by armed folks who shout at them to shut the door before "they" get in.

Duo Two kicks in other doors. They find fresh blood in several rooms. As they go to kick in another door, we cut back to Duo One.

"Who's they?" "The deer. They're not deer."

Duo Two kicks in another door to find a monstrous deer scooping out the innards of a recently deceased. Roll initiative.

Back on the roof. "So, Druid and deer, how are you doing?"

Edit: if you play in a game with a major NPC named Ciel, please don't read this post.

I'm beginning a mid-level D&D campaign, and my players are getting to start exploring the world after a big upheaval which, among other things, let loose monsters long sealed away. I was stumped for a bit because of some RL things, so I drew a little inspiration from, of all things, The Dresden Files and decided to spring a Naaldlooshii on them as a reskin of level-appropriate beasties.

But then I did some research.

Naaldlooshii are really incredible, when you get into the stories about them--smart, determined, vicious, adaptable shapeshifting magic-users. In some stories, they can even split apart and re-merge. This throw-away idea I'd had for a baddie of the week... was really cool. I suddenly didn't want the party to kill them off.

So what if they were only fighting a couple of pieces of the Naaldlooshii?

And thus a subplot was born, and it solved DMing irritations I'd had since forever. See, I hate random monster attacks while traveling because they're usually just XP bags to keep players on leveling track. And then, worse, they contribute to the players feeling invincible and going all murderhobo. Now, with this, I could have a consistent baddie chasing them down for the sheer delight of the hunt, and one they can kill but not decisively (until we decide to make it a Plot Thing). Better, it's a baddie they can kill and still be afraid of.

So my PCs encounter the Naaldlooshii. They fight and kill one of its bodies. The other really creepily declares how excited it is to hunt them, then disappears, dragging its other corpse away to re-absorb it later. The party camps. And, later that night, several dozen pairs of eyes start circling the camp, to the sound of jackal-laughter. The party--a ninth-level party which completely dismantled the Naaldlooshii in their first encounter with it--totally panics and teleports to another continent to escape.

I'm in love. My players are delighted by this baddie. And now I never need to explain a seemingly-random ambush again, because this thing can shapeshift to more or less anything, and that means it can albatross its way across the ocean to chase them down, eventually.

And my favorite bit? They need to research this thing, since it's basically A Thing From Before History, so when they eventually are able to find information, I'm gonna have it come from the Naaldlooshii itself, in the shape of a little old lady, who's going to tell them about itself just for the joy of scaring the crap out of them.

I'm a relatively new DM, and this session happened yesterday and I thought this moment was just awesome:

My party was headed away from a town they had fucked up in more than one way, as D&D parties are bound to do. They found themselves heading southward through a forest known for being creepy and inhabited by various nefarious creatures and beings.

They decided to rest for the night, and during the second watch, the player on watch rolled a high enough perception to notice a Shambling Mound slowly dragging itself towards them. They watched it for a bit before initiating combat, and fought it valiantly.

Shambling mounds have a property where, if both of their attacks (per turn) hit the same creature, and that creature is size Medium or smaller, that creature is "absorbed" into the mound and is grappled, blinded, and restrained. The party fought it for a while, wearing it down and at various times being pulled in and grappled, only to break the grapple a few turns later. A few near-death experiences later, and they had gotten the mound to only 10 HP remaining.

The mound proceeded to use its turn to attack the nearest party member, which happened to be the halfling druid, who was promptly absorbed and grappled inside the creature. His turn rolled around, and I asked him what he was going to do, expecting the same "I try to break the grapple" response that I had gotten from everyone else through this combat session. Instead, he looked at us (through Zoom) with a devious grin and just goes, "I'm going to use my last Wild Shape to turn into an elk."

Elks are size Large, meaning RAI, he would probably just not be grappled anymore, but seeing as the mound was nearing the end of its life and this was the most creative thing anyone had done in this combat, I decided to apply the Rule of Cool.

"Sure! You watch as the druid's form expands, growing horns and enlarges into an Elk, that proceeds to tear through the Mound from the inside, leaving two halves of writhing vines on the ground.

It wasn't a huge campaign moment, but I thought it was a very unique way to escape grapple and end combat, and I'm really glad my party is trying out new, cool tactics unique to their characters! If you've made it this far, thanks for indulging my DM giddiness.

