So I'm having the party of lvl 18 (rouge, druid and wizard) go up against a homebrew demi-God. Once lowered to/below a marked hp point he will seem them worthy of his mighty lance with the power to end a God. For damage I was thinking 12d12 +40 fire damage. Is this too harsh of a damage stat? Also for him to perform this he must lose his armor, dropping his ac from a 25 to a 13, and he is unable to don the armor again.
Really needing feedback if this is too much. I want a cool moment with a hard challenge but also dont want an instant tpk.
That attack does 118 damage on average and could drop the wizard to 0 from full. Probably a DEX save for half damage?
Hmm. This monster sounds to be at least around CR20 (you can estimate its CR with here https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/dungeon-masters-workshop#CreatingaMonster), assuming it has no allies during the fight, and the party have only had a few easy battles that adventuring day, and took a light rest just before, this encounter could be barely survivable.
Depends on the nature of this god slaying lance. Is it an AoE or single target? Save for half damage or attack roll for all or nothing? Only used once or used for rest of battle?
Also depends on his actual CR, either calculate using that link or post some of the demo-god's stats for peer review (you dont have to, but this encounter sounds nearly deadly (CR21 or higher could lilikely kill a PC or TPK)).
Party would be fully rested and topped off on hp and spell slots, and it would be a 3v1 scenario. I'm leaning more towards an aoe attack. This would be more of a last stand move for said demi God and a single usage though the drop in AC would persist until the fights end. For more of a background they had their abilities sealed beginning of campaign and worked under the diety who took their power. Before this happened he tested their might against a kraken and sea hag combo. I dont believe anyone dropped under half health and the party mainly dealt 250 ish in damage each round of combat. So I feel they wouldnt have too hard an issue in the dps factor. I just wanted to balance this attack as to not be a "okay he does this annnnnd you all die".
I realize that can happen at any level really but I dont want them to get tpk by a singular attack and feel cheated. As for stats I can post it would just take me a bit to find the papers.
If this is to be edge-of-the-seat-nail-biting combat, you want the average amount of damage the God can deal out be enough to kill the party in X rounds ( but not be able to one-shot the Characters ), and have them be able to absorb as much damage as the Party can dole out on average, for X rounds.
If they had a 50/50 chance to hit a Character ( on average ), and you wanted the combat to last 5 rounds, you need the Players to have a pool greater than 295 HP ( to hit % * average damage * rounds of combat ) - which seems "in the ballpark" - a Wizard will have around 75 on average, and a Barbarian around 135 - so ballpark an average of 100 HP seems reasonable - especially if you throw in any healing magic the Party might have.
Where the attack has problems is that the average attack damage will kill the Wizard, and two hits are virtually guaranteed to kill the Barbarian see: https://anydice.com/program/147ef
In short: Yes - that attack damage is too harsh of a Damage stat.
High damage attacks are great for dramatic impact - "What the hell was that! Stay away from that lance!" - but are real wild cards on the battlefield. The problem here being that from an in-world perspective, a one-shot-one-kill weapon is exactly what the God wants ( I would ), but you don't want to TPK the party.
You're better off having more, less effective, attacks - which you can spread out among the Party. Still chew them up, and do the same amount of overall average damage, but don't drop the Wizard on round one, and send the party into a death spiral.
You can still play up the theatrics of the attacks through imagination and description.
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Sometimes a battle of the minds can be devastating to the party, more so than a physical battle. Why not come up with a list of riddles the have to answer and take damage when they get it wrong?
the damage you have listed is too heavy. No save for half? This will be a TPK in two or three rounds. Make is fun for the players!
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So I'm having the party of lvl 18 (rouge, druid and wizard) go up against a homebrew demi-God. Once lowered to/below a marked hp point he will seem them worthy of his mighty lance with the power to end a God. For damage I was thinking 12d12 +40 fire damage. Is this too harsh of a damage stat? Also for him to perform this he must lose his armor, dropping his ac from a 25 to a 13, and he is unable to don the armor again.
Really needing feedback if this is too much. I want a cool moment with a hard challenge but also dont want an instant tpk.
That attack does 118 damage on average and could drop the wizard to 0 from full. Probably a DEX save for half damage?
Hmm. This monster sounds to be at least around CR20 (you can estimate its CR with here https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/dungeon-masters-workshop#CreatingaMonster), assuming it has no allies during the fight, and the party have only had a few easy battles that adventuring day, and took a light rest just before, this encounter could be barely survivable.
Depends on the nature of this god slaying lance. Is it an AoE or single target? Save for half damage or attack roll for all or nothing? Only used once or used for rest of battle?
Also depends on his actual CR, either calculate using that link or post some of the demo-god's stats for peer review (you dont have to, but this encounter sounds nearly deadly (CR21 or higher could lilikely kill a PC or TPK)).
Party would be fully rested and topped off on hp and spell slots, and it would be a 3v1 scenario. I'm leaning more towards an aoe attack. This would be more of a last stand move for said demi God and a single usage though the drop in AC would persist until the fights end. For more of a background they had their abilities sealed beginning of campaign and worked under the diety who took their power. Before this happened he tested their might against a kraken and sea hag combo. I dont believe anyone dropped under half health and the party mainly dealt 250 ish in damage each round of combat. So I feel they wouldnt have too hard an issue in the dps factor. I just wanted to balance this attack as to not be a "okay he does this annnnnd you all die".
I realize that can happen at any level really but I dont want them to get tpk by a singular attack and feel cheated. As for stats I can post it would just take me a bit to find the papers.
If this is to be edge-of-the-seat-nail-biting combat, you want the average amount of damage the God can deal out be enough to kill the party in X rounds ( but not be able to one-shot the Characters ), and have them be able to absorb as much damage as the Party can dole out on average, for X rounds.
If they had a 50/50 chance to hit a Character ( on average ), and you wanted the combat to last 5 rounds, you need the Players to have a pool greater than 295 HP ( to hit % * average damage * rounds of combat ) - which seems "in the ballpark" - a Wizard will have around 75 on average, and a Barbarian around 135 - so ballpark an average of 100 HP seems reasonable - especially if you throw in any healing magic the Party might have.
Where the attack has problems is that the average attack damage will kill the Wizard, and two hits are virtually guaranteed to kill the Barbarian see: https://anydice.com/program/147ef
In short: Yes - that attack damage is too harsh of a Damage stat.
High damage attacks are great for dramatic impact - "What the hell was that! Stay away from that lance!" - but are real wild cards on the battlefield. The problem here being that from an in-world perspective, a one-shot-one-kill weapon is exactly what the God wants ( I would ), but you don't want to TPK the party.
You're better off having more, less effective, attacks - which you can spread out among the Party. Still chew them up, and do the same amount of overall average damage, but don't drop the Wizard on round one, and send the party into a death spiral.
You can still play up the theatrics of the attacks through imagination and description.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Sometimes a battle of the minds can be devastating to the party, more so than a physical battle. Why not come up with a list of riddles the have to answer and take damage when they get it wrong?
the damage you have listed is too heavy. No save for half? This will be a TPK in two or three rounds. Make is fun for the players!