I'm not all that experienced DMing DnD but been running a group through a shorter adventure I've written myself. The character have gone from level 1 to their current level of 3 but I haven't planned for them to get higher with this adventure. So far I've been able to create encounters by using kobold fightclub and just reskinning monster they meet. Bandit Captains become assassins and so on.
But now I need to create the final boss, the arch villain that have been behind everything. Which means no more reskinning.
Never made a monster from scratch so I'm not sure how to make so its CR is suitable for the party strength. I've given the party a few allies by just making regular characters but I'm not sure it will work for an enemy. I don't want the final boss to be too easy yet it shouldn't be impossible either.
The idea is for the boss to be a scheming necromancer but all mages in the MM and other books have way too high CR for four lowly level 3 characters.
The Dungeon masters Guide chapter 9 - creating a monster have all the steps you need for creating a monster from scratch
You can also take the monster manual, and Vollos guide to monsters and go to the NPC section. Find a NPC that fit most of your idea for the Boss and modify it (like changing the spell list if you want your boss to have specific spells).
Just make it up. You can create a character for it if you want, but in the end it's an encounter. You're the GM, you're allowed to cheat in order to make the encounter engaging, fun, and challenging. HP, AC, +3 to all saves
Do NOT have the the boss fight them alone. Give her some goons to run interference while she casts spells from the back. Use a normal spell or two but also give her a special one. Make it something completely made up even if it's something as simple as having burning hands do lightning damage instead of fire.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Yeah, unfortunately, for re-skinning needs, many of the nice lower CR mage antagonists tend to be secreted away in actual adventures rather than available in the base books. As some examples that would be good for this sort of thing:
What was the Necromancer doing, and how were they doing it?
(My favorite low-level caster combo is Hold Person (concentration) with Inflict Wounds, since the latter would have advantage on the attack roll if the former isn't saved.)
I recently had the same issue! I went to this place and created a lvl 3 warlock and fitted him out with various magical items. He was a Tiefling Warlock who I had running a little ring of bandits in the area west of Neverwinter Forest, raiding farms and outhouses for petty loot and all kinds of stuff. Good times creating him as a character in here with all kinds of random (normal) items that represent all the loot he and his goons had been collecting. He was "holed" up in his house when they got to him and had a constrictor staff that he used when they got close. I only have one player, so making encounters with a lot of entities is not really an option, I have to let my player "peel" off the layers of an organisation bit by bit and then have him face a couple of people at the end at the most.
Great advice above. I think the main consideration should be that, as the final arch-villain, there should be something a little different or unique about this encounter. As others have said, it should be fairly straightforward to reskin, or roll up, an appropriately levelled mage - but consider what is going to make this encounter memorable.
Have a think about lair actions (Page 11 in the Monster Manual.) I've found they can really turn an encounter from your usual affair, into something dramatic. If you've not used them before, they're basically special abilities, tied to the villain, but taking their own place in the initiative order (typically top of the round), that affect the battlefield, usually to the advantage of the enemy. The villain can have a few lair actions to choose from - or just one that happens each round.
While they're often associated with epic encounters such as dragons and the like, you can create your own to offer a great surprise and really change the encounter. An example I've recently used, was the party was clearing out a den of spiders. After fighting through giant spiders and ettercaps, they came upon the queen's lair. The creature itself wasn't particularly powerful - a Giant Spider with double the HP. But her lair action - which would cause 1d4 Swarm of Spiders to emerge each round, turned a simple encounter into a race to defeat the Queen before they were overwhelmed. Drama ensued.
For your necromancer, think about why they've chosen this location as their lair. It's been mentioned not to have the arch-villain face the party alone, but think about how to even the odds in a more dramatic way than just having henchman. Perhaps she's alone to begin with, lulling the party into a false sense of security. But the area is strewn with bones... and a lair action each round has a chance of causing Skeletons to form, thanks to the dark energies pouring from the altar at the far end of the room... Now the players have multiple problems to find solutions to - rather than just 'attack the necromancer until they die'.
Another option if you've got the villain's henchmen covered, could be to have a putrid mist lingering over the battlefield, seeming to not affect the villain, but meaning the players have to make a save to avoid being poisoned. Another aspect they need to consider.
Think also about how players could use their skills to aid them. An arcana check in the above example could be used to decipher the runes engraved into pillars around the room, that reveal - with a religion check - that a dark ritual to a god of death has been performed here, leading the players to consider whether splitting their efforts to destroy the altar might stop the summoning of skeletons, or dissipating the mist. Perhaps it doesn't work at all!
Let us know how it goes and what you decide to go with!
Thanks for the advice and suggestions. They really helped. Especially, the tip about giving him lair actions was useful as I hadn't even considered doing that for a low level boss.
It worked okay. Actually the boss worked perfectly and was exactly what I wanted for the last epic show down for my short campaign.
