As a relatively new DM, having only finished one campaign with my party i want to attempt to explore different "Homebrew" encounters and fights. So far the ones i've made make sense, however there is a concept i would like some help discussing.
I want to create an enemy that can predict the moves of a creature/player, and can essentially block successful non magic attacks made against them with their weapon. Think Heimdall from GOW Ragnarok. However this enemies weakness is to be overwhelmed by mutliple attacks, and the more you attack them in a singular turn, the more likely you will hit them.
So far, i've come up with the idea that if a non magic attack attempts to hit the enemy (a ranged or melee attack) the enemy will have a AC of 30, which gets divided by 2 each time an attack is made by that creature on that turn.
So as an example, i might have my ranger shoot a singular arrow on their turn, which gets blocked by the 30AC. But let's say my fighter who has a handaxe(light) takes the following actions. Attack -> Action Surge -> Attack -> bonus action of light property attack. If all three hits, the enemies AC goes from 30 on the first attack, 15 on the second and 8 on the third. Meaning that constant pressure on them makes them fumble and take damage. I was also considering if the players attempt a joint attack then it would just start at AC 15.
I was wondering whether there might be a better way more experienced DM's can think of doing this, as it's a bit ridiculous to just make the enemy dodge everything, but i still want the idea of multiple attacks actually overwhelm and potentially injure the enemy.
I appreciate any responses and would love to here your thoughts <3
The fundamental problem with your premise is that it is the nature of players to dogpile an enemy anyway. They may never notice a passive ability like the one you describe, and there'd have to be multiple foes in the fight to make it work at all.
Instead, give the enemy multiple reactions, and defensive reaction abilities. (or power them with legendary actions.)
But they shouldn't just be able to outright no-sell the attacks; that's boring and frustrating for the players. Give the abilities some consequences, like forcing the enemy to give ground, so the players can attempt to neutralize them.
You can also give the reactions effects on the PCs, just to keep things interesting.
This would likely just be frustrating for the players if the enemy is almost guaranteed to completely block the first attack(s) of a round. Especially the player who goes first after the enemy (if the players realise what's going on, they could just end up arguing about who gets to 'miss' their Action on the first attack just so the others can hold their Action to have a better chance of hitting afterwards).
There are already enemies that have kind of this ability just using their Reaction to parry and grant a bonus to their AC. Personally I try and make it clear that the enemy is using their Reaction to parry in this way as well, just so other players know that the Reaction is now used up.
So you could modify some ability like this, and possibly also give the enemy Resistance to Bludgeoning, Slashing and Piercing attacks (described as them partially blocking the attack) but where this Resistance fails if the players do something like successfully hit X times in one round (counter refreshes at the start of the enemy's turn). This way the players will always feel like they are actually doing something with their attacks.
(Also, while movies often provide great inspiration, what works in a movie often doesn't directly translate into a game environment with frustration-prone players!)
Yeah i figured parry or something similiar was the closest i could get to having an enemy like this. As mentioned it was a bit of a far fetched idea and agreed not everything you see can be an enemy from movies/arts.
Back to the drawing board for something else for now then, but thanks both for the feedback.
It sounds like you want a BBEG to be able to look into the future to counter the present. To pull that off you need to know your players signature moves and for those give a higher AC, if they do something different, have a lower AC. As mentioned, allow more reactions then the rules allow.
But how do you translate that BBEG ability to the PCs? In combat, you need to be even more descriptive in telling the PCs, why their rolled 19 missed. You need to sell that the BBEG knew they were going to do what they just failed at.
To be honest, instead of knowing how the PCs will "swing", instead use that future knowledge to create difficulty in find/reaching the BBEG. Use that power to know what they are doing as a collective, vice individual actions in a round. For example, the next combat has the minions resistant to the types of weapons and spells the party usually uses. So slashing and fire resistance, but if a PC does cold damage and drops the swords and uses a hammer, they do more damage.
I like the decreasing AC idea, but it has two problems: It's difficult to track and it's way to aggressive. The enemy is probably going to be taking at least 3-4 attacks each round, more if you're past level 5, so its AC is going to be so low that hits are guaranteed basically instantly. Giving the monster Parry would be much easier.
Give the NPC a few Legendary Actions that cause attacks/spells to fail. There's precedent for this in the game and if you limit it to says 3 uses between every BBEG turn the 'dogpile' can work through it. From there you just describe the actions as foresight, etc.. The bad guy "seems to know you were going to attack." and prevents it.
Parry / Defensive Duelist / Blessing of the Raven Queen (as a reaction) / Chronal Shift / Bend Luck / Bardic Inspiration - there are all sorts of mechnics that can be reflavored to suit - personally Bend luck might be fun and if the creature rolls a 4 the damage is reflected back - fun times!
Sounds like a monk’s deflect attacks. Maybe use that as the basis. Instead of the attack, reduce the damage by some number, depending on the level of the characters. The number could be high enough to reduce the first one substantially (unless you get something like a sneak attack/smite crit, then some damage might get through. Uses the enemy’s reaction. Give them a couple more as legendary actions. Make the secondary ones less effective if you like.
Also, I’d apply it to any attack roll, not just nonmagical. Casters don’t need the buff.
Good day/night DM community!
