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Jan 4, 2012 -- 5:38PM, Dreamstryder wrote:

The narrator should NOT interrupt play to tell the players straightly, "you'll die if you fight this"; instead let the game SHOW their characters what the beast is BEFORE the choice arises. Similarly, AVOID beating them over the bean with it; they should feel somewhat clever for correctly interpreting your hints/warnings. If they die, they earned it.

I agree with this. As they say in regards good storytelling, "show, don't tell."

I've put an "unbeatable" enemy in front of my party before. It was Raz'Thel, the lord of all demons, who is, in D&D terms, essentially a god. He can't be touched by anything from characters below level 21 (the party was level 9), and can never be killed under any cercumstances. The party KNOWS this, and still chose to fight for a full round so that the NPCs they were rescuing could get away. They got pretty wrecked for it, but no one died because even Raz'Thel can't one-shot them. Plus, Invokers are crazy-good at getting the party into full retreat mode.

to be fair, i think that it's silly to arbitrate that the players can't engage things too powerful for them to deal with in a combat encounter. Combat is fighting, not winning, i see this as being run as a combat encounter with a not-kill-the-monster objective.

Consider this for a combat encounter:

The Players are leaving "Moria" and the balor's tailing them on the way out, only sadly, this group ain't got no gandalf to deal with the problem. Instead, the creature is inherenty slow, and has been edited to not have any powerful ranged attacks (maybe the city is it's prison, and it's powers are restricted within). Meanwhile rubble is falling and the entire area is breaking down into carnage from the collateral damage this thing's presence/raging ambience is causing.

The objective of the players is to reach the exit before the super powerful entity catches up with them, of course if this is anything like Moria from LOTR, then the balor isn't the only thing living here, other more appropriate level creatures are here, many of which are fleeing as well, or going mad in the chaos- those behind the players that find themselves in the creature's path are examples of what happens when it catches up with them, those in front serve as obstacles for the players to deal with as quickly as possible so they can keep moving. Rocks can appear randomly each round/turn/whatever to emphasize the fact that they're falling, you might even let small chunks fall on players for a little damage, regardless the terrain should gradually be getting more difficult to navigate with every passing moment.

oh and the rocks don't hinder the great lumbering entity at all, you describe him effortlessly smashing his way through them as the players continue to scrabble over and around them. The entity can launch ranged attacks, but these are weaker than they should be, equivalent to the strikes of a strong monster of their own level. Make sure you show the players why, that the power is withering as it crosses the space between them, that the wards on the walls are flashing with the strain of absorbing as much power from the spells as possible- before they get the wrong idea. heck maybe the ranged strikes are stronger the closer he gets, increasing the sense of urgency to get away from him.

Running this, the most important thing to remember is to identify their objective very clearly, you could have an NPC shout at them to run, describe the exit as being the group's only hope, and try to make it represent life and freedom. give them a feeling of dread that out does anything they've ever faced, makes them tremble with wild-eyed fear. contrary to what people here believe, the narration can make it clear enough what they're supposed to be doing for the players to make an informed judgement on their course of action. if they decide to run in headfirst, gung ho anyway?

not your fault they ignored your very clear narration of the situation

Adding to The-Magic-Sword's description, perhaps the main thing slowing it down is a wrapping of eldritch chains it trails from its prison deep below. One actions a PC could take is to magically charge the chain or spike the end of one of its chains to ephemerally slow its advance.

I agree that it shouldn't be presented as an encounter.  I've had success with these types of situations in the past by presenting them as skill challenges.  Ideally, the group will use their skills and abilities to escape from the situation.  If they decide to stand and fight, you can have the monster counter-attack (no roll necessary) and drain a healing surge or something.  They'll get the hint pretty quickly.  But even if they go toe-to-toe with the monster for a while, that's not the end of the world, either: just have their successes in combat erase one of their failures to escape.  It's like a covering action, you know?  Everyone's doing their damnedest to get away, but one character turns and squares off against the monster, determined to keep its attention, if only for a minute.