I've created one other homebrew creature that my party seemed to really like, so I thought I would try my hand at something much more intense. My goal for this fight is for it to be very drawn out, draining them of a lot of their resources, while slowly chipping away at their health. My party is 6 level 8 characters, all with a homebrew item or two. They are very capable in fights, have pressed their way through everything i've thrown at them, with only one death (was rezzed right after). This is at the end of the Shrine of Timochan, with of course the whole dungeon been revamped for their level.
My goal for this BBEG is to teleport around the battlefield the whole fight, so the heavy hitter melee characters cant just burst him down. Its main mode of movement is going to be disappearing into smoke and reappearing behind one of the characters. Its a take on the Death Tyrant, removing the hard hitting eye beams, and more of a Vampire undead like creature, looking similar to Illidan from WoW and they will be fighting in its lair. Any suggestions? Keep in mind that in almost every boss they fight I end up having to up its health secretly without telling them or the fight would be over in about 3 rounds.
Your monster has a lot of abilities that take away player actions (charmed, paralyzed etc).
It also doesn't have any serious attacks (14 damage for CR 19? With just one attack per turn?)
These two points will likely turn the fight into a boring ordeal rather than an exciting encounter. Your players can't really hurt the monster since they are stunned, paralyzed, charmed or out of reach, but the monster can't really hurt the players at that level either. If the PCs have an AC of 21 your monster will hit them on average once every three rounds for 14 damage... that is 4.66 damage per round and roughly equivalent to a life cleric's goodberry healing.
At CR 19 it should imo have at least +12 to hit and two attacks per action. I would also reduce the saves and duration of its crowd control abilities and instead add several lesser undead minions to the fight. That way you can use the minions to block player movements and positioning, but the players can still act (e.g. by killing the minions).
I'd also make sure to have some fun weakness for the boss... e.g. a player could reflect the eyebeams with a mirror. A petrified statue of an unlucky adventurer holding a mirror might help the players to figure this out.
Maybe they can even trap the monster by reflecting its own antimagic cone back on it so it can't teleport anymore.
Too complicated, IMO. Give the Eye Ray 2 things it can do, and a melee attack. Then give him a bonus action that he can do, and then a couple of reactions (not just the one), and give him 3 different legendary actions so that he's not just doing the same thing three times. Otherwise it is just eye ray, eye ray, eye ray. Boring.
I recommend watching Matt Colville's "action oriented monsters" video for some good ideas:
I think the shadow step is a Neat idea but seems really strong when combined with the rest just because you have scaled it to number of players.
you said you had 6 players, so each round 6 attacks made against the character are done at disadvantage against a 21 AC. Plus he makes 6 extra attacks, plus his own, plus a potential opportunity attack!
so on a turn without a single crit or use of the eye ray just on this skill alone he could deal upto 32d6 damage a round. +7 to hit
compare that to an Adult Blue dragon CR16
AC19, +12 to hit, 6d10+4d6+6d8+49 damage a round (inc opportunity & legendary but only using melee options)
65-182 vs 32-192 / 120 vs 117
so one ability alone puts your creature almost at the same level as CR16 ABD.
Honestly that ability is a more interesting element than any of the eye beam stuff, I would ditch the eye beams altogether, lower the AC, and home brew sone legendary/lair actions and a magical attack/ability more in tune with this.
Invoke duplicity from the trickster cleric or the echo knights ability to create a duplicate would play into it. The creature becomes wreathed in shadow and the duplicate appears identical
a reskinned bigby’s hand but it’s a shadow tentacle.
maybe he has the ability to grapple a player and pull them into his shadow dimension with him when he teleports but the journey through the realm is maddening/frightening/exhausting/strength sapping
maybe it’s like the upside down meets a portrait of Dorian gray and the creature is a shadow realm version of another creature that is trapped in the shadow realm and they can free/kill them to defeat it.
what if you combined both those ideas and grappling a player and pulling them through the shadow realm not only had a limiting effect but created a temporary shadow duplicate of the PC as a minion.