As a relatively new DM, having only finished one campaign with my party i want to attempt to explore different "Homebrew" encounters and fights. So far the ones i've made make sense, however there is a concept i would like some help discussing.
I want to create an enemy that can predict the moves of a creature/player, and can essentially block successful non magic attacks made against them with their weapon. Think Heimdall from GOW Ragnarok. However this enemies weakness is to be overwhelmed by mutliple attacks, and the more you attack them in a singular turn, the more likely you will hit them.
So far, i've come up with the idea that if a non magic attack attempts to hit the enemy (a ranged or melee attack) the enemy will have a AC of 30, which gets divided by 2 each time an attack is made by that creature on that turn.
So as an example, i might have my ranger shoot a singular arrow on their turn, which gets blocked by the 30AC. But let's say my fighter who has a handaxe(light) takes the following actions. Attack -> Action Surge -> Attack -> bonus action of light property attack. If all three hits, the enemies AC goes from 30 on the first attack, 15 on the second and 8 on the third. Meaning that constant pressure on them makes them fumble and take damage. I was also considering if the players attempt a joint attack then it would just start at AC 15.
I was wondering whether there might be a better way more experienced DM's can think of doing this, as it's a bit ridiculous to just make the enemy dodge everything, but i still want the idea of multiple attacks actually overwhelm and potentially injure the enemy.
I appreciate any responses and would love to here your thoughts <3
The fundamental problem with your premise is that it is the nature of players to dogpile an enemy anyway. They may never notice a passive ability like the one you describe, and there'd have to be multiple foes in the fight to make it work at all.
Instead, give the enemy multiple reactions, and defensive reaction abilities. (or power them with legendary actions.)
But they shouldn't just be able to outright no-sell the attacks; that's boring and frustrating for the players. Give the abilities some consequences, like forcing the enemy to give ground, so the players can attempt to neutralize them.
You can also give the reactions effects on the PCs, just to keep things interesting.
This would likely just be frustrating for the players if the enemy is almost guaranteed to completely block the first attack(s) of a round. Especially the player who goes first after the enemy (if the players realise what's going on, they could just end up arguing about who gets to 'miss' their Action on the first attack just so the others can hold their Action to have a better chance of hitting afterwards).
There are already enemies that have kind of this ability just using their Reaction to parry and grant a bonus to their AC. Personally I try and make it clear that the enemy is using their Reaction to parry in this way as well, just so other players know that the Reaction is now used up.
So you could modify some ability like this, and possibly also give the enemy Resistance to Bludgeoning, Slashing and Piercing attacks (described as them partially blocking the attack) but where this Resistance fails if the players do something like successfully hit X times in one round (counter refreshes at the start of the enemy's turn). This way the players will always feel like they are actually doing something with their attacks.
(Also, while movies often provide great inspiration, what works in a movie often doesn't directly translate into a game environment with frustration-prone players!)
Yeah i figured parry or something similiar was the closest i could get to having an enemy like this. As mentioned it was a bit of a far fetched idea and agreed not everything you see can be an enemy from movies/arts.
Back to the drawing board for something else for now then, but thanks both for the feedback.
It sounds like you want a BBEG to be able to look into the future to counter the present. To pull that off you need to know your players signature moves and for those give a higher AC, if they do something different, have a lower AC. As mentioned, allow more reactions then the rules allow.
But how do you translate that BBEG ability to the PCs? In combat, you need to be even more descriptive in telling the PCs, why their rolled 19 missed. You need to sell that the BBEG knew they were going to do what they just failed at.
To be honest, instead of knowing how the PCs will "swing", instead use that future knowledge to create difficulty in find/reaching the BBEG. Use that power to know what they are doing as a collective, vice individual actions in a round. For example, the next combat has the minions resistant to the types of weapons and spells the party usually uses. So slashing and fire resistance, but if a PC does cold damage and drops the swords and uses a hammer, they do more damage.
I like the decreasing AC idea, but it has two problems: It's difficult to track and it's way to aggressive. The enemy is probably going to be taking at least 3-4 attacks each round, more if you're past level 5, so its AC is going to be so low that hits are guaranteed basically instantly. Giving the monster Parry would be much easier.
Give the NPC a few Legendary Actions that cause attacks/spells to fail. There's precedent for this in the game and if you limit it to says 3 uses between every BBEG turn the 'dogpile' can work through it. From there you just describe the actions as foresight, etc.. The bad guy "seems to know you were going to attack." and prevents it.
Parry / Defensive Duelist / Blessing of the Raven Queen (as a reaction) / Chronal Shift / Bend Luck / Bardic Inspiration - there are all sorts of mechnics that can be reflavored to suit - personally Bend luck might be fun and if the creature rolls a 4 the damage is reflected back - fun times!
Sounds like a monk’s deflect attacks. Maybe use that as the basis. Instead of the attack, reduce the damage by some number, depending on the level of the characters. The number could be high enough to reduce the first one substantially (unless you get something like a sneak attack/smite crit, then some damage might get through. Uses the enemy’s reaction. Give them a couple more as legendary actions. Make the secondary ones less effective if you like.
Also, I’d apply it to any attack roll, not just nonmagical. Casters don’t need the buff.
You could also give the baddie the benefits of a Foresight spell, in addition to a 1/round parry or deflect attack.
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (original Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.