Hi there! I'm trying to sculpt a rather challenging boss encounter for my groups party of 5 lvl 6 characters. What I'm thinking so far is a character lvl 8, 6 antipaladin/2 barbarian who wields a warhammer and a shield, uses the shield for bashing, and can probably kill or knock out someone in the party who isn't a pure caster. I would prefer it be everyone vs him so he's by himself, but that can change. This is what I have so far:
THE BANDIT LORD
Lvl 6 Anti Paladin/2 Urban Barbarian, Demon (Evil Outsider) HP:90 Speed 25
Str 20
Dex 17
Con 16
Int 7
Wis 8
Cha 18
BAB: +8/+3, AC 26
Feats: Power Attack, Shield Focus, Missile Shield, TWF, ITWF
Items: +1 Warhammer, +2 Breastplate, +2 Light Spiked Steel Shield
Saves: Fortitude 15, Reflex 7, Will 8
Class abilities: Smite good (+4 ATK, +6 DMG, +4 AC against good target)
Controlled Rage, Lesser Spirit Totem, Touch of Corruption 3D6 (sicken, stagger, Resist 10 Electricity and Poison
Do you think that this character could give 5 lvl 6 a run for their money? I don't want him to be a one man wrecking crew, but I don't want him to die in 1 turn either. Any help/ideas/suggestions?
Hi there! I'm trying to sculpt a rather challenging boss encounter for my groups party of 5 lvl 6 characters.
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Do you think that this character could give 5 lvl 6 a run for their money? I don't want him to be a one man wrecking crew, but I don't want him to die in 1 turn either. Any help/ideas/suggestions?
Setting aside the specifics of the build for the moment, it seems to me that you are pre-supposing that this villain would fight fair. I think an anti-paladin is going to thrive on chaos, fear, and confusion and isn't going to think twice of threatening entire populations of innocents to gain an edge against the PCs.
In crafting a challenging encounter with an anti-paladin I would have him take hostages and use them as body shields. I might take a page from the Joker and have him disguise a few of his minions as hostages and/or disguise some of the hostages as minions. Set the encounter in a place that could come falling down at any moment or could easily catch on fire. Maybe the PCs recognize one of the anti-paladin's minions and try to convince him to lay down his weapons or help them to free the hostages?
In game terms the bandit lord's strategy for the fight should work to take away the PCs advantage in action economy. In a fair fight the PCs have far more actions than he does and will handily dismantle any threat that has less than stellar defenses. These fights tend to be boring dice rolling exercises and have a high potential for PC death. If the encounter is focused on saving as many hostages as possible you have a lot more room for interesting gameplay.
I think he'll get his butt kicked pretty quick. I'd suggest maxing out his hit points, give him another level to gain another feat (level 9) and even toss in a couple of mooks/minions that he can use for fodder. Honestly he'd do better with a 2h weapon with his strength/power attacking rather than shield bashing, I'd give him lunge for reach and play up his strengths in that way.