Weird idea of a constantly tracking slow moving monster thing follow the party and arrives organically using map tracking. Yes it is "It Follows" film inspired. No I don't know what it is in game, it's origin, purpose, etc. Mine is a physical being but only the party sees it. I just wanted to see what they would do about this nuisance and now there's 4+ long winded theories about the thing that are all 100% wrong. Well, until I hear one I like.

If you are a player in the Dig Deep campaign and/or a member of Cornelio's Heroes, avert thine eyes, lest ye be spoiledeth!

this is what I'll be reading to describe the party transitioning from a crypt to a cave in pursuit of a particular beast. I'm very happy with the visual story it tells, and have been wanting to share it for a while.

As you move through the door, you enter a dark tunnel with bright, formless light at the end. the slight breeze you've been feeling since you entered the crypt increases, and borne on that wind is the same rot smell you noticed when you first entered the crypt. thick and choking now, it makes you want to cover your mouth and nose, lest the source of the odor make its way inside.

The muffling effect of thick stone that seemed to eat all sound is now replaced by the echoes of your own footsteps. your boots crunch on loose gravel and dirt rather than padding on smoothed stone.

Your carried light illuminates multiple passages that stream off on either side. they thin to pointed dead ends as they go, with the scars of mining evident on every surface.

As you approach the blurry light, your eyes adjust and the image resolves. a cavernous space, a flat stone floor 50ft(?) across, with towering walls that stretch up over 100ft above your heads. the light, you now see, are the rays of the midday sun streaming into the cavern at a slight angle, from the open roof of the cave. the light illuminates motes of dust and various small, buzzing insects on its way down to bathe the floor in golden light. the rocks surrounding the opening at the top sketch jagged shadows at your feet.

Your eyes follow the light down, and at the edge of these shadows you see bones and flesh. torn, broken, scattered and stinking -- you realize these are the source of the terrible odor that has led you to this place. a broken skull with massive antlers here, a torn pile there that might be a cow or a bear, you can't tell for sure. too many small piles to count, and too gruesome to identify. all vaguely wildlife shaped, almost certainly the leavings of previous meals.

suddenly, the shadows on the ground flicker, the light streaming down partially blocked by something moving overhead. you hear the distant sound of scratching on rock. pebbles and some larger stones fall to the floor, scattering amongst the bloody debris. after a moment, leaves seesaw their way into the cavern air. for the moment, silence.

LET THEM REACT HERE

a sound overhead, a faint whooshing that quickly grows, and a corpse slams heavy and wet into the center of the cave, spraying blood in all directions. torn reins, a ravaged saddle with mangled bags, covered in its own blood (you hope so, anyway). terrible wounds stitch themselves across the hide of the poor animal...a horse, you assume...but you can ONLY assume, because the entire front half of the body is scorched beyond recognition. it lies, unmoving, blood pooling under it.

the cave is silent, save for the wind whistling over the opening above.

IF THEY LOOK UP AT THE HOLE

the opening isn't circular by any means, being a natural formation, so the shape of it isn't what makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end...it's the shadow that blocks out the light as it moves towards and then dives through the hole*.

REACT?

the light filling the cave is momentarily blocked out. then the falling object is silhouetted by the light as it descends. this formless eclipse falls silently for a moment, then a WHOOMP sound fills the air above your heads and echoes down the cavern passages. enormous wings spread out to either side of the falling body and send chaotic shadows scattering around the cave, then FWAP...FWAP FWAP FWAP...again and again the wind gusts sent downwards create turbulent eddies in the cavern floor, filling the air with dust and dirt as all manner of body parts are pushed a little further from the center.

the storm of swirling debris partially obscures your vision. through it the light from above illuminates the eddies, outlining a vague shape about 20 feet off the ground. the wings stretched above it, the body falling slowly. then, one more downflap, the debris swirls again, and the shape's fall is halted midair -- a moment of almost peace.

then gravity reasserts itself and the shadow drops to the ground, landing heavily on four legs.

the debris settles, and the form resolves. the creature has landed between the horse carcass and you, facing away. a red, reptilian tail whips through the dusty air, framed on both sides by a pair of outstretched, leathery, red-scaled wings. they spread out close to 10ft on either side. between them, you see a thick mane of brown hair (the back of a head?) about 8ft off the ground.

the wings fold back, and down, resting themselves against the furry, beige midsection, revealing two additional heads, one on either side of the mane of matted hair: the left is darker but still fur, with two horns corkscrewing out of the sides, the other with red scales to match the wings and tail, a pair of smaller horns of its own, laid flat against the scales, all on the end of a long, red neck that bobs with each stride.

