Planning ahead for my epic campaign (1-20). My Big Bad is going to be an ancient elven wizard obsessed about becoming a god. Set in forgotten realms.
Backstory is that we survived Times of Troubles, Spellplague and the other many “magic is gone” apocalypses that have occurred. Obsessed with power, that feeling of powerlessness broke him. He decides to become a god in the Raven Queen’s footsteps. i created a homebrew tome that allows him to complete the ritual. He almost had it, until the most powerful wizards in Faerun imprisoned him in the Nine Hells.
Of course he will break out when my players get to level 14 or 15. The questions I have is how would you homebrew him to be a threat to eventual level 20 party of 4 and to make him stand apart from typical archmages and lich types?
I think the main thing to keep in mind is that this wizard isn't limited to the rules and restrictions that player characters are limited to.
They can cast Fireball without spending a spell slot. They can cast multiple level 9 spells in a single day. They can take Legendary Actions.
I'd say something that will help is to lean in on the fact that he's unlocked powers, and maybe that's morphed him physically in some way. I think this idea that he's half-way through converting into a God has a lot of potential, visually. You could quite literally justify him going "one Winged Angel" mode, since that would be a quick and easy shorthand to convey the idea that he's almost, but not quite divine.
Do a rough draft if it's enjoyable or helps with you adventure crafting, but the truth is you're going to be doing TONS of revisions to this villain's stat block as you become increasingly familiar with what your players can do at 5th level, at 9th level, at 11th level, and at 14th/15th level. There is a dramatic power difference that it is impossible to plan for in advance, just because of the sheer number of options.
At a bare minimum, you will need:
Special Defenses against massive number of attacks (e.g. reaction teleport after taking damage from an attack)
Special Defenses against "save or die" spells (e.g. banishment)
Special Defenses against being stun-locked (e.g. shunting conditions to bonded familiars, phylacteries, apprentices)
Lair + Legendary actions – more broadly, the ability to threaten all of the party consistently round after round, not just 1-2 PCs
Either a streamlined design (see Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse) OR a way to make ALL those spell slots able to be used in a confrontation (i.e. uses for spell slots beyond "casting a spell" which are integrated into bonus actions, reactions, lair/legendary actions)
A cool contingency effect
Several magic items
Minions
A suitable lair that favors the elven archmage and disfavors the PCs
Closing potentially disastrous loopholes (e.g. the archmage flies over lava via fly spell, but if dispelled or concentration broken and archmage already used reaction, that's a ton of damage or outright death) and the potential for an antimagic zone or mass-counterspell to be fielded against him
For establishing the tone/theme of this character, you need to consider:
God of what? What sort of god would he become?
What aspect of elvishness is it most important to exemplify with this character?
What kind of magic is he most known for or specialized in? Pick some spells out to focus on / build around.
Who serves him? What kind of guards/minions does he have?
Yeah, you're way too early to be statting him out. Worry about his minions, machinations, and such that will slowly become more and more relevant to what's going on in the game.
That said, I'd be thinking about a battle where they have to fight through his minions while he does the ritual. The faster they can, the weaker he'll be, but presumably the more resources they have to spend. (And you can control the clock on the fight by having the ritual start to eat the minions.)
1) The Raven Queen is an anti-undead Death god. As such, her pantheon should be well versed in spells that protect against necromantic. I would give him immunity to necrotic damage, and likely use many of the radiant damage spells, such as Wall of Light, Sunbeam and Sunburst
2) The Raven Queen lives in the Shadowfell. I might give him some of the Shadow Sorcerer's powers - particularly the two powerful ones Shadow Walk and Umbral Form.
Making a villain or any other NPC stand apart is less about stat blocks and more about how they interact with the party and how they make the party feel. The BBEG has to breakout of hell you say? We’ll maybe your PCs need to go on an adventure there (see Descent into Avernus) and come across a wizard who will help them if only the PCs set him free. Once they do the hell remark how grateful he is and offer more quests in exchange for other things the PCs want. Only too late will the PCs realize they’ve been the BBEGs pawns.
