It's my first time building a major boss. Looking for feedback on the Clockwork Corpse. Thanks!
The party consists of 5 level 4 characters (one more may join the campaign soon). The party’s sorcerer has a bag of tricks and uses it every freaking day to get 3 animal companions, so there’s usually at least one hefty animal companion in the mix as well. I’d like for there to be a very real chance of at least a couple characters going unconscious and maybe even a character death. So far, every time I put an encounter officially considered "deadly," the party steamrolls it in like 2 rounds, so I need something pretty intense.
Context: The party has made a horrifying discovery that a wealthy artificer has been experimenting on kids, using their bodies to create cyborg-like drones (they're basically grotesque monodrones). Soon, they will find that she has been infected with a necrotic disease which is causing her body to wither away (still building a backstory for how that happened) and she has built a mechanical suit which she intends to magically fuse with herself to forestall/prevent her own death. When the party catches up with her, she’ll fuse herself with the contraption. Unfortunately for her, the science and magic behind this experiment is extremely volatile and untested. In the process of fusing herself with the contraption, she will die and the contraption will be animated by its undead host. Think of it like a steampunk Doc Ock, but with Otto Octavius as a convulsing corpse, dangling from raging robot arms.
Monster Tactics: The monster is in absolute kill mode. No survivors. As a clockwork construct, however, it is mathematical and calculating. It will first use its shocking grasp to drag a creature toward itself, then attempt to grapple it with its pincer arm. Finally, it will pummel its victim with 2 slam attacks. It has a few legendary actions: It will use its exploding spiders as a simple damage dealer, but the other two legendary actions are intended to prevent or escape being overwhelmed. The horrifying visage obviously keeps the threat at bay. It will save its Surge action for when 3 or more enemies are attacking it (especially since it has to refrain from its shocking grasp action in order to build up the electric energy needed to perform the surge action).
I thought about that too, but figured that its fusion with the soul of its evil host would push it into that alignment (not that it really makes mechanical or narrative difference).
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It's my first time building a major boss. Looking for feedback on the Clockwork Corpse. Thanks!
The party consists of 5 level 4 characters (one more may join the campaign soon). The party’s sorcerer has a bag of tricks and uses it every freaking day to get 3 animal companions, so there’s usually at least one hefty animal companion in the mix as well. I’d like for there to be a very real chance of at least a couple characters going unconscious and maybe even a character death. So far, every time I put an encounter officially considered "deadly," the party steamrolls it in like 2 rounds, so I need something pretty intense.
Context: The party has made a horrifying discovery that a wealthy artificer has been experimenting on kids, using their bodies to create cyborg-like drones (they're basically grotesque monodrones). Soon, they will find that she has been infected with a necrotic disease which is causing her body to wither away (still building a backstory for how that happened) and she has built a mechanical suit which she intends to magically fuse with herself to forestall/prevent her own death. When the party catches up with her, she’ll fuse herself with the contraption. Unfortunately for her, the science and magic behind this experiment is extremely volatile and untested. In the process of fusing herself with the contraption, she will die and the contraption will be animated by its undead host. Think of it like a steampunk Doc Ock, but with Otto Octavius as a convulsing corpse, dangling from raging robot arms.
Monster Tactics: The monster is in absolute kill mode. No survivors. As a clockwork construct, however, it is mathematical and calculating. It will first use its shocking grasp to drag a creature toward itself, then attempt to grapple it with its pincer arm. Finally, it will pummel its victim with 2 slam attacks. It has a few legendary actions: It will use its exploding spiders as a simple damage dealer, but the other two legendary actions are intended to prevent or escape being overwhelmed. The horrifying visage obviously keeps the threat at bay. It will save its Surge action for when 3 or more enemies are attacking it (especially since it has to refrain from its shocking grasp action in order to build up the electric energy needed to perform the surge action).
Clockwork Corpse... The first thing that I would have to say would be that a clockwork creation of any sort would be Lawful or Neutral Evil.
I thought about that too, but figured that its fusion with the soul of its evil host would push it into that alignment (not that it really makes mechanical or narrative difference).