Hey ladies, gentlemen, nb's, and anyone I may have missed! I'm trying to come up with a solution to a problem. This is a himebrew campaign in a world full of dragons, some friendly, some not so friendly. Last week, my party retrieved official documents from a destroyed city that had but one young hedge dragon in it. The hedge dragon struck a deal that they could take the documents and in return they would need to convince the other city to help rebuild his city.

So the party goes back, and begins attempting to persuade the local Lady to begin rebuilding the town. She in turn basically tells them that her city and the one further east don't have the resources and begins trying to get her documents. Our rogue forges a set of documents and gives those to her instead. She catches on and basically confines them to the city. This is where we are today. I have plans of the local lady helping with the destroyed city, but when she finds out that the rest of what she has is forged and not the real thing, it's going to anger her.

Yes, it's a dick move for her to not want to help after the party strikes a deal with the dragon, however, it's their second real session and I'm trying to emphasize that the rules of this realm aren't the same as theirs. (They are all from different realities basically)

Any thoughts on what to do?

Pretty fresh to DnD, I've been DM:ing for about two months, and I've been a player for about six months.

A couple of sessions into my first proper campaign, and last night my players get into a pretty big battle. Due to a few different circumstances, (mainly unlucky dice rolls), the battle ended up taking them almost two hours to complete. In another campaign where I'm a player, a battle takes roughly an hour to get through, though our biggest one was up towards 4-5 hours, so I thought two hours for a relatively big battle shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Anyway, I hear today that a couple of my players were disappointed the battle took so long, and that we didn't get anywhere in the session. So how long is too long for a battle, and is there anything I can do to speed things up?

If you're wondering, they were five players facing 20 orcs (split into 4 groups of 5), an orc chief and an eye of gruumsh. The players got help from 8 elves about halfway through the battle.

Basically title. I want to build a bbg that’s all about enchantments. Charm, hex, hold person, power word kill… all that stuff. Do you have recommendations for 5e statblocks that would be a good starting off point to make something homebrew? Anything between cr 12 and 18 will probably be workable

I'm running a Western campaign, and it takes place over quite a large area, with players using their horses to travel about the place to get to wherever they need to go next.

The campaign hasn't been running very long, but I can sense this starting to become an issue. They set off from wherever they are, I'll do my best to describe the scenery, usually throw a random encounter their way, and then they travel a bit more and they're at their destination.

But it feels really choppy. I'm not massively experienced in either DMing or playing, and while I've had a blast throwing myself into it, and my party seems to be having great fun too, the travel just feels really dry and irrelevant. They set off, interact with whatever they see along the way, and then they're just there. How can I make it feel like more of a fleshed out journey, rather than just moving from point A to point B?

My party went wildly off rails in the best way and have no taken over the mafia including their black mail ring. They also happen to have to try and steal a nobles ship.

I need ideas for blackmail they can pull out for when they eventually try to black mail the noble.

This must be the millionth time someone asks, but I can't seem to get my head around answers already provided. I want to take Cleric class as example.

At level 3, a Life Domain Cleric has 6 Prepared Spells.
- 4 Level 1 Spells
- 2 Level 2 Spells.

A Life Domain Cleric always has Aid, Bless, Cure Wounds, Lesser Restoration prepared as a Life Domain feature. The rules state:

If another Cleric feature gives you spells that you always have prepared, those spells don't count against the number of spells you can prepare with this feature*, but those spells otherwise count as Cleric spells for you.*

So, can a Life Domain Cleric of Level 3 have 6 Prepared Spells to choose from the Cleric Spell List and the 4 from the Life Domain also? That would be 10 available spells in total?

Most of the posts at DMA are discussions of some issue within the context of a person's campaign or DMing more generally. But, sometimes a DM has a question that is very small and doesn't really require an extensive discussion so much as it requires one good answer. In other cases, the question has been asked so many times that having the sub rehash the discussion over and over is not very useful for subscribers. Sometimes the answer to a short question is very long or the answer is also short but very important.

Short questions can look like this:

• Where do you find good maps?
• Can multi-classed Warlocks use Warlock slots for non-Warlock spells?
• Help - how do I prep a one-shot for tomorrow!?
• First time DM, any tips?

