My party is headed into a boss fight and I don't want it to fall flat as some of my other ones have. The 5th level party of two rangers and a rogue have been on the trail of a serial killer who has been mutilating corpses (Jack the Ripper style) attacking male prostitutes and bodies in the city catacombs (dungeon). They tracked the killer through the catacombs, but he escaped (having been warned of their presence by an Alarm spell and using Dimension Door to teleport out of the catacombs) and they had to face a Flesh Golem in his necromantic laboratory. After a hard fought battle, the group took out their aggression by over seasoning the soup he left behind, urinating on the food in his larder, his bed, the eviscerated corpse of a blonde haired tan man he was building, and his collection of prized science fiction novels. They went above and beyond to piss off my Necromancer, so they've sufficiently turned my intended mini-boss into a full blown villain out for revenge. I'm wondering what would be the best way for him to exact his revenge?
The odds must be in his favor; he's not a fighter and has only attacked the defenseless in one on one skirmishes in alley ways, so he'll be looking for a way to take out these three trained adventurers quickly and efficiently. My thought is to have him invite them to one of two places where he can have the upper hand; either he invites them back down into the catacombs where he can summon undead servants but has limited space to cast his large radius spells like Cloudkill and Circle of Death, or he invites them out to a countryside cemetery where he has the same access to undead but more space to cast his ranged spells. I also worry that if I give them too much time to prepare for the assault, they'll gather reinforcement from the local law and/or equipment that can quickly deal with my Necromancer. They're a bit skittish about asking for help because the last time they did, their favorite NPC died, and they're pretty rattled by it, but my Necromancer couldn't stand up to a full force raid.
I think I know which way I'm leaning, but I could certainly use any helpful advice on how to run this scenario. This is my first time running a Necromancer as a villain. The last few spellcasters I've used as villains have been pretty easily defeated, so I want to make sure I use each of my turns wisely and make sure the undead can run interference for him without overwhelming the party. They've also had several near death encounters and I don't want to burn them out too much, but this is intended to be a serious boss fight and they're fighting someone who is smart enough and won't fight fair against them.
No magic user should ever fight fairly. Especially if they are calling out the adventurers for a show down. Something to remind the players is that the longer they take to get to him, the stronger he gets. If they go around to get support, he’s going to be making his own. Not to mention traps laid. He could have a spell like Glyph of Warding hidden nearby, with it set to either something explosive or better yet a simple charm person. He also could call up a ghost to possess a character. Have a PC or NPC turn against the party while he laughs.
Something to keep in mind is your villains motive. Yes, he wants revenge for the heroes mischief in his lair, but how does that help him achieve his ultimate goal. If they ruined his corpse, is he looking for a replacement? Somehow, him calling them out should further his plan.
I think you have a pretty neat setup. Rather than give advice on how to run the whole encounter, I'll suggest a tactic that I have used successfully with necromancer-types and undead minions. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to create an obstacle or bog down a mobile party, consider raising a good number of zombies--half a dozen or so. Disperse them around the battlefield as you see fit. Give every zombie an initiative of 1 and only give each zombie a single hitpoint. They can still hit just as hard as normal and their undead fortitude still works, but this way you don't have to track health or initiative for any of them individually. Combined with their poor AC, they should be fodder for the players, but they cannot be ignored or rushed past because they still pursue and hit pretty hard.
I have done this in games and it seems to slow things down just enough without getting tedious. Also, after a round or two, the players will know what to expect when to expect it. The necromancer can use this tactic to move around the battlefield or even make an escape while the players are occupied. Alternately, you could have one or a few pop up as a lair action in places around the battlefield that suit the necromancer.
If the party has AOE spells, go for the cemetery. Shallowly bury zombies at choke points so they can grapple the party when they walk by or while they inspect something of interest. For deeper pit traps, have a couple zombies hold up wooden boards supporting a few inches of dirt.
Giving the Necromancer a Familiar if one is not used already would allow them to watch the party from a place of safety.
Introduce a zombie virus variant. Have zombies grapple as their attack action and attempt to bite as a bonus action. If the bite (2d4) succeeds, they need to roll a CON check of 8+DMG dealt to avoid becoming infected with the bite. I'm looking to intro this into my LMoP campaign. I'm making Hamun Kost a mini boss with his dozen zombies with this attribute.
Let's say that they pissed him off pretty damn good. Like as in "pretty" "damn" "*******" "good".
The long game! I know. As a DM the long game is sometimes THE WORST one. But this guy could easily use some alone time. Summoning dozens of undead. Creating traps and perfecting his work. If your players are mostly ranged then try to have a lot of enemies that doesn't have to be that strong get up in the face of them. If you have players who are mostly close ranged then make him fly! If he is high enough level as to where he can cast dimension door he can do a lot of nasty stuff. So make him play the long game, maybe he pays someone to keep tabs on them. Learns about their favored NPC that died and revives him. Either using him to torture them back or to make the NPC spy on them. Make him plan, device, plot their demise and don't! For the love of Tymora! Don't make him hold back! They humiliated him! Set him back to square one in the progess! And maybe they even kinda forgot about chasing him or they went on to do other stuff. Just make sure he gets to plot out their demise. You can also sometimes request a PC's character sheet and make a single roll. As a he might at some point be able to scry. Word carries that dungeons have been looted, people have disappeared perhaps. Maybe another powerful wizard at some point has gone missing and if they investigate they might find small clues to him plotting or maybe he aims to set them on the wrong path.