Firstly, I definitely recommend having him keep the spell list of a 20th-level Wizard (with Counterspell at 3rd level being at will), and even giving him an extra 8th and 9th level spell. 9th level spells I'd recommend would be Prismatic Wall, Ravenous Void (EGtW), and Shapechange. Meteor Swarm and Power Word Kill are gauche and overused.
Absolutely he should have Advantage on Concentration Checks and be Proficient in Constitution Saving Throws. Figure on the fight lasting somewhere between 9 and 10 rounds, or longer if he uses hit and run tactics within a sizeable dungeon (3 or so rooms on each of possibly 3 levels, with one level being on a private Demiplane).
Either he always goes first in Combat Initiative or start him at 25. He *cannot* be surprised.
Feel free to give him MASSIVE Hit Points (as much as 60d8 + Constitution Modifiers (MAXXED)) and I'd think Immunity to Fire Damage and Poison Damage (Devil traits), plus Resistance to Necrotic Damage, Cold Damage and not impossibly Lightning Damage, Acid Damage, Psychic Damage and Thunder Damage. Definitely recommend against him just being straight up Immune to all the Elemental and Special Damage types as that can make the Spellcasters feel useless, same as having him be flat out immune to all Conditions.
In regards Conditions, I recommend giving him Immunity to Charmed, Frightened, and Poisoned while leaving the rest to be defended by Counterspell, his Saving Throws, and Legendary Resistances. Having those other conditions fair game means Spellcasters can have at least a little satisfaction with burning through his Reactions and Legendary Resistances. If you just want to go all out, give him Immunity to Charmed, Frightened, Exhaustion, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, and Stunned. He can still be Blinded, Deafened, knocked Prone, and even Restrained. *Maybe* give him immunity to Polymorph and Similar spells.
Probably Magic Resistance and Regeneration 20. I feel like Proficiency in 4 Saving Throws makes sense but I'm unsure of which 4. No matter what his Spellcasting Ability Score is Statted as or his CR Proficiency, do *NOT* set his Saving Throw DC higher than 25, and same max for his AC
Teleporting, perhaps available as both a singular Action, Reaction, and Legendary Action. Look to Vecna's Vile Teleport as a great start (deals Psychic Damage on arrival). Another option is having the Teleport possibly bring an unwilling PC along for some one on one terror (Obviously a save on that second one)
An Aura of X size that could deal 10 or 15 points of Y Damage Type, make the Area Difficult Terrain, and start the battle with the standard possibility of Frightened. Any party that faces this guy without a Heroes' Feast almost certainly deserves to be supernaturally terrified.
Draw from other classes, such as having a Warlocks Hurl Through Hell ability set up but for lower damage and on a 5 or 6 recharge.
Ability to parry a spell via Counterspell, where a roll of 18 to 20 leads to the spell being redirected to another player in range.
A Chain Contingency where three defensive spells automatically trigger, rather than just 1 could signal the second phase of combat (like Mythic). Suggested spells and options might be Mirror Image + Globe of Invulnerability, and a special Teleport that instantly removes any Conditions afflicting him while teleporting him to the next area in your Arena.
Constantly spawning small and barely dangerous minions that upon destruction (perhaps only by the Archmage as a Legendary Action) either heal him or damage the PCs (or both). These might be foes that are "skinned" to look like more dangerous Fiends or Undead that actually have much lower hit points and damage output. Credit to Auril from 'IcewindDale: Rime of the Frostmaiden' for this idea.
Do not give him a special counter to Anti-magic. Instead, he should use a spell that alters the terrain or move to another area which requires the player to move faster to keep up with the action and likely drop the spell. Also, minions and their deaths should help provide a whittling away of damage that isn't stopped by Anti-magic.
And obviously this should be a Legendary (possibly Legendary + Mythic) Boss with 4 Legendary Resistances and the same number of Legendary Actions. Being able to cast Spells of 1st through 3rd or 5th that cost 1 legendary Action, with spells of 4th to 6th through 7th to 8th costing 2. Also the Teleport and maybe some kind of Curse.