Many short questions (and especially First Time DM inquiries) can be answered with a quick browse through the DMAcademy wiki, which has an extensive list of resources as well as some tips for new DMs to get started.

This thread is for DMs who have an out-of-game problem with a PLAYER (not a CHARACTER) to ask for help and opinions. Any player-related issues are welcome to be discussed, but do remember that we're DMs, not counselors.

Off-topic comments including rules questions and player character questions do not go here and will be removed. This is not a place for players to ask questions.

In my homebrew campaign, which just started, I have 3 players navigating a large, diverse city with lots of unique districts. The campaign begins about a month before a major event that could impact the entire world, and my goal is for the players to get familiar with the world, meet some key NPCs, and get attached to certain characters before the main story kicks in.

My challenge is pacing the sessions. Since there are only 3 players, things tend to move quickly, whether it’s combat or interactions. All of my players are experienced with the game mechanics, so we’re not losing time there, but we’re light on roleplay. We’ve been playing D&D for about a year, though previous campaigns didn’t emphasize RP, which I think contributes to our faster pace. I try to encourage RP by using my NPCs to interact with the players, but they don’t interact with each other much outside of planning.

I don’t think the lack of RP is the only reason for the pacing issues, though. So far, we’ve had 3 sessions: 2 to complete a quest and another for a dungeon crawl. Our sessions usually last around 4-5 hours. I’ve started planning new plots and quests, but I’m struggling to make a plot line last for more than a single session.

For instance, in an upcoming session, I want to introduce a terrorist attack at a city garrison. There’s a lot of world history justifying the attack, and players will be tasked with tracking down the attacker. Different factions will approach them, each with their own reasons for wanting the culprit. My concern is that the sequence will feel too fast, like:

• The attack happens.
• The party searches for clues.
• They find 1-2 NPCs with information.
• They track down the culprit, confront him, and then hand him over to one of the factions.

I’m worried that this could all be wrapped up in one session, or two if I’m lucky. Any advice on how to expand this plot so it feels more immersive and can last across multiple sessions?

TLDR at the end if you don’t feel like reading my ramblings.

Hi everyone,

I’ve hit a bit of a planning roadblock and could use some fresh perspectives on how to structure my upcoming D&D session to ensure it’s fun and offers meaningful choices for my players. Right now, the session feels a bit too linear, almost like a series of cutscenes interrupted by action that doesn’t have significant impact on the outcome, and I want to avoid that. I am hoping on advice on how to “gamify” the events and introduce elements where players can make impactful decisions—even ways in which they might fail causing the story to diverge from my expectations.

I’ve included some background about the session in question, but this is something that I struggle with in general and am hoping that your input will help me understand how I should think about these things in future sessions as well.

Here’s the background: • The party was sent to confront a group of goblin bandits. • Instead of exterminating them, they empathized with the goblins’ plight and decided to try to arrange a peace treaty between their city and the goblins. • A rival adventuring party was also tracking the goblins and attacked during the negotiations. • The players sided with the goblins, defeated, and captured the rival adventurers—except one who escaped. • If the escaped adventurer reaches the city and reports that the players sided with goblins, the party could be branded as traitors and become fugitives. • This would also ruin any chance of negotiating peace for the goblins.

Current situation: • The party is racing back to the city to propose peace on the goblins’ behalf. • There’s a possibility that their meeting with the city’s leaders will be interrupted by the escaped adventurer, who could undermine their efforts by accusing them of treason.

I’m curious how you guys would structure this type of session to make it fun and interactive. I have been overthinking this for a while now and would really benefit from some fresh perspectives.

Here are some concerns: • I want the players to face decisions that have real consequences, beyond their initial choice to side with the goblins. • I don’t want the outcome to feel predetermined or for it to hinge solely on arbitrary decisions by me. I’m concerned that if it’s a given that the players will or will not achieve their goal, then the session will feel pointless. I want to introduce risks and potential failure points so that various outcomes are possible and hinge on player actions and decisions.

Ideas I’m Considering (But Unsure About): • Giving the players a chance to catch or eliminate the rival adventurer before he reaches the city. Poses a moral dilemma: How far will they go to protect their reputation? • The city leaders might offer to pardon the party if they lead a military force against the goblins under the guise of peace talks. • Presenting challenges on the road where they must choose between speed and other important factors (e.g., helping someone in need of acquiring information that is important for their other goals). • Incorporating skill challenges to determine how quickly and efficiently they reach the city, impacting if they arrive first and how much time they have before the rival gets there.