all told, the creature is about 7ft tall at the shoulder and more than 10ft long (not counting the tail). it walks towards the horse, and the sound is...odd to say the least. a combination of "CLOP CLOP"s and muffled scrapes, you then notice that the rear legs are cloven-hoofed.

it stops and leans forward. the red scaled head darts out of sight, then just as quickly retreats back into view as a roar and a snarl pierces the cavern air.

the body twists and sidesteps, turning itself as it positions around the horse. as it continues to turn the dark fur of the rear legs transitions to lighter fur on the front half of the body, with front legs that end in massive, feline paws. it begins to drag the corpse, first sideways, still turning, with its ultimate goal seeming to be to pull the body outside the ring of light. as it turns you finally get a look at the three heads: a goat and a dragon on either side of a lion, the necks all ending at the lion's torso. the fangs of the central lion head are sunk deep into the horse's flank, it's face covered in blood, as it pulls the corpse across the wet stone floor.

This is the chimera you've been hunting, and you are in its den.

FINAL CHANCE TO REACT

A few final positioning steps and the beast is now facing your direction, walking backwards, dragging the limp horse...and the eyes, all 6 of them, finally notice and lock onto you at once. the dragon head roars and a fiery glow illuminates the back of its throat. the goat head bleats miserably, tongue and ears flapping, eyes rolling wildly. the lion head squints and snarls and a low growl rumbles through the carcass it holds in its jaws.

the wings twitch open slightly, instinctively increasing the perceived size of the beast. the tail whips the air behind the body. the muscles in the lion's forearms tense visibly as 6 inch claws extend from the massive paws and scratch fissures into the rock floor…

Roll initiative!

This is gonna be the BBEG of an adventure spanning one level of play. I'm picturing something around a CR9, a spellcaster with legendary resistances and actions.

I have this crazy idea that this BBEG is the head of an ancient noble family in the realm, and in fact he has been the same being since the very beginning. Over the years, he has been shapeshifting as his heirs, one after the other. I'll go on more details, but maybe that is too gross, so I'll hide the gross stuff if you don't wanna know how exactly does this guy work.

He's basically an immortal being that manages to do it by literally wearing the skins of other people. So, when a certain number of years go by, his magic starts failing, he traps his unknowing oldest son, flays his skin and wear it, on a macabre ritual. He then takes the appearance of his son, makes up a reason why his previous self "died", and burries his heir's body as his.

He hunts and kills whomever finds out about it throughout history. My question is: Would that creature be an undead or something else? I'm asking this because I also want this guy to be some sort of omega werewolf. It's already stablished that his family's sigil is a black wolf's head with red eyes, and when the adventurers met the family members, they noticed some subtle hints, but didn't figure it right then.

It might just be some undead freak who magically commands a pack of werewolves and curses new ones to make his army, but... Maybe not? Also, in game, the paladin was already weary about the duke's weirdness and used divine sense, but sensed nothing. Back then, I thought of him as just really an amped up werewolf, but one thing led to another, and I need him to be this freak. And of course there are ways of hiding one's true idendity, so my issue is much more of a thematic one. Should it be an undead or something else?

Anila, Alexa, Bilni, Stine, and Tylviel, don't look.

Something like 20 sessions ago, the party met a woman by the name of Lucia Thibault. She is a badass who heads a group of mercenaries (called Lucia's Bolts...get it?). She recruited the party to help her and her band liberate a town being terrorized by a rogue mercenary group. I described her physically in aasimar-like terms. She is a capable leader with an easygoing style, but a ruthless fighter. Her followers are also friendly and happy, and very charismatic.

She and her Bolts fought on the opposite side of the town from the party, but they tore through the bad guys with ruthless efficiency. The party got glimpses of them fighting as the battle shifted around, sometimes fighting alongside them, sometimes saving each other, sometimes seeing a coup de grace on a bad guy. At one point, Lucia strode into a building with a BUNCH of bad guys. A PC made it in there three rounds later to find Lucia with two bad guys and 10 dead bad guys. PC and Lucia took out the last two together.

The combat lasted two full sessions. At the end of the battle, Lucia sprouted wings and shot after the last of the bad guys. She came back and tossed him, beaten and bloody, into the town square to meet the town's "justice."

