Hey guys, I've never created a monster from scratch yet, and no matter how many tries I give it, it never feels like it will be strong enough for my party. I'd like some tips if possible.
This will be the BBEG of the campaign and all I really have is that he's a humanoid with psionic powers. I want like a really high charisma stat. The only ability I've actually shown of his is when he's been touched, I forced a character to make a wisdom save that a 17 failed and a 19 passed that caused the failed creature to fall unconscious. I wasn't specific about it, but dropping to 0 hit points would be nice. I'm not sure what CR it should be, maybe 27. It should be strong enough to handle 6 pcs of 12th level. Legendary actions and lair actions would be cool. They'll be fighting him in his mansion, which will be like a dungeon-esque style so any cool lair actions that would rearrange the room or house would be pretty neat.
Ok, I am fairly new at this whole DM thing so take this with a grain of salt but from what I understand, it is probably best to just modify an already existing monster. From Xanathar's guide to Everything quick encounter builder, for 6 level 12 PC a good match up would be a CR 17 monster, so you probably want something a bit stronger since it is the big bad.
In that case, I would take either the Nagpa (CR 17 15th level spellcaster), Blue Abishai (CR 17 13th level spellcaster) Drow Favored Consort (CR 18, 11th level spellcaster but can also fight at melee) or Drow Matron Mother (CR 20, 20th level spellcaster) from Mordekainen Tome of Foes and adjust them to suit your needs, changing the flavor text to fit your bad guy. You could take lair actions from other legendary monsters like the demilich if you choose the lower cr ones.
I wouldn’t use a single monster, the party will waffle stomp them in no-time-flat. If they are a BBE with a mansion then fill it with minions the BBE can send at the party in waves. When the monsters have more actions and targets than the party, the party is at a disadvantage. When the party has more actions and targets than the monsters, the party will mop up fairly quickly.
The way the game is designed you could send 6-8 “medium” encounters at the party in between each long rest and it won’t be until towards the end that it gets rough for them. Or you could send 3-4 deadly encounters between long rests and it won’t be until the end that things get rough. So send some waves of mooks at them to soften them up, wear them down, and eat up their resources a bit before the final boss fight. I would personally probably go with maybe a CR 16-18ish boss and at least 2-3 CR 7-9 honor guard for the boss. And that would be the 3rd or 4th deadly encounter I would throw at them that day..
What other things will be affecting the fight? Magic items, magic locations (wild magic storm, for example), minions all affect the difficulty. If he has a forcefield that requires 3 generators be destroyed on different levels, whilst he's casting powers out of it, then that makes him much more dangerous! If he has 5 demons running around to kill your party, that also makes things more dangerous!
touch causing unconciousness is very situational unless you include melee weapons - only Monks and Druids will be regularly affected. Obviously he can use it as his own attack, or a 5ft aura, for more consistency. Causing touch to drop things to 0 HP on a single failed save is way too much though - better to copy Sleep spells to achieve your ends!
Legendary or lair actions will be a must to keep the action economy going, or he'll do one round then have all his HP removed for him by the party. Worst case scenario is he rolls low on initiative and the party gets 2 full rounds before he has his second, so you'll need those extra actions!
Ok, I am fairly new at this whole DM thing so take this with a grain of salt but from what I understand, it is probably best to just modify an already existing monster. From Xanathar's guide to Everything quick encounter builder, for 6 level 12 PC a good match up would be a CR 17 monster, so you probably want something a bit stronger since it is the big bad.
In that case, I would take either the Nagpa (CR 17 15th level spellcaster), Blue Abishai (CR 17 13th level spellcaster) Drow Favored Consort (CR 18, 11th level spellcaster but can also fight at melee) or Drow Matron Mother (CR 20, 20th level spellcaster) from Mordekainen Tome of Foes and adjust them to suit your needs, changing the flavor text to fit your bad guy. You could take lair actions from other legendary monsters like the demilich if you choose the lower cr ones.
I'm not a fan of re-skins because I would hate for a future battle against that monster to feel to similar so I'll definitely have to do a lot of tweaks.
I wouldn’t use a single monster, the party will waffle stomp them in no-time-flat. If they are a BBE with a mansion then fill it with minions the BBE can send at the party in waves. When the monsters have more actions and targets than the party, the party is at a disadvantage. When the party has more actions and targets than the monsters, the party will mop up fairly quickly.
The way the game is designed you could send 6-8 “medium” encounters at the party in between each long rest and it won’t be until towards the end that it gets rough for them. Or you could send 3-4 deadly encounters between long rests and it won’t be until the end that things get rough. So send some waves of mooks at them to soften them up, wear them down, and eat up their resources a bit before the final boss fight. I would personally probably go with maybe a CR 16-18ish boss and at least 2-3 CR 7-9 honor guard for the boss. And that would be the 3rd or 4th deadly encounter I would throw at them that day..
The reason I want to do a single monster is with Legenday actions, he would essentially get an action betwen every two players, which he could use to teleport out from a group and then on his actual turn do some heavy damage. I just think 1 v 6 is a much more badass finale, BUT I can also see the appeal of like every other round, he teleports up somewhere and then sends a wave of like 30 CR 1/4 creatures because that does seem pretty cool too lol just like fodder to be cut down to make the last encounter a little more epic.
