I'm a first-time DM, and my party is on its way to fight the big bad. I'd love suggestions on how to build him -- how to make sure I'm tuning his stats and abilities correctly, any official or homebrew monsters I should look at for comparison, any particular attributes or spells or actions I should consider giving him, etc.
The details: the party has five 7th-level PCs (maybe 8th when they reach him). The big bad, Algernon, is a wizard obsessed with elemental vortices to the Plane of Fire. He can siphon the magical energy from spells cast at him; taken to the extreme, this can radically transform the caster (e.g., he turned an elf into a nothic, and a fire giant into a fomoran). The party will likely encounter Algernon at an elemental vortex deep within Mt. Hotenow, along with four fire elementals he has enslaved. One of the characters, a sorcerer, recently discovered that he's a clone of Algernon, a vessel intended to allow Algernon to transfer his consciousness before a withering curse consumes him; this character has been hearing Algernon's voice in his head, although Algernon can't control him yet.
Some of my ideas include:
The absorption power could let him nullify spells, reflect them, or otherwise avoid them or retaliate, but I figure it should be a reaction so that the spellcasters aren't completely powerless.
He drained a druid of her ability to stoneshape, so I'll probably give him a combination of fire and earth-based attacks.
I think the battle will take place on a spiraling ramp leading up to the mouth of the vortex, with lava far below.
The fire elementals may be controlled by runes or magic chains or the like, so that the players have a way of freeing them (and perhaps getting their aid) without killing them.
Some of your stuff is pretty unique (👍), so I’m not sure how everything will fit together. However, whenever I want a villain to be a “Null” who cancels Magic cast by others I look towards the War Magic Wiz. With its subclass features; a Rod of Absorption; counterspell, dispel magic, and true polymorph (for the turning people into stuff); it should be a good start. But it won’t be a DPR villain, it’ll need minions for that (like Skeletor had Evil Lyn, etc.).
Very helpful, I'll look at those features for inspiration. Any suggestions on how to determine a reasonable amount of DPR, as well as a reasonable HP, AC, etc.?
Hopefully legendary actions will help me keep his damage up even if the elemental minions get knocked out early. I could also give him some sort of summoning ability to account for that.
My last effort to challenge the party ended in the monk stunlocking my poor Stone Golem for three rounds. So hopefully I plan better against them this time (or with the Dullahan/Revenant/Deathlock combo they may soon run into...)
I set the party stats as two 7th level PCs and 3 8th level for a total of 5 PCs with an average level of 7.6 for roughing out the balance. In the other corner is a CR9 “BBE,” a CR5 Fire Elemental Lieutenant, a pair of CR2 Azers to act as the BBE’s bodyguards, and a handful of CR1 fire snakes to fill out the fight.
According to the numbers, a party of 5 PCs with an average level of 7.6 should be able to take on a total of 28,000 XP worth of fight between long rests, and according to the calcumalations this fight would be worth a total of 21,750 XP, or approximately 77.68% of their whole day’s worth of fighting, but that assumes 0 magic items. If you play D&D like normal folks they have magic items. (To adjust things I usually set all monster HP to maximum.) If you have a party full of siesta classes who are highly dependent on their 1-2 short rests per day (Fighters, Monks, Warlocks), then this fight will be tougher than if it’s a party full of non-nappers.
Now, keep in mind that a “null-caster” will likely almost certainly have waayyy lower DPR than a Fire Giant, but that’s okay. As a Null, their shtick is debuffing and counterspelling. If your party is very casterfull, or hardly caster dependent, that one null will be hosed. But if the party only has one or two casters and the rest “other,” it should be okay. (Otherwise you’re gonna need to add more Azers or something.)
I can think of lots but generally I like to have a terrain changer, a defensive ability, offensive ability. In terms of use I set one as an at will, one as a recharge or limited number special ability and one as a game changer that triggers at set health or number of rounds to mix up combat. I don't usually make a full wizard stat block with spell slots but just create abilities that may be copies of spells to fill that roll.
Here are my suggestions to fill those general roles
Terrain changers:
Casting move earth as a bonus action allows him to summon cover at the end of ever turn. Stone shape the spell as similar utility but works on all stone as opposed to loose earth.
Transmute rock is a very powerful terrain changing spell that is normally only available to druids but you have a story reason to use.