Problem was that the player couldn't roll a hit worth their lives. I gave the BBEG two low level guards from the MM to work as a speed bump and meat shield for the players. The guards had 11hp and it probably took a party of 3 level 3 character maybe 8 rounds to kill the guards. And I think I had no more than two or three spell slots left for the boss when they finally killed him. So not really a stellar performance on the dice rolling.
The BBEG itself was a retooled Illusionist from the MM on which I replaced all the illusion and enchantment spells for necromantic ones.
I also gave him 3 lair actions as was suggested in the thread. Those went off if the boss used a necromantic spell in the previous round.
The first lair action was that he could reanimate any corpses into skeletons. (Hence why he had two guards with him and why I was hoping the players would kill them quickly).
The second brought out ghosts from the fog that swarmed a single character and gave it disadvantage on all attack rolls for one round.
The last I took from the lich in the MM. The BBEG became connected to a character with an energy thread for a round and any time the BBEG was hit the character had to succeed on CON test or half the damage was transferred.
The actual fight began with the party barbarian rushing past the 2 guard straight to the BBEG, ignoring the guards attack of opportunities. Next the warlock cast a spell that nearly one shot the BBEG, leaving him with only a 5th of his HP left.
The rest of the fight went pretty much the same. The BBEG "healing" himself with false life and annoying the barbarian with lair actions while the rest of the party tried to get past 2 foes of which they had gone through 8 of in half the time at level 1.
sounds cool. few months ago I had my lvl 3 part pitted against a necromancer. but he was twisted by a night hag over his loss and got bit insane and incoherent. more frankenstein-esque attempting to resurrect his dead lady.
In his basement was a simple lair. Lots of crawly hands that are CR0, but as a lair action you can throw many at the party. Slowed them down enough. A GraveHound as his "guard" had strong multi-attack. Back wall had glass cylinders with corpses in them. Which the necromancer used to release additional tough zombies. Later on the cylinders were destroyed improperly releasing necrotic gas in the chamber, which exploded when touched by flames. The necrotic gas would spread each round further into the chamber. Adding some kind of time pressure as well. Big explosion, destroyed tons of evidence, they barely managed to capture the necromancer and imprison him. Some of the necrotic fog infected a few houses around the explosion.
For the necromancer. Think I combined a Devout Cultist and Apprentice Spellcaster then switched out a few spells to fit with the necromancer feel. As well as some disguise self / illusion spells to keep up his appearance when in public.
I also agree with the advice regarding Lair Actions for even low level play. It would make no sense if a bad guy has been in a location for a while and won't take precautionary measures.
I'm not all that experienced DMing DnD but been running a group through a shorter adventure I've written myself. The character have gone from level 1 to their current level of 3 but I haven't planned for them to get higher with this adventure. So far I've been able to create encounters by using kobold fightclub and just reskinning monster they meet. Bandit Captains become assassins and so on.
But now I need to create the final boss, the arch villain that have been behind everything. Which means no more reskinning.
Never made a monster from scratch so I'm not sure how to make so its CR is suitable for the party strength. I've given the party a few allies by just making regular characters but I'm not sure it will work for an enemy. I don't want the final boss to be too easy yet it shouldn't be impossible either.
The idea is for the boss to be a scheming necromancer but all mages in the MM and other books have way too high CR for four lowly level 3 characters.
So any suggestion how to create this boss?
The Dungeon masters Guide chapter 9 - creating a monster have all the steps you need for creating a monster from scratch
You can also take the monster manual, and Vollos guide to monsters and go to the NPC section. Find a NPC that fit most of your idea for the Boss and modify it (like changing the spell list if you want your boss to have specific spells).
Just make it up. You can create a character for it if you want, but in the end it's an encounter. You're the GM, you're allowed to cheat in order to make the encounter engaging, fun, and challenging. HP, AC, +3 to all saves
Do NOT have the the boss fight them alone. Give her some goons to run interference while she casts spells from the back. Use a normal spell or two but also give her a special one. Make it something completely made up even if it's something as simple as having burning hands do lightning damage instead of fire.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Yeah, unfortunately, for re-skinning needs, many of the nice lower CR mage antagonists tend to be secreted away in actual adventures rather than available in the base books. As some examples that would be good for this sort of thing:
What was the Necromancer doing, and how were they doing it?
(My favorite low-level caster combo is Hold Person (concentration) with Inflict Wounds, since the latter would have advantage on the attack roll if the former isn't saved.)
I recently had the same issue! I went to this place and created a lvl 3 warlock and fitted him out with various magical items. He was a Tiefling Warlock who I had running a little ring of bandits in the area west of Neverwinter Forest, raiding farms and outhouses for petty loot and all kinds of stuff. Good times creating him as a character in here with all kinds of random (normal) items that represent all the loot he and his goons had been collecting. He was "holed" up in his house when they got to him and had a constrictor staff that he used when they got close. I only have one player, so making encounters with a lot of entities is not really an option, I have to let my player "peel" off the layers of an organisation bit by bit and then have him face a couple of people at the end at the most.
