The general ghist of this, is that a technophile gang's Master Engineer has infused his mind into a large construct to fight off the party (4-5 level 5s).What I'm most worried about the boss, is it being too unmemorable, and not putting the players close enough on the edge of "Oh **** oh shit" kinda feeling, the tempo as another friend put it, and so I have some questions. The room for reference will be 80 ft in diameter, with a 10 ft diameter melting furnace in the middle. The walls are littered with chains and tools, and the ground with spare piles of scrap metal to act as cover or to slow people down.
Should I have obvious ways for the healing to be stopped (aka, closing off the furnace)?
Should the only main weakness of the construct be that you can try to stop it from winding its key?
Is it comfortable to have 2, 1 CR minions with it that can also be healed by the Bosses legendary action?
Is there anything else you think I should touch on that I may have missed?
This seems a bit op for a party of 5th levels... Nerf it or choose a different time or a different boss.
I think that weaknesses are a must. If you could stop the healing and/or the wind up that would make your players have a goal other than SMASH KILL! It would be more memorable as well. Just be sure to not kill your players.
I think it depends on the ACTUAL party level. A group of level 5 players could probably take this guy. A group of mixed 4-5 would probably lose a player or two. A group of 4th-level players would be fully boned.
It's all about action economy. This guy gets to take 5 actions per turn: two attacks and three legendary actions. A group of four 4th-level characters gets to take 4 actions per turn; 5 at best if there's a dual wielder or a fighter in the party. With its high hp, damage output, and ability to affect back-line characters, this wins handily in a fight. A group of four 5th-level characters averages 6-7 actions on a turn (Yay multiattack for fighter types!), and has access to 3rd-level spells like fireball, fly, and haste, which either improve field positioning, FURTHER increase action count, or can wipe out whole swaths of lesser minions. I don't care if he has a thousand hit points, a wizard with fly and firebolt wins that fight eventually. If you don't have a team full of 5th-level players, I'd ditch the legendary actions. If it's all 5th-level characters, I'd throw in a couple low-end minions so the wizard can waste their 3rd-level spell slot on a fireball, feel like a badass, and be less of a threat to the proper boss.
Also, just a small note: The line of steam: How big is it? 60 feet long, 10 feet wide? 5 feet? 30 feet? It's not stated.
EDIT: Come to think of it, how do you destroy the various body parts in the first place? Have you considered, rather than making one, big, messy boss, creating a modular boss? Break the various parts into individual constructs, and have the players choose to focus on the central body or attack the component parts. Obviously, the central body would be better defended, have more AC, but the outer parts are what does the damage.
Also, just a small note: The line of steam: How big is it? 60 feet long, 10 feet wide? 5 feet? 30 feet? It's not stated.
EDIT: Come to think of it, how do you destroy the various body parts in the first place? Have you considered, rather than making one, big, messy boss, creating a modular boss? Break the various parts into individual constructs, and have the players choose to focus on the central body or attack the component parts. Obviously, the central body would be better defended, have more AC, but the outer parts are what does the damage.
Thanks, your input seems the most helpful so far.
I'll go ahead with the modular body since that would make sense, as something like this would be able to function without a limb anyway and I'd expect the players to target the left arm to disable the ability to Wind itself up. Just in case it wasn't clear, all players WILL be level 5, the only variation is either 4 or 5 different players.
As for the line of steam, I'm going to ASSUME you're referring to action Steam Locomotion, which the steam acts as a form of propulsion sending it forward. Should I have the steam linger there to act as a smoke screen or am I misunderstanding the question?
Steam Golem Zanbis (Link)
The general ghist of this, is that a technophile gang's Master Engineer has infused his mind into a large construct to fight off the party (4-5 level 5s).What I'm most worried about the boss, is it being too unmemorable, and not putting the players close enough on the edge of "Oh **** oh shit" kinda feeling, the tempo as another friend put it, and so I have some questions. The room for reference will be 80 ft in diameter, with a 10 ft diameter melting furnace in the middle. The walls are littered with chains and tools, and the ground with spare piles of scrap metal to act as cover or to slow people down.
Should I have obvious ways for the healing to be stopped (aka, closing off the furnace)?
Should the only main weakness of the construct be that you can try to stop it from winding its key?
Is it comfortable to have 2, 1 CR minions with it that can also be healed by the Bosses legendary action?
Is there anything else you think I should touch on that I may have missed?
There is no way that boss is CR 5. Using the table provided on page 274 of the DMG it should be CR 9.
There is no dawn after eternal night.
Homebrew: Magic items, Subclasses
This seems a bit op for a party of 5th levels... Nerf it or choose a different time or a different boss.
I think that weaknesses are a must. If you could stop the healing and/or the wind up that would make your players have a goal other than SMASH KILL! It would be more memorable as well. Just be sure to not kill your players.
I think it depends on the ACTUAL party level. A group of level 5 players could probably take this guy. A group of mixed 4-5 would probably lose a player or two. A group of 4th-level players would be fully boned.
It's all about action economy. This guy gets to take 5 actions per turn: two attacks and three legendary actions. A group of four 4th-level characters gets to take 4 actions per turn; 5 at best if there's a dual wielder or a fighter in the party. With its high hp, damage output, and ability to affect back-line characters, this wins handily in a fight. A group of four 5th-level characters averages 6-7 actions on a turn (Yay multiattack for fighter types!), and has access to 3rd-level spells like fireball, fly, and haste, which either improve field positioning, FURTHER increase action count, or can wipe out whole swaths of lesser minions. I don't care if he has a thousand hit points, a wizard with fly and firebolt wins that fight eventually. If you don't have a team full of 5th-level players, I'd ditch the legendary actions. If it's all 5th-level characters, I'd throw in a couple low-end minions so the wizard can waste their 3rd-level spell slot on a fireball, feel like a badass, and be less of a threat to the proper boss.
Also, just a small note: The line of steam: How big is it? 60 feet long, 10 feet wide? 5 feet? 30 feet? It's not stated.
EDIT: Come to think of it, how do you destroy the various body parts in the first place? Have you considered, rather than making one, big, messy boss, creating a modular boss? Break the various parts into individual constructs, and have the players choose to focus on the central body or attack the component parts. Obviously, the central body would be better defended, have more AC, but the outer parts are what does the damage.
Thanks, your input seems the most helpful so far.
I'll go ahead with the modular body since that would make sense, as something like this would be able to function without a limb anyway and I'd expect the players to target the left arm to disable the ability to Wind itself up. Just in case it wasn't clear, all players WILL be level 5, the only variation is either 4 or 5 different players.
As for the line of steam, I'm going to ASSUME you're referring to action Steam Locomotion, which the steam acts as a form of propulsion sending it forward. Should I have the steam linger there to act as a smoke screen or am I misunderstanding the question?
The minions used will be two of these Lesser Constructs (Link)
The lesser constructs seem a bit tough for minions, and it's unlikely a smart Wizard would cast fireball on just three opponents.
There is no dawn after eternal night.
Homebrew: Magic items, Subclasses
That's fair, might delete their shield or remove the multiattack. Maybe do both and add another construct or two.