I'm a new DM and I'm creating a campain from scratch, I already have the world and the guideline but i want to do custom mini-bosses and bosses,I'm trying to create them but idk if I'm doing it right...
So I'm here to ask if someone could help me to create them, or at least explain some way to do it or just give me references(the books,webpages,etc)
Also I don't use forums so if there is something wrong let me know
Low level bosses can be easily created by adding 10hp and +2 AC to a standard monster (goblin, orc, crocodile...) It's enough to let them stand out, without too much risk of overpowering the players. Be cautious of increasing the basic damage.
If you are coming from a video game perspective, thinking of mini-bosses and such as an opportunity to introduce new mechanics to the combat, or merely adding a slightly different flavour, then the following Video by Matt Colville is excellent.
I have been DMing for *cough* years, and this guy has something to say in every video that makes me want to take notes.
Ultimately, experience and knowledge of your players is more important than any advice I can give. Err on the side of caution for the first couple of bosses and remember that a CR3 monster is going to be a stiff fight for a group of 4 level 2 characters.
You'll know you got it right when the players and characters start to panic, but win regardless.
One lesson I 'learned' last week - build the boss up a bit so the PC's recognise they are facing a boss. The PCs stumbled onto one of the Elemental Prophets and I don't know who was more surprised : Them, me, or the Prophet! There really should have been a "Holy Soiled Underpants! That's [redacted]" Opportunity missed. /sadface
Edit : The video is NOT just for people wanting to recreate Legend of Zelda / Diablo 3, but for all DMs wanting to add a little something-something to those climactic encounters.
I think it was an article by the Angry GM, but I really liked the idea of having multiple pools for a boss, and have used it several times. Basically the boss might have 120 HP, but in actuality they have (70) and (50) HP. When they get to the bottom of the first 70 they don't take any extra damage into their other pool, and something changes about the boss. Maybe some of its defenses got weaker, but now it hits harder. Maybe it brought in some kind of area effect, trap, or similar.
You can also use it to say that there's multiple pieces to the monster. Maybe this gargantuan plant thing has separate HP pools for its arms, legs, chest, and head. Depending on what piece the players attack, it has different effects. When the arm is gone its a pool of wriggling vines that try to engulf them. When the chest is gone it sprays gouts of blighted poison sap...
It's sort of like a legendary action, but adjusted slightly.
The most recent one I used was when the party went to go and rescue some people from some tribal lion people. The players fought past the underlings to the chief, who was wielding magical scimitars. When he hit the end of his first HP pool, he slammed his scimitars into the ground and roared the name of his God. From the shadows cast by the scimitars came two shadow lions. The chief polymorphed into a lion as well. The shadow lion bite caused the Frightened condition, and the chief's roar (recharge 6) could make any of the underlings remaining use their reaction to move towards the nearest enemy and attack. The players could remove the scimitars from the ground to get rid of the shadow lions, or use Radiant damage on them, and they could try to attack the chief, but he was disengaging and keeping distance. Both halves of the battle made sense narratively, but also had a mechanical shift that felt more like a miniboss/boss, instead of just fighting to higher CR chief and his underlings.
Thanks for the tips they actually give me some new ideas but the hard part for me is the stats of the enemy, how many damage shoud do, the HP, because I already know how I want the battle to be, giving them a mechanic.
For example: the heroes will be helping a revolution to take down the queen, so after they infiltrate in the castle and fight some guards they get to the queen and start fighting her and his swordman servant
The queen (being possessed by a demon) will stay back and cast something like vicious mockery but the objective will be prone instead of give disadvantage because she will be shouting "Now, knee down to your queen!". So i want to give her regular stats with high charisma and low str and dex.
The servant will be at the front with a one handed sword and whenever he receives a melee attack he will defend with the sword adding a dice to his AC. So he will have a low AC, high str and maybe high con or dex.
Now i want to know if this sounds good and if someone want to waste time talking in private message with me to help with the stats.
The easiest thing to do is use an encounter calculator to determine what sorts of monsters and their CR levels you should be using against your players.
As an example:
Let's pretend we have a group of five level 3 characters. If we plug that into the calculator I have linked above, it spits out the following table.
Results
Easy: 375 XP
Medium: 750 XP
Hard: 1125 XP
Deadly: 2000 XP
So, with that in mind, let's add some monsters to the other side, being sure to check the box for Challenge Rating (CR) for ease of math. If I toss in a single CR 5 monster, it spits out the following information.
Results
Characters: 5
Monsters: 1 (single)
XP to award: 1800 XP (360 XP each)
Difficulty multiplier: 1
Adjusted Difficulty Rating: 1800 XP
Encounter Challenge Rating: 5
Encounter Difficulty: Hard.
This means that a single CR 5 monster would be challenging for a group of 3rd level characters, but likely not a Deadly encounter, where a party wipe can occur. With this information I can now go over to my Monster Manual or here on DDB's Monster search section and look for a CR 5 Monster that would make for a memorable encounter for my players.
