I've poked around but can't find anything very helpful about how to level up an NPC villain. Considering passage of time and certain game events, I feel like the NPC provided in the module should become more powerful.
Does anyone have any guidelines or suggestions?
The specific scenario is that I'm running Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and there's a wizard named Azbara Jos, CR 4, who the players actually fought directly when they were level 5. He escaped, and they will fight him later after leveling up twice themselves. Due to a twist I threw in, he also acquired the Book of Vile Darkness, and has sort of turned into the main villain of the campaign (killing many of the other NPCs and taking control of the Cult of the Dragon). By the time they face him again, they will be level 7, and I feel like he should be more like CR 5 or 6.
If he already has the book of vile darkness I assume he’s not going to waste any time in reading it. What secrets could he discover between the time he meets the PCs again? Attunement is 80hrs, so he would likely be able to cast dominate monster and summon some lower level demons, maybe a pair of Hell Hounds, or a trio.
You may also want to throw in an ASI or 2. If you want you can make him legendary (if he isn't already), give him 1-3 legendary resistances, and legendary actions.
Significantly increase his HP, maybe increase AC a bit, and throw in some more spells, legendary abilities, or use minions to make him more threatening.
Just as an update, I actually managed to almost perfectly replicated his stats by creating him as an actual character in DNDbeyond. That made it super easy to level him up.
I've poked around but can't find anything very helpful about how to level up an NPC villain. Considering passage of time and certain game events, I feel like the NPC provided in the module should become more powerful.
Does anyone have any guidelines or suggestions?
The specific scenario is that I'm running Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and there's a wizard named Azbara Jos, CR 4, who the players actually fought directly when they were level 5. He escaped, and they will fight him later after leveling up twice themselves. Due to a twist I threw in, he also acquired the Book of Vile Darkness, and has sort of turned into the main villain of the campaign (killing many of the other NPCs and taking control of the Cult of the Dragon). By the time they face him again, they will be level 7, and I feel like he should be more like CR 5 or 6.
Based on other, similar stat blocks from the Monster Manual and elsewhere, the following changes would increase his CR to 6.
If he already has the book of vile darkness I assume he’s not going to waste any time in reading it. What secrets could he discover between the time he meets the PCs again? Attunement is 80hrs, so he would likely be able to cast dominate monster and summon some lower level demons, maybe a pair of Hell Hounds, or a trio.
You may also want to throw in an ASI or 2. If you want you can make him legendary (if he isn't already), give him 1-3 legendary resistances, and legendary actions.
Thanks so much guys!
Significantly increase his HP, maybe increase AC a bit, and throw in some more spells, legendary abilities, or use minions to make him more threatening.
Just as an update, I actually managed to almost perfectly replicated his stats by creating him as an actual character in DNDbeyond. That made it super easy to level him up.
I know that this is well after the fact but can you link the char sheet you made please?
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