What other things will be affecting the fight? Magic items, magic locations (wild magic storm, for example), minions all affect the difficulty. If he has a forcefield that requires 3 generators be destroyed on different levels, whilst he's casting powers out of it, then that makes him much more dangerous! If he has 5 demons running around to kill your party, that also makes things more dangerous!
touch causing unconciousness is very situational unless you include melee weapons - only Monks and Druids will be regularly affected. Obviously he can use it as his own attack, or a 5ft aura, for more consistency. Causing touch to drop things to 0 HP on a single failed save is way too much though - better to copy Sleep spells to achieve your ends!
Legendary or lair actions will be a must to keep the action economy going, or he'll do one round then have all his HP removed for him by the party. Worst case scenario is he rolls low on initiative and the party gets 2 full rounds before he has his second, so you'll need those extra actions!
I haven't really thought about magic items for him tbh. I know he has several rings on his fingers, so they could be rings of resistance or something. The touch to 0 I think I altered from the sea hag which is ranged but requires eyesight, so I could have one of his legendary actions to teleport and grab the neck of a character to use this ability or something. I definitely want to do some lair actions that rearrange the floor to like a maze that separates the party and then maybe flood it with some minions for the party to one shot.
Hey guys, I've never created a monster from scratch yet, and no matter how many tries I give it, it never feels like it will be strong enough for my party. I'd like some tips if possible.
This will be the BBEG of the campaign and all I really have is that he's a humanoid with psionic powers. I want like a really high charisma stat. The only ability I've actually shown of his is when he's been touched, I forced a character to make a wisdom save that a 17 failed and a 19 passed that caused the failed creature to fall unconscious. I wasn't specific about it, but dropping to 0 hit points would be nice. I'm not sure what CR it should be, maybe 27. It should be strong enough to handle 6 pcs of 12th level. Legendary actions and lair actions would be cool. They'll be fighting him in his mansion, which will be like a dungeon-esque style so any cool lair actions that would rearrange the room or house would be pretty neat.
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Ok, I am fairly new at this whole DM thing so take this with a grain of salt but from what I understand, it is probably best to just modify an already existing monster. From Xanathar's guide to Everything quick encounter builder, for 6 level 12 PC a good match up would be a CR 17 monster, so you probably want something a bit stronger since it is the big bad.
In that case, I would take either the Nagpa (CR 17 15th level spellcaster), Blue Abishai (CR 17 13th level spellcaster) Drow Favored Consort (CR 18, 11th level spellcaster but can also fight at melee) or Drow Matron Mother (CR 20, 20th level spellcaster) from Mordekainen Tome of Foes and adjust them to suit your needs, changing the flavor text to fit your bad guy. You could take lair actions from other legendary monsters like the demilich if you choose the lower cr ones.
I wouldn’t use a single monster, the party will waffle stomp them in no-time-flat. If they are a BBE with a mansion then fill it with minions the BBE can send at the party in waves. When the monsters have more actions and targets than the party, the party is at a disadvantage. When the party has more actions and targets than the monsters, the party will mop up fairly quickly.
The way the game is designed you could send 6-8 “medium” encounters at the party in between each long rest and it won’t be until towards the end that it gets rough for them. Or you could send 3-4 deadly encounters between long rests and it won’t be until the end that things get rough. So send some waves of mooks at them to soften them up, wear them down, and eat up their resources a bit before the final boss fight. I would personally probably go with maybe a CR 16-18ish boss and at least 2-3 CR 7-9 honor guard for the boss. And that would be the 3rd or 4th deadly encounter I would throw at them that day..
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What other things will be affecting the fight? Magic items, magic locations (wild magic storm, for example), minions all affect the difficulty. If he has a forcefield that requires 3 generators be destroyed on different levels, whilst he's casting powers out of it, then that makes him much more dangerous! If he has 5 demons running around to kill your party, that also makes things more dangerous!
touch causing unconciousness is very situational unless you include melee weapons - only Monks and Druids will be regularly affected. Obviously he can use it as his own attack, or a 5ft aura, for more consistency. Causing touch to drop things to 0 HP on a single failed save is way too much though - better to copy Sleep spells to achieve your ends!
Legendary or lair actions will be a must to keep the action economy going, or he'll do one round then have all his HP removed for him by the party. Worst case scenario is he rolls low on initiative and the party gets 2 full rounds before he has his second, so you'll need those extra actions!
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I'm not a fan of re-skins because I would hate for a future battle against that monster to feel to similar so I'll definitely have to do a lot of tweaks.
The reason I want to do a single monster is with Legenday actions, he would essentially get an action betwen every two players, which he could use to teleport out from a group and then on his actual turn do some heavy damage. I just think 1 v 6 is a much more badass finale, BUT I can also see the appeal of like every other round, he teleports up somewhere and then sends a wave of like 30 CR 1/4 creatures because that does seem pretty cool too lol just like fodder to be cut down to make the last encounter a little more epic.
I haven't really thought about magic items for him tbh. I know he has several rings on his fingers, so they could be rings of resistance or something. The touch to 0 I think I altered from the sea hag which is ranged but requires eyesight, so I could have one of his legendary actions to teleport and grab the neck of a character to use this ability or something. I definitely want to do some lair actions that rearrange the floor to like a maze that separates the party and then maybe flood it with some minions for the party to one shot.
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