CR against six 2nd level characters?

[DonDuckie]

I'm making their first boss encounter, and I'm looking for a single opponent.

The boss monster is a Skeletal Mage. The example on PFSRD (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/skeletal-mage) has 3 levels of necromancer. He looks defeatable to me.

Could I make him a level 4th or 5th cleric instead, or would it be smarter to keep him 3rd level(still cleric) and add one or two undead HD.

Or should I just keep him the way he is.
Or is he already overpowered for a party of 6 level 2nd characters.
They will most likely have surprise.
It is no disaster if a few of them die.

I could just keep him going until one or two of them are down, and then let him die, but I prefer not to.

[hymer]

He'll likely incapacitate or kill whoever gets his scorching ray. Aside from that, he doesn't seem to have much going for him damage-wise. As long as casualties are acceptable, he shouldn't be a problem for 6 second-lvls.

[limejuicepowder]

I would stay away from damage spells, generally. The level discrepancy means someone is going to get hammered by more damage than they can take (even if they survive it will almost certainly take them out of the fight, and that's no fun for them).

Instead, have the boss stock up on control-type spells like ray of enfeeblement and fog cloud, and give him some minions. Make the PC's fight him intelligently, rather then just a Russian Roulette of who gets picked to be the chump.

[DaTedinator]

It can be pretty hard to make one opponent a good challenge for even a party of four, six is almost impossible. The trouble is the party gets six turns every time he gets one; unless you make him capable of wiping out, like, two party members per turn (which isn't fun for the party), the party will just wipe the floor with him (which, while that can be fun for the party, it's not really the goal you're shooting for).

Now, admittedly, that's the pessimistic viewpoint. It can actually be done, it's just really hard.

The current skeletal mage actually could maybe fit your desires, depending on luck and the party. Scorching ray could drop a tank if he's lucky, or a caster even if he's not, and ghoul touch will take out one party member while weakening the others. After that, though, unless he gets lucky, he doesn't have much, so the party gets him. So you very possibly kill one party member, make another one useless for the fight, and then he dies - the party gets just enough time to fear him before winning and feeling awesome.

Then again, rereading your post more carefully... if the party gets six turns to whale on him before he gets one? He's probably toast. I would either give him minions, give the party something else to do at the same time (The skeletal mage has just set fire to the orphanage! Do you fight him or go save the children?), or not have the party get the drop on him.

Now, this is all heavily, heavily dependent on the party makeup, the party's mind for tactics, and your own mind for tactics, so take all of this with a couple grains of salt.

[DonDuckie]

Thanks for the replies.

The encounter will be unexpected by the party(in-game) and by the boss, who usually goes about his own business in his own little undead infested wasteland.

He'll be a cleric, so no scorching ray or other hard hitting damage spells.

My concern was if he was to tough, which it appears he isn't - as I suspected.

I think I will give him a few skeletons as minions.