I feel like you gotta know the party a little bit… If they aren’t the type to talk their way out of a problem, then the monologue has to happen from some relative safety instead of within arms reach of the not-paralyzed barbarian. Hold person exists. Magic Mouth. Message. Hell, a big ol’ balcony above the party.
Else you gotta have a back-up plan like fallout where the players get the information from a journal or something - maybe it isn’t as clearly laid out and it’s harder to follow the breadcrumbs but the party isn’t just lost in the wind looking for the next guy to punch.
Second campaign I ran had an underling of the BBEG who was going to tell the players some info about where to go next and hint at who is the BBEG. Once their health was brought to 0 I had them fall to the ground “seemingly dead” as a little push to show them they should go over and check, maybe interrogate. He had talked earlier and a few of them were curious about what he was saying so I expected them to ask questions.
While most of them wanted to ask questions, one ran over and shot him in the head with his crossbow. I did the characteristic “are you sure?” And he said yes and the rest of the players just relented. So the guy who was going to tell them this info had a bolt pierce his skull pinning it to the ground while blood leaked out.
So instead I did what you’re saying, all of a sudden when they searched him they found a note with less specific info than he would have told them but still some info. It sucks when players just do that shit but yeah you always have to have a backup plan.
In a campaign I ran, I had the party wake up in the bilge of a ship, tied up after being drugged. They all had a fresh, moonshaped tattoo in their neck.
I planned to have some guards talk with eachother nearby, giving them some exposition how they got there, and then the ship would bring them to a harbour where they’d be unloaded and brought into a colosseum where they would become gladiators and the rest of the story would happen there.
Instead they used magic and lockpicking to get rid of their chains and killed the guards before they could say anything. The orc of the group then proceded to punch a hole into the outside wall of the ship, causing all the remaining guards to abandon the ship on the lifeboats. They then managed to beach the ship on the nearby shore.
As a “punishment” I kept dangling the importance of these tattoos over them all the time, without ever telling them what they mean.
Monologue through a stone of farspeech or a ward-tripped illusion spell. Hell, have the villain’s illusion disintegrate only for it to trip 18 other wards that all seamlessly continue the monologue in a deafening cacophany of voices, like the BBEG knows alllll the tricks. I feel like a good DM can get creative on the spot, even if it trips them up a bit.
I feel like you gotta know the party a little bit… If they aren’t the type to talk their way out of a problem, then the monologue has to happen from some relative safety instead of within arms reach of the not-paralyzed barbarian. Hold person exists. Magic Mouth. Message. Hell, a big ol’ balcony above the party.
Else you gotta have a back-up plan like fallout where the players get the information from a journal or something - maybe it isn’t as clearly laid out and it’s harder to follow the breadcrumbs but the party isn’t just lost in the wind looking for the next guy to punch.
My DM understood this. As a bonus, by the end of the battle, everyone had taken so much fall damage.
Second campaign I ran had an underling of the BBEG who was going to tell the players some info about where to go next and hint at who is the BBEG. Once their health was brought to 0 I had them fall to the ground “seemingly dead” as a little push to show them they should go over and check, maybe interrogate. He had talked earlier and a few of them were curious about what he was saying so I expected them to ask questions.
While most of them wanted to ask questions, one ran over and shot him in the head with his crossbow. I did the characteristic “are you sure?” And he said yes and the rest of the players just relented. So the guy who was going to tell them this info had a bolt pierce his skull pinning it to the ground while blood leaked out.
So instead I did what you’re saying, all of a sudden when they searched him they found a note with less specific info than he would have told them but still some info. It sucks when players just do that shit but yeah you always have to have a backup plan.
In a campaign I ran, I had the party wake up in the bilge of a ship, tied up after being drugged. They all had a fresh, moonshaped tattoo in their neck.
I planned to have some guards talk with eachother nearby, giving them some exposition how they got there, and then the ship would bring them to a harbour where they’d be unloaded and brought into a colosseum where they would become gladiators and the rest of the story would happen there.
Instead they used magic and lockpicking to get rid of their chains and killed the guards before they could say anything. The orc of the group then proceded to punch a hole into the outside wall of the ship, causing all the remaining guards to abandon the ship on the lifeboats. They then managed to beach the ship on the nearby shore.
As a “punishment” I kept dangling the importance of these tattoos over them all the time, without ever telling them what they mean.
Monologue through a stone of farspeech or a ward-tripped illusion spell. Hell, have the villain’s illusion disintegrate only for it to trip 18 other wards that all seamlessly continue the monologue in a deafening cacophany of voices, like the BBEG knows alllll the tricks. I feel like a good DM can get creative on the spot, even if it trips them up a bit.
I’m convinced this was the primary reason D&D3E had so many ways to speak through an animal companion or construct.
When I DM-ed, I used them to (attempt to) deliver foolishly informative villainous monologues.
Mostly I just lost villain companions to fireball, of course.
Eh, there is merit in letting them suffer the consequences of their actions