What I’m Seeking: • Additional branching points and meaningful decisions including dilemmas and Risks: Suggestions on challenges or moral quandaries that could enrich the narrative. • Other fun activities that might fit into this session.

Sorry for the wall of text. Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

TLDR: players are racing to a meeting before a rival gets there and will try to convince a bunch of nobles of something they really don’t want to convinced about (making peace with goblins). If the rival gets there first, things get much harder. How do I “gamify” this session so that it includes meaningful challenges and decisions and so that the outcome is determined at the table?

Kind of what the title says, but thoughts on dream sequences being, for lack of a better set of terms, player knowledge only, or table knowledge? Like I can either make the one player aware of the dream, or the entire table overall, is there one that's normally considered better than the other? TIA

Tl;dr I'm running a session later for a 4-player level 5 party where they'll be at a festival and planar shenanigans will happen where the veil between the material plane and the feywild temporarily weakens. I'd like this to lead to a combat encounter but ideally with a creature/creatures that happen to come through and attack - the planar weakening is a larger adventure hook and as surprising to the fey as to everyone else so the encounter can't be with entities using it in a calculated way to attack if that makes sense. Any suggestions for a suitable monster/monsters that could find itself brought through and would respond by instinctively attacking are welcome!

the crux of the idea is that everyone in the party is/was part of an army. they were sent to battle against a rival kingdom, with the goal of buying time for one of their fellow soldiers to return with some kind of reinforcement. the party fights long and hard until they just barely overcome the enemy forces, at which point their ally returns. the ally turns out to be a turncoat, and the "reinforcements" they brought were enemy soldiers who slaughter the party and ride off to announce their victory.

most of the combatants lie dead in the field. the party does not. not for long. they're revived with the urge to hunt down their so-called friend and everyone else involved in their deaths. maybe 3 to 5 targets altogether, of varying ranks in the rival army.

mechanically, everyone has the deathless nature feature from the reborn lineage tacked onto whatever species they are. they can be killed, but when they die their souls just jump to the closest, most intact humanoid cadaver. i like the idea of having a slight degree of randomisation on their stats based on what kind of corpse they possess (a sickly teenager with high INT but low CON, or a soldier who burned to death with high STR but low CHA, etc.) maybe they could seek out a corpse that suits their class at the expense of taking a little longer to rejoin the party, but they always know where each other and their killers are, so the goal is always clear.

i enjoy the bones of the concept, though i know i'd like there to be some sort of political intrigue and many hurdles between the party and all their targets, and that's the bit where i mostly hit a wall. can't write political subterfuge for the life of me.

maybe there's a time pressure as they tear themselves between tirelessly pursuing revenge, and wanting to tie up loose ends in their personal lives before they die for good. maybe there's an intense need to plan and make themselves scarce, as if they go too loud too soon, their targets might call on a wish spell to send them all to the afterlife (obviously not a material threat until late in the campaign, but something to encourage them not to just charge into a brick wall over and over til they kill their enemies would probably be smart.)

If the name Kyvos Abantes means anything to you, you are likely a player in my campaign please get off this thread.

Hello Everyone, I hope I'm in the correct subreddit. I apologize if not.

I'm running a campaign in the Theros world and I have a bard who worships Purphoros.

Purphoros, God of the Forge (CN):

Ideals: Devotion, Passion, Aspiration, Change, Generosity, Rage.

Purphoros is the god of the forge, the restless earth, and fire. He rules the raw creative force that infuses sapient minds. Purphoros is also the god of artisans, obsession, and the cycle of creation and destruction. Purphoros encourages freedom and self-expression, so it is only natural that his champions follow him for many different reasons.

This player likes puzzles and has been writing poems throughout the campaign so I thought as the party is exploring old ruined temples of Purphoros they would find poems carved into a wall that would be clues to a puzzle that they complete and a segment of a map shows up on the floor of the temple that will lead them to a larger story arch thing. I'd love some help coming up with ideas for these puzzles.