A Barbed Devil might be a good boss for a cult encounter. Maybe the evil cult that the party was tracking summoned the devil and it turned on them, killing their leader and began running amok. A Bulette might make for a good boss monster for an adventure where the party is helping out some local farmers find and drive off a burrowing creature that is terrorizing their farms. A Half-Red Dragon Veteran might lead a band of bandits that is bothering a remote town. Or maybe some insane Druid has used a lost ritual to create a Shambling Mound the party must track down and destroy. Maybe there's a Vampire Spawn or a Wraith that guards an old ruined castle deep in the forest or mountains that is rumored to be full of treasure.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
That is very simple to do, mostly because as the DM you can alter things to your whim. The trick is to remember: what your creatures can do, so can your players and versa visa.
A Hold Person spell would work exactly as you want, with a simple narrative description of the player dropping to a knee rather and being paralyzed in place. It would be easy enough to give her something along the lines of 10 STR, 10 Dex, 12 CON, 14 INT, 15 WIS, 18 CHA. Your saving throw would be a 14. AC 10 (13 with mage armor) HP 22 (4d8 +4)
The servant could be set around a 16 STR, 14 DEX, 15 CON, 11 INT, 12 WIS, 10 CHA. Give him a Long Sword, +5 to hit, 7(1d8) Slashing damage or 8(1d10) versitile. AC could be at 16 with scale mail. Give him Fighter with Dueling which would give another +2 to damage. Add a shield to his equipment which would negate the +2 damage for a +2 AC when he equips it. HP 24 (4d8 +6)
---
This is just spitballing numbers, there's charts in the DMG that will help you figure out what damage, hp, ac, etc you'd need to set an appropriate CR for the creatures. What I have here should be somewhere between CR 1-3.
So using the calculator make things easier, using the example of the queen and the servant my players should encounter them at level 6 the ideal CR for both should be 5 and then I use the stats of a monster similar to my idea and make some tweaks to match the roleplaying.
looking for the servant i could use the gladiator without the "brute" and the "shield bash", for the queen I'll keep looking.
I think that is all I needed to know and get so thank you all and if anyone wants to add something I'll appreciate it (and probably I'll return to ask something more...)
Don't forget the bodyguard/assassin hiding in the curtained alcove above.
If the players are winning too easily, a poisoned crossbow bolt might slow them down. If the players are in danger of losing, a holy crossbow bolt might slow the demon down.
For your queen, consider the Enchanter from Volos Guide to Monsters and maybe add 10hp and +2 AC to her. (Or don't and just assume she has her Mage Armor already active.)
I'm a new DM and I'm creating a campain from scratch, I already have the world and the guideline but i want to do custom mini-bosses and bosses,I'm trying to create them but idk if I'm doing it right...
So I'm here to ask if someone could help me to create them, or at least explain some way to do it or just give me references(the books,webpages,etc)
Also I don't use forums so if there is something wrong let me know
Low level bosses can be easily created by adding 10hp and +2 AC to a standard monster (goblin, orc, crocodile...) It's enough to let them stand out, without too much risk of overpowering the players. Be cautious of increasing the basic damage.
If you are coming from a video game perspective, thinking of mini-bosses and such as an opportunity to introduce new mechanics to the combat, or merely adding a slightly different flavour, then the following Video by Matt Colville is excellent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoELQ7px9ws
I have been DMing for *cough* years, and this guy has something to say in every video that makes me want to take notes.
Ultimately, experience and knowledge of your players is more important than any advice I can give. Err on the side of caution for the first couple of bosses and remember that a CR3 monster is going to be a stiff fight for a group of 4 level 2 characters.
You'll know you got it right when the players and characters start to panic, but win regardless.
One lesson I 'learned' last week - build the boss up a bit so the PC's recognise they are facing a boss. The PCs stumbled onto one of the Elemental Prophets and I don't know who was more surprised : Them, me, or the Prophet! There really should have been a "Holy Soiled Underpants! That's [redacted]" Opportunity missed. /sadface
Edit : The video is NOT just for people wanting to recreate Legend of Zelda / Diablo 3, but for all DMs wanting to add a little something-something to those climactic encounters.
Roleplaying since Runequest.
I think it was an article by the Angry GM, but I really liked the idea of having multiple pools for a boss, and have used it several times. Basically the boss might have 120 HP, but in actuality they have (70) and (50) HP. When they get to the bottom of the first 70 they don't take any extra damage into their other pool, and something changes about the boss. Maybe some of its defenses got weaker, but now it hits harder. Maybe it brought in some kind of area effect, trap, or similar.
You can also use it to say that there's multiple pieces to the monster. Maybe this gargantuan plant thing has separate HP pools for its arms, legs, chest, and head. Depending on what piece the players attack, it has different effects. When the arm is gone its a pool of wriggling vines that try to engulf them. When the chest is gone it sprays gouts of blighted poison sap...
It's sort of like a legendary action, but adjusted slightly.
