So I am in the process of making a winter themed dungeon with an optional boss. I saw the Winter Eladrin and thought it would work perfectly, thematically.
As I am going through the stat block I see that it varies noticeably from it's other seasonal brethren (Spring, Autumn, and Summer Elardrin). It lacks Multi-attack, magical weapon attacks, most of its stats are low, and it only has two 1/day spells. This all seems pretty weak for CR 10.
10 is actually higher than my party's ECL so I didn't want to spice the fight up too much in fear of... you know.... killing them... but at the same time it seems like they'd take this boss out pretty easily. So I guess my question is WHY is this CR so high? I feel like I'm missing something and I am afraid to throw it in to the fray. Thoughts?
It's because the Winter Eladrin has the best Presence ability, I think, combining charmed (spring and summer) with the crippled ability checks of winter and crippled saves, which means the Sorrowful Presence, once is sticks, is really challenging to shift. The problem is that the Winter Eladrin's presence already has -3 to its save DCs to compensate, so I think they nerfed it twice when it only needed to be nerfed once.
If you want to fix it, giving Sorrowful Presence a DC of 16 should make it properly challenging. If that still feels too weak, Spirit Shroud 1/day and/or Cause Fear 3/day would both be thematically appropriate.
So I am in the process of making a winter themed dungeon with an optional boss. I saw the Winter Eladrin and thought it would work perfectly, thematically.
As I am going through the stat block I see that it varies noticeably from it's other seasonal brethren (Spring, Autumn, and Summer Elardrin). It lacks Multi-attack, magical weapon attacks, most of its stats are low, and it only has two 1/day spells. This all seems pretty weak for CR 10.
10 is actually higher than my party's ECL so I didn't want to spice the fight up too much in fear of... you know.... killing them... but at the same time it seems like they'd take this boss out pretty easily. So I guess my question is WHY is this CR so high? I feel like I'm missing something and I am afraid to throw it in to the fray. Thoughts?
It's because the Winter Eladrin has the best Presence ability, I think, combining charmed (spring and summer) with the crippled ability checks of winter and crippled saves, which means the Sorrowful Presence, once is sticks, is really challenging to shift. The problem is that the Winter Eladrin's presence already has -3 to its save DCs to compensate, so I think they nerfed it twice when it only needed to be nerfed once.
If you want to fix it, giving Sorrowful Presence a DC of 16 should make it properly challenging. If that still feels too weak, Spirit Shroud 1/day and/or Cause Fear 3/day would both be thematically appropriate.
Honestly, the fall eladrin isn't impressive either, but at least gets a lot of heals.
Ah! Thanks! I hadn't really put it together how much more powerful that presence is. I may keep it the same and throw in a minion to close the gap.