Source
r/dndnext•
Monory

[Rise of Tiamat] Advice on DMing the final battle

I have a question about the ending of Rise of Tiamat. The book says that players can use their factional assets to counter certain cultists assets. My party went out of their way to try to recruit everyone, and as a result have all of the factional assets. If they were to, say, send the Zhentarim to assassinate the Red Wizards, would that just immediately end the campaign? Without the red wizards the ritual cannot succeed, so they could win without even assaulting the well. As far as I can tell this would work as written, but feels a bit anticlimactic to me . How would other DMs suggest handling that if it were to happen?

Posted Aug 8, 2018, 7:45 PM UTC

26
MhBlis•

No.

What all of the assets are suppose to do is increase or decrease the number of enemies at the end.

So if they do assassinate some of them there might be fewer commanders in the field or a few less high ranking enemy as they make their way to the ritual chamber.

This in turn means that you the Cult and its allies are less able to respond and as such put up a weaker defense of the ritual area.

3
TheDevourlord17•

The zhenttarim perhaps betray the party and don’t assassinate the red wizards, or they maybe don’t succeed and put the party? Or maybe hey don’t kill the wizards in time

1
MonoryOP•

I suppose I could just arbitrarily keep the zhentarim from succeeding, but that also feels kind of bad since the players worked to recruit them as a factional asset and it would honestly be a smart use of resources for the players to use them in that way, and I don't want to punish players for doing things too well.

After re-reading the final battle, I noticed that there are 10 wizards - 5 at ground level, and 5 floating way up in the air where they can only be reached by flying. If they do decide to send a factional asset to try to stop the red wizards, maybe I could have the ground level wizards die but the players would still have to deal with the flying wizards? This would make it drastically easier for the players (5 wizards are needed, so they would have 10 rounds to figure out how to take out a single one of the remaining 5 channeling wizards), but at least they would still have to do something.

4
TheDevourlord17•

That would likely go over a lot better than what I suggested at first. Even if they totally annihilate the module final encounter though, there are many ways you could make it very difficult for them to pull off. So, say they successfully stop the ritual, maybe have some generic boss-style creatures show up for retribution or to defend the ritual.

3
Zaorish9•

You're the DM. You're in charge of making a satisfyingly challenging situation.

I'd have the factions "seem" like they're helping (i.e. help in fluffy ways), but still have the same big old confrontation with legit Tiamat for fun.

1
Damascus7•

What I would probably do is either have the Assassins wait until the party arrives and then have some PCs control them in the final battle.

Or have them kill just a few of the Red Wizards but they weren't able to kill enough of them to stop the ritual. This will still make it a bit easier for the party to win.

Just because you assigned assassins to the task doesn't mean they automatically succeed. And remember, Severin, Rath and at least 5 Wizards are free to attack during the ritual. Without party support, the assassins will likely get curbstomped.

1