I'm a first time DM and recently finished creating the character sheet for the final boss of my campaign. He's a Warlock, and when I chose all of his spells, they all got placed into 5th level as part of his Pact Magic. The spells are a mix from 1st to 5th level, and the lower level ones have their original levels in blue above the cast button, as I'm sure you're aware, but if I try to click that, it will still cast it as one of the 5th level slots. If I keep this as is, he'll be able to cast only 4 spells before having to reside to cantrips and Mystic Arcanums, making the fight not as much of a challenge as I'd hoped. Is there any way to fix or manage this?
Build the boss as a custom monster, not a character. That said, the character sounds like it's working properly, warlocks don't come with large numbers of spell slots.
Warlocks are all about using the invocations, Eldritch Blast, and of course the patron's abilities, not the spells. He only has a few of those.
The main problem that other casters have is that they have so few 'always on' abilities. That is where the Warlock comes in. He is the guy that is always doing one magical ability as if it is free. Because so many of them are. Build a character around those abilities and he can really rock.
The easiest to understand is the Eldritch Blaster. Take the invocations like Agonizing Blast and repelling blast and you can crush them while never letting them get close to you.
Warlock builds are all about eldritch blast, one or two spells they can exploit (like hex or darkness), and the invocations they take as basically super powers. Hex usually won’t be nearly as useful for a villain as it is for a hero, but it might depending on the party’s composition. Invocations that augment EB will always be helpful, and options to use it’s bonus action will be good to free up its action for EB.
The problem is that this Warlock will never have enough actions, so you’re gonna need to add an aura and Legendary Actions to make it a real fight for them.
I agree with the above. I would not design your final boss monster based around player character rules, as 5e is not balanced around player vs player combat. Even a level 20 player character, against a party of 3-6 end game level characters, is probably gonna get wrecked in an anticlimactic fashion. I definitely second the suggestion to build your final boss using the monster/NPC stat block approach.
From a lore perspective, remember; the abilities represented in the PHB and expansions are not the only ones that exist in the game world. The villain has access to powers the players probably don't. Through their evil cunning and dark bargain with their patron, they can have abilities mere mortals were not meant to, and they can have uncovered secret rituals to increase their power, growing into something conveniently more than a match for a party of player characters.
Essentially, PC's and NPC's don't play by the same rules, and that's a feature not a bug.
From a lore perspective, remember; the abilities represented in the PHB and expansions are not the only ones that exist in the game world. The villain has access to powers the players probably don't. Through their evil cunning and dark bargain with their patron, they can have abilities mere mortals were not meant to, and they can have uncovered secret rituals to increase their power, growing into something conveniently more than a match for a party of player characters.
Essentially, PC's and NPC's don't play by the same rules, and that's a feature not a bug.
I’ll go one step further and say it’s not that the villain “can” have abilities the PCs don’t have, they should have abilities the PCs could never have. If the BigBad played by the rules, they wouldn’t be a BigBad because the BiggerBadders would have eaten them already. 😉
Warlocks cast all of their spells at the highest available level, pee the slot level column on the chart. So that might be why all the spells are listed as level 5, assuming your warlock is level 9 or higher. And warlock spell slots don’t work by level. They just have up to 4 slots depending on their level. So if you have, say, a level 10 warlock. They will know 10 spells (plus 4 cantrips) but can only cast two of the leveled spells per short test. Both of those 2 will be automatically cast at 5th level.
Hey everyone!
I'm a first time DM and recently finished creating the character sheet for the final boss of my campaign. He's a Warlock, and when I chose all of his spells, they all got placed into 5th level as part of his Pact Magic. The spells are a mix from 1st to 5th level, and the lower level ones have their original levels in blue above the cast button, as I'm sure you're aware, but if I try to click that, it will still cast it as one of the 5th level slots. If I keep this as is, he'll be able to cast only 4 spells before having to reside to cantrips and Mystic Arcanums, making the fight not as much of a challenge as I'd hoped. Is there any way to fix or manage this?
Thanks!
Build the boss as a custom monster, not a character. That said, the character sounds like it's working properly, warlocks don't come with large numbers of spell slots.
Warlocks are all about using the invocations, Eldritch Blast, and of course the patron's abilities, not the spells. He only has a few of those.
The main problem that other casters have is that they have so few 'always on' abilities. That is where the Warlock comes in. He is the guy that is always doing one magical ability as if it is free. Because so many of them are. Build a character around those abilities and he can really rock.
The easiest to understand is the Eldritch Blaster. Take the invocations like Agonizing Blast and repelling blast and you can crush them while never letting them get close to you.
Warlock builds are all about eldritch blast, one or two spells they can exploit (like hex or darkness), and the invocations they take as basically super powers. Hex usually won’t be nearly as useful for a villain as it is for a hero, but it might depending on the party’s composition. Invocations that augment EB will always be helpful, and options to use it’s bonus action will be good to free up its action for EB.
The problem is that this Warlock will never have enough actions, so you’re gonna need to add an aura and Legendary Actions to make it a real fight for them.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
A good warlock boss monster template is: https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/deathlock-mastermind
Using a monster instead of a character makes it easier to just increase the number of spell slots and have it more balanced overall.
I agree with the above. I would not design your final boss monster based around player character rules, as 5e is not balanced around player vs player combat. Even a level 20 player character, against a party of 3-6 end game level characters, is probably gonna get wrecked in an anticlimactic fashion. I definitely second the suggestion to build your final boss using the monster/NPC stat block approach.
From a lore perspective, remember; the abilities represented in the PHB and expansions are not the only ones that exist in the game world. The villain has access to powers the players probably don't. Through their evil cunning and dark bargain with their patron, they can have abilities mere mortals were not meant to, and they can have uncovered secret rituals to increase their power, growing into something conveniently more than a match for a party of player characters.
Essentially, PC's and NPC's don't play by the same rules, and that's a feature not a bug.
I’ll go one step further and say it’s not that the villain “can” have abilities the PCs don’t have, they should have abilities the PCs could never have. If the BigBad played by the rules, they wouldn’t be a BigBad because the BiggerBadders would have eaten them already. 😉
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Warlocks cast all of their spells at the highest available level, pee the slot level column on the chart. So that might be why all the spells are listed as level 5, assuming your warlock is level 9 or higher. And warlock spell slots don’t work by level. They just have up to 4 slots depending on their level.
So if you have, say, a level 10 warlock. They will know 10 spells (plus 4 cantrips) but can only cast two of the leveled spells per short test. Both of those 2 will be automatically cast at 5th level.
Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'll try him out as a custom monster then.