A while ago, before mtf and vgtm were discontinued, I was looking for a suitable statblock for the eventual BBEG of my campaign and came across the Titivilus statblock, and it was perfect.
Now, that final boss battle is coming up, and the original statblock holds the potential for some pretty awesome spell/ability combos. CR 16 may be a little low for this party depending on how many resources they use beforehand, so I want to be tricky and extend the devil’s upper hand for as long as possible, or at least make him seem like he has the upper hand.
The main goal of the character this statblock is meant to represent, is to take as many of the party under his control as possible, and if he can’t do that, then kill them.
i know greater invisibility + ventriloquism will lead to some pretty scary/atmospheric scenes before or possibly during the battle, so do ya’ll have any other thoughts?
It looks like you need to track who in the party has abilities that counter charmed/frightened--which means you also get the chance to track Titivilus tracking those abilities. INT above 20 should be superhuman, and this baddie has 24. He'd know to focus abilities on those least likely to resist them...
Definitely a bit harder to pull off if you aren't super attentive, but if the battle is supposed to be the hardest it can be, a great thing to do is to make it seem that all of the player's abilities help the boss. Have a barbarian that relies heavily on rage? (what barbarian doesn't) Allow any buffs your party gains to go to the boss as well if the rage gives it out. Druid wants to wildshape into something incredible? Make them suddenly compelled to fight for the enemy in that form. Paladin has really good smites? When the enemy is hit with them, he still takes damage, but his weapon now gains the smite he was smote with. The key to battlefield control isn't only in making it look like the villain is playing a game of chess with the players as pieces, but rather to ensure that the party knows at the end of the battle (Regardless of whether they win or lose) that the enemy they just faced was in total control the whole time. This makes victory 10x sweeter and loss as gripping as it can be. Of course don't do this if your scared it will TPK, but even subtle elements relating to this concept are very influential in how the party will respond to the battle. Who knows, they might still outsmart you somehow, and props on them for that, because that means that you get to win alongside them.
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A while ago, before mtf and vgtm were discontinued, I was looking for a suitable statblock for the eventual BBEG of my campaign and came across the Titivilus statblock, and it was perfect.
Now, that final boss battle is coming up, and the original statblock holds the potential for some pretty awesome spell/ability combos. CR 16 may be a little low for this party depending on how many resources they use beforehand, so I want to be tricky and extend the devil’s upper hand for as long as possible, or at least make him seem like he has the upper hand.
The main goal of the character this statblock is meant to represent, is to take as many of the party under his control as possible, and if he can’t do that, then kill them.
i know greater invisibility + ventriloquism will lead to some pretty scary/atmospheric scenes before or possibly during the battle, so do ya’ll have any other thoughts?
thanks in advance!! :)
:)
It looks like you need to track who in the party has abilities that counter charmed/frightened--which means you also get the chance to track Titivilus tracking those abilities. INT above 20 should be superhuman, and this baddie has 24. He'd know to focus abilities on those least likely to resist them...
Definitely a bit harder to pull off if you aren't super attentive, but if the battle is supposed to be the hardest it can be, a great thing to do is to make it seem that all of the player's abilities help the boss. Have a barbarian that relies heavily on rage? (what barbarian doesn't) Allow any buffs your party gains to go to the boss as well if the rage gives it out. Druid wants to wildshape into something incredible? Make them suddenly compelled to fight for the enemy in that form. Paladin has really good smites? When the enemy is hit with them, he still takes damage, but his weapon now gains the smite he was smote with. The key to battlefield control isn't only in making it look like the villain is playing a game of chess with the players as pieces, but rather to ensure that the party knows at the end of the battle (Regardless of whether they win or lose) that the enemy they just faced was in total control the whole time. This makes victory 10x sweeter and loss as gripping as it can be. Of course don't do this if your scared it will TPK, but even subtle elements relating to this concept are very influential in how the party will respond to the battle. Who knows, they might still outsmart you somehow, and props on them for that, because that means that you get to win alongside them.