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I'm designing a series of encounters where the BBEG is a witch. The enemy is a party of 5th level PCs.
Now, I can certainly design the witch with little problem, but whenever we've had fights involving NPC spellcasters, the party always targets them first and nukes them before they can bring their magic to bear. In one fight, the Barbarian overran an intervening orc in round 1 to get to the wizard and killed him in one shot! Something similar happened in another recent fight, although the Barbarian had help from the Ranger on that one.
So since I want this NPC to be a credible threat, I need to find a way to allow her to avoid death long enough to get her spells off. I'm brainstorming ideas right now culled from more successful encounters and I'd like help in determining which will make for interesting combats without frustrating the players too badly:
- Surprise the party
- Soften them up first (before the caster even makes an appearance)
- Terrain hampers movement significantly
- Caster is not easily accessible (up a tree, on top of a rock, or something)
- Caster is hidden (invisible or just not readily apparent)
- Caster has some kind of ultra mobility (can teleport or dimension door around the battlefield)
- Buy a larger Battle-mat (mine is pretty wimpy, only about 28" long. No wonder the Barbarian can charge all the way across it in a single move!
- Mooks running interference (I can never decide how many is enough. Is it better to have more that are less powerful or fewer that are more powerful?)
Biggest thing would be to make sure that she has some buffs and prep time before the battles starts with some mooks to block the line. Heroism + false life should give them a nice boost so as to not be immediately taken out. Surprise round would also help. Yes, mooks can never hurt; make them a credible threat to the party so that if the melee characters choose to eat the AoO's they could mow down the casters.
I'm designing a series of encounters where the BBEG is a witch. The enemy is a party of 5th level PCs.
Now, I can certainly design the witch with little problem, but whenever we've had fights involving NPC spellcasters, the party always targets them first and nukes them before they can bring their magic to bear. In one fight, the Barbarian overran an intervening orc in round 1 to get to the wizard and killed him in one shot! Something similar happened in another recent fight, although the Barbarian had help from the Ranger on that one.
So since I want this NPC to be a credible threat, I need to find a way to allow her to avoid death long enough to get her spells off. I'm brainstorming ideas right now culled from more successful encounters and I'd like help in determining which will make for interesting combats without frustrating the players too badly:
- Surprise the party
- Soften them up first (before the caster even makes an appearance)
- Terrain hampers movement significantly
- Caster is not easily accessible (up a tree, on top of a rock, or something)
- Caster is hidden (invisible or just not readily apparent)
- Caster has some kind of ultra mobility (can teleport or dimension door around the battlefield)
- Buy a larger Battle-mat (mine is pretty wimpy, only about 28" long. No wonder the Barbarian can charge all the way across it in a single move!
- Mooks running interference (I can never decide how many is enough. Is it better to have more that are less powerful or fewer that are more powerful?)
Surprise: Cheap if it is forced. OK if the players isn't focused on Perception.
Soften them up: Sure, a boss should be at the end, against a party that has spent some resources.
Terrain hamper: If it makes sense. If overdone, this gets really old, really fast
Accessibility: Preferable that it spends an action to cast fly or something similar. Otherwise, having it sitting atop a pillar that looks nigh impossible to climb looks and feels artificial and silly.
Hidden: Sure, if the caster knows they are coming, this is fair.
Mobility: For casters on higher levels, this is a given.
Map: Bigger is better. We have one as big as our table, and it rarely suffices for bigger encounters.
Mooks: THIS is where you want to find your relief. Having a lot of mooks keeps the fighters from running right up and murdering the boss. Weak mooks are OK. They are there to die and hamper, not really hurt. Wasting CR on "powerful mooks" is rarely smart, unless your caster boss knows some SERIOUS group-buffs.
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I'm designing a series of encounters where the BBEG is a witch. The enemy is a party of 5th level PCs.
Now, I can certainly design the witch with little problem, but whenever we've had fights involving NPC spellcasters, the party always targets them first and nukes them before they can bring their magic to bear. In one fight, the Barbarian overran an intervening orc in round 1 to get to the wizard and killed him in one shot! Something similar happened in another recent fight, although the Barbarian had help from the Ranger on that one.
