Hello Dm's I am having a brain cramp on what to do and thought maybe you guys could help me out. I have 6 player's in my campaign and we are coming up to a final boss encounter and I am having a hard time coming up with a challenging battle, of the 6 chars we have: Swashbuckler/fighter, Kensai Monk, Hunter Ranger, Devotion Paladin, Dragon Sorcerer, Battlemaster Fighter. We are level 6, so what is a great challenge to throw at them, we are entering a castle to rescue a prominent Dwarven noble. I own the legendary bundle so everything is accessible, I'm open to any and all suggestions. Thank you for your time!
Where is the castle located? Forest? Desert? Arctic region? Is it connected to the Underdark? Is it corrupted by the Shadowfell? Or is it a mirror of the feywild? The type of environment can greatly influence what creatures would logically be in that castle. Is it owned by an undead like a vampire? Kobold fight club lists a vampire as a medium challenge for 6 PCs of 6th level. A vampire spellcaster becomes a hard challenge. Those are 13 and 15 CR respectively. That's if you're going off CR to craft your encounters. (Which is the only method I understand for doing so but other DM's may have greater insight into other methods of choosing enemies.)
You could also approach it from the standpoint of what types of challenges you want your PCs to encounter. Terrain and minion challenges would lend themselves to picking a creature with regional and/or lair effects that will present a challenge for reaching the BBEG.
I suggest a Beholder (CR13) or an Archmage (CR12) with a familiar of CR1 or lower, either one can be used in a long of situations, but yes as the guy above says you can change it based on Terrain, Region, and Minions. CR13 should be a proper finale boss fight for a group of 6 level 6s.
Formula used: Total of all Individual Party Members' Levels / 4 (Standard Fight) * 1.5 (Multiplier I use for Finale Fights), which in this case is 13.5 (Round down because characters aren't above 10th Level)
Hello and thank you for the suggestions, the castle is located in the forest and once was inhabited by Goblins, orcs and hobgoblins. I like your formula Slade. I was also playing around with an idea of two young dragons one blue & one black in a polymorphed state to begin with to catch the group off guard and based on rolls or such ambush them but I like the ideas of you have suggested as well, I have until Thursday for our game night so plenty of time to think and prepare :)
Hi, Personally I like more dynamic 'boss' type fights than one powerful creature. Unless that's called for in the campaign, like they've been looking for a specific creature. Especially with 6 players against one creature the encounter can get a little stale. I like to throw in some supporting roles or even creatures that aren't related to the boss but fit in the environment. As an example, in one of my campaigns recently the group was in the final fight in a dungeon. They are lower level than your party, but I had them against 2 Ghasts. They were feeling pretty confident and landed some good hits until the sounds of their fighting disturbed some giant bats in the area. Then they are getting harassed from above by the bats while trying to avoid the stench of the ghasts. It made the encounter much more dynamic and fun for everyone. They prevailed but one guy did go down and had to death save.
Going with your dragon idea. Dragons are known to have 'lesser' creatures worship them so having some goblins show up to make an offering wouldn't be unusual.
If this is the final Boss encounter - who is the boss? what have they been trying to do in this entire adventure/conflict? what resources do they have at hand? what allies do they have? How have they been reacting to the Party this adventures? What do they know? What is their personalty like?
All these will inform what kind of stronghold they have, what resources they've gathered, and what preparations - if any - they've made for the Party's arrival.
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Hello Dm's I am having a brain cramp on what to do and thought maybe you guys could help me out. I have 6 player's in my campaign and we are coming up to a final boss encounter and I am having a hard time coming up with a challenging battle, of the 6 chars we have: Swashbuckler/fighter, Kensai Monk, Hunter Ranger, Devotion Paladin, Dragon Sorcerer, Battlemaster Fighter. We are level 6, so what is a great challenge to throw at them, we are entering a castle to rescue a prominent Dwarven noble. I own the legendary bundle so everything is accessible, I'm open to any and all suggestions. Thank you for your time!
Where is the castle located? Forest? Desert? Arctic region? Is it connected to the Underdark? Is it corrupted by the Shadowfell? Or is it a mirror of the feywild? The type of environment can greatly influence what creatures would logically be in that castle. Is it owned by an undead like a vampire? Kobold fight club lists a vampire as a medium challenge for 6 PCs of 6th level. A vampire spellcaster becomes a hard challenge. Those are 13 and 15 CR respectively. That's if you're going off CR to craft your encounters. (Which is the only method I understand for doing so but other DM's may have greater insight into other methods of choosing enemies.)
You could also approach it from the standpoint of what types of challenges you want your PCs to encounter. Terrain and minion challenges would lend themselves to picking a creature with regional and/or lair effects that will present a challenge for reaching the BBEG.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
I suggest a Beholder (CR13) or an Archmage (CR12) with a familiar of CR1 or lower, either one can be used in a long of situations, but yes as the guy above says you can change it based on Terrain, Region, and Minions. CR13 should be a proper finale boss fight for a group of 6 level 6s.
Formula used: Total of all Individual Party Members' Levels / 4 (Standard Fight) * 1.5 (Multiplier I use for Finale Fights), which in this case is 13.5 (Round down because characters aren't above 10th Level)
Hello and thank you for the suggestions, the castle is located in the forest and once was inhabited by Goblins, orcs and hobgoblins. I like your formula Slade. I was also playing around with an idea of two young dragons one blue & one black in a polymorphed state to begin with to catch the group off guard and based on rolls or such ambush them but I like the ideas of you have suggested as well, I have until Thursday for our game night so plenty of time to think and prepare :)
Hi, Personally I like more dynamic 'boss' type fights than one powerful creature. Unless that's called for in the campaign, like they've been looking for a specific creature. Especially with 6 players against one creature the encounter can get a little stale. I like to throw in some supporting roles or even creatures that aren't related to the boss but fit in the environment. As an example, in one of my campaigns recently the group was in the final fight in a dungeon. They are lower level than your party, but I had them against 2 Ghasts. They were feeling pretty confident and landed some good hits until the sounds of their fighting disturbed some giant bats in the area. Then they are getting harassed from above by the bats while trying to avoid the stench of the ghasts. It made the encounter much more dynamic and fun for everyone. They prevailed but one guy did go down and had to death save.
Going with your dragon idea. Dragons are known to have 'lesser' creatures worship them so having some goblins show up to make an offering wouldn't be unusual.
That's what happens when you wear a helmet your whole life!
My house rules
If this is the final Boss encounter - who is the boss? what have they been trying to do in this entire adventure/conflict? what resources do they have at hand? what allies do they have? How have they been reacting to the Party this adventures? What do they know? What is their personalty like?
All these will inform what kind of stronghold they have, what resources they've gathered, and what preparations - if any - they've made for the Party's arrival.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.