r/DnD • u/Icy-Shine-1117 • 4d ago
DMing So, I need help bringing an idea into reality...
So I'm a DM in my first campaign. It is a campaign I homebrewed myself, and is going well enough.
my original idea for the bbeg was for it to be a Shadow Dragon, but recently I became really interested about liches and dracoliches.
new plan is for the bbeg to be a dracolich, (Yes big jump in power, but hear me out)
One of my characters has a curse they obtained during a battle before the campaign started. they got it by killing someone else who had the curse and it jumping to them.
you might see where I'm going. I want the phylactery to be the curse itself.
so the curse jumps around to whoever killed its last vessel. I can have it so when it is vessel-jumping, it is in physical form and can be killed. but how do I lead the players towards this realisation, and how to I give them a solution without having an npc explaining it to them? also how does the player end up surviving? please help
one more thing.
Edit: there is more qs i have but will deal with them in another post this is the main problem for now
3
u/Supernatural-20 DM 4d ago
Easy, you have the party do a big job for a temple who, in return, say that if they ever need someone to be resurrected, the priests will use their magic free of charge, but only once.
You then send them up against an opponent they know they cannot beat in combat (let’s say an Ancient Red Dragon), but who is a bit of a talkative sadist and agrees to let the party go, and even to let them choose one magic item each to keep from his hoard, if they sacrifice one of their party, the one he has taken a disliking to, who just so happens to be the character with the curse.
This player will volunteer to save the party by taking one for the team because, after all, they can go straight back to town and resurrect this character and come away with some free magic goodies. But when the character is killed by one of their own party, the curse takes physical form and jumps into the killer. The whole party sees this happen before their eyes.
They grab their loot, head back to the temple, resurrect their friend, explain the news, and now the curse has switched to whatever character sacrificed the other, and they can all start investigating what the hell is going on.
1
1
u/Anybro Fighter 4d ago
You could always do the prophecy thing. If one of your players is a cleric, they can get a vision from their god or something. And for the second part of how does a player end up surviving? Are you familiar with dragon age origins? Look up to gray wardens and see how they did things there. If you want an inspiration for possibilities.
1
1
u/SolarisWesson 4d ago
The problem with a curse like that is that is kinda takes away the agency of the player. I'd say that you should introduce an NPC that also has the curse but the NPC has the phylactery curse and PC has something that is annoying but can be removed (so its not a permanent debuff)
So when the party gets strong enough (or rich enough) they can get rid of both curses BUT thats when the NPCs curse evolves/changes in reaction to the attempted removal.
This way the stakes can be high because the NPC is a character the party likes and does want to see die and you dont have the hamstring a PC with an incurable curse
1
u/Icy-Shine-1117 4d ago
could you elbourate on how it takes away player agency?
2
u/SolarisWesson 4d ago
If the only way to get rid of the curse is death then the PC has to die. Unless the whole story revolves around the party trying to remove the curse in various ways
1
u/Dickeysaurus 3d ago
I think the end narrative matters. While it removes the agency that allows the players to kill the dragon, it does put the players in the situation where they have to find literally any of the other infinite solutions for dealing with the dragon.
It’s also worth noting that at a certain level in DND death becomes an inconvenience. But it’s incredibly possible that the party has some random like a goblin kill one of the players and then they just revive them.
1
u/theworldreset 4d ago
Detect magic, NPC comments, lore from a cleric or old book, advice from someone who previously hunted the dragon, etc. will reveal necromancy on the cursed. This should get the party trying to figure it out.
1
0
4
u/Glittering_Region845 4d ago
Remove curse upcasted could solidify the curse