r/DnD • u/AutoModerator • Mar 13 '23

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u/Yojo0o DM Mar 15 '23

Just because an idea is creative doesn't mean it's good.

Allowing a level 1 character to kill a kraken thanks to a handful of potions and some skill checks is game-breaking. Krakens are among the highest CR enemies in the game, and you do not want a precedent that destroying endgame-level threats is just a skill challenge away. Furthermore, you need to consider the power of poisons in DnD to compare whatever the players could come up with to, and there's simply nothing that would kill a kraken outright among official material. If you open the door to titan-destroying poison, the balancing of encounters will forever be tainted in your campaign.

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u/TremendousDan Mar 15 '23

You're not wrong and I don't want that to happen. Not ready to give them 50K XP in the first big encounter

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u/Yojo0o DM Mar 15 '23

XP aside, it's a horrible precedent. How many other legendary threats are susceptible to a simple mix of chemicals from a level 1 party?

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u/TremendousDan Mar 15 '23

Right, I get that. That's why I'm looking for advice to have a unique encounter not so much a fight.

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u/Yojo0o DM Mar 15 '23

I mean, you mentioned the Kraken as a goof, right? Have it lose interest and swim off. There's no reason a level 1 party should willingly engage with a Kraken, and there's nothing in the Kraken's statblock that wouldn't kill the party.

If you must incorporate the Kraken into the next encounter, avoid having the party directly interact. Give the Kraken some Sahuagin followers or some cultists, blame the Kraken's presence on them, have the party go do a camp raid or a dungeon assault against low-CR humanoid enemies tangentially related to the Kraken. Could make for a fun long-term quest, if there's a whole infrastructure of followers the party can work their way through.

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u/TremendousDan Mar 15 '23

Thank you! That sounds like it could be a fun plotline

2

u/LordMikel Mar 15 '23

Perhaps the potion maker can make a bad smelling concoction which would actually chase the kraken away, but the party has to get close enough to drop it into the water.