So my players in the worldwound campaign are all experienced veterans and unless I make things harder for them the default adventure is just too easy. So I have been buffing the encounters somewhat to make it harder for them. Adding extra monster and giving them all max hp for their HD and even so there have only been two occasions were thing got dangerous for them and only one person has died.
So I decided to make a monster to serve as a boss of sorts.
He should be a strong challenge for 5 level 12 tier 3 mythic characters
Let me know what you think.
Explosion Demon CR 12 MR 3
XP 12,800
NE Large outsider (demon, evil, extraplanar, Mythic)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect magic; Perception +20
DEFENSE
AC 31, touch 15, flat-footed 19 (+6 Dex, +16 natural, –1 size)
hp 224 (14d10+84)
Fort +11, Ref +15, Will +14
DR 10/good; Immune Fire, Immune Electricity, critical hits, death effects, disease, poison, sneak attack; vulnerability to cold, resist acid 10; SR 22
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (average)
Melee bite +20 (2d8+6/19–20 plus explosion), 2 claws +19 (2d6+6 plus explosion)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 11th; concentration +15)
Constant—detect magic, see invisibility
At will—Burning hands (DC 15), Burning Gaze, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only)
3/day—Quickened Fireball (DC 19), Explosive Runes (dc 19),
1/day—Fiery body, Detonate (dc 22),
STATISTICS
Str 22, Dex 22, Con 22, Int 21, Wis 17, Cha 18
Base Atk +14; CMB +21; CMD 37
Feats Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Grapple, Iron Will, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (Fireball), Weapon Focus (bite), Mythic spell like ability (Burning Gaze)(can spend 1 mythic point to cast mythic burning gaze)
Skills Bluff +21, Fly +17, Heal +11, Intimidate +21, Knowledge (planes) +22, Knowledge (religion) +22, Perception +20, Sense Motive +20, Spellcraft +22, Stealth +19, Survival +20, Use Magic Device +14
Languages Abyssal, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft.
Flaming Body (Su)
A Explosion demon's body is covered in dancing flames. Anyone striking it with a natural weapon or unarmed strike takes 1d6 points of fire damage. A creature that grapples it or is grappled by one takes 6d6 points of fire damage each round the grapple persists.
Explosion (Su)
Any object or creature that comes in physical contact with an explosion demon gains a glowing mark. This mark is a charge of explosion. Up to five charges can be stacked on a single item or creature. At will the explosion demon can detonate any number of marks. Each marks that explodes deals 2d6 fire damage to each creature whitin 5 feet of the mark. Anyone hit can make a dc 22 reflex save to take half damage from a held item that explodes but get no save if the mark is on their person on a worn armor.
Death explosion (Su)
When killed, an explosion demon charges up for 3 rounds then in a blinding flash explodes in a ball of fire that deals 100 points of damage to anything within 300 feet (Reflex DC 22 halves). The save DC is Constitution-based.
Blinding Blaze (Su)
Can expend one use of mythic power as a swift action to burn brightly, granting it a blinding gaze attack. This gaze causes blindness for 1d4 rounds and has a range of 60 feet. A creature that succeeds at a DC 22 Fortitude save is instead dazzled for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Inferno (Ex)
Can expend one use of mythic power as an immediate action to lose its vulnerability to cold for 1 round. During this time, any fire damage it deals ignores fire resistance and fire immunity.
I was debating between standard and swift and I decided I should go with swift
Well, it always depends on the party and environment whether a particular monster will be a challenge. A pair of optimized divine hunters or luring Cavaliers would mince this poor fellow in one full attack action if allowed an optimal environment.
So, consider, is this monster fought in a "closet", a wide open space? Will the scenario be tailored to give it a surprise round? Will the party likely get a surprise round?
And, always, be careful of putting all your eggs in one basket. It's usually not a good idea to make one super monster and hope its a balanced fight. Minions almost always help balance fights, especially if you can tailor behind the scenes how many show up to help the fight. Players doing well? Four minion reinforcements show up! Players doing poorly? Maybe only one shows up.
Does the charge ability effect magical weapons armor and/or cold iron and if so how?
i feel like this should be an explosion elemental :P
"boss of sorts" and "strong challenge" sound like a "Hard" encounter. Not "Challenging" and not "Epic".
