Depends whether he has help, how he's built, the conditions under which the fight occurs, and whether the PCs are already down resources. For a solo against four fresh level 5s, you'll want a CR of 9-10, which for a simple cleric (X hit dice, cast spells as a level X cleric) probably requires a level of 13-15, though you can trim it a bit if the PCs are going to engage him in his sanctum (Glyph of Warding, Hallow, Symbol, etc).
And by the way, not likely to be a very fun or interesting fight, as it's likely to boil down to whether or not he gets off a spell that just kills everyone.
Look up the Death Cleric in the DMG. It is essentially a non-PC subclass, but horrifying lethal as an NPC. But as always, this NPC will need minions, Legendary Actions, and Lair Actions. It is impossible to balance a single NPC against a party of 5th level chars, because Action Economy is so important in these situations. And as stated, this really comes down to Initiative.
First of all do not make an npc using pc rules. If you compare a PC to an equivalent monster from the monster manual you will find they have far higher Hit points and generally a higher AC.
The issue is action economy and how PCs are balanced, a pc generally will output a lot more damage then an NPC, and are less survivable. In addition your cleric will get one action to the parties 4-5 or more each turn. Do you need to buff it’s hit points or AC to make it more survivable.
My advice work out the CR the party can handle and find an equivalent monster in the monster manual and then take those stats as a basis.
If it has spells then simply decide which it uses in the combat, decide the cleric level but remember spells will skew the NPC’s abilities and make things tougher. Especially a cleric.
The way I usually balance this is assume the average healing output the cleric can deliver and work out how many other monsters that equates to.
EG a goblin cleric, it has spells up to level 3 and a total average healing output (expending all spell slots available) of 33 (to make life easy), goblins in this encounter have 11 hit points, therefore the cleric is worth 3 extra goblins.
I'm kinda new at this sort of thing so I'm not sure what I should do.
This cleric needs to be powerful enough to possibly TPK a party of 4 5th level PCs.
What level should she be?
Thanks.
::: Smellhole
::: It's better to have loved and lost than to never have had a good pair of speakers.
Depends whether he has help, how he's built, the conditions under which the fight occurs, and whether the PCs are already down resources. For a solo against four fresh level 5s, you'll want a CR of 9-10, which for a simple cleric (X hit dice, cast spells as a level X cleric) probably requires a level of 13-15, though you can trim it a bit if the PCs are going to engage him in his sanctum (Glyph of Warding, Hallow, Symbol, etc).
And by the way, not likely to be a very fun or interesting fight, as it's likely to boil down to whether or not he gets off a spell that just kills everyone.
Thanks! No worries, there won't be a fight. I wouldn't do that to my pals.
::: Smellhole
::: It's better to have loved and lost than to never have had a good pair of speakers.
Look up the Death Cleric in the DMG. It is essentially a non-PC subclass, but horrifying lethal as an NPC. But as always, this NPC will need minions, Legendary Actions, and Lair Actions. It is impossible to balance a single NPC against a party of 5th level chars, because Action Economy is so important in these situations. And as stated, this really comes down to Initiative.
First of all do not make an npc using pc rules. If you compare a PC to an equivalent monster from the monster manual you will find they have far higher Hit points and generally a higher AC.
The issue is action economy and how PCs are balanced, a pc generally will output a lot more damage then an NPC, and are less survivable. In addition your cleric will get one action to the parties 4-5 or more each turn. Do you need to buff it’s hit points or AC to make it more survivable.
My advice work out the CR the party can handle and find an equivalent monster in the monster manual and then take those stats as a basis.
If it has spells then simply decide which it uses in the combat, decide the cleric level but remember spells will skew the NPC’s abilities and make things tougher. Especially a cleric.
The way I usually balance this is assume the average healing output the cleric can deliver and work out how many other monsters that equates to.
EG a goblin cleric, it has spells up to level 3 and a total average healing output (expending all spell slots available) of 33 (to make life easy), goblins in this encounter have 11 hit points, therefore the cleric is worth 3 extra goblins.