Help me not kill my players!

[Pagrek]

Hi everyone,

I'm DM'ing Hoard of the Dragon Queen for my local Adventurer's League. I'm on chapter 3 and they're doing a dungeon crawl. They found the (kinda sorta) secret entrance that's a shortcut to the boss' chambers, but went in loud allowing her to escape down a secret hatch unscathed. Said secret passage leads to a room with her lieutenant, a half-dragon fighter, and 4 berserkers. Now according to the book, the Half-dragon loved one-on-one fights so when the party sent the monk in, from the secret escape hatch the boss had just used, being "taken prisoner" by a guard that had surrendered to the party, he cut the monk loose and initiated a duel. I had everyone roll initiative so the party could subtly position themselves and take stock while the monk bought time. So of course the wizard goes first and casts firebolt at a berserker. Chaos ensues. I decide that so long as the party member dueling the half-dragon doesn't switch targets, the half-dragon will still consider this a duel, though he isn't above lining up some breath attacks when he can. The boss, a 5th level cleric, interferes with the duel by casting hold person on the monk. Half-dragon doesn't care too much, but one of the berserkers takes offence to the cleric interfering with the duel. One of the berserkers and the cleric spend a couple rounds going at each other until I feel the party has started to get things under control enough that I feel the cleric can join in without a TPK.

However, she only gets a round or two before things look dire enough that she decides to flee again. Not wanting her to be a recurring villain because the adventure doesn't call for her again, I decide she flees to a dead end room that has 4 Kobolds with grenades, 2 guard drakes, the guard that the party had coerced previously and had fled when the fighting started, and 1 roper. Now the roper is interesting. This adventure was written before the rules were solidified so the roper can speak common and is supposed to be pretty full, therefore it's not necessarily an enemy to the party. The party wraps up the fight in the previous room. Every spell slot they have is expended. They have drunk all their potions of healing. All the Martials have spent their resources. When they were coercing the guard they extorted a map of the dungeon with some warnings written on it and so they know they've cornered the boss, and that a roper is in the room. When we left off they were discussing how to safely rest.

Now with the forces available, I'm pretty sure the boss can outright TPK the party if she charges out during a rest, but I don't want to allow them to just take it easy right next door to the room the boss fled to. I figure if they just explore the room they cleared and leave the dungeon for a bit the boss stays in the dead end, flees entirely if they don't place some sort of watch on the sole dungeon entrance, or prepares another tough encounter with what remains in the dungeon if they do. However, if they rest in their current room I need to throw some of the forces in the room at them, to make them think the boss isn't just sitting on her hands while they screw around. I was thinking she'd throw the guard and the guard drakes at them during the rest. Now if they just short rest I figure she hasn't managed to convince the roper to help out and she fights with the kobolds. If they long rest, however, the fun happens.

On the first turn she casts Spirit guardians, Spiritual weapon, and closes with the party with the kobolds in front to absorb some damage all the while yelling at the roper to attack. However the roper doesn't move unless the party brings it into the mess. On the second round she realizes that since the roper can speak common that means the command spell will work on it. She casts command on the roper with the order "devour" then casts sanctuary on herself. Hopefully, by this point the kobolds have been killed, I mean they're kobolds and the party average is 3. If not the roper targets the remaining kobolds first out of spite, and then the adventurers. Further turns see the boss either upcasting command with the keyword "devour" meaning the roper gets its bite, but any party member who fails a save wastes a turn trying to eat something, and then recasting sanctuary or using her bonus action to activate spiritual weapon and using her action to wreck peoples day if she feels the party has the ropers attention and she doesn't need protection from her "ally". All the while she has Spirit Guardians going and is dealing AOE damage up close as well.

I'm a fairly new DM and I'm going off script for this encounter. Do the more experienced among you feel this is a tough but fair fight, or am I going to accidentally kill my, average level 3, party? Any input on the lethality of my plan, either to say its too tough or I'm going too easy, would be appreciated.

[Falcon X]

First off, the party knows exactly what to expect if they go in that room. If it kills them, it’s their fault for trying.

That being said, a few thoughts:
A. Maybe when they do go in the room, the roper has grabbed the cleric woman, and she promises assistance of some sort if you save her. Maybe a secret password of the Wearers in Purple. Or the name of the half-orc who they are shipping all the gold to (Chapter 5).
B. Maybe all the kobolds are under orders to “protect the eggs” and stay out of the fight by being in the eggs area. It helps a little....
C. The players would do best to retreat outside the cave to sleep, but keep watch of the entrance so they can follow/intercept anyone trying to escape. Maybe they can even set a trap or two. Heck, get all the food in the cave and starve them out. You might find a way of suggesting something along these lines.
D. Dynamite. Have them find dynamite and all bets are off. They toss that stuff into the room, explode some enemies, hit others for major HP damage. Cause a partial cave-in but have it still let them access the cave.
E. Put a door mechanism on the room with the eggs in it. It wouldn’t be too hard to bar the door while the players get a long rest, then fight when they are strong.
F. Have the dragon whose eggs were stolen come to find them. Maybe it is vorrhagamanthar from Episode 6 who remembers the PCs and talks to them again at the swamp.
I don’t know how this encounter resolves, but it certainly will change the situation. Maybe the cultists will call a truce to figure out how to all get out alive.