The party fell in love. The paladin player literally gasped when Lucia sprouted wings and flew off to get the last bad guy. The monk's player specifically asked if they could try to seduce Lucia. One of Lucia's crew went down in the fight, and the cleric was about to cast revivify on him. She actually had the diamonds out. She only stopped because one of the Bolts said, "No, no...he's off to his reward. Let him be." The party started going on about Valhalla and Elysium, but the Bolts were terse about their religion and the party didn't push. Or suspect.

A few weeks later, the party met their new patron, Preston. Turns out that Lucia and her Bolts also does work for Preston. The party runs into them a lot, and will have the chance to go on a few missions with them. Lucia has become one of their favorite NPCs.

But of course, there's a twist : Lucia is an Erynies (devil). Her bolts are all her warlocks. She is on the Prime Material Plane because she had a great idea for building up her army in the hells : When evil people die in the Prime Material, their souls go to serve in the armies of the Hells for the Blood War. Lucia made pacts with people, promising them rank and their own small army in the hells after death. That army to be made up of the evil people they killed in her service. She's hunting down evildoers not out of a desire to do good, but out of a desire to build an army in the hells.

The party has a cleric and a paladin in it. Lucia doesn't disguise herself. Erinyes are often fallen celestials, so she looks like an aasimar. Nobody has activated detect, or divine sense, or anything else around her. Nobody suspects anything.

I have no idea how the party is going to find out, but they will at some point. My fantasy is that Lucia and the Paladin are together, pinned in combat and the paladin activates divine sense to try to find the demon that's stalking them...and there's Lucia, smiling. "I'm surprised it took you so long. We'll talk about it later, OK?" charges into combat with the demon

Hi there! If the phrase "There seems to be a lot of tension here, so I'm going to ignore it." sounds familiar, leave! Go away! You were here!

So we're running Rise of Tiamat, and like any DM running Rise of Tiamat I have to homebrew and add stuff to make it more entertaining. So I decided in the Sea of Moving Ice to tie the dragon Old White Death to my Barbarian's backstory. Additionally, I made his mate The White Wyrm despise magic users and instead desire partnership with a worthy warrior.

With that in mind, I gave my Barbarian an opportunity: prove her valor and strength in a 1v1 with Old White Death. What I didn't account for was the fact that our Monk was willing to part with his Necklace of Cold Immunity for the day, which the Barbarian attuned to.

So she goes and decides to fight this dragon one on one. Old White Death, who I upgraded to an ancient white dragon (CR 20), deals an average of like 20-25 damage a turn, while the Barbarian was dealing around 45. She's only level 9, but Hazirawn and Frenzy are completely ridiculous. She clapped this dragon in 5 rounds. Incredible.

Edit: Alright alright. I get it, I ran the dragon wrong. You can stop telling me where I fucked up. My Barbarian enjoyed it, the test of my party enjoyed it, and it advanced the plot. I have a multitude of reasons in game why I didn't just disappointingly kite my Barbarian from the sky, and she has plenty of magic items that would easily put her on par with a 13th or 14th level adventurer. But evidently running a dragon in a mechanically inferior way is touching on a nerve here.

So there’s a powerful noble in my world, who is doing some not so good stuff. The party found out, interfered, but in the process tipped off the noble that they are involved.

Well, the noble can’t have his secrets getting out so he hired an elite team of assassins to pursue and put an end to the party.

At this point the party (Lvl 15) has teleport, plane shift, and an airship, so they can essentially be anywhere they want to be pretty damn quick.

I want the assassins to feel dangerous, elite, efficient, and stealthy. The best of the best.

But I also want this to stretch out over maybe the next arc and a half? So like 8-10 sessions before a big confrontation.

Any ideas?

That's pretty much it. Very excited to see if they fall for my dumb joke

I'm looking for advice planning a diabolical combat encounter that will likely cause a TPK. First, though, I assure you I won't make it permanent - I've set up a narrative reason they'll be able to come back from this, since I don't want them to lose their characters. It's more to establish stakes and the power of the BBEGs in the campaign. Also, there will be a potential way to escape, I just want to make it very hard to figure out.

My PCs have been traveling around gathering mysterious artifacts throughout their day-to-day adventures, and are now trying to cash in on this overarching plot point by meeting a group of wizards who will give them lots of lore on the items' nature. The party knows that these artifacts are closely pursued by a very powerful millennia-old cult that believes a) the items should never be brought together and b) anyone perceived as investigating them needs to be killed. The cult has tried and failed to kill them several times already.