So since I want this NPC to be a credible threat, I need to find a way to allow her to avoid death long enough to get her spells off. I'm brainstorming ideas right now culled from more successful encounters and I'd like help in determining which will make for interesting combats without frustrating the players too badly:
- Surprise the party
- Soften them up first (before the caster even makes an appearance)
- Terrain hampers movement significantly
- Caster is not easily accessible (up a tree, on top of a rock, or something)
- Caster is hidden (invisible or just not readily apparent)
- Caster has some kind of ultra mobility (can teleport or dimension door around the battlefield)
- Buy a larger Battle-mat (mine is pretty wimpy, only about 28" long. No wonder the Barbarian can charge all the way across it in a single move!
- Mooks running interference (I can never decide how many is enough. Is it better to have more that are less powerful or fewer that are more powerful?)
Surprise: Cheap if it is forced. OK if the players isn't focused on Perception.
Soften them up: Sure, a boss should be at the end, against a party that has spent some resources.
Terrain hamper: If it makes sense. If overdone, this gets really old, really fast
Accessibility: Preferable that it spends an action to cast fly or something similar. Otherwise, having it sitting atop a pillar that looks nigh impossible to climb looks...
+1
He hit all the main points. I would only add that retreat and regroup is always a fun way to make a bad guy last.
Woah post monster ate my huge post.
Here's the deal sparky.
It's a witch, so give a her a coven!
So now there are THREE witches.
Give them the cool coven hexes, hag eyes and pots of boiling brew.
Maybe their lair is amist an ancient undead TREE.
So the tree is HUGE (super difficult terrain) but is also semi alive (give it the same stats as assassin vines in EVERY encounter but throw on the undead template so it can be turned (from that encounter area) and give the ability to 'move' in order to change the actual terrain on the fly, so if the encounter starts with BBEG 30" away, on the badguys turn, the TREE moves 30" (its actually the branch shes standing on or whatever)
So the tree can only be killed if ALL the assassin vines in all encounter areas of the lair are slain.
Make on Witch a plague patron, make on witch a transformation patron and the HAG (because there needs to be one for a coven) could be anything make it a cheap easy hag, not overly important.
whatever you do do not make it apparent that there IS a coven (or they will expect MORE spell casters.
Maybe the PCs are there to kill the hag because thats the BBEG they know about.
the transformation witch could be in animal form, often, and not even recognized as one.
The plague witch is busying her self attending to the "lair" Tree and therefor it's the Hag who does most of the "foreign diplomacy" so is the one who travels outside of the lair and the one the PCs have come to slay.
This gives you suprise spellcasters, as well as a DM controlled environment (and who says there arent more than one undead assassin vines in certain encounter areas)
When the PCs meet up with the plague witch and her cronies, the transformation witch should be in animal form and they might mistake it for her familiar (make the real familiar something like a spider or scorpion so they can't see it right away) and make the transform witch a fox or something. This way they are really facing TWO witches plus cronies but don't know it yet.
They should face the HAG (known villan) first, and think they have fought the "Boss" and won and would be in mental "mop up mode" possibly just trying to kill off the giant undead tree. When they run into Bubble Bubble Toil and Double Trouble.
Don't forget to have the 'encounter rooms' move and change during combat.
Introduce this on early battles frequently so they dont call BS if you do it only on a boss battle, let them know it's going to happen.
Should be a blast...this encounter has been sitting in the back of my mind for weeks.
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An option I thought of at random here, sorry if someone already came up with it or that it's useless is perhaps the witch has used some basic illusion spells or potions to make her mooks look like something far more dangerous then she is. Something like her elite guard disguise selfed as ogres or something.
Basically something that puts in the parties minds at least for a round or two that she's not the biggest problem in the encounter.
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An option I thought of at random here, sorry if someone already came up with it or that it's useless is perhaps the witch has used some basic illusion spells or potions to make her mooks look like something far more dangerous then she is. Something like her elite guard disguise selfed as ogres or something.
Basically something that puts in the parties minds at least for a round or two that she's not the biggest problem in the encounter.
A thought I had that relates to this one, Have the Witch be invisible, but have her or a cohort use an illusion to make a copy of her...over a pit...of DEATH...Good luck to that Barbarian that charges through the minions (I would actually make sure there is a minion that the Barbarian can easily charge through)
Use Silent Spell when Invis and no one will know where you are. Scry and do it and then you are really being evil...Be invisible while scrying...a nice touch...but use Dust of Disapearance...just in case.
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Wow - thanks, I can really use the help. :)
The setting for the encounters are pretty much set - I have a number of ideas, but I need to make the whole thing gel and I want to make sure the final encounter feels suitably climactic.