Spike growth is also a good option, you could change the damage to fire and say it's molten earth difficult terrain
bones of the earth is a great earth themed terrain changing spell which could knock players off edges and create new areas to stand
Walls of stone and fire are great too
Defensive abilities:
A vampiric touch or ennervation are good draining attacks that heal the caster. There is also the drain abilities from the demi lich, wight or shadow.
A common home brew defensive ability I give is the ability to cast absorb elements at will in place of resistances. On a caster I might replace to extra damage on melee with the ability to make a ranged attack that does that damage.
Counter spell or dispel magic and the war wizards power surge ability also simulate absorbing spell power as an alternative to just the rod of absorption
Investiture spells. The investiture spells are great for having monsters switch between elemental modes which could be themed as him tapping into fire or earth powers or absorbing powers. Tenser transformation or draconic aspect also work great for their respective powers, martial and dragon. As a twist in the fight he may absorb an elemental or the life force of another creature to cast one of these spells or he may just switch between modes.
Offensive abilities:
Slow, sickening radiance, bestow curse and ray of sickness are good ways to simulate the players loosing power. Think conditions like exhaustion and poisoned or loosing reactions and movement speed.
Shatter, break some stairs and do lots of explosions!
Elemental bane isn't a strong spell but fun to scare players with and can be flavored as draining resistance so fire elementals or possibly environmental effects hit them harder
Negative energy flood is great if they bring allies you can drain their life and make them zombies
Crown of madness on the clone guy. It's a good spell to take a little bit of control without completely taking away player agency, it takes their action and forces them to attack allies if they don't move to avoid it but they remain conscious and can act normally if they are smart.
Tether essence on the clone similarly links their life force creating another complication with similar story implications to crown of madness.
He's going to down faster than a DA looking for a promotion. Seeing as he's going elemental give him a defensive elemental form. Literally give him different elementals on his body he's earing as armor. The special is that during the time the elemental armor is up his concentration can't be broken. Plan for a concentration spell to be up but not so much of a jerk move to kill the party. Maybe something of the Investiture line of spells. Also, as a bonus action he gets on melee attack. Figure out the HP damage the party can do on average per round and make it where on average that armor will last 4 rounds. So each elemental form goes down after 1 round of combat on average from your party. It will give him enough time to cast some spells as well. He might make it to round 5 as a caster if you want him as a solo boss.
Thanks to everybody for the thoughtful comments! The party is likely to face the BBEG this weekend. Here's the stat block I put together (using several of your suggestions!) -- what do you think? The party will face him in an arena with a spiraling stone stairway that rises up above a pit of lava. He'll be defended by two Fire Elementals and two Flame Atronachs, but they can each be freed by breaking a slave collar once the party realizes they're enslaved. I have no idea if I made him too hard for my 8th-level, overly-magic-itemed party -- I might hold off on that 6th-level sunbeam until I see how difficult the encounter is for them. At level 7, they defeated a fire giant and fomorian pair AND a dullahan/revenant/deathlock trio in a single day, so they can handle overleveled encounters... I hope.
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I'm a first-time DM, and my party is on its way to fight the big bad. I'd love suggestions on how to build him -- how to make sure I'm tuning his stats and abilities correctly, any official or homebrew monsters I should look at for comparison, any particular attributes or spells or actions I should consider giving him, etc.
The details: the party has five 7th-level PCs (maybe 8th when they reach him). The big bad, Algernon, is a wizard obsessed with elemental vortices to the Plane of Fire. He can siphon the magical energy from spells cast at him; taken to the extreme, this can radically transform the caster (e.g., he turned an elf into a nothic, and a fire giant into a fomoran). The party will likely encounter Algernon at an elemental vortex deep within Mt. Hotenow, along with four fire elementals he has enslaved. One of the characters, a sorcerer, recently discovered that he's a clone of Algernon, a vessel intended to allow Algernon to transfer his consciousness before a withering curse consumes him; this character has been hearing Algernon's voice in his head, although Algernon can't control him yet.
Some of my ideas include:
Thanks!
Some of your stuff is pretty unique (👍), so I’m not sure how everything will fit together. However, whenever I want a villain to be a “Null” who cancels Magic cast by others I look towards the War Magic Wiz. With its subclass features; a Rod of Absorption; counterspell, dispel magic, and true polymorph (for the turning people into stuff); it should be a good start. But it won’t be a DPR villain, it’ll need minions for that (like Skeletor had Evil Lyn, etc.).
