Yeah I think that can be a trap a lot of newer DMs can fall into, not understanding the difference between mediums like TV, movies, or books and the collective nature of D&D stories. Really extended sequences that require things to go a certain way are risky in D&D because you never know what the players will do!

I would caution players to think of the logical endpoint of zealously interrupting villians with combat.

Players: “Stop you thugs or face the wrath of-”

DM: “They attack you, sounds like they get a surprise round”

I guess their assumption is anything cast right away will have Legendary Resistance used if the save is failed and the spell is sufficiently debilitating, so better to use Polymorph since it’s lower level but strong enough to warrant using LR.

Also if for whatever reason it does succeed, turning the bbeg into a chicken right as they begin monologuing is infinitely funnier than just disintigrating them.

Disintegrate does x damage. You know what does more than x damage? 3 other characters holding their attack and spell actions after you bap the lizard sitting in a cage, after killing all of their henchmen. But they’ll resist it anyway, so it’s effectively less magic spent for the same result

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.

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.

That sounds unreasonable. If you’re stepping up to known thugs to threaten them with violence, violence is expected by the party. There should be no surprise here.

but the party isn’t just lost in the wind looking for the next guy to punch.

Eh, there is merit in letting them suffer the consequences of their actions

This is entirely based on the assumption that they’re playing 5E. I don’t think any other game has legendary resistances

No, counter spells are strictly reserved for revivify

By the rules of the game you can’t surprise someone who is aware of your presence, so you’re correct.

That also means you don’t automatically get to interrupt a monologue by blasting the bbeg in the face mid-sentence. You need to roll initiative to see if you are able to act before they can respond.

I like this. I mean, the fact that the rules assist the narrative, but they’re not the narrative themselves.

For the desintegrate situation, I’d love for the GM to go something like:

“As you speak the final words of your incantation, Wizard, a thin green ray begins to form on your fingertip. The villain merely smirks, clicking his fingers. A wave of crimson energy smothers your hand, and your spell snuffs out like a candle. He brushes a piece of dust from his shoulder. 'Impatience. Such a childish trait. As I was saying…'”

The GM wouldn’t even explain what happened, just continue his narrative, and at some point the party would find that one of the nearby minions in hiding had a counterspell ready, for example.

Yeah, I did assume 5e. Still holds true, depending on your teammates in 3.5 and pathfinder, but you right

Yeah, absolutely. There are plenty of RAW ways to allow a bbeg to monologue, at least to some degree.

Of course it’s also entirely within the GM’s power to just tell the players to let it happen, but it definitely feels better when there’s some kind of in game reason why.

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.

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.

Hell, a big ol’ balcony above the party.

My DM understood this. As a bonus, by the end of the battle, everyone had taken so much fall damage.

Monologue through a stone of farspeech or a ward-tripped illusion spell.

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.