Hey I'm a new DM need some help adjusting difficulty for Battle encounter.

[vvilhelm]

Hey
My idea is this the party has taken an escort mission from a NPC. They have to get the NPC to an alter to stop some bad thing from happening. the NPC tells the party his has to do a ritual to stop some Fiend from getting loose.

so in the Place of the alter the alter is protected by Four small elementals. After they defeat them the NPC does the ritual, but it turns out he is bad guy another battle ensues.

now i wanted the NPC to be an Warlock That uses Darkness and devils sight. The party does not have a 3th lvl spell to dismiss the darkness spell. i was thinking to use the object darkness and make it so that if the cover the object the could stop the darkness and also it a consentrations spell if they hit the npc hard enough it might loose consentration.

my question is what is the Challenge Rating for the warlock. she not that strong in dmg (E.B. +6 to hit 9(1d10+4) or HP (and has been fighting the elementals too) but not being able to see the enemy makes it a hard fight. and i want the party to win but only barely.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Well, there's no guideline for determining the CR of an environmental hazard like Darkness, but as a random guess I'd say "increase the multiplier by one step". So, if your warlock is CR 1 (200 XP) and they're fighting solo, the encounter's equivalent challenge is 300 XP. I mean, it's a big tilt, but it's not that hard to overcome if the party knows what they're doing. Also, some of the players might argue that Faerie Fire should be visible through Darkness. It's not RAW, but it is canon in some of the novels. If you allow that, it makes things much easier.

Could you post the full stats for the warlock? Then we can calculate her CR.

[Shining Wrath]

Treat the darkness + devil's sight as though the warlock has much higher AC; practically speaking, it's about the same as if they can see him but can't hit him. Ought to bump his defensive CR up 2 or 3 slots.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Treat the darkness + devil's sight as though the warlock has much higher AC; practically speaking, it's about the same as if they can see him but can't hit him. Ought to bump his defensive CR up 2 or 3 slots.

Doesn't it also buff her offensive output though? Because unseen attackers have advantage on attack rolls?

[Shining Wrath]

Doesn't it also buff her offensive output though? Because unseen attackers have advantage on attack rolls?

Yeah, attack rolls made with Advantage help. But the OP notes the warlock doesn't pump out too much damage.

[vvilhelm]

thanks this helps a lot. I think i have what i need to test it out without TPKing.

[Ewhit]

If your party has trouble tell them to make a skill roll for int. Abd figure out how to stop the darkness by the item. If it's warlock it's the con save roll for consentration

[Laserlight]

Bear in mind that you can always have the warlock panic and surrender/escape just before the party does.

Spread the damage around so all the PCs are tottering on their last few hit points but none of them are actually down--or maybe one goes down early (a good Hellish Rebuke, perhaps) but the rest are still fighting. The warlock is out of spell slots and is down to cantrips. He doesn't know the PCs' HP totals, but he knows his own are pouring out. He's doing damage but the PCs just...aren't....dropping. If he keeps fighting, they're gonna kill him! Aah! I give up, I give up!

[Shining Wrath]

If you need to get the warlock off-stage to avoid TPK, instead of a Deus ex Machina, you can have a Fiend ex Altara; too much magical energy has been released near this evil altar, and it summons Fiend Obviously Too Big For Party to Fight, which grabs the nearest victim and disappears - nearest victim being the warlock. Maybe the warlock leaps atop the altar as part of the combat, trying to maneuver away from the party, and a spot of blood on the sole of his shoe is enough to open a gate for just a moment.

Nothing quite like a Balor appearing in the middle of a level 3 combat to cause sharp intakes of breath all the way around the table. Bonus points if you've got a miniature.

[Laserlight]

Nothing quite like a Balor appearing in the middle of a level 3 combat to cause sharp intakes of breath all the way around the table. Bonus points if you've got a miniature.

Truth.

Some years ago, I was running a game at a convention, and Tony obtained a copy of the Necronomicon.

I didn't expect him to read it out loud.

He didn't expect me to reach under the table and haul out a 15" tall Cthulhu figure.

[Kurt Kurageous]

He didn't expect me to reach under the table and haul out a 15" tall Cthulhu figure.

Thud!!!

Laughed out loud at the mental image.