Encounter Help!

[SMac8988]

I am in the process of sending my party of 6, level 5, into the underdark. They currently are traveling with an ogre they befriended, whom they have dedicated all their rewards from missions to building him armor and a new weapon. They have a decent bit of magic gear, and have been doing well in most fights.

My current idea for their first boss, while heading towards a drown city, will be a slaver boss. I wanted him to be a very difficult encounter for the party, with a small party of other beasts with him. I wanted to make him a custom weapon, like a massive weight on a chair with like 4 bear traps on each side. Having players have to make a dex save to avoid being grabbed, then an str check to avoid being drug or slammed. Would that be too strong?

[Ninja_Prawn]

Wait, so... what's happening? Are you saying there will be an NPC (the boss) trying to throw them into some kind of torture/restraining device? If so I'd probably use the grappling rules first, then if drugs are involved, that would normally be a Con or Wis save (depending on whether the drugs have more of a physiological or psychological effect).

But like, if that's the case, then the combat side is not the focus of the encounter. The boss isn't just trying to kill them, he has some kind of agenda, and manipulating the environment