Here are some of the poems I was thinking of. I'll probably end up narrowing it down to 4.

I feel as lit by fire by Michelangelo

I feel as lit by fire a cold countenance

That burns me from afar and keeps itself ice-chill;

A strength I feel two shapely arms to fill

Which without motion moves every balance.

Unique spirit and my minds sole tendance,

Who is undying yet others seeks to kill,

I find one binds my heart, unbound his will,

And for who gladdens only I feel grievance.

How can it be, lord, that a face so lovely

Should work on mine in contrary fashion,

For who has no ill can hardly others harm?

To the glad life that's taken from me,

It behaves, save you forbid it, like the sun,

It heats the world and yet itself's not warm

Fire and Ice By Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Who Said That Love Was Fire? by Patience Worth

Who said that love was fire?

I know that love is ash.

It is the thing which remains

When the fire is spent,

The holy essence of experience.

Little Gidding T.S. Elliot

Ash on an old man's sleeve

Is all the ash the burnt roses leave.

Dust in the air suspended

Marks the place where a story ended.

Dust inbreathed was a house-

The walls, the wainscot and the mouse,

The death of hope and despair,

This is the death of air.

There are flood and drouth

Over the eyes and in the mouth,

Dead water and dead sand

Contending for the upper hand.

The parched eviscerate soil

Gapes at the vanity of toil,

Laughs without mirth.

This is the death of earth.

Water and fire succeed

The town, the pasture and the weed.

Water and fire deride

The sacrifice that we denied.

Water and fire shall rot

The marred foundations we forgot,

Of sanctuary and choir.

This is the death of water and fire.

 Ashes denote that fire was by Emily dickenson

ASHES denote that fire was;

Respect the grayest pile

For the departed creature’s sake

That hovered there awhile.

Fire exists the first in light,

And then consolidates,—

Only the chemist can disclose

Into what carbonates.

The Tyger By William Blake

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 

In the forests of the night; 

What immortal hand or eye, 

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies. 

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat.

What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp.

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears 

And water'd heaven with their tears:

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,

In the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Go to the Limits of Your Longing by Rainer Maria Rilke

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,

then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,

go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

Flare up like a flame

and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.

You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

Just some background information for why this question is being asked: One of my players decided that in his character’s background, right before the beginning of the campaign, he was bitten by a werewolf and infected. It is so recent that he has not even turned, and now, my party is getting ready to venture near the location of the attack for unrelated matters.

I use a calendar to help me keep track of dates and the moon cycles. I believe a couple of my players also keep an eye on these dates for note taking, so I’m hesitant to change it up.

My players are arriving in this area nowhere close to a full moon - probably about two weeks time until it comes. What, uh, do werewolf packs do when it’s not a full moon?

I know generally D&D as written views werewolves as rabid beasts who cannot control their urges. The longer they are werewolves, the less control they have over this. Right? (Unless you’re a player, because plot!)

Does that mean they would attack in werewolf form? Even without a full moon? Or would they just present as common bandits?

Werewolves are confusing.

Hey everyone, first time posting here. I've started a new campaign and I noticed a Hag could fill multiple spots in my world building so I wanted to write one in bit of a detail. So enter Frostlips, who tricks a whole community into thinking Auril protects them but only if not asked directly (and manipulate them through this setup), who secretly and slowly corrupted a forest village to destroy nature, driving local dryad protector of the forest into a rage and eventually causing her to turn into a hag (well, in process of)

I enjoyed writing and using her, hope you enjoy reading her. Let me know if you decide to use her or have any thoughts!

---------

Frostlips is a Bheur Hag. A fel being of winter, she loves the cold and how desperate it can make people. Like the snow slowly, invisibly piling up, Frostlips works at the tiniest of increments. She has all the time in the world and she takes a twisted pleasure in meticulously taking one step a time, until her victims find themselves in a position where they have no good choices. At that point, Auntie will either step in as a savior to “cash out” and ask for something big or, and in most cases, she will watch from the shadows, enjoying every moment cruelly.

She sees herself as the winter, but not the way mortals see it in their cosy ways. Where mortals see a time of quiet, Frostlips sees chaos. Where mortals see it as a way for nature the rest, Frostlips sees disturbance. Where snowflakes are seen gently falling down for a beautiful landscape, Frostlips see snow taking over and reshaping things.