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I've created one other homebrew creature that my party seemed to really like, so I thought I would try my hand at something much more intense. My goal for this fight is for it to be very drawn out, draining them of a lot of their resources, while slowly chipping away at their health. My party is 6 level 8 characters, all with a homebrew item or two. They are very capable in fights, have pressed their way through everything i've thrown at them, with only one death (was rezzed right after). This is at the end of the Shrine of Timochan, with of course the whole dungeon been revamped for their level.
My goal for this BBEG is to teleport around the battlefield the whole fight, so the heavy hitter melee characters cant just burst him down. Its main mode of movement is going to be disappearing into smoke and reappearing behind one of the characters. Its a take on the Death Tyrant, removing the hard hitting eye beams, and more of a Vampire undead like creature, looking similar to Illidan from WoW and they will be fighting in its lair. Any suggestions? Keep in mind that in almost every boss they fight I end up having to up its health secretly without telling them or the fight would be over in about 3 rounds.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/957708-ulrach-the-all-seeing
Your monster has a lot of abilities that take away player actions (charmed, paralyzed etc).
It also doesn't have any serious attacks (14 damage for CR 19? With just one attack per turn?)
These two points will likely turn the fight into a boring ordeal rather than an exciting encounter. Your players can't really hurt the monster since they are stunned, paralyzed, charmed or out of reach, but the monster can't really hurt the players at that level either. If the PCs have an AC of 21 your monster will hit them on average once every three rounds for 14 damage... that is 4.66 damage per round and roughly equivalent to a life cleric's goodberry healing.
At CR 19 it should imo have at least +12 to hit and two attacks per action. I would also reduce the saves and duration of its crowd control abilities and instead add several lesser undead minions to the fight. That way you can use the minions to block player movements and positioning, but the players can still act (e.g. by killing the minions).
I'd also make sure to have some fun weakness for the boss... e.g. a player could reflect the eyebeams with a mirror. A petrified statue of an unlucky adventurer holding a mirror might help the players to figure this out.
Maybe they can even trap the monster by reflecting its own antimagic cone back on it so it can't teleport anymore.
Too complicated, IMO. Give the Eye Ray 2 things it can do, and a melee attack. Then give him a bonus action that he can do, and then a couple of reactions (not just the one), and give him 3 different legendary actions so that he's not just doing the same thing three times. Otherwise it is just eye ray, eye ray, eye ray. Boring.
I recommend watching Matt Colville's "action oriented monsters" video for some good ideas:
https://youtu.be/y_zl8WWaSyI
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Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I think the shadow step is a Neat idea but seems really strong when combined with the rest just because you have scaled it to number of players.
you said you had 6 players, so each round 6 attacks made against the character are done at disadvantage against a 21 AC. Plus he makes 6 extra attacks, plus his own, plus a potential opportunity attack!
so on a turn without a single crit or use of the eye ray just on this skill alone he could deal upto 32d6 damage a round. +7 to hit
compare that to an Adult Blue dragon CR16
AC19, +12 to hit, 6d10+4d6+6d8+49 damage a round (inc opportunity & legendary but only using melee options)
65-182 vs 32-192 / 120 vs 117
so one ability alone puts your creature almost at the same level as CR16 ABD.
Honestly that ability is a more interesting element than any of the eye beam stuff, I would ditch the eye beams altogether, lower the AC, and home brew sone legendary/lair actions and a magical attack/ability more in tune with this.
Invoke duplicity from the trickster cleric or the echo knights ability to create a duplicate would play into it. The creature becomes wreathed in shadow and the duplicate appears identical
a reskinned bigby’s hand but it’s a shadow tentacle.
maybe he has the ability to grapple a player and pull them into his shadow dimension with him when he teleports but the journey through the realm is maddening/frightening/exhausting/strength sapping
maybe it’s like the upside down meets a portrait of Dorian gray and the creature is a shadow realm version of another creature that is trapped in the shadow realm and they can free/kill them to defeat it.
what if you combined both those ideas and grappling a player and pulling them through the shadow realm not only had a limiting effect but created a temporary shadow duplicate of the PC as a minion.