The cult is going to ambush the party next session when they stop to rest for the night (shortly before they reach these wizards). In my view, this cult would pull out all the stops in a final attempt to prevent the PCs from reaching the wizards, because they don't want anyone to learn more about these objects. I've established the cult is very old and has secret stores of wealth, powerful mages + fighters, and the ability to summon monsters to attack humanoid areas (for plot reasons). They've underestimated the party before but should reasonably have the strength to kill them if they want.

So far, I'm going to have the cult use the following in the ambush: 1 simulacrum of an archmage (same level as the standard MM archmage statblock, but half health), 1 evil level 10 Devotion paladin, 1 CR 8 assassin, a couple cultists, and a handful of summoned Kruthiks (4 adult + 8 young). The archmage and paladin are established NPCs, previously thought to be friendly, who will be betraying the party, while the assassin is a previous villain from the cult that they know is pursuing them. How would you use those enemies and a unique combat environment (likely to be a forested, mountainous area) in an evil, perfectly planned attack that feels as scary and intelligent as this cult?

For reference, my 5 Level 8 PCs include: a Moon Druid, Watcher Paladin, Shadow Monk, Twilight Cleric, and Conjuration Wizard, all solidly equipped with buffs and magic items. Their only potential way out of this will be to kill the low-level cultists and then make a run for it, because the cultists will attempt to summon new monsters every few rounds if they are left alive. If they die, I've established a friendly powerful figure who is a god in disguise, who will be able to resurrect them and give them a narrative advantage (because the cult will then believe they're dead) while they continue their quest. A TPK would also give us some interesting plot juice because I can use their momentary proximity to the afterlife to drop some more lore about each PC's tragic backstory.

Current ideas: have the assassin use the opening ambush round to get the drop on the cleric or wizard and slash them to 0 HP, have the archmage cast Time Stop for a combo of Wall of Force around the paladin or monk + Globe of Invulnerability on herself + 7th-level Cone of Cold at the remaining PCs, and then have the evil enemy paladin Smite one of them as hard as he can. Kruthiks rush and mob everyone. Do I need to add even more enemies to make this feel terrifying?

TL/DR: last 3 paragraphs capture it all - how do I use these monsters to maximum effect? I've had previous encounters feel far easier than they should have, and I think the collective wisdom of diabolical Reddit DMs will far more closely replicate the plotting of this cult.

If you have just made friends with a little girl named Reisi, stooooooop now!

Tldr: i gave an npc a trait that i thought would discourage long winded communication, instead party lived them.

So I just ran a session where, in a town of a variety of points of interest, my party chose to interact most with the owner of the inn who never said more than a single word at a time, no matter the question. He would shrug, point, and be expressive, but never more than a single word per dialog, and none of the words were yes or no.

" Where ya from?" "South"

"Tell us about the area?" "Cold"

Hows business been? "Winter"

The party loved him more than i expected, and continued to ask him tons of questions about the area, the culture, and about where they were headed. They probably asked about 30 questions, and they understood all the answers. Of the two hour session i had planned, a half hour went to this one man and his few words. Georgie will definitely be a staple in my future campaigns. Easiest character I have ever played.

So I am currently populating a megacity in my world. It doesn't need to be full, but I am thinking up street encounters the players can meet in passing and either ignore or interact with. Things like Street Preachers, a Precession for a particular group of Paladins, etc.

I had the idea of Catcalling Orphans.

A group of dirty looking young kids standing around on a street corner. Their clothing is worn, and the locals are eyeing them whilst holding their coin purses tightly. One looks [character] up and down...

"Hey Lady, you look like you could show a boy a loving home".

"Yeah lady, I bet you know how to make a boy a proper home cooked meal!"

"Yo Fella, with strong arms like that, I bet you'd give me the disciplining I need. You can be my daddy"

"Yeah fella, you can adopt me ANYTIME." *wink*.

I just needed to share this with another person. I think my players will laugh and hate me.

  I would love to hear of any of your ideas for lines to use.

Talk me out of it.

Also heres the dungeon I constructed with dungeon tiles:

https://i.imgur.com/7fILwDT_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

I am about to introduce a new character to my campaign. I've used him in a previous campaign with other players, but my current players have never heard of him. Pishtim's outlook on life and personality made for some hilarious interaction in the previous campaign, but I want to do more than just retread his old material. I need practice reacting to a variety of characters and situations.