The Lair should have both a variety of Actions & Effects, plus cool design. If he doesn't innately Fly without magic, have one area give him that, or perhaps have a strange Reverse Gravity that puts him and the PCs on different axis. Other horrifying ideas might include Glyphs that Petrify or cast Dispel Magic on the players first entering a room.
My own Boss of this sort was one that attempted to start a three way war between an Archdevil, a Demon Lord, and a Solar with the ultimate purpose of becoming a Duke of Hell beneath Dispater. He was in league with Neogi and the Yugoloths among others.
Planning ahead for my epic campaign (1-20). My Big Bad is going to be an ancient elven wizard obsessed about becoming a god. Set in forgotten realms.
Backstory is that we survived Times of Troubles, Spellplague and the other many “magic is gone” apocalypses that have occurred. Obsessed with power, that feeling of powerlessness broke him. He decides to become a god in the Raven Queen’s footsteps. i created a homebrew tome that allows him to complete the ritual. He almost had it, until the most powerful wizards in Faerun imprisoned him in the Nine Hells.
Of course he will break out when my players get to level 14 or 15. The questions I have is how would you homebrew him to be a threat to eventual level 20 party of 4 and to make him stand apart from typical archmages and lich types?
So my question first of all, is your wizard going to be an overarching theme from level 1. If not, I really suggest you don't worry too much about him until your campaign gets there. It might be that your players and the choices there characters make end up sending your campaign in a totally different direction unless you intend (and they are happy) with a rail roady campaign.
As for ideas if you are involving them early on I recently set the scene for a potentially recurring BBEG Wizard. Party just reached level 6 after 18 months of game time, so my campaigns run slow, the Wizard in the town they started, Leland, seemed an affable friendly, doddery wizard, owner of a magic shop, wiling to sell them various magic items and give them help and advice. In reality he had unleashed an Aboleth, was working with it while avoiding it's control (mind blank) because he was trying to get information from it dating back to the creation of all things. Information that to the Aboleth where just memories. The wizard friended the party because they where his option when the Aboleth was no longer useful, he was going to make sure they got enough clues went off and killed it.
The party worked out he was a bad guy before he intended, and, while the players twigged he was a proper high power wizard, the characters had no idea because he had not demonstrated it. They ended up going to deal with said Aboleth first anyway (because he sent the mother of one of the characters there as a prisoner) and then returned and took on the Wizard.
On paper should have been a TPK, the players expected it to be a TPK (one of them had figured out he was level 20+ and they where level 6) but, they killed him, although what they actually killed was a Simulacrum he had created of himself with the instruction to let them kill it.
The characters have an inkling he might not be actually dead, although don't have the knowledge to understand how, he avoided death. They failed an arcana check when he dissolved away to water. I intend to keep him in the background and, depending on what the party do, possibly bring him back for about level 12. The players now for sure he isn't dead. Although I am running a true open world game so the characters might just go off and do something entirely different, in which case he is just carrying on doing his thing, possibly stopped by an NPC, possibly not.
In terms of stats I created him as a player character, it was just easier to pick out the spells I wanted him to have available, but I then took that and simplified and streamlined the stats, skills etc to make a proper NPC. I think I changed one of the wizard monsters here on DnD beyond to make a custom creature and then tweaked hit points, AC, Stats etc to bring him up to a level 20+ equivalent enemy. I then took that and nerfed it down to make the simulacrum, so half the hit points, and seriously nerfed the spell list because he wasn't attacking to kill. It was more important to it that the party be able to proclaim they had killed the evil wizard so he was left alone.
