So I am running a campaign with three pcs. The campaign in question has a lot of undead, and while I have a different BBEG in mind I would like to use the statblock for Orcus. My question being, is it even possible to make a party of three powerful enough to face an encounter like that, and if so, how?
In earlier adventures, leading up to the BBEG have the PCs encounter other interested factions that may want to help (a political game). Ie a metallic dragon, or some anti-demon cultists
In earlier adventures, have sessions dedicated to finding items that may help neutralize some of orcus' powers
Orcus may only appear as an avatar, and not be a full-strength orcus
During the BBEG battle, have items the party and faction helpers can interact with that could neutralize/limit some powers
Perhaps the PCs infiltrate the group summoninng Orcus and can miselad them in some way so that not all the steps are performed appropriately
Don't just put PCs in front of the BBEG though, use sessions to build up and develop all the tools that they may have available.
Good luck !
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"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Also depends on what level the PCs will be by the time they meet the bbeg in the end. 3 level 20 pcs is more than enough to wipe the floor with pretty much anything you can throw at them in standard stat blocks. 2 Pcs might be a challenge. But really if they are 15+ then they aren't going to have any major problems unless you really add to the fight. And if Orcus is all by himself you're probably doing something wrong to begin with.
Now if they are low levels that's a different story, then they're going to need allies and lots of magic items to push things in their favor as suggested above.
Orcus is fairly dangerous for his CR, mostly because his Conjure Undead ability has no restrictions on undead type so he can spawn undead that are very dangerous for their hit points such as 3xlich. Without that, he's doing pretty high damage, but nothing that level 20 characters can't deal with; the standard encounter builder rules substantially underestimate high level characters.
I don't like the Orcus stat block because to me it's mostly a vague list of monsters one might decide to put with orcus and hat should come from encounter design not a monster stat block. it isn't even really good encounter design because it suggests you should make a completely unbalanced encounter like 3 lichs and a demon lord. Other than that the only interesting ability he has is creeping death which is currently too unavoidable to be fun. You can use it just before a monsters turn and just get double damage without the player being able to act.
My advice would be to ignore everything on orcus's stat block to do with summoning and instead just pick undead minions to go with him that will make a fun encounter. Orcus himself could also use some more fun abilities as he basically just deals damage.
I would also change creeping death to be 1 action with a 10 minute duration ( so it cant run out in a combat) and to give vulnerability for a turn if a player ends their turn in it. Then he can basically force enemies to move every round or take double damage while slowly filling the map with cursed ground.
If you really want the summoner angle then just have a certain number of undead appear every round or give him some immortal minions that he returns to life at when they die.
Alternatively you could give him an actually interesting summoning ability like a spell that summons [monsters]zombies[/monster] to grapple some one. Zombie will be trivial at that level but having a disabling effect players break out of by dealing damage could be an interesting twist and combo well with creeping death.
He should also have an undead healing or buffing ability if he is meant to be so minion focused
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So I am running a campaign with three pcs. The campaign in question has a lot of undead, and while I have a different BBEG in mind I would like to use the statblock for Orcus. My question being, is it even possible to make a party of three powerful enough to face an encounter like that, and if so, how?
It's DnD -- anything is possible.
A few ideas are:
Don't just put PCs in front of the BBEG though, use sessions to build up and develop all the tools that they may have available.
Good luck !
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Also depends on what level the PCs will be by the time they meet the bbeg in the end. 3 level 20 pcs is more than enough to wipe the floor with pretty much anything you can throw at them in standard stat blocks. 2 Pcs might be a challenge. But really if they are 15+ then they aren't going to have any major problems unless you really add to the fight. And if Orcus is all by himself you're probably doing something wrong to begin with.
Now if they are low levels that's a different story, then they're going to need allies and lots of magic items to push things in their favor as suggested above.
Orcus is fairly dangerous for his CR, mostly because his Conjure Undead ability has no restrictions on undead type so he can spawn undead that are very dangerous for their hit points such as 3xlich. Without that, he's doing pretty high damage, but nothing that level 20 characters can't deal with; the standard encounter builder rules substantially underestimate high level characters.
I don't like the Orcus stat block because to me it's mostly a vague list of monsters one might decide to put with orcus and hat should come from encounter design not a monster stat block. it isn't even really good encounter design because it suggests you should make a completely unbalanced encounter like 3 lichs and a demon lord. Other than that the only interesting ability he has is creeping death which is currently too unavoidable to be fun. You can use it just before a monsters turn and just get double damage without the player being able to act.
My advice would be to ignore everything on orcus's stat block to do with summoning and instead just pick undead minions to go with him that will make a fun encounter. Orcus himself could also use some more fun abilities as he basically just deals damage.