Unlike most hags, Frostlips doesn’t think that much about deities as ehe sees them as by-passers. Auntie has been around for thousands of years, longer than most of them. She does “recognize” some, especially those who have been around for a while like Shar or Selune, or represent some basic forces, like the elemental gods. She would never care for the likes of the Dead Three except Bhaal (Frostlips thinks he’s smart to pick a domain that everyone uses, but that his vision of applying it was very lacking and boring), but she holds some respect for Kelemvor as he seems to “know his place”. She finds the good gods and the cosmic forces of good hypocritical, how they act as the defenders of life but don’t shy away from killing and she thinks that’s hilarious. She knows that the zeal in the Good can be turned to rage and destruction and she loves it. She really hates the wiser, gentler gods as their communities end up having the most resistance against manipulation. For that reason, she loves corrupting waterfalls, which Eldath likes very much.

Frostlips don’t usually go for the “Crone” look. Instead, she goes for the maiden. But just as she sees winter through her eyes, her maiden is either flirtless or nothing more than a tease. She enjoys the jealousy the Maiden generates in women and the way it pushes men to behave.

I am planning a Christmas session where everyone in the country is turned into cookies I was just wondering what you think would be some fun ideas for this. I am maybe thinking they have to disable certain magical devices then fight the cookiemancer also looking to come up with fun henchman

I’m a new DM, and I’m a running a one shot for my buddies. I’m taking a lot of influence from games and I have a few friends that are MGS fans such as I am (hence my name). I wanted to throw an encounter at them where everyone can easily think “oh shit it’s this!”

Are there any DMs who have ran some sniper-esque encounters and how did you do it?

I never understood why standing up from prone is taking half your movement since it affects those who are agile more.

So a human monk with 40 speed has to spend 20ft. of movement to stand up but a human commoner with 30 speed spends only 15 ft.? In my head monk does the Bruce lee ninja movement where he jumps from being on his back back to his feet in a second.

I propose a simple adjustment:

To stand up from being Prone, you can spend an amount of movement equal to half your Speed (round down) or 15ft. whichever is lower.

This could be disproportionally advantageous for bigger creatures, and for them it probably makes more sense to keep the original rule or increase the amount by 5ft. for every size above Medium. But since most creatures and PCs are Medium, I don't see why the faster ones should be 'slower' to stand up.

Not a very new DM, but I’ve always played with friends that I knew prior to dnd. For DMs that have found groups through online means or local groups: When looking for a new group as a DM, do you do any “vetting” even before session 0? Do you ask questions about their history as a player, or a character idea that they have? How much info do you give your players prior to a campaign so they can get the vibe? I guess the main question would be how do you prevent yourself from ending up on dndhorrorstories before the campaign even starts?

leave a random encounter below for others to use. here are a few i enjoy:

1. on the road the party passes a Carriage being driven by a butler in a suit. the party hears screaming coming from within the carriage. the way i usually run this is that the butler is taking this young human away from her husband who was abusive and awful to her but she "loved" him. this can be a one off encounter or be a plot hook

2. a random Player character finds a (insert whatever magical item) in their pocket. how it gets there is up to you

3. there is robber stealing from a makeshift warriors grave by the side of the road. he offers to cut them in. this one can go all sorts of ways. the party helps him out real quick and they get some quick loot and the robber goes on his way, maybe they abduct him and take him custody, maybe the warriors spirit still lingers and it turns into a fight.

take mine and leave one or more of yours below!

My players (5 level 7s) are in a large city that is going to be attacked. This attack will involve several high level necromancers and a Shadow Moonstone Dragon.

This suprise attack will take place on a small keep that houses a guild of Rangers (Horizon Watchers) who protect the edges of civilization from extraplanar threats. The fighting will also spread to nearby blocks and will involve cursing parts of the land in order to raise more undead than usual.

I need Advice on any short / long term effects this will have on the city.

Extra Info: This city was previously attacked by the same dragon, who killed the ruling family before retreating. This city's population is about 50,000 people (75%elves, 25% human)

Thanks in advance.

My current idea is 2.5x. My players want a deadly game where downing happens at low hp rather than 0.