Hope this helps! ^^
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Hello all,
My party is headed into a boss fight and I don't want it to fall flat as some of my other ones have. The 5th level party of two rangers and a rogue have been on the trail of a serial killer who has been mutilating corpses (Jack the Ripper style) attacking male prostitutes and bodies in the city catacombs (dungeon). They tracked the killer through the catacombs, but he escaped (having been warned of their presence by an Alarm spell and using Dimension Door to teleport out of the catacombs) and they had to face a Flesh Golem in his necromantic laboratory. After a hard fought battle, the group took out their aggression by over seasoning the soup he left behind, urinating on the food in his larder, his bed, the eviscerated corpse of a blonde haired tan man he was building, and his collection of prized science fiction novels. They went above and beyond to piss off my Necromancer, so they've sufficiently turned my intended mini-boss into a full blown villain out for revenge. I'm wondering what would be the best way for him to exact his revenge?
The odds must be in his favor; he's not a fighter and has only attacked the defenseless in one on one skirmishes in alley ways, so he'll be looking for a way to take out these three trained adventurers quickly and efficiently. My thought is to have him invite them to one of two places where he can have the upper hand; either he invites them back down into the catacombs where he can summon undead servants but has limited space to cast his large radius spells like Cloudkill and Circle of Death, or he invites them out to a countryside cemetery where he has the same access to undead but more space to cast his ranged spells. I also worry that if I give them too much time to prepare for the assault, they'll gather reinforcement from the local law and/or equipment that can quickly deal with my Necromancer. They're a bit skittish about asking for help because the last time they did, their favorite NPC died, and they're pretty rattled by it, but my Necromancer couldn't stand up to a full force raid.
I think I know which way I'm leaning, but I could certainly use any helpful advice on how to run this scenario. This is my first time running a Necromancer as a villain. The last few spellcasters I've used as villains have been pretty easily defeated, so I want to make sure I use each of my turns wisely and make sure the undead can run interference for him without overwhelming the party. They've also had several near death encounters and I don't want to burn them out too much, but this is intended to be a serious boss fight and they're fighting someone who is smart enough and won't fight fair against them.
Thanks,
TDTutt
No magic user should ever fight fairly. Especially if they are calling out the adventurers for a show down. Something to remind the players is that the longer they take to get to him, the stronger he gets. If they go around to get support, he’s going to be making his own. Not to mention traps laid. He could have a spell like Glyph of Warding hidden nearby, with it set to either something explosive or better yet a simple charm person. He also could call up a ghost to possess a character. Have a PC or NPC turn against the party while he laughs.
Something to keep in mind is your villains motive. Yes, he wants revenge for the heroes mischief in his lair, but how does that help him achieve his ultimate goal. If they ruined his corpse, is he looking for a replacement? Somehow, him calling them out should further his plan.
I think you have a pretty neat setup. Rather than give advice on how to run the whole encounter, I'll suggest a tactic that I have used successfully with necromancer-types and undead minions. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to create an obstacle or bog down a mobile party, consider raising a good number of zombies--half a dozen or so. Disperse them around the battlefield as you see fit. Give every zombie an initiative of 1 and only give each zombie a single hitpoint. They can still hit just as hard as normal and their undead fortitude still works, but this way you don't have to track health or initiative for any of them individually. Combined with their poor AC, they should be fodder for the players, but they cannot be ignored or rushed past because they still pursue and hit pretty hard.
I have done this in games and it seems to slow things down just enough without getting tedious. Also, after a round or two, the players will know what to expect when to expect it. The necromancer can use this tactic to move around the battlefield or even make an escape while the players are occupied. Alternately, you could have one or a few pop up as a lair action in places around the battlefield that suit the necromancer.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
If the party has AOE spells, go for the cemetery. Shallowly bury zombies at choke points so they can grapple the party when they walk by or while they inspect something of interest. For deeper pit traps, have a couple zombies hold up wooden boards supporting a few inches of dirt.
Giving the Necromancer a Familiar if one is not used already would allow them to watch the party from a place of safety.
Introduce a zombie virus variant. Have zombies grapple as their attack action and attempt to bite as a bonus action. If the bite (2d4) succeeds, they need to roll a CON check of 8+DMG dealt to avoid becoming infected with the bite. I'm looking to intro this into my LMoP campaign. I'm making Hamun Kost a mini boss with his dozen zombies with this attribute.
Let's say that they pissed him off pretty damn good. Like as in "pretty" "damn" "*******" "good".
The long game! I know. As a DM the long game is sometimes THE WORST one. But this guy could easily use some alone time. Summoning dozens
of undead. Creating traps and perfecting his work. If your players are mostly ranged then try to have a lot of enemies that doesn't have to be that strong get up in
the face of them. If you have players who are mostly close ranged then make him fly! If he is high enough level as to where he can cast dimension door he can do
a lot of nasty stuff. So make him play the long game, maybe he pays someone to keep tabs on them. Learns about their favored NPC that died and revives him.
Either using him to torture them back or to make the NPC spy on them. Make him plan, device, plot their demise and don't! For the love of Tymora! Don't make
him hold back! They humiliated him! Set him back to square one in the progess! And maybe they even kinda forgot about chasing him or they went on to do other stuff.
Just make sure he gets to plot out their demise. You can also sometimes request a PC's character sheet and make a single roll. As a he might at some point be able
to scry. Word carries that dungeons have been looted, people have disappeared perhaps. Maybe another powerful wizard at some point has gone missing and if they
investigate they might find small clues to him plotting or maybe he aims to set them on the wrong path.
Hope this helps! ^^