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Very helpful, I'll look at those features for inspiration. Any suggestions on how to determine a reasonable amount of DPR, as well as a reasonable HP, AC, etc.?
Hopefully legendary actions will help me keep his damage up even if the elemental minions get knocked out early. I could also give him some sort of summoning ability to account for that.
My last effort to challenge the party ended in the monk stunlocking my poor Stone Golem for three rounds. So hopefully I plan better against them this time (or with the Dullahan/Revenant/Deathlock combo they may soon run into...)
Yes, by CR. There’s a table in the DMG and instructions for how to use it (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/dungeon-masters-workshop#CreatingaMonster). You can either determine all’a that first and then use the table to calculate CR, or start with CR and then work backwards based on their guidelines.
How heavy do you want the fight to be? That’s what will determine the total CR for the encounter: (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/creating-adventures#CreatingEncounters). With 5 PCs, this BBE and their handful (4-6ish) of minions will have to all fit within that total adjusted CR for the encounter. For example, here’s a quick mock-up (the CR9 Fire Giant is standing in for a CR9 BBE): (https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/177637c3-b616-4ba1-9cdc-591f12a59291)
I set the party stats as two 7th level PCs and 3 8th level for a total of 5 PCs with an average level of 7.6 for roughing out the balance. In the other corner is a CR9 “BBE,” a CR5 Fire Elemental Lieutenant, a pair of CR2 Azers to act as the BBE’s bodyguards, and a handful of CR1 fire snakes to fill out the fight.
According to the numbers, a party of 5 PCs with an average level of 7.6 should be able to take on a total of 28,000 XP worth of fight between long rests, and according to the calcumalations this fight would be worth a total of 21,750 XP, or approximately 77.68% of their whole day’s worth of fighting, but that assumes 0 magic items. If you play D&D like normal folks they have magic items. (To adjust things I usually set all monster HP to maximum.) If you have a party full of siesta classes who are highly dependent on their 1-2 short rests per day (Fighters, Monks, Warlocks), then this fight will be tougher than if it’s a party full of non-nappers.
Now, keep in mind that a “null-caster” will
likelyalmost certainly have waayyy lower DPR than a Fire Giant, but that’s okay. As a Null, their shtick is debuffing and counterspelling. If your party is very casterfull, or hardly caster dependent, that one null will be hosed. But if the party only has one or two casters and the rest “other,” it should be okay. (Otherwise you’re gonna need to add more Azers or something.)Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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I can think of lots but generally I like to have a terrain changer, a defensive ability, offensive ability. In terms of use I set one as an at will, one as a recharge or limited number special ability and one as a game changer that triggers at set health or number of rounds to mix up combat. I don't usually make a full wizard stat block with spell slots but just create abilities that may be copies of spells to fill that roll.
Here are my suggestions to fill those general roles
Terrain changers:
Defensive abilities:
Offensive abilities:
He's going to down faster than a DA looking for a promotion. Seeing as he's going elemental give him a defensive elemental form. Literally give him different elementals on his body he's earing as armor. The special is that during the time the elemental armor is up his concentration can't be broken. Plan for a concentration spell to be up but not so much of a jerk move to kill the party. Maybe something of the Investiture line of spells. Also, as a bonus action he gets on melee attack. Figure out the HP damage the party can do on average per round and make it where on average that armor will last 4 rounds. So each elemental form goes down after 1 round of combat on average from your party. It will give him enough time to cast some spells as well. He might make it to round 5 as a caster if you want him as a solo boss.
Thanks to everybody for the thoughtful comments! The party is likely to face the BBEG this weekend. Here's the stat block I put together (using several of your suggestions!) -- what do you think? The party will face him in an arena with a spiraling stone stairway that rises up above a pit of lava. He'll be defended by two Fire Elementals and two Flame Atronachs, but they can each be freed by breaking a slave collar once the party realizes they're enslaved. I have no idea if I made him too hard for my 8th-level, overly-magic-itemed party -- I might hold off on that 6th-level sunbeam until I see how difficult the encounter is for them. At level 7, they defeated a fire giant and fomorian pair AND a dullahan/revenant/deathlock trio in a single day, so they can handle overleveled encounters... I hope.