I have this idea for a puzzle dungeon in a tall wizards tower - long story short they start at the top and work their way down through various puzzles, each level revealing plot points. It's similar to an escape room format. I want to add some combat for threat and to eat up resources but I'm concerned it'll just become a boring dice rolling exercise with no tactics. What can I do to make this less dull?

Each room is a circular 20x20, stairs and doors to each level.

Any particular monsters that would make this interesting? Any mechanics to focus on?

Any input appreciated!

Context: inexperienced players, medium experience DM.

I’m making a dungeon where everything is alive. The point is that there is this stone that brings to life anything that it touches. And I wanna fill the dungeon with living inanimate objects (I don’t wanna just use mimics) so if anyone has any ideas for creative monsters that would be amazing!

Hello! I often struggle to come up with ideas when my players ask what's on the menu, so I made a few lists for myself so that I hopefully don't need to panic and freeze up whenever they rest at a tavern (which is frankly a lot).
I decided to share some of my ideas with you all in case anyone else is feeling the same way. I hope this helps!

The food list includes entrees, main courses, sides and desserts with some vegeterian options.

Food Ideas

The drinks list includes both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

Drink Ideas

If you would like more food and drink ideas similar to those, please take a look at the following links that present expanded lists:

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/501727/100-Tavern-Food-Ideas - No desserts here

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/501729/50-Dessert-Ideas-For-Your-Tavern - Just desserts

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/501732/70-Beverage-Drink-Ideas-For-Your-Tavern - Alcoholic and non-alcoholic separate lists; the alcoholic list contains detailed flavour profiles

This idea was prompted by BG3, where very quickly we are introduced to a teifling urchin who is selling goods that are clearly scam items. If this were implemented in a DnD session, I could see players feeling frustrated if their item was fake or not what they expected. How would you implement this so that you don't give away too much info?

During a solo session, a (lvl 3) PC went into a sketchy hag’s clothing store and wanted her to make a flag for him. She said she could do it if he gave her his hand and followed her to the loom room.

NPC companions pointed out that this sounded weird, the hag was clearly a hag with an old witchy voice, and there were signs that this was sketchy.

The PC still held out his hand and it was immediately removed. It popped off and left no damage, just a clean stump. They got pretty upset by this and tried to get a refund, tried to get local guards, and almost started a fight but the hag wasn’t feeling a fight.

The hag gave him an alternative way of getting his hand back if he got her some rare fabrics of magical or divine nature. He went to the nearest magic store and got the cheapest cursed piece of clothing he could find, then tried to trick the hag into exchanging that for his hand back. She obviously refused that deal and he seemed to want her to start a fight with him over it, but wouldn’t start the fight himself.

It all ended with him seeming pretty upset about the whole thing. Idk what to do to make it right by him at this point.

None of this was even planned ahead of time. The hag npc just randomly mentioned that he could use some new clothes as he walked by, so he went into her shop and that ended up dominating the whole session. I thought it would be a goofy rp or something but they took it far more seriously than I expected. I should also mention that this is mostly a goofy open world campaign where it’s mostly just friends who are messing around and roleplaying without much combat or any strict rules in place.

In my current homebrewed campaign, my players are going to be fighting the God of Time (also homebrewed world), who is going to take copies of the players from the future, where they're at their strongest, and pit them against the party (i.e. level 20 barbarian sorcerer vs seven level 10 players.) Could they feasible defeat all five of these level 20 copies? I'm not sure how well level 10 players do against level 20 enemies.

So we have our adventurers, looking for a fame and fortune. Here and there they do some gigs and make some money. Then, somehow they are faced with the BBEG or have the King, Diety, etc tell them that BBEG. There is something in the middle tht I miss, and Im not sure what.

Okay, we can run it as you face BBEG's captain, commander, right hand. But it works if they are introduced from the start. Lets throw this away for this discussion

We can also get them into a faction and make them grow in reputation. Same as above, but with good guys.

Still, Im not sure what is the part between "shits and giggles" and "go kill god". Sounds simple, but what happened to me most of the time is introducing bbeg earlier and "edging" my party until they are strong enough to kill him. I think there's a better way

I usually run homebrew adventures, where multiple big bads are possible. Something like Dragon Heist, where you choose an enemy your party gets most interested in. Telling just in case it could be useful