As for his motivation, I have no idea what his long term goal is. One of the characters in discussing him with the other characters in game suggested he predated a great calamity that happened 8000 years ago, I grabbed that and made it true (they don't know that), another suggested maybe he was trying to fix the calamity, I don't think that is the case but it is an option. But, if the party decide to follow that story thread, and he therefore comes across their path again then I will think more about his motivation. He knows where they are at all times anyway, one of the magic items he sold them has effectively a tracker spell cast on it so he can find exactly where it is if it is on the same plane, or which plane they are on if they are not on the same plane as him. The magic item is one that the character who bought it will be using for a long time in game, and, they haven't investigated it or had anyone els to find the enchantment yet. This is a made up spell I came up with based on the fact he is over 8000 years old, although not a Liche, so has access to many magics that are not known in the world any longer.
Planning ahead for my epic campaign (1-20). My Big Bad is going to be an ancient elven wizard obsessed about becoming a god. Set in forgotten realms.
Backstory is that we survived Times of Troubles, Spellplague and the other many “magic is gone” apocalypses that have occurred. Obsessed with power, that feeling of powerlessness broke him. He decides to become a god in the Raven Queen’s footsteps. i created a homebrew tome that allows him to complete the ritual. He almost had it, until the most powerful wizards in Faerun imprisoned him in the Nine Hells.
Of course he will break out when my players get to level 14 or 15. The questions I have is how would you homebrew him to be a threat to eventual level 20 party of 4 and to make him stand apart from typical archmages and lich types?
I think the main thing to keep in mind is that this wizard isn't limited to the rules and restrictions that player characters are limited to.
They can cast Fireball without spending a spell slot. They can cast multiple level 9 spells in a single day. They can take Legendary Actions.
I'd say something that will help is to lean in on the fact that he's unlocked powers, and maybe that's morphed him physically in some way. I think this idea that he's half-way through converting into a God has a lot of potential, visually. You could quite literally justify him going "one Winged Angel" mode, since that would be a quick and easy shorthand to convey the idea that he's almost, but not quite divine.
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Do a rough draft if it's enjoyable or helps with you adventure crafting, but the truth is you're going to be doing TONS of revisions to this villain's stat block as you become increasingly familiar with what your players can do at 5th level, at 9th level, at 11th level, and at 14th/15th level. There is a dramatic power difference that it is impossible to plan for in advance, just because of the sheer number of options.
At a bare minimum, you will need:
For establishing the tone/theme of this character, you need to consider:
Yeah, you're way too early to be statting him out. Worry about his minions, machinations, and such that will slowly become more and more relevant to what's going on in the game.
That said, I'd be thinking about a battle where they have to fight through his minions while he does the ritual. The faster they can, the weaker he'll be, but presumably the more resources they have to spend. (And you can control the clock on the fight by having the ritual start to eat the minions.)
1) The Raven Queen is an anti-undead Death god. As such, her pantheon should be well versed in spells that protect against necromantic. I would give him immunity to necrotic damage, and likely use many of the radiant damage spells, such as Wall of Light, Sunbeam and Sunburst
2) The Raven Queen lives in the Shadowfell. I might give him some of the Shadow Sorcerer's powers - particularly the two powerful ones Shadow Walk and Umbral Form.
Making a villain or any other NPC stand apart is less about stat blocks and more about how they interact with the party and how they make the party feel. The BBEG has to breakout of hell you say? We’ll maybe your PCs need to go on an adventure there (see Descent into Avernus) and come across a wizard who will help them if only the PCs set him free. Once they do the hell remark how grateful he is and offer more quests in exchange for other things the PCs want. Only too late will the PCs realize they’ve been the BBEGs pawns.
Firstly, I definitely recommend having him keep the spell list of a 20th-level Wizard (with Counterspell at 3rd level being at will), and even giving him an extra 8th and 9th level spell. 9th level spells I'd recommend would be Prismatic Wall, Ravenous Void (EGtW), and Shapechange. Meteor Swarm and Power Word Kill are gauche and overused.
Absolutely he should have Advantage on Concentration Checks and be Proficient in Constitution Saving Throws. Figure on the fight lasting somewhere between 9 and 10 rounds, or longer if he uses hit and run tactics within a sizeable dungeon (3 or so rooms on each of possibly 3 levels, with one level being on a private Demiplane).
