Help with a Minotaur Boss Build

[XianTheCoder]

I always struggle with figuring out how powerful to make my Boss NPCs when DMing (Especially when I have to start ish mashing LA, HD, and CL's). I am finishing up the details on my dungeon crawl, that I am going to run, and all that's really left is my finale Boss, a Minotaur Barbarian formerly enslaved by the king, until an earthquake broke his prison free.

Assume the party consists of level 5 versions of very generic:
1. Fighter Type
2. Arcane Caster
3. Divine Caster
4. Rogue Type

(Our group tends to use Prestige classes rarely and tends not to step on each others toes when it comes to character creation, so I fully expect this is what I'll end up with in a party. The Arcane caster will probably run a suboptimal build and the divine caster will probably use his godness sparingly.)

If a Minotaur has a LA +2, Racial HD of 6, how many barbarian levels should I give him to make him encounter appropriate (note he will not have an minions with him at the finale, though the party will be slightly widdled down via traps while trying to find him). Also, if I use character levels then will he lose any abilities from those specified in his MM listing?

[Hirax]

As an alternative, have you considered using a Krynn minotaur? They have no LA, no RHD, and can be found in the Dragonlance campaign setting.

[Dralnu]

He retains all his abilities when adding a class.

Minotaur Barbarian 2 or 3 should be fine for this encounter.

EDIT: CR increase due to class levels is usually a 1:1 ratio. From SRD:


Class levels that increase a monster’s existing strengths are known as associated class levels. Each associated class level a monster has increases its CR by 1.

Barbarian, fighter, paladin, and ranger are associated classes for a creature that relies on its fighting ability.

Challenge should be catered to a couple factors. For example, will the party meet him at full strength? Will they have time to cast buffs? If they're at full power and buffs, Minotaur Barbarian 4 (CR 8) is a challenging boss fight. If they're not a full strength and caught by surprise, Minotaur Barbarian 2 (CR 6) is challenging.

[true_shinken]

As an alternative, have you considered using a Krynn minotaur? They have no LA, no RHD, and can be found in the Dragonlance campaign setting.
LA make no difference at all for NPCs.


He retains all his abilities when adding a class.

Minotaur Barbarian 2 or 3 should be fine for this encounter.
That would be CR 6 or 7 and not that memorable (or strong) as a boss fight, I believe.

Enemies & Allies has an interesting minotaur wizard.
For a boss fight, you want CR +3 or CR +4. A minotaur Wizard 7 has CR 8 (start at 4 from minotaur, wizard is nonassociated until level 6 (adding +3), the last wizard level is a full +1 = 8; sounds about right. Give him Craft Magic Weapons and Armor and a band of minotaur mooks equiped with magic weapons/armor (or other magical items - wondrous items are awesome; who expects a teleporting minotaur?).
His Intelligente would start at 17 at best (18 -4 racial +3 levels), but that's enough for level 4 spells anyway.
Heck, have him put the party on a trap-filled maze while his minotaurs chase them.

[XianTheCoder]

As an alternative, have you considered using a Krynn minotaur? They have no LA, no RHD, and can be found in the Dragonlance campaign setting.

Don't have the book, and I didn't want to get to fancy with it, just a simple minotaur build, mostly out of Core.

Also, I definately don't want to throw a caster at the party here, as the previous arc in the dungeon crawl ends with a caster oriented encounter. Not to mention this NPC being a caster makes no sense in the story, and I'd rather not rewrite the story.

[Diarmuid]

It also depends if they will be meeting him alone, or if there will be some mooks to soak up some damage/spells/actions.

[Tvtyrant]

Minotaur Fighter 2/Barbarian 3 and crank up the creatures int score to 13 to get Combat Expertise and Improved Trip. Then add Knockdown to his build so that he gets a free trip when he does 10 damage on a hit. This lets him get two hits in on a charge, since tripping someone gets you a free attack.

So this makes him into a quasi-charger with his powerful charge gore; he gores someone on a charge, trips them, hits them again with their axe. That will probably do enough damage to your tank to make the party panic, which will make the fight seem more interesting even if its short. If you add Snap Kick to it you get three hits on a charge without pounce, which is pretty good considering its almost guaranteed to trip with its 25+ strength.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

First of all, the Minotaur's LA and HD are completely irrelevant. A Minotuar is CR 4, each associated class level (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/improvingMonsters.htm#advancedMonsterChallengeRati ng) you add gives him +1 CR, and just adding one class level gives him the elite array without any further increase to his CR.

That means if you want to make him CR 7 to be a dangerous challenge to a level 5 party, you should give him three class levels which add full BAB. Barbarian 3 is fine, but I would give him Barbarian 2/ Warblade 1 instead just so he can have some tricks. Use Wolf Totem Barbarian (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wolfTotemClassFeatures ) so he gets Improved Trip instead of Uncanny Dodge, along with the feats Knock-Down (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#knockDown) and Knock-Back from Races of Stone. His maneuvers and stance should be Wall of Blades, Iron Heart Surge, and Charging Minotaur, with Absolute Steel Stance.

[true_shinken]

Also, I definately don't want to throw a caster at the party here, as the previous arc in the dungeon crawl ends with a caster oriented encounter. Not to mention this NPC being a caster makes no sense in the story, and I'd rather not rewrite the story.
If you don't want to get fancy, the best you can do is advance him without class levels. He'll even be a lot more durable that way.



First of all, the Minotaur's LA and HD are completely irrelevant. A Minotuar is CR 4, each associated class level (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/improvingMonsters.htm#advancedMonsterChallengeRati ng) you add gives him +1 CR, and just adding one class level gives him the elite array without any further increase to his CR.
Actually, HD is relevant because of nonassociated class levels.

[XianTheCoder]

Thanks guys, thats extremely helpful.