i am making a lvl 20 oneshot with 4-5 players. Basically the characters will have 24 hours in game to stop the end of the world and have to defeat hordes of monster quickly, most of them should die instantly, but near the end I want to have a few monsters that are challenging yet don't slow down the pace of the game too much. I was think a few mind flayers with an elder brain, but I am not sure on how many yet. As well as at the very end have a one or two that are really challenging.
What I am asking is, do you have any suggestions for monsters that will really challenge lvl 20 characters and other ones that will challenge them but not stop them completely.
Outside of pure CR calculation like you can find in the many encounter generators out there, a lot of it comes down to what they are playing, and how well they know their characters. A 20th level paladin will boost everyone's saving throws, and if they all have the lucky feat you might find that they can succeed against any enemy with a high spell or effect DC pretty easily. A 20th level cleric can automatically succeed on a divine intervention, which, if giving proper weight by the DM, is a significant single use power. A 20th level druid can cast spells in beast shape. And that's not even mentioning very rare, legendary, and artifact magic items that 20th level characters should have.
Those are just a few that can seriously impact any monster encounter. I guess my main point is that with players at 20th level that know how to properly utilize their characters you will need to pick monsters based on what they can do. If it's a time crunch one shot, you will need to make an educated guess on when they might use their single use 20th level abilities, and their short/long rest abilities. If they just go for broke from the beginning and burn all their spells and features by the half-way mark, the BBEG will slaughter them if you planned for them to fight it fully rested and charged up.
My advice would be to get their characters made, outfit them with whatever magical items you plan on giving them, then plan your monsters from there. Have alternate monsters throughout the one-shot. If they go nova on the first half and then have to face the second half depleted, it's going to be a TPK, or you'll have to start pulling punches in a noticeable manner. Have a end monster that should challenge them fully powered, then another half powered, then another for if they are resource depleted. Swap in the appropriate one based on their current state.
Sorry if this didn't answer your question, but there are so many variables with 20th level encounters.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
i am making a lvl 20 oneshot with 4-5 players. Basically the characters will have 24 hours in game to stop the end of the world and have to defeat hordes of monster quickly, most of them should die instantly, but near the end I want to have a few monsters that are challenging yet don't slow down the pace of the game too much. I was think a few mind flayers with an elder brain, but I am not sure on how many yet. As well as at the very end have a one or two that are really challenging.
What I am asking is, do you have any suggestions for monsters that will really challenge lvl 20 characters and other ones that will challenge them but not stop them completely.
Outside of pure CR calculation like you can find in the many encounter generators out there, a lot of it comes down to what they are playing, and how well they know their characters. A 20th level paladin will boost everyone's saving throws, and if they all have the lucky feat you might find that they can succeed against any enemy with a high spell or effect DC pretty easily. A 20th level cleric can automatically succeed on a divine intervention, which, if giving proper weight by the DM, is a significant single use power. A 20th level druid can cast spells in beast shape. And that's not even mentioning very rare, legendary, and artifact magic items that 20th level characters should have.
Those are just a few that can seriously impact any monster encounter. I guess my main point is that with players at 20th level that know how to properly utilize their characters you will need to pick monsters based on what they can do. If it's a time crunch one shot, you will need to make an educated guess on when they might use their single use 20th level abilities, and their short/long rest abilities. If they just go for broke from the beginning and burn all their spells and features by the half-way mark, the BBEG will slaughter them if you planned for them to fight it fully rested and charged up.
My advice would be to get their characters made, outfit them with whatever magical items you plan on giving them, then plan your monsters from there. Have alternate monsters throughout the one-shot. If they go nova on the first half and then have to face the second half depleted, it's going to be a TPK, or you'll have to start pulling punches in a noticeable manner. Have a end monster that should challenge them fully powered, then another half powered, then another for if they are resource depleted. Swap in the appropriate one based on their current state.
Sorry if this didn't answer your question, but there are so many variables with 20th level encounters.