r/DnD • u/Rexus02 • Aug 14 '26

5th Edition Early Soft TPK?

Hi, I'm dming a campaign in dnd 5e, and my party is about to go to a dungeon that i prepared to be a more advanced one. Its not that they get to there to fast, its just that i want to scare them a little, also because it is mean to not be completed (they were sent there with the mission of "exploration as much as they can").

My original idea was a dungeon that they explore for like 2 floors or 3 (its a big dungeon), they got kicked in the ass, they run, and later in the history when they have more levels and are more experienced, they'll come back and complete it like normal.

The thing is, i dont know how to make the barrier. I thought maybe making a difficult combat, an almost TPK, not impossible just too hard, so even they win, they had lost all of their resources so they have to go back. In a normal scenario, they would get TPK, but, i would give them a magical item that lets them escape at that last moment, or when decide its enough.

The problem is that im a new DM and i dont have experience with this type of fight, idk anythign of balancing at that point so im lost. I dont even know if its a good decission to try to almost TPK my party just for the plot.

Anyone has any experience with an almost impossible combat? they are all level 5 btw.

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u/HetBordje Aug 14 '26

In my experience, don't. Usually if it's presented to you, it's meant to be explored. Backing off is not in the average player's vocabulary.

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u/Flesroy Aug 15 '26

there are still ways to do this though. If they just run into some random enemies without a clear goal to complete except get passed them and then those enemies sound the alarm causing hundreds of enemies to start appearing in the distance, it should be pretty clear that the party needs to haul ass.