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How can I make my PCs flee?

From session:

The party is in the woods searching for a macguffin, when they happen across an evil sorcerer sacrificing humans for a summoning ritual. He summons some lesser deamons to slow down the party. When the party kills him, or he kills the hostages, a dragon is summoned by the spilled blood. The thing is, the dragon is surprised (it could be in a bath-towel-and-shower-cap caught unaware).

The problem is my players will think "Oh so we're fighting a dragon this week", when they should actually run away after realizing the enemy is too powerful for them, especially that they got the macguffin they came for.

As usually my players just bash on 'till the creature is dead, how can I use the creature to show them that it is not the mission objective without buffing it up or making it completely invulnerable.

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Also, this question is similar and more general. rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/16710/… – Simon Gill Nov 5 '12 at 13:12
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I'm with Simon on this. I think you're better solutions are going to have little to do with game mechanics and statting the monster. It is all going to depend on the approach of your players and what their expectations are. If they never run from a fight, then they aren't going to run from this one. For it to work without being forced you need some really heavy foreshadowing to make it clear they absolutely do not have any chance of defeating it. – Phil Nov 5 '12 at 13:23
It is deathwatch yes but i was leaving the question more open by not stating that or specific stats so it would be more use to others. – Skeith Nov 5 '12 at 13:24
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The downvotes stem from the fact that this is a question (as shown from the answers so far) is a more discussion oriented question than usually allowed on RPG.SE. I'd suggest tightening up your question, adding more details, and leaving the ending a little less open in what you need, or I predict this is going to be closed. – wraith808 Nov 5 '12 at 13:38
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I think the title of this question is misleading - this isn't about creating an almost unbeatable creature, it's about getting the player characters to retreat from an unwinnable confrontation (given an M.O. of permitting the players to win previous 'unwinnable' encounters). Designing an almost unbeatable monster is more about defining the ways the monster can be defeated (given that except for said flaws, it is invulnerable). – Tyco Kaine Nov 5 '12 at 20:56
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marked as duplicate by wraith808, Brian Ballsun-Stanton♦ Nov 5 '12 at 21:21

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

4 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

Don't make the summoner finish the ritual, let the dragon be still connected to the source of the ritual, so that it is being drawn back to the plane to which it was summoned from. This should be clear after a while, make the dragon's figure thin out, perhaps reduce its power during its last rounds in the material plane.

So the dragon stays there for a fixed amount of time, roll it before. During that time, hit your party as hard as possible, let them know what it means to stay in front of a dragon! IF they die, it's their fault, people flee when facing dragons! Hopefully, they will not all die and once the dragon is vanished, they can be resurrected. Moreover, someone else can summon back the dragon for the later adventure

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Thank you that is an interesting idea I will have to check my plot to see if it will work. – Skeith Nov 5 '12 at 13:26
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The difficulty you are having is that you've decided that this dragon absolutely must not die for plot reasons, yet you are planning to put your players in a position where they might reasonably expect to be able to kill it. You state in your question that you do not want to make the dragon completely invulnerable, yet you also make it clear you do not want the players to kill it. This means that whether through encounter design or the stats of the dragon, it has to be effectively invulnerable whether you like it or not.

If your players are used to being able to take down anything you put in front of them then they are going to assume the same is possible here - you said yourself that you've tried similar in the past and they didn't take the hint. This largely comes down to an issue of player expectation based on their previous experiences in the game.

The question linked by Simon (How can I make my PCs flee?) covers a lot of general advice on how to solve this problem, but specific to your scenario I see a couple of options:

  • Run the dragon in such a way that it is clear they cannot damage it. Perhaps it is immune to their attacks for some reason, or regenerates quickly because it has only just been summoned.
  • Bring in an NPC that the group knows is much more powerful than they are and show the dragon killing it with ease. If this doesn't give sufficient hints to the group then they probably deserve to die.
  • Run the dragon in its full glory and kill one or two of the PCs, then give the remainder of the party a chance to escape.

Really though, no matter what solution you choose, you need to talk to the players out of character and make them aware that there are going to be monsters they simply stand no chance of beating.

EDIT: Based on various comments, another option would be to set some kind of deadline for getting the macguffin back to the ship. Imparting a sense of real urgency with signficant consequences for being late might give them enough encouragement not to hang around trying to kill the dragon when it isn't essential to their mission.

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Yep, given the Deathwatch thing, the deadline option seems the best. And it could be a difficult choice moment for the characters: should I stay and defeat this monster, and endanger the mission, or focus on the mission and run away, hurting this planet at the same time as my honor? – Scrollmaster Nov 5 '12 at 18:09
up vote 3 down vote

The key is for the players to know that they absolutely CANNOT beat this creature. If they think that a lucky shot might take it down, they might just hang about for that to happen.

If the party just "happened upon" the summoner, then I guess it's too late for foreshadowing ....

Hmmm .... Can the party start taking damage from some kind of aura?

1 point in the first round, 2 points in the second, 4 points in the third etc? that describe their flesh starting to blacken and blister, then peel off!

They need to get the idea that staying around the creature is a bad idea!

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I have found fire to be quite dangerous in our game as players cannot put themselves out, the dragon breath could do what you suggest but would be a TPK in 2-3 rounds so I was hoping fore something else – Skeith Nov 5 '12 at 13:22
Have it kill a load of other people who are obviously tougher than the players right in front of their eyes. – Rob Nov 5 '12 at 14:38
up vote 0 down vote

Make the summoning slow. As the dragon is appearing, it's invulnerable (but also unable to harm the PCs), which gives them a chance to talk or flee or whatever. Dragons are highly intelligent. If the dragon was not expecting to be summoned, it might want to know who the PCs are, who the sorcerer was, and might be e.g. very angry indeed that the PCs can't send him or her back. That gives the PCs a few rounds to decide not to face an infurated dragon and simply withdraw, without suffering the loss of face of actually fleeing from a battle in progress. (The dragon may also want to make absolutely sure the sorcerer is dead and cannot be resurrected before turning to the PCs, giving them a few more rounds.)

Or, if they insist on attacking, have the attacks largely insubstantial at first. You can simply tell the players that all damage is reduced to, say, 20% because of the phase shift still caused by the spell (and then gradually increase the fraction). The dragon can't leave until it's fully materialized, giving them a chance to get away. If they stay to die, well, they've had ample warning.

Also, running from an enraged dragon who is free to fly and otherwise act normally is a bad idea. Dragons are usually faster. So you need to present the encounter in such a way that the PCs legitimately have an escape option. If I were GMing, fleeing from an over-powerful dragon would be even more certain death than fighting it. Your options are basically to talk your way out, use a magical means of escape, or die.

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