playing 5e and on the 3rd session at level 5 each they have encountered the BBEG and now plan to booby trap his lair with alchemical fire and engage him in combat. They say they just want to talk to him, but they are specifically planning to light his lair on fire BEFORE attempting to engage with him in conversation or anything. The players have encountered this guy before, they should know he's an extremely formidable enemy. When they first met him, he had cast meteor swarm and earthquake in the same turn, reducing an entire village to rubble.I don't want to straight up tell my players "he shrugs off the alchemical fire" because he is immune to fire damage, and I don't want to say "well he casts 2 spells this round and kills everyone"Though despite this, I still do want to stick to rules as written as closely as possible. They know what they are going into when engaging this guy.My question is, what should I do? most retarded redditors just say "well let them do it and see how it goes!" somehow implying my players will get a kick out of getting TPK'd almost instantly by an end game boss at level 5, on their 3rd session.Theres always the route where he gives them a villainous monologue after "evading" the trap they laid, but i feel like that just is basically the same thing as saying "well your trap was pointless" sort of discouraging them to try something like that again. Should I just make him send some weaker villains in his place so they can enjoy a real fight? the problem is the BBEG explicitly stated he will be meeting them again at this location, so if he doesn't show after my players spent a couple hours planning exactly how this trap would work I feel like they may be dissappointed once they realize the BBEG won't be the one taking it.
Have the BBEG send an "advance guard" that falls for the trap and gets absolutely slaughtered.After the fight is over send in the BBEG who will be suitably dispassionate/impressed/amused (as appropriate).My thought process is it rewards the players with a trivial fight (make sure the advance guard has good loot) and also demonstrates that the BBEG is competent enough to send people to preview an area. But also cold enough to not care about their death.
>>96590980yeah this does seem like the best solution. initially i thought my players would feel like i'm being a sissy DM that doesn't want his "special boys" killed in combat, but im probably looking to deeply into it. they are gonna have fun as long as shit gets blown up.
>>96590941None of them would know in-character that its a bad idea? You dont have a wizard or cleric who would know that someone with town annihilating magic can probably just teleport out?
>>96591059these players are new, and i don't want to fully take away their agency by constantly telling them what their characters would think and feel in-world, even though it seems appropriate. from how I see it, I showcased directly how powerful this guy could be, and they still ended up on this plan to explode his lair for some reason. They don't even want to fight him, just talk to him. But when they talk about the event, they definitely are planning for violence and hoping that they win the encounter through the booby trap alone, or at LEAST make the fight easier due to the booby traps (it will not help at all)So despite the fact that they should obviously be scared of this guy in-character, I'm not going to hammer that in more than I already have. Maybe next time we play I will try to double check if they REALLY want to piss this guy off. Should I just explicitly tell them "if you do this, he is going to get pissed and kill you" and then let the events play out RAW?