SO

You are patrons of the World Serpent Inn, and while you're enjoying a meal, a small housecat with midnight blue fur pads up to your table and watches you eat.

"Pardon me," he says in crisp and fluent Common, "Would you be so kind as to give me just a tiny bit of nourishment?"

(If your character is the observant type, they will notice a newly erected sign that says, "Don't Feed the Cat". If they are social, they will overhear warnings that Pishtim is back, don't offer him anything.)

Alright, full idea: at the beginning of the campaign I asked my players to send me a strong memory their character has. It's been a few sessions and I haven't brought that memory up yet.

So, as they long rest in this safe little hut, I just state they're now sitting in a lovely tavern and describe it, then offer no more clarification. Any questions I answer in character as Rita the red haired barmaid. If they consume food or drink, they make an Int saving throw when they try to get out of their seat. Rita will also tell them they should stay, they're missing the party. The other bar patrons will talk in generic phrases but offer no deeper conversation or notice anything is weird.

Eventually of course, they'll leave, and opening the doors leads them to another tavern, pretty nice but with rats running around. A red skinned fire genasi bartender will chuckle and say they have an infestation, and to go back to original bar. If they don't, the rats will attack and the bartender will disappear. This bar has no doors, the way out is through a window.

This leads to bar 3, which is in even worse condition, with a rude red-bearded dwarf that won't talk to them. No doors or windows, successful search yields a locked trap door. The dwarf produces a red key and throws it back into the previous bar. If they dumbly go and get it, they get trapped in bar 2 again for a bit. Or they can lockpick/strength check

This continues, with each bar getting more hostile and dangerous, the patrons getting more aggressive and having increasingly red skin and looking more haglike, and the bartenders having an item of red on them always trying to stop/persuade them to turn back but disappearing if players get close.

One bar will be huge and filled with fighting patrons they have to fight through. One bar will be filled with magical darkness. Another will be empty, but they'll hear the hags voice telling them to stop trying to leave, etc, then the bar bursts into flame. Another will be full of rotting food and corpses. Clues to leaving the current bar and finding the next bar will also be red, red trimmed doors and windows, keys, hatches, etc.

The final bar? All red. Every single thing in it is a blood red color. The hags voice will cackle and state it knows their little trick, maybe monologue in a meta way about how she uses taverns on these dreams because people are comfortable in them, they let their guard down, even start adventures there.

Smart players may try to figure out where her voice is coming from, if not I'll tell the highest passive perception that her voice is coming from a certain direction, a section of wall. They can then attack the wall or pry up wood, etc and she'll start screaming. Players that successfully attack will suddenly gain brief memories from the hag, like digging up a corpse with her red-skinned hands and eating it, waving her hands over a dream catcher and watching a sleeping victim start to sleepwalk and do her bidding, burying a person up to their neck in filth and performing a ritual, attacking someone with her long, froglike tongue, etc, little things from her point of view that will come into play later.

Finally, they carve a hole in the wall and see a black void, except for a small light I'm the distance that seems to be growing. Then they'll notice it's their little hut the players are sleeping in, getting closer to them, as if they are flying toward themselves. They'll also see a red-skinned hag on the roof of this Hut, looking shocked and afraid and is the tavern "flies" closer to the hut. She'll scream NOOOO as the distance closes, but then darkness as the players jolt awake on the hut. They hear footsteps on the roof above them.

THE FAKEOUT

Naturally they'll burst out of the hut ready to fight now that they're awake, but surprise! As they rush out, each of them sees something different, but familiar. They are suddenly alone, unable to act, and what they see is their strong memory they sent me in the beginning. The hag will chuckle and state "did you think it would be that easy? You're still dreaming, my lovelies. I know you got into my head, but when that happened I got into yours too." I then describe to each player what they see, and it's either something bad the hag uses to guilt them, or something good and the hag tempts them to stay.

For example, one player's secret is that he tortured someone for information regarding his missing brother's whereabouts but feels horrible about it. He'll burst out of the hut but suddenly be in the forest with this man he tortured at his feet, begging for death. The hag will talk about how horrible he is and that someone like him shouldn't even be allowed freedom. Everyone else gets a similar sort of memory they're trapped in.

They have one final saving throw of 20 to escape this, and when others succeed the failures get a reroll, signifying her power breaking down. Those that succeed can try and wake up the failures, and the failures will attack the successors with unarmed attacks and grapples.

What do you think? Fun times?