Would this be a good boss battle for a 1st or 2nd level party of 6?
When the players enter, read the following:
“This room has a high, vaulted roof. Along the east and west walls are embedded cramped, dirty prison cells. In the cells are around a dozen humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings. They regard you with a mixture of fear and awe. Lurking in the shadows is a ancient looking human in red studded leather, of high quality with gold trim. He points his dagger at you and speaks in his cold, rasping voice ‘these mortals are the property of Orcus, Demon Lord of Undeath! Claim them if you dare!’”
The human is a CE human cult fanatic (MM page 345), wearing a Ring of Protection and studded leather (AC 15), and wielding a +1 dagger (+5 to hit, 1d4+3 piercing damage). When he is at half health or lower, he uses an action to speak a command word triggering the trap.
Trap: DC 15 intelligence (Arcana) to notice an aura of illusion magic in the room. An insubstantial creature that looks like Orcus appears, when the trap is triggered read:
“The cultist shrieks a word in the harsh, grating language of evil! For a moment nothing happens, but then, suddenly, in the center of the room, a strange red light begins to burn. Then, in a burst of light, a monstrosity appears! A creature with the head and legs of a long horned bull, the body of a red humanoid, and a mace like tail, holding a staff made of a back bone and skull stands before you! He bellows in his booming voice ‘Puny mortals! Feel the power of the Demon Lord of Undeath!’”
Roll initiative for the trap (+2), on its turn it takes this action:
Evil Presence: All creatures within 30 feet that can see the illusion must make a DC 15 wisdom save or become frightened of the trap. If a creature succeeds its save, it sees the creature for what it really is, an illusion, and becomes immune to its Evil Presence for 1 hour.
If a creature hits the trap with an attack (AC 13) the illusion disappears.
The captured humanoid are from the town, they are grateful for being saved, but don’t know the way back to town.
On the cult fanatic’s body, the players find a +1 dagger with rubies embedded in the hilt, worth 1000 gp, a ring of protection, the key to the cells, and a note, sealed with a wax seal depicting a skull. Inside it reads:
“My Lord Thaddeus,
I have heard that some adventurers have worked up the guts to try and rescue the townsfolk. I believe they pose no real threat to our operations, but they might distract the expendables from the ritual at hand. I propose taking measures to prevent this, our lord’s sacred creatures, undead, perhaps?
In humble service to Orcus, Duke Bildon”
Duke Bildon is the duke of the town of Claybridge. He has been working with the cult in secret for some time now.
Award 650 XP (magic items + CR 2 + trap) for defeating Thaddeus and 100 XP to each player when they free the captives.
My experience has been that solo boss monsters are easier to defeat than previous ediitions. With even 3 reasonably seasoned players, one boss, esp a spellcaster, is not going to last long at all. I recommend adding at least 3 minions to the mix. At least two should be fighters or monsters with at least d8 hit dice. The frightened condition is not particularly powerful and a cult leader needs some armed protection.
It depends on how experienced your players are. A party that knows their chosen class well and play a lot of tactical games should have little trouble against 1 guy who doesn't even have 3rd level spells. Also, your mooks can just be skeletons with short swords. Or zombies. Or unarmored cultists with 1 level in Fighter or Cleric and using quarterstaves.
For a 1st level party I think this is pretty solid! I see what Song_of_Blues is saying, but I agree with you: Multiple mooks against a level 1 party can become pretty dangerous pretty quickly.
I love doing solo bosses, and I find the easiest way to balance them for 5E where action economy is king is to give them legendary actions. This is a specific, special action it can take at the end of a player's turn. Maybe you can have one of them be that the cultist siphons energy from one of the imprisoned humanoids, healing itself a small amount. Another could be to let it disengage and move. I'd give it one legendary action per turn, which it can choose out of 2-3 options. So you can decide what is best for the moment.
Sounds like a fun boss battle, though, and nicely thought out.
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Would this be a good boss battle for a 1st or 2nd level party of 6?
