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One of our party of four was recently captured; the others located the hideout where they were being kept, and snuck through it to find where the captive was. They escaped, but made a lot of noise in the process and were seen speaking with the captive, who they didn’t have time to free, before retreating. So, naturally, after they left, the captors moved the prisoner to another part of the hideout that the heroes hadn’t been seen in.

The party slept, and with new spell slots the party’s caster used a couple casts of heightened Translocate with the intent to get in, grab the captive, and get out, since the captive’s location was now known. (Translocate doesn’t allow bringing creatures, but he’d thought of some workaround I’ve forgotten.) Of course, he came out empty handed since the enemies moved their friend to a new place.

This party has been very strategic and methodical, which is great, but they often get overly comfortable assuming nothing will change or that their enemies can’t plan too. They also tend to stick to one plan, albeit good ones, but not change or adapt if the plan isn’t working. Case in point, the caster plans to basically keep translocating in and out until they can find her new location; but that will require a rest between each attempt, giving the enemies time to counter again. This hideout does not contain an insurmountable amount of enemies; they could fight their way through with a little caution. Sometimes this caster likes to do a kind of malicious compliance and do things he knows are suboptimal in order to prove some point.

I want there to be consequences for the many assumptions the players are making, but more than that, I want to run a fun game. I’ve been giving the captive player things to do, but being a prisoner isn’t fun, so I’m not gonna let it go on for another session. I plan to, at the very least, hand-wave or retcon her into rejoining the party during or after their failed attempt, if not give her an escape arc.

Is there any way to have my cake and eat it too, here? The ultimate goal is fun, and I can forgo “teaching a lesson” in the name of that, but would really like their actions to have weight and consequence.

Thanks for reading. Apologies for the wall of text.

Thank you all for the advice. It’s clear to me now that what I thought was granting agency in allowing the players to act, was really taking their agency since it was a combat they weren’t really meant to win. I had made story provisions for a possible party victory, but it would’ve been a slog for them to get there regardless. I think when I was planning, I figured it was so overwhelming that even if there was an agency issue, the combat would be over quickly. That was obviously incorrect on multiple counts.

I think I’ll do what some suggested and offer the surviving player an expedited solution based on his chances; a roll to see how many he can take down with him, or another to succeed overall. May combine it with some other suggestions of having the mooks retreat with the unconscious heroes so chances are less nebulous.

And of course, in addition to all that, I’ll never be running a “party loses” story beat in this way again, lol.

I have already communicated with them that I made a mistake, they’ve been pretty gracious about it. Next session is coming up so should be able to put this behind us soon.

Thanks again for all the answers and constructive criticism! You all just helped make a GM a little better.

Please let me know and apologies in advance if this is the wrong place to post this, I’m new to these forums.

Game system is PF2E, party level 9.

My party walked into a trap and were attacked by a small army of enemies. I designed it to be an overwhelming force so they’d either surrender or be knocked out; most of the party has been downed, but one remains and isn’t doing too bad. He’s a well built character, with high mobility and packs a huge punch. 4th rank Invisibility is helping a lot here too.

With the rest of the party downed, I consider this combat pretty much doomed. The last one standing could put up a fight, possibly for a long time due to his mobility and stealth, but I estimate his odds of success to be low. He disagrees, believing he can defeat them given enough time (it’s a couple enemies of player level, and four of player level minus one or two). Either way, if he wins or is knocked down, it would probably take the whole session, and I’m not making my other players sit through that. This character fleeing is also off the table because he believes it would be out of character (there have been a couple “my guy” issues in the past).

I feel a little at fault for underestimating the party and not making the enemies more clearly overwhelming. Though I don’t think he will succeed, I don’t feel it would be best to just put my foot down and say “fast forward, your character is defeated.”

What are my options for a compromise here?