So if anyone is interested, I'll lay out the details so far. I welcome critiques and new ideas, because I'm a creaky old DM and its hard for me to come up with new tricks.
Spoilers ahead for This Campaign.
The setting:
The Fey environment is going to be a hindrance to the PCs - time flows differently there, making it impossible for them to rest and recover properly. There will be certain disorienting effects as well, which may cause them to gain conditions like shaken or fatigued.
Once they clear it, there will be one area along the path where they can get some limited rest. They will also be able to retreat outside the wood to rest. (of course, because the the timelessness of the Fey realm, they will keep re-emerging in different time periods until they restore the path once and for all)
There are several encounter areas which radiate out from a central hub. In order to clear the path they need to deal with problems in each area. These challenges will range from easy to moderate, and the enemies will consist primarily of neutral or evil Fey and a few plant beasts. The final confrontation is the big one.
The Adversary:
Originally I statted her up as an 8th level witch. Concerned that this might not be enough, I bumped her to level 10, but now I'm concerned that it might be too much. She is focused on debuffing spells and hexes: hexes like evil eye, misfortune, blight; spells like fester, bestow curse, pain strike, crushing despair. She's the ultimate downer. However, at 10th level there are now a couple of save-or-die spells in her arsenal and I'm worried I may have gone too far. I might need to bust her back to 8th. I could also reduce her Int down from 20 to 16 in order to bring down her save DC's slightly. The party might level up to 6th before they get her final fight, so maybe I should have both versions handy.
She's going to throw some hindrances at the party while they deal with other problems along the Fey path, but then will disappear quickly back to her base. The party will eventually have to assault her in her lair to complete the adventure.
This is supposed to be a Very Difficult Encounter. I want to just skirt the edge of where a PC might die without causing a TPK.
The final confrontation area:
The mooks:
I'm also thinking that she needs a bruiser to help defend her. The current favorite in my mind is a twisted Treant, but maybe the CR 8 is a bit too much, so I could also go with an animated tree (or two) of some kind at a lower CR.
The heroes:
A Bard (focuses on negotiation, buffing, and annoying low-level magic, close to useless in combat, really poor physical stats.)
A Barbarian (Typical axe-crazy, low AC and huge DPR, can soak a lot of damage)
A Fighter (Finesse Rapier & Buckler guy, on his way to duellist.)
A Wizard (Universalist, trends towards Evocations in combat but also carries utility spells.)
A Cleric (Always buffs himself first, then likes to throw channeled energy, heal, dispel magic)
A Ranger/Wizard (has 1 level of wizard for True Strike but is on the way to Arcane Archer. Ranged specialist.)
Another fighter might show up (shield fighter) if he gets back from hiatus before the final encounter. Then again, it's not unusual for one or two of them to miss a session, which is one of the reasons I'm having a hard time planning this.
So that's the situation. Like I said, I could really use some advice on this one.
mirror image
fear
suggestion
basically, spells designed to avoid atacks and affect willopower (will dcs suck for fighter, no?).
It is better to make your witch a little stronger and not play her to perfection, use spells creatively rather than the boring save or die spells. Exotic rarely used magic unexpectedly makes a better impression.
Instead of regular mooks, use animated objects, like ropes or vines that can entangle players;
1 it says 'magic'
2 entangling, grabbing or constricting can be a serious bother
3 presumably immune to bludgeoning damage, but vulnerable to slashing, so pick your targets ;)
Interesting sidekick might be a non-evil low wisdom character, thinking about a cavalier of the order of the shield that is in love and charmed on top of that, striving to protect his lady from the dangerous ruffians in this forest of corruption.
Consider taking improved familiar for your witch, and feats that are more flavor than power, a quasit 'familiar' might be the ultimate architect of chaos and corruption.
Make use of her knowledge of the area, maybe an area of quicksand in a swampy part of the forest will entrap characters that try to engage her directly, or perhaps lure them to a dangerous denizen of the forest, eliminating two potential enemies to thwart her plan in one stroke.
My 2 cents:
Coven: Add more witches: +1
Illusion magic: difficult to find "master witch": +1
Bodyguard: Harder to get to witch: +1
Maybe even with improved grapple /trip/ sunder...
Spells preparation: Protection from arrows, Mirror image,...: +1
Minions: aplenty!! +1
Barbarians LOVE the attention of rushing forward, taking AOO and killing the BBEG, just to brag about it later. Well, make them pay for it with tripping AOO and such. Not so awesome!! when they go face-first in the midst of several puny adversaries! ^^