Hello everyone, so I'm making the last encounter for a story arc and need help making sure it is hard but not a guaranteed TPK. So the PC party is.
Lvl 3 Ranger- Gloom Stalker
Lvl 3 Ranger- Beast Master
Lvl 3 Cleric- Storm Cleric
Lvl 3 Warlock- Great Old One/ Pact of the Tome
Lvl 3 Rouge - Thief
So i was think that the main bad guy was going to be a Lvl 4 or 5 Sorcerer with the dragon bloodline and I was going to have some more mobs to provide a front line for him. (Mercenary band) I just don't know how many additional monsters to put in. Thank you in advance.
For the math I've done, it seems a CR 1ish Boss Monster and five CR 1/2 minions would factor into a Hard encounter for a party of that level and composition.
Thanks I really like the Ambush Drake and the Firenewt Warrior i'll just change it to Posion since it's a Black Dragon thing, but still thanks a ton.
Conversely, if you just want it to be a cool Big Bad fight, have the CR 1 Dragonborn ride in on a CR 4 Reduced-threat Wyvern and let the two of them fight it out with the party. Those two together equal out to a Hard fight as well and would look sorta epic.
I've found in my adventures that even deadly encounters can turn into just regular encounters. I hope they find a way to balance this. I still haven't found a perfect way to create encounters based on the CR system.
Personally due to the fact of the random chance of the game as a whole this isn't entirely avoidable as bad roles can quickly change the tide of battle. What I would suggest is finding a way to do a opt out button if the encounter becomes too deadly. For instance what if there is some kind of creature that just crashes into the encounter and now the party and the big bad have to deal with it but the big bad devotes more resources because this is their lair. That way you can even the playing feild and also introduce that the world isn't stagnant.
Well just to give a little backstory on what I did. So my big bad for this arc is a black dragonborn sorcerer that I rolled like I would a PC. He is LVL 4 with max HP. That one reason I need help with the encounter cause I'm not sure what CR rating he would be
Hello everyone, so I'm making the last encounter for a story arc and need help making sure it is hard but not a guaranteed TPK. So the PC party is.
Lvl 3 Ranger- Gloom Stalker
Lvl 3 Ranger- Beast Master
Lvl 3 Cleric- Storm Cleric
Lvl 3 Warlock- Great Old One/ Pact of the Tome
Lvl 3 Rouge - Thief
So i was think that the main bad guy was going to be a Lvl 4 or 5 Sorcerer with the dragon bloodline and I was going to have some more mobs to provide a front line for him. (Mercenary band) I just don't know how many additional monsters to put in. Thank you in advance.
A solid encounter would be to use a slightly modified version of a Kobold Scale Sorcerer with maybe a tad more HP and a breath weapon, and then sprinkle in some minion monsters like Ambush Drake, Firenewt Warrior, Magma Mephit, or Magmin.
For the math I've done, it seems a CR 1ish Boss Monster and five CR 1/2 minions would factor into a Hard encounter for a party of that level and composition.
Thanks I really like the Ambush Drake and the Firenewt Warrior i'll just change it to Posion since it's a Black Dragon thing, but still thanks a ton.
Conversely, if you just want it to be a cool Big Bad fight, have the CR 1 Dragonborn ride in on a CR 4 Reduced-threat Wyvern and let the two of them fight it out with the party. Those two together equal out to a Hard fight as well and would look sorta epic.
I've found in my adventures that even deadly encounters can turn into just regular encounters. I hope they find a way to balance this. I still haven't found a perfect way to create encounters based on the CR system.
Personally due to the fact of the random chance of the game as a whole this isn't entirely avoidable as bad roles can quickly change the tide of battle. What I would suggest is finding a way to do a opt out button if the encounter becomes too deadly. For instance what if there is some kind of creature that just crashes into the encounter and now the party and the big bad have to deal with it but the big bad devotes more resources because this is their lair. That way you can even the playing feild and also introduce that the world isn't stagnant.
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Well just to give a little backstory on what I did. So my big bad for this arc is a black dragonborn sorcerer that I rolled like I would a PC. He is LVL 4 with max HP. That one reason I need help with the encounter cause I'm not sure what CR rating he would be
A level 4 character is about worth a CR 1 monster, which is why I suggested a creature with a CR 1 stat block to use for him.