DM, a foe to strong...

[zarg43]

so here is the deal, I'm returning to DMing after a LONG time away from it. The first time I DMed it was a huge mess and I was spineless. Now many years and optimized characters later, I've decided to try my hand once more.

The campaign is not meant to be played more then once, and is looking to be anywhere from 6-12 people. The only reason I'm doing this is because that a good deal of my friends have not really jumped into Dungeons and Dragons and have been turned down because our "usual" group is too large.

We are starting at level 15 and all books except Unearthed Archana, Exalted Deeds, and BoVD.

I've decided the "final" boss is a level 20 Warforged Cleric with a 32 point buy and 760,000 starting gold from the WBL chart at level 20. Now at first when I was rolling him up I was like "WOW, these guys are just going to steam roll him!", after applying some Divine meta-magic persisting some buffs, I might have over done it. I still don't know the number of attendees, but only 3 know how to slightly optimize with a few that I'm just going to pre-gen for.
There is a self imposed limitation of no save or die spells, and no curative spells. Just so they can kill this guy.

Should I scale it down? Scale it up? Change the boss to something else? I really want this guy to be like his name "Inevitable", the whole idea is that he is a wanderer that travels straight to his destination. Through Oceans, Mountains, even space and time itself. He is never in a rush and as such only has a speed of 10ft/turn. I'm just wondering if a level 15 party can't take a level 20 cleric

[Studoku]

Single monsters, especially ones built like PCs don't make great battles. Your cleric is going to be facing 6+ actions for each of his own and, unlike monsters of that level- which have massive hp- he'll be relatively fragile.

That said, he's a caster so you have options. Summons and battlefield control spells are good- anything to stop the party being able to focus fire.

Which spells does he have persisted and just how optimised is he?

[Debihuman]

I think your first problem is that you are starting at level 15. Get a copy of all the character sheets and make sure you are familiar with everyone's strengths and weaknesses. It is hard to challenge a party of that level with an experienced DM and you have had previous problems with this.

Your minions should be organized and tough with abilities that challenge the PCs. You can go with a lot of lower level minions to whittle at the parties resources before they ever get close to your cleric. If the party is hurting too much from the lower levels, you can always scale it back there. It's harder to scale back a single foe.

Debby

[Yitzi]

I'm not so sure he'd be too strong. As long as he can't get heavy combat control and has no or few direct-damage ranged spells (maybe add another self-imposed limitation or two as well if needed, just make sure to provide clues that the party can use to know all these limitations) and has access to no ranged martial weapons, the party should be able to win by forcing the battle to be a ranged one (quite doable with a 10 ft/round enemy). So long as you have no overly dedicated melee characters (and most unoptimized builds will tend toward more versatility, especially if you suggest a backup bow for the fighters and so on), it should make for a battle that the party can win if they play it smart.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Honestly? Wait until you've had one or two adventures with the party, to see how combat efficient they really are. That will give you a lot of information that you're just guessing at right now.

[zarg43]

Honestly? Wait until you've had one or two adventures with the party, to see how combat efficient they really are. That will give you a lot of information that you're just guessing at right now.

well this is just a one time deal, it's not meant to continue on after this and is only there to make sure every one can have some fun.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Will the players have access to Disjunction? That pretty much wrecks a persistent Clericzilla's day. That said, Disjunction also wrecks the players. In any event, Divine Defiance (FCII) is worth looking up.