Hello all. So, as a preface, my party is trying to hunt down the leaders that united the roving gnoll warbands to attack a druid conclave that was meeting to establish peace amongst various tribes in my setting. After saving the conclave, the party has volunteered to hunt these leaders and are heading to a valley that the gnoll leadership is hiding in.
The party consists of 6 PC's: an elven Eldritch Knight, a humanish Monk, A druid/cleric multiclass, a warlock, and two sorcerers. The party is level 7.
The 'boss' fight will be in two stages. The first stage will be a fight between the following:
This fight I am fairly certain will be relatively easy for them. However, once they move towards the cave the gnolls were in front of, or rest, stage 2 of the fight kicks in.
Is the Blighted Despot meant to be a charred corpse that is reanimated?
I feel that the first form is balanced. I'm not sure about the second. Corrupt touch combined with having resistance all weapon attacks is pretty strong, esp. when you combine that with Legendary actions that can make it even harder to use spells or to hit. What do you mean by "1 witherling, +1 witherling per round"?
Gnoll witherling. Arrive every round at initiative 10. I agree that for melee it is pretty strong. But I have to try and balance it for an 8 person party - a monk, an eldritch knight, a druid, a warlock, 2 sorcerers (one of whih that has a fly speed), a warlock/cleric, and a bard. And the environment is going to be a huge field with a few dunes in it, but otherwise open.
Also, there are are a couple of errors in there I didn't catch until after I hit share for the second link. It's save DC's for spells should be 13 (not 16). And the spell Steal the Words is a custom spell. Basically it is a silence effect (with saves) against a single target.
And after looking it over, I think dropping multiattack (especially with the legendary actions) won't hurt its damage dealing potential any.
It's still very powerful with it's combination of attacks, the disadvantage effect touch, the knockdown bonus action, And ability to effectively Silence up to two creatures every turn. I would say that the knockdown bonus action, if it were to require a recharge the way a dragon's breath weapon usu does, then it would be fine. Being able to knock prone every round on top of the Earth Glide for superior positioning makes this creature Very deadly if you as the DM play the boss to its full potential.
Bit of an update. Party encountered the Blighted Despot v1, a slightly beefed up Gnoll warband leader, and some gnolls (1 per round on 20 as a lair action). It worked a treat - genuinely terrified the party. They locked down the gnoll leader with Hideous Laughter and bad rolls on my part. It's lightning abilities dealt a little too much damage. Turns out is averaged 35 damage round - I ended up giving the reaction a saving throw for half - and it worked a little better to not absolutely wreck the party. The regular gnolls barely lasted a round, but it still worked well.
The second phase was just starting when the session ended.
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Hello all. So, as a preface, my party is trying to hunt down the leaders that united the roving gnoll warbands to attack a druid conclave that was meeting to establish peace amongst various tribes in my setting. After saving the conclave, the party has volunteered to hunt these leaders and are heading to a valley that the gnoll leadership is hiding in.
The party consists of 6 PC's: an elven Eldritch Knight, a humanish Monk, A druid/cleric multiclass, a warlock, and two sorcerers. The party is level 7.
The 'boss' fight will be in two stages. The first stage will be a fight between the following:
Gnoll Fang of Yeenoghu
10 gnoll witherlings
The Gnoll's 'advisor'
This fight I am fairly certain will be relatively easy for them. However, once they move towards the cave the gnolls were in front of, or rest, stage 2 of the fight kicks in.
The True Leader
1 witherling, +1 witherling per round.
So my question to everyone, are these new monsters balanced? Will they appropriately challenge the party? If not, what should I do?
Is the Blighted Despot meant to be a charred corpse that is reanimated?
I feel that the first form is balanced. I'm not sure about the second. Corrupt touch combined with having resistance all weapon attacks is pretty strong, esp. when you combine that with Legendary actions that can make it even harder to use spells or to hit. What do you mean by "1 witherling, +1 witherling per round"?
Gnoll witherling. Arrive every round at initiative 10. I agree that for melee it is pretty strong. But I have to try and balance it for an 8 person party - a monk, an eldritch knight, a druid, a warlock, 2 sorcerers (one of whih that has a fly speed), a warlock/cleric, and a bard. And the environment is going to be a huge field with a few dunes in it, but otherwise open.
Also, there are are a couple of errors in there I didn't catch until after I hit share for the second link. It's save DC's for spells should be 13 (not 16). And the spell Steal the Words is a custom spell. Basically it is a silence effect (with saves) against a single target.
And after looking it over, I think dropping multiattack (especially with the legendary actions) won't hurt its damage dealing potential any.
It's still very powerful with it's combination of attacks, the disadvantage effect touch, the knockdown bonus action, And ability to effectively Silence up to two creatures every turn. I would say that the knockdown bonus action, if it were to require a recharge the way a dragon's breath weapon usu does, then it would be fine. Being able to knock prone every round on top of the Earth Glide for superior positioning makes this creature Very deadly if you as the DM play the boss to its full potential.
Agreed. I'll make it a recharge 6.
Any other comments? They should (in theory) get used this weekend.
Looks good to me.
Great. I'll let ya know how they did! Thanks for the help!
Any time. Monsters are my 2nd most favorite thing about D&D.
Bit of an update. Party encountered the Blighted Despot v1, a slightly beefed up Gnoll warband leader, and some gnolls (1 per round on 20 as a lair action). It worked a treat - genuinely terrified the party. They locked down the gnoll leader with Hideous Laughter and bad rolls on my part. It's lightning abilities dealt a little too much damage. Turns out is averaged 35 damage round - I ended up giving the reaction a saving throw for half - and it worked a little better to not absolutely wreck the party. The regular gnolls barely lasted a round, but it still worked well.
The second phase was just starting when the session ended.