[Pagrek]

Thanks for the reply, I just want to clarify a few things.
My party is mostly new players, with maybe a few experienced players dropping in and out due to it being an AL game. The one experienced player told them it was bad news after passing a nature check, but they don't know this things stat block.

They seem more comfortable taking situations as presented without trying anything too off the wall. Now they've had one or two brilliant ideas that have gone both very well and horribly awry, but as of now their first instinct is that of a video gamer, I only have these actions, which are spelled out in the Player's Handbook, and as we've only had 4 sessions so far, that's not necessarily their fault and I don't want to kill them for not coming up with a scheme as they find their feet.

Also, since this is Adventurer's League if I kill them, they have to start from level one all over again, which I don't find fun.

[Unoriginal]

It's AL, you can't just hand out freebie victories because PCs risk to die.

My advice: just let the Cleric try to run away. She doesn't have to be a recuring villain, just someone the PCs failed to stop and who'll warn the other villains about the PCs.

[Jaelommiss]

Kill 'em all. Making a new character is simple and fast. If they complain, remind them that they chose to rest in the enemy stronghold and ask them what they expected to happen if they lowered their guard for an extended period while surrounded by enemies.

If you refuse to ever enforce consequences for foolish decisions they will never have a reason to play smarter.

[jaappleton]

Well.... Hold on here. Are we all missing something?

You’re talking about their characters. Right? You’re not trying to kill PLAYERS, are you? One is fictional and one is quite real, even if you try to convince the police otherwise.

[Unoriginal]

Kill 'em all. Making a new character is simple and fast. If they complain, remind them that they chose to rest in the enemy stronghold and ask them what they expected to happen if they lowered their guard for an extended period while surrounded by enemies.

If you refuse to ever enforce consequences for foolish decisions they will never have a reason to play smarter.

Harsh but true, though a warning like "you think the cleric is in much better shape than you" would be fair.

[Pagrek]

Well.... Hold on here. Are we all missing something?

You’re talking about their characters. Right? You’re not trying to kill PLAYERS, are you? One is fictional and one is quite real, even if you try to convince the police otherwise.

Don't you know? If you die in D&D you die in real life.

[MaxWilson]

On the first turn she casts Spirit guardians, Spiritual weapon, and closes with the party with the kobolds in front to absorb some damage all the while yelling at the roper to attack. However the roper doesn't move unless the party brings it into the mess. On the second round she realizes that since the roper can speak common that means the command spell will work on it. She casts command on the roper with the order "devour" then casts sanctuary on herself. Hopefully, by this point the kobolds have been killed, I mean they're kobolds and the party average is 3. If not the roper targets the remaining kobolds first out of spite, and then the adventurers. Further turns see the boss either upcasting command with the keyword "devour" meaning the roper gets its bite, but any party member who fails a save wastes a turn trying to eat something, and then recasting sanctuary or using her bonus action to activate spiritual weapon and using her action to wreck peoples day if she feels the party has the ropers attention and she doesn't need protection from her "ally". All the while she has Spirit Guardians going and is dealing AOE damage up close as well.

I'm a fairly new DM and I'm going off script for this encounter. Do the more experienced among you feel this is a tough but fair fight, or am I going to accidentally kill my, average level 3, party? Any input on the lethality of my plan, either to say its too tough or I'm going too easy, would be appreciated.

I mention this only because you're a new DM: casting Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon in the same turn is illegal. If you cast a bonus action spell, that is the only non-cantrip spell you can cast on that turn. It would take two turns to activate both Spirit Guardians and Spirit Weapon.

Ditto casting Sanctuary and Command ("Devour!") on the same turn: illegal.

On the actual DMing question: I'm an advocate of letting failure be real. Either the players will kill themselves off in this fight, or they'll triumph against the odds and win when you thought they were going to TPK, and either one is fine. I don't know the module well so I can't speak to whether any failure modes besides "TPK" are realistic, and it's fine if they get sold into slavery or something (with the option to either end the campaign there and start a new one, or look for a way out of slavery), but the stakes have to be real. Do your best not to pull any punches.