When the players enter, read the following:
“This room has a high, vaulted roof. Along the east and west walls are embedded cramped, dirty prison cells. In the cells are around a dozen humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings. They regard you with a mixture of fear and awe. Lurking in the shadows is a ancient looking human in red studded leather, of high quality with gold trim. He points his dagger at you and speaks in his cold, rasping voice ‘these mortals are the property of Orcus, Demon Lord of Undeath! Claim them if you dare!’”
The human is a CE human cult fanatic (MM page 345), wearing a Ring of Protection and studded leather (AC 15), and wielding a +1 dagger (+5 to hit, 1d4+3 piercing damage). When he is at half health or lower, he uses an action to speak a command word triggering the trap.
Trap: DC 15 intelligence (Arcana) to notice an aura of illusion magic in the room. An insubstantial creature that looks like Orcus appears, when the trap is triggered read:
“The cultist shrieks a word in the harsh, grating language of evil! For a moment nothing happens, but then, suddenly, in the center of the room, a strange red light begins to burn. Then, in a burst of light, a monstrosity appears! A creature with the head and legs of a long horned bull, the body of a red humanoid, and a mace like tail, holding a staff made of a back bone and skull stands before you! He bellows in his booming voice ‘Puny mortals! Feel the power of the Demon Lord of Undeath!’”
Roll initiative for the trap (+2), on its turn it takes this action:
Evil Presence: All creatures within 30 feet that can see the illusion must make a DC 15 wisdom save or become frightened of the trap. If a creature succeeds its save, it sees the creature for what it really is, an illusion, and becomes immune to its Evil Presence for 1 hour.
If a creature hits the trap with an attack (AC 13) the illusion disappears.
The captured humanoid are from the town, they are grateful for being saved, but don’t know the way back to town.
On the cult fanatic’s body, the players find a +1 dagger with rubies embedded in the hilt, worth 1000 gp, a ring of protection, the key to the cells, and a note, sealed with a wax seal depicting a skull. Inside it reads:
“My Lord Thaddeus,
I have heard that some adventurers have worked up the guts to try and rescue the townsfolk. I believe they pose no real threat to our operations, but they might distract the expendables from the ritual at hand. I propose taking measures to prevent this, our lord’s sacred creatures, undead, perhaps?
In humble service to Orcus, Duke Bildon”
Duke Bildon is the duke of the town of Claybridge. He has been working with the cult in secret for some time now.
Award 650 XP (magic items + CR 2 + trap) for defeating Thaddeus and 100 XP to each player when they free the captives.
I did NOT eat those hikers.
My experience has been that solo boss monsters are easier to defeat than previous ediitions. With even 3 reasonably seasoned players, one boss, esp a spellcaster, is not going to last long at all. I recommend adding at least 3 minions to the mix. At least two should be fighters or monsters with at least d8 hit dice. The frightened condition is not particularly powerful and a cult leader needs some armed protection.
hmm, but im afraid that it might just straight up kill level 1s if i add add cultist mooks
I did NOT eat those hikers.
It depends on how experienced your players are. A party that knows their chosen class well and play a lot of tactical games should have little trouble against 1 guy who doesn't even have 3rd level spells. Also, your mooks can just be skeletons with short swords. Or zombies. Or unarmored cultists with 1 level in Fighter or Cleric and using quarterstaves.
For a 1st level party I think this is pretty solid! I see what Song_of_Blues is saying, but I agree with you: Multiple mooks against a level 1 party can become pretty dangerous pretty quickly.
I love doing solo bosses, and I find the easiest way to balance them for 5E where action economy is king is to give them legendary actions. This is a specific, special action it can take at the end of a player's turn. Maybe you can have one of them be that the cultist siphons energy from one of the imprisoned humanoids, healing itself a small amount. Another could be to let it disengage and move. I'd give it one legendary action per turn, which it can choose out of 2-3 options. So you can decide what is best for the moment.
Sounds like a fun boss battle, though, and nicely thought out.