Great advice above. I think the main consideration should be that, as the final arch-villain, there should be something a little different or unique about this encounter. As others have said, it should be fairly straightforward to reskin, or roll up, an appropriately levelled mage - but consider what is going to make this encounter memorable.
Have a think about lair actions (Page 11 in the Monster Manual.) I've found they can really turn an encounter from your usual affair, into something dramatic. If you've not used them before, they're basically special abilities, tied to the villain, but taking their own place in the initiative order (typically top of the round), that affect the battlefield, usually to the advantage of the enemy. The villain can have a few lair actions to choose from - or just one that happens each round.
While they're often associated with epic encounters such as dragons and the like, you can create your own to offer a great surprise and really change the encounter. An example I've recently used, was the party was clearing out a den of spiders. After fighting through giant spiders and ettercaps, they came upon the queen's lair. The creature itself wasn't particularly powerful - a Giant Spider with double the HP. But her lair action - which would cause 1d4 Swarm of Spiders to emerge each round, turned a simple encounter into a race to defeat the Queen before they were overwhelmed. Drama ensued.
For your necromancer, think about why they've chosen this location as their lair. It's been mentioned not to have the arch-villain face the party alone, but think about how to even the odds in a more dramatic way than just having henchman. Perhaps she's alone to begin with, lulling the party into a false sense of security. But the area is strewn with bones... and a lair action each round has a chance of causing Skeletons to form, thanks to the dark energies pouring from the altar at the far end of the room... Now the players have multiple problems to find solutions to - rather than just 'attack the necromancer until they die'.
Another option if you've got the villain's henchmen covered, could be to have a putrid mist lingering over the battlefield, seeming to not affect the villain, but meaning the players have to make a save to avoid being poisoned. Another aspect they need to consider.
Think also about how players could use their skills to aid them. An arcana check in the above example could be used to decipher the runes engraved into pillars around the room, that reveal - with a religion check - that a dark ritual to a god of death has been performed here, leading the players to consider whether splitting their efforts to destroy the altar might stop the summoning of skeletons, or dissipating the mist. Perhaps it doesn't work at all!
Let us know how it goes and what you decide to go with!
Thanks for the advice and suggestions. They really helped. Especially, the tip about giving him lair actions was useful as I hadn't even considered doing that for a low level boss.
Did you have the fight?
Not yet.
I'll try give you an update after it happens.
I finally had the big boss fight.
It worked okay. Actually the boss worked perfectly and was exactly what I wanted for the last epic show down for my short campaign.
Problem was that the player couldn't roll a hit worth their lives. I gave the BBEG two low level guards from the MM to work as a speed bump and meat shield for the players. The guards had 11hp and it probably took a party of 3 level 3 character maybe 8 rounds to kill the guards. And I think I had no more than two or three spell slots left for the boss when they finally killed him. So not really a stellar performance on the dice rolling.
The BBEG itself was a retooled Illusionist from the MM on which I replaced all the illusion and enchantment spells for necromantic ones.
I also gave him 3 lair actions as was suggested in the thread. Those went off if the boss used a necromantic spell in the previous round.
The first lair action was that he could reanimate any corpses into skeletons. (Hence why he had two guards with him and why I was hoping the players would kill them quickly).
The second brought out ghosts from the fog that swarmed a single character and gave it disadvantage on all attack rolls for one round.
The last I took from the lich in the MM. The BBEG became connected to a character with an energy thread for a round and any time the BBEG was hit the character had to succeed on CON test or half the damage was transferred.
The actual fight began with the party barbarian rushing past the 2 guard straight to the BBEG, ignoring the guards attack of opportunities. Next the warlock cast a spell that nearly one shot the BBEG, leaving him with only a 5th of his HP left.
The rest of the fight went pretty much the same. The BBEG "healing" himself with false life and annoying the barbarian with lair actions while the rest of the party tried to get past 2 foes of which they had gone through 8 of in half the time at level 1.
Was fun though.
sounds cool. few months ago I had my lvl 3 part pitted against a necromancer. but he was twisted by a night hag over his loss and got bit insane and incoherent. more frankenstein-esque attempting to resurrect his dead lady.
In his basement was a simple lair. Lots of crawly hands that are CR0, but as a lair action you can throw many at the party. Slowed them down enough. A GraveHound as his "guard" had strong multi-attack. Back wall had glass cylinders with corpses in them. Which the necromancer used to release additional tough zombies. Later on the cylinders were destroyed improperly releasing necrotic gas in the chamber, which exploded when touched by flames. The necrotic gas would spread each round further into the chamber. Adding some kind of time pressure as well. Big explosion, destroyed tons of evidence, they barely managed to capture the necromancer and imprison him. Some of the necrotic fog infected a few houses around the explosion.
For the necromancer. Think I combined a Devout Cultist and Apprentice Spellcaster then switched out a few spells to fit with the necromancer feel. As well as some disguise self / illusion spells to keep up his appearance when in public.
I also agree with the advice regarding Lair Actions for even low level play. It would make no sense if a bad guy has been in a location for a while and won't take precautionary measures.