The most recent one I used was when the party went to go and rescue some people from some tribal lion people. The players fought past the underlings to the chief, who was wielding magical scimitars. When he hit the end of his first HP pool, he slammed his scimitars into the ground and roared the name of his God. From the shadows cast by the scimitars came two shadow lions. The chief polymorphed into a lion as well. The shadow lion bite caused the Frightened condition, and the chief's roar (recharge 6) could make any of the underlings remaining use their reaction to move towards the nearest enemy and attack. The players could remove the scimitars from the ground to get rid of the shadow lions, or use Radiant damage on them, and they could try to attack the chief, but he was disengaging and keeping distance. Both halves of the battle made sense narratively, but also had a mechanical shift that felt more like a miniboss/boss, instead of just fighting to higher CR chief and his underlings.
Thanks for the tips they actually give me some new ideas but the hard part for me is the stats of the enemy, how many damage shoud do, the HP, because I already know how I want the battle to be, giving them a mechanic.
For example: the heroes will be helping a revolution to take down the queen, so after they infiltrate in the castle and fight some guards they get to the queen and start fighting her and his swordman servant
The queen (being possessed by a demon) will stay back and cast something like vicious mockery but the objective will be prone instead of give disadvantage because she will be shouting "Now, knee down to your queen!". So i want to give her regular stats with high charisma and low str and dex.
The servant will be at the front with a one handed sword and whenever he receives a melee attack he will defend with the sword adding a dice to his AC. So he will have a low AC, high str and maybe high con or dex.
Now i want to know if this sounds good and if someone want to waste time talking in private message with me to help with the stats.
The easiest thing to do is use an encounter calculator to determine what sorts of monsters and their CR levels you should be using against your players.
As an example:
Let's pretend we have a group of five level 3 characters. If we plug that into the calculator I have linked above, it spits out the following table.
Results
So, with that in mind, let's add some monsters to the other side, being sure to check the box for Challenge Rating (CR) for ease of math. If I toss in a single CR 5 monster, it spits out the following information.
Results
This means that a single CR 5 monster would be challenging for a group of 3rd level characters, but likely not a Deadly encounter, where a party wipe can occur. With this information I can now go over to my Monster Manual or here on DDB's Monster search section and look for a CR 5 Monster that would make for a memorable encounter for my players.
A Barbed Devil might be a good boss for a cult encounter. Maybe the evil cult that the party was tracking summoned the devil and it turned on them, killing their leader and began running amok. A Bulette might make for a good boss monster for an adventure where the party is helping out some local farmers find and drive off a burrowing creature that is terrorizing their farms. A Half-Red Dragon Veteran might lead a band of bandits that is bothering a remote town. Or maybe some insane Druid has used a lost ritual to create a Shambling Mound the party must track down and destroy. Maybe there's a Vampire Spawn or a Wraith that guards an old ruined castle deep in the forest or mountains that is rumored to be full of treasure.
So yeah, what level are your players?
That is very simple to do, mostly because as the DM you can alter things to your whim. The trick is to remember: what your creatures can do, so can your players and versa visa.
A Hold Person spell would work exactly as you want, with a simple narrative description of the player dropping to a knee rather and being paralyzed in place. It would be easy enough to give her something along the lines of 10 STR, 10 Dex, 12 CON, 14 INT, 15 WIS, 18 CHA. Your saving throw would be a 14. AC 10 (13 with mage armor) HP 22 (4d8 +4)
The servant could be set around a 16 STR, 14 DEX, 15 CON, 11 INT, 12 WIS, 10 CHA. Give him a Long Sword, +5 to hit, 7(1d8) Slashing damage or 8(1d10) versitile. AC could be at 16 with scale mail. Give him Fighter with Dueling which would give another +2 to damage. Add a shield to his equipment which would negate the +2 damage for a +2 AC when he equips it. HP 24 (4d8 +6)
---
This is just spitballing numbers, there's charts in the DMG that will help you figure out what damage, hp, ac, etc you'd need to set an appropriate CR for the creatures. What I have here should be somewhere between CR 1-3.
So using the calculator make things easier, using the example of the queen and the servant my players should encounter them at level 6 the ideal CR for both should be 5 and then I use the stats of a monster similar to my idea and make some tweaks to match the roleplaying.
looking for the servant i could use the gladiator without the "brute" and the "shield bash", for the queen I'll keep looking.
I think that is all I needed to know and get so thank you all and if anyone wants to add something I'll appreciate it (and probably I'll return to ask something more...)
Don't forget the bodyguard/assassin hiding in the curtained alcove above.
If the players are winning too easily, a poisoned crossbow bolt might slow them down.
If the players are in danger of losing, a holy crossbow bolt might slow the demon down.
I would never do this of course. :)
Roleplaying since Runequest.
For your queen, consider the Enchanter from Volos Guide to Monsters and maybe add 10hp and +2 AC to her. (Or don't and just assume she has her Mage Armor already active.)