So my party of three 6th-level PCs (Paladin, Ranger, and Warlock/Bard) are about to square off against Cryovain in Dragon of Icespire Peak.
Icespire Peak positively festoons the PCs with magic gear, some of it's fluff (a staff of birdcalls? really?), some of it's potent, and they have a good chunk of what's awarded in the adventure.
In Icespire Hold's narrative, there are four NPCs with Veteran stats, the Stone-Cold Reavers, who end up in direct opposition to the PCs.
I plan to jazz it up a little and replace the Veterans with (N)PCs with character levels that are nemeses from the players' backstories. A barbarian/berserker, a rogue/thief, a draconic sorcerer, and a tempest cleric (since Talos cultists are frequent deuteragonists). The DMG recommends this as an option, so, why not?
Now I like my players, and I don't want to cripple them in a three-way fight with the Reavers and Cryovain. But if the protagonists are fresh, I know Cryovain is toast due to Action Economy.
Could anyone pass on advice for character levels should I set for the Reavers? Four veterans are deadly enough with nine hit dice and three melee attacks but don't have area-effect, summon, or debuff spells like sorcerers and clerics would. CR has always mystified me.
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I am a Canadian Dungeon Master, which means I reflexively apologize when the monsters score a critical hit on the players' characters.
I would suggest using a Thug statblock and adding 4 Sidekick levels to them (Switch around the ability scores for spellcasters). That way the party's still dealing with 9 hit dice enemies, and the overall difficulty of them should be pretty close (but still higher) than what the module calls for.
It will also be significantly easier for you to run the simpler statblocks as opposed to 4 whole characters, even if you add a couple PC-class features to these NPCs for flavor.
So my party of three 6th-level PCs (Paladin, Ranger, and Warlock/Bard) are about to square off against Cryovain in Dragon of Icespire Peak.
Icespire Peak positively festoons the PCs with magic gear, some of it's fluff (a staff of birdcalls? really?), some of it's potent, and they have a good chunk of what's awarded in the adventure.
In Icespire Hold's narrative, there are four NPCs with Veteran stats, the Stone-Cold Reavers, who end up in direct opposition to the PCs.
I plan to jazz it up a little and replace the Veterans with (N)PCs with character levels that are nemeses from the players' backstories. A barbarian/berserker, a rogue/thief, a draconic sorcerer, and a tempest cleric (since Talos cultists are frequent deuteragonists). The DMG recommends this as an option, so, why not?
Now I like my players, and I don't want to cripple them in a three-way fight with the Reavers and Cryovain. But if the protagonists are fresh, I know Cryovain is toast due to Action Economy.
Could anyone pass on advice for character levels should I set for the Reavers? Four veterans are deadly enough with nine hit dice and three melee attacks but don't have area-effect, summon, or debuff spells like sorcerers and clerics would. CR has always mystified me.
I am a Canadian Dungeon Master, which means I reflexively apologize when the monsters score a critical hit on the players' characters.
I would suggest using a Thug statblock and adding 4 Sidekick levels to them (Switch around the ability scores for spellcasters). That way the party's still dealing with 9 hit dice enemies, and the overall difficulty of them should be pretty close (but still higher) than what the module calls for.
It will also be significantly easier for you to run the simpler statblocks as opposed to 4 whole characters, even if you add a couple PC-class features to these NPCs for flavor.
Yeah, that's true - making the GM's life simple is always a good priority. I was considering four sidekicks stat blocks anyway.
There's a fine line between "cakewalk" and "TPK." Despite decades of experience, I can never quite find it.
I am a Canadian Dungeon Master, which means I reflexively apologize when the monsters score a critical hit on the players' characters.