And obviously this should be a Legendary (possibly Legendary + Mythic) Boss with 4 Legendary Resistances and the same number of Legendary Actions. Being able to cast Spells of 1st through 3rd or 5th that cost 1 legendary Action, with spells of 4th to 6th through 7th to 8th costing 2. Also the Teleport and maybe some kind of Curse.
The Lair should have both a variety of Actions & Effects, plus cool design. If he doesn't innately Fly without magic, have one area give him that, or perhaps have a strange Reverse Gravity that puts him and the PCs on different axis. Other horrifying ideas might include Glyphs that Petrify or cast Dispel Magic on the players first entering a room.
My own Boss of this sort was one that attempted to start a three way war between an Archdevil, a Demon Lord, and a Solar with the ultimate purpose of becoming a Duke of Hell beneath Dispater. He was in league with Neogi and the Yugoloths among others.
Best I've got, hope it helps.
So my question first of all, is your wizard going to be an overarching theme from level 1. If not, I really suggest you don't worry too much about him until your campaign gets there. It might be that your players and the choices there characters make end up sending your campaign in a totally different direction unless you intend (and they are happy) with a rail roady campaign.
As for ideas if you are involving them early on I recently set the scene for a potentially recurring BBEG Wizard. Party just reached level 6 after 18 months of game time, so my campaigns run slow, the Wizard in the town they started, Leland, seemed an affable friendly, doddery wizard, owner of a magic shop, wiling to sell them various magic items and give them help and advice. In reality he had unleashed an Aboleth, was working with it while avoiding it's control (mind blank) because he was trying to get information from it dating back to the creation of all things. Information that to the Aboleth where just memories. The wizard friended the party because they where his option when the Aboleth was no longer useful, he was going to make sure they got enough clues went off and killed it.
The party worked out he was a bad guy before he intended, and, while the players twigged he was a proper high power wizard, the characters had no idea because he had not demonstrated it. They ended up going to deal with said Aboleth first anyway (because he sent the mother of one of the characters there as a prisoner) and then returned and took on the Wizard.
On paper should have been a TPK, the players expected it to be a TPK (one of them had figured out he was level 20+ and they where level 6) but, they killed him, although what they actually killed was a Simulacrum he had created of himself with the instruction to let them kill it.
The characters have an inkling he might not be actually dead, although don't have the knowledge to understand how, he avoided death. They failed an arcana check when he dissolved away to water. I intend to keep him in the background and, depending on what the party do, possibly bring him back for about level 12. The players now for sure he isn't dead. Although I am running a true open world game so the characters might just go off and do something entirely different, in which case he is just carrying on doing his thing, possibly stopped by an NPC, possibly not.
In terms of stats I created him as a player character, it was just easier to pick out the spells I wanted him to have available, but I then took that and simplified and streamlined the stats, skills etc to make a proper NPC. I think I changed one of the wizard monsters here on DnD beyond to make a custom creature and then tweaked hit points, AC, Stats etc to bring him up to a level 20+ equivalent enemy. I then took that and nerfed it down to make the simulacrum, so half the hit points, and seriously nerfed the spell list because he wasn't attacking to kill. It was more important to it that the party be able to proclaim they had killed the evil wizard so he was left alone.
As for his motivation, I have no idea what his long term goal is. One of the characters in discussing him with the other characters in game suggested he predated a great calamity that happened 8000 years ago, I grabbed that and made it true (they don't know that), another suggested maybe he was trying to fix the calamity, I don't think that is the case but it is an option. But, if the party decide to follow that story thread, and he therefore comes across their path again then I will think more about his motivation. He knows where they are at all times anyway, one of the magic items he sold them has effectively a tracker spell cast on it so he can find exactly where it is if it is on the same plane, or which plane they are on if they are not on the same plane as him. The magic item is one that the character who bought it will be using for a long time in game, and, they haven't investigated it or had anyone els to find the enchantment yet. This is a made up spell I came up with based on the fact he is over 8000 years old, although not a Liche, so has access to many magics that are not known in the world any longer.