FIVE characters adds one to the party's APL. A "Hard" challenge should have CR = APL +2. Thus, based on your intro, this monster should have CR 15, not 12. According to the core rulebook, they should be able to fight four encounters of roughly CR 13 each day, so this guy is a bit weak for one of their four daily encounters. That doesn't sound like a "strong boss" at all.
I haven't evaluated the monster's stat block to figure out what CR I would asses it to be, but if you really think you've created a CR 12 monster here (and if you're right) then you've probably made a mistake and your party of 5 will destroy it in nearly the blink of an eye.
(I didn't count Mythic Tiers into that assessment because the PCs and the monster have the same 3 Tiers so it should be about equal and the CR assessment stands equally well with or without it.)
my inspiration came from the character Jackal from fairy tail so I started with a demon with the explosion ability and kinda went from there.
I was thinking that the explosion ability would not damage magical gear but would destroy non-magical items the mark is placed on.
The cr may not be accurate I kinda ballparked it.
The cr may not be accurate I kinda ballparked it.
So does Paizo...
In the end, if your CR is right, this is a trivial fight for your group. If the abilities seem pretty accurate for a CR 15 battle (which would be a strong "Hard" challenge", then they should get XP for a CR 15 monster.
The best way is to compare it to other CR 12 monsters. If you want, grab a similar kind of monster (yours feels like a large melee beast, so find another large melee beast) and have a little battle between them. See who wins. Keep trying until you find a similar monster that has a nearly even fight.
Note: don't be fooled by bad (or good) rolls and make sure both sides have the same number of hits/misses/critical hits as well as saves/fails to balance out the fight, that way randomly bad (or good) dice don't impact your CR decision).
updated version
Explosion Demon CR 14 MR 3
XP 18,800
NE Large outsider (demon, evil, extraplanar, Mythic)
Init +6/-14; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect magic; Perception +20
9 mythic points/day
DEFENSE
AC 31, touch 15, flat-footed 19 (+6 Dex, +16 natural, –1 size)
hp 224 (14d10+84)
Fort +12, Ref +15, Will +14
DR 10/good; Immune Fire, Immune Electricity, critical hits, death effects, disease, poison, sneak attack; vulnerability to cold, resist acid 10; SR 22
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (average)
Melee bite +20 (2d8+6/19–20 plus explosion), 2 claws +19 (2d6+6 plus explosion)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 11th; concentration +15)
Constant—detect magic, see invisibility
At will—Burning hands (DC 15), Burning Gaze, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only)
3/day—Quickened Fireball (DC 19), Explosive Runes (dc 19),
1/day—Fiery body, Detonate (dc 22),
STATISTICS
Str 22, Dex 22, Con 22, Int 21, Wis 17, Cha 18
Base Atk +14; CMB +21; CMD 37
Feats Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Grapple, Iron Will, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (Fireball), Weapon Focus (bite), Mythic spell like ability (Burning Gaze)(can spend 1 mythic point to cast mythic burning gaze)
Skills Bluff +21, Fly +17, Heal +11, Intimidate +21, Knowledge (planes) +22, Knowledge (religion) +22, Perception +20, Sense Motive +20, Spellcraft +22, Stealth +19, Survival +20, Use Magic Device +14
Languages Abyssal, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft.
Flaming Body (Su)
A Explosion demon's body is covered in dancing flames. Anyone striking it with a natural weapon or unarmed strike takes 1d6 points of fire damage. A creature that grapples it or is grappled by one takes 6d6 points of fire damage each round the grapple persists.
Explosion (Su)
Any object or creature that comes in physical contact with an explosion demon gains a glowing mark. This mark is a charge of explosion. Up to five charges can be stacked on a single item or creature. At will the explosion demon can detonate any number of marks. Each marks that explodes deals 2d6 fire damage to each creature whitin 5 feet of the mark. Anyone hit can make a dc 23 reflex save to take half damage from a held item that explodes but get no save if the mark is on their person on a worn armor. Magical items that have a rune on them are not harmed by the explosion but non-magical items are destroyed if the damage exceeds their hardness.
Death explosion (Su)
When killed, an explosion demon charges up for 3 rounds then in a blinding flash explodes in a ball of fire that deals 100 points of fire damage to anything within 300 feet (Reflex DC 23 halves). The save DC is Constitution-based.
