I have a party of 4 PCs, this was 5 a few months back but one of the players needed to leave and won't be returning. He played a character based on Sephiroth, so is an Aasimaar Eldritch Knight. My PCs are currently 6th level, and I want to give them a twist in the story where Sephiroth returns as an evil character and wants to take something from them, so I have levelled his character to 6.
This will more than likely end in combat, I'm getting pretty good at judging the monster CRs and number of them to make encounters the difficulty I want, but I'm not sure how to translate this to PC stat sheets. I'm thinking of levelling Sephiroth to 7 to give him the extra spell slots, and there needs to be a few minions so it's not a 4 vs 1 scenario, but I don't want to go too heavy handed on the enemies, any advice for scaling this correctly?
I'd like to get the enemies correct upfront, rather than having a few more appear mid fight, but I will keep a few in reserves in case things get a bit easy (maybe a healer or utility mage), but I only want that to be a last case scenario.
PC levels don’t exactly line up with CR. PCs also have a glass-cannon design philosophy relative to monsters that will result in somebody dying very quickly if you had them fight normally. You clearly already know to take action economy into account, so I’m not too worried about that. If I’m forced to turn a PC build into a boss monster instead of just making a statblock normally, I have a shorthand that usually gets them close to the same CR as their original level, then I adjust numbers from there:
Resistance to all damage (stacks with innate resistance)/doubled health.
2 legendary actions, can’t make same one twice in one round, can’t make multiple damaging actions twice in one round.
Attack (Half as many attacks, including bonus actions, rounded up)
Cantrip
Evade (Move half speed with Disengage)
Heal for 1 Hit Die + Con
Works for all, but most Rogues, Bards, and Artificers struggle in a solo fight.
For example, a level 5 Dual-Wielding Tiefling Fighter would take 1/4 damage from fire, and have resistance to all other damage. As a legendary action, which they have 2 of, they could make 2 attacks (((2+1)/2)=1.5 rounded up), move 15 feet without provoking opportunity attacks, or heal for 1d10+Con. Then I would put the new numbers into a CR calculator, and it would be close to CR 5.
Unless you want the Sephiroth character to go down in one turn and to put out some meaningful damage, up the character level to around 11 and give 3 legendary actions. Work out what each character in the party can deal as their max damage in one turn, halve it, then multiply by the number of turns you want the combat to last, and that will be the necessary hit points for the NPC to survive that many turns.
4 PCs will easily destroy a similar level NPC in a single turn. Don't worry about how characters progressed in level etc. Combat in D&D is a storytelling aid, not a MMORPG levelling system.
Thanks guys, that's really useful info. I think I'll level him to 7 for the sake of abilities and spells he has access to, that creates the base of the character. Then for hit points I'll calculate as you say Sanvael, that will give me a very good base for making the encounter last more than just a single round!
I love the idea of legendary actions, I never thought of that. I'll have those as "back pocket" abilities and only use if things seem to be going bad for Sephiroth, although the evade one is going to be extremely useful if the tank ties him up. Sephiroth already hits pretty damn hard and has a good AC. Plus this is never going to end in a party wipe, his intention is to get the item, not kill his previous friends. They are actually going to have the encounter in a goblin camp they just cleared out, so theres a cage being use to hold the human prisoners used as food, worst comes to worst, they end up unconscious and wake up in there with Sephiroth gone!
For some real fun with it, have him retreat instead of staying to fight if it looks bad. Like a scroll of teleport it a potion of invisibility and something to let him fly. Villians that run away and gone back are much more satisfying when they finally lose. Or you can give him a redemption arc. Or he can never show up again, but the PCs are constantly on alert for him. Keeping him alive gives you options. Death is final.
That's what I'm hoping to do Xalthu, Sephiroth has a ring of protection that the dwarf tank really wants, when the player for Sephiroth wasn't showing up and we knew he would be leaving, the dwarf wanted to take the ring off him, but I made Sephiroth leave in the night with a note. So When the dwarf see's him, he'll see this as his chance to gain the ring.
I do like a computer game style to the roleplay though, where when the party are at the cusp of levelling they get an epic encounter to take them to the next level, and that's what this is. I know that might not be everyones cup of tea, but my players enjoy it, and as their experience points grow, between sessions they start talking about what could be coming up and build up to it.
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Hey Guys,
I have a party of 4 PCs, this was 5 a few months back but one of the players needed to leave and won't be returning. He played a character based on Sephiroth, so is an Aasimaar Eldritch Knight. My PCs are currently 6th level, and I want to give them a twist in the story where Sephiroth returns as an evil character and wants to take something from them, so I have levelled his character to 6.
This will more than likely end in combat, I'm getting pretty good at judging the monster CRs and number of them to make encounters the difficulty I want, but I'm not sure how to translate this to PC stat sheets. I'm thinking of levelling Sephiroth to 7 to give him the extra spell slots, and there needs to be a few minions so it's not a 4 vs 1 scenario, but I don't want to go too heavy handed on the enemies, any advice for scaling this correctly?
I'd like to get the enemies correct upfront, rather than having a few more appear mid fight, but I will keep a few in reserves in case things get a bit easy (maybe a healer or utility mage), but I only want that to be a last case scenario.
Just so I can tell if I can help, do you know how to calculate CR based on stats and abilities?
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Not yet no, I'd be willing to learn that though but it's not something I've looking into so far
PC levels don’t exactly line up with CR. PCs also have a glass-cannon design philosophy relative to monsters that will result in somebody dying very quickly if you had them fight normally. You clearly already know to take action economy into account, so I’m not too worried about that. If I’m forced to turn a PC build into a boss monster instead of just making a statblock normally, I have a shorthand that usually gets them close to the same CR as their original level, then I adjust numbers from there:
Resistance to all damage (stacks with innate resistance)/doubled health.
2 legendary actions, can’t make same one twice in one round, can’t make multiple damaging actions twice in one round.
Works for all, but most Rogues, Bards, and Artificers struggle in a solo fight.
For example, a level 5 Dual-Wielding Tiefling Fighter would take 1/4 damage from fire, and have resistance to all other damage. As a legendary action, which they have 2 of, they could make 2 attacks (((2+1)/2)=1.5 rounded up), move 15 feet without provoking opportunity attacks, or heal for 1d10+Con. Then I would put the new numbers into a CR calculator, and it would be close to CR 5.
Unless you want the Sephiroth character to go down in one turn and to put out some meaningful damage, up the character level to around 11 and give 3 legendary actions. Work out what each character in the party can deal as their max damage in one turn, halve it, then multiply by the number of turns you want the combat to last, and that will be the necessary hit points for the NPC to survive that many turns.
4 PCs will easily destroy a similar level NPC in a single turn. Don't worry about how characters progressed in level etc. Combat in D&D is a storytelling aid, not a MMORPG levelling system.
Thanks guys, that's really useful info. I think I'll level him to 7 for the sake of abilities and spells he has access to, that creates the base of the character. Then for hit points I'll calculate as you say Sanvael, that will give me a very good base for making the encounter last more than just a single round!
I love the idea of legendary actions, I never thought of that. I'll have those as "back pocket" abilities and only use if things seem to be going bad for Sephiroth, although the evade one is going to be extremely useful if the tank ties him up. Sephiroth already hits pretty damn hard and has a good AC. Plus this is never going to end in a party wipe, his intention is to get the item, not kill his previous friends. They are actually going to have the encounter in a goblin camp they just cleared out, so theres a cage being use to hold the human prisoners used as food, worst comes to worst, they end up unconscious and wake up in there with Sephiroth gone!
For some real fun with it, have him retreat instead of staying to fight if it looks bad. Like a scroll of teleport it a potion of invisibility and something to let him fly. Villians that run away and gone back are much more satisfying when they finally lose. Or you can give him a redemption arc. Or he can never show up again, but the PCs are constantly on alert for him. Keeping him alive gives you options. Death is final.
That's what I'm hoping to do Xalthu, Sephiroth has a ring of protection that the dwarf tank really wants, when the player for Sephiroth wasn't showing up and we knew he would be leaving, the dwarf wanted to take the ring off him, but I made Sephiroth leave in the night with a note. So When the dwarf see's him, he'll see this as his chance to gain the ring.
I do like a computer game style to the roleplay though, where when the party are at the cusp of levelling they get an epic encounter to take them to the next level, and that's what this is. I know that might not be everyones cup of tea, but my players enjoy it, and as their experience points grow, between sessions they start talking about what could be coming up and build up to it.