Blinding Blaze (Su)
Can expend one use of mythic power as a swift action to burn brightly, granting it a blinding gaze attack. This gaze causes blindness for 1d4 rounds and has a range of 60 feet. A creature that succeeds at a DC 23 Fortitude save is instead dazzled for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Inferno (Ex)
Can expend one use of mythic power as an immediate action to lose its vulnerability to cold for 1 round. During this time, any fire damage it deals ignores fire resistance and fire immunity.
Dual Initiative (Ex): The monster gets two turns each round, one on its initiative count and another on its initiative count – 20. For example, if the monster's initiative is 23, for its first turn it could make a full attack (and take a 5 foot step) at initiative 23, and for its second turn at initiative 3 it could take a move action and cast a spell. This allows the monster to perform two actions per round that normally take an entire round, such as using a summon monster spell. For the purposes of spells and effects that have a duration of a round or longer or trigger at the beginning of the creature's round or the start of its turn such as saving throws against ongoing effects or taking bleed damage), only the monster's first turn each round counts toward such durations.
Hey Dire.
What about invoking suicide bomb demons?
Something to 1d6+1 smaller versions of itself appear, with only the death explosion and fire aura and a mindset to charge and go BOOM on the nearest hero.
not a bad idea make them charge for 3 rounds and blow up dealing something like 20 damage in a 60 foot radious that way when the big guy dies and starts charging up it will give them the idea to run.
It's nasty - I'll give you that.. I'm playing in that campaign myself (with a diff gm)... we are finishing up Drezen right now, and Mythic tier 2. We are all experienced players, and I can tell you now that even with another tier, I wouldn't want to face this demon. however, given a chance to prepare for such a fight, I can see our arcanist memorizing cold spells and vaporizing this thing, then half the party dying to the explosion, lol.
IF your players are that good though, you might want to give it some resistance to cold even with the vulnerability (like brimoraks have), making it not such a walk in the park for a prepared mage.
It's nasty - I'll give you that.. I'm playing in that campaign myself (with a diff gm)... we are finishing up Drezen right now, and Mythic tier 2. We are all experienced players, and I can tell you now that even with another tier, I wouldn't want to face this demon. however, given a chance to prepare for such a fight, I can see our arcanist memorizing cold spells and vaporizing this thing, then half the party dying to the explosion, lol.
IF your players are that good though, you might want to give it some resistance to cold even with the vulnerability (like brimoraks have), making it not such a walk in the park for a prepared mage.
If you're level 12, somebody should be able to make the Knowledge(Religion) check to know this guy will go boom.
A level 1 commoner can get 300' away in 3 rounds if he's unencumbered on decent terrain. Level 12's should have no problem. No need to die in the blast.
A more interesting challenge is to have the PCs fight this thing in a city or some other fairly crowded location; see how they can save any onlookers in 3 rounds... (bonus points if the onlookers are mostly halflings, gnomes, and dwarves who can only run 240' in the 3 rounds before the blast)
check this ability
Inferno (Ex)
Can expend one use of mythic power as an immediate action to lose its vulnerability to cold for 1 round. During this time, any fire damage it deals ignores fire resistance and fire immunity.
A level 1 commoner can get 300' away in 3 rounds if he's unencumbered on decent terrain. Level 12's should have no problem. No need to die in the blast.
A radius of Dimensional Anchor.
If he can make these...
Green Blaster
This green, rotting corpse has lost both arms. It hops towards any living thing.
Green Blaster CR6
NE Medium Undead
Int +4: Senses darkvision 60 feet: Perception +9
Defense
AC18, touch 12, flat footed 14, (+2 Dex., +4 natural)
Hp 39(6D8+12)
Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +10
Defensive Abilities Channel resistance +4
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee N/A
Special Attacks Explosion(6D6, anyone who dies from it rises as a green blaster in 1-6 rounds)
Statistics
Str. 10, Dex. 13, Con. ---, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Attack NA
Feats: sense life
Skills Acrobatics +8, Perception +8, Stealth +8, Swim +8
Languages Common
Ecology: Environment: Any
Organization solitary, gang(2-4), or pack(7-12)
Treasure, nil
Special abilities
Explosion. 6D6 in a 30 ft. radius. Reflex save DC16 for half. Anyone or anything that dies from the explosion rises as a green blaster in 1-6 rounds.
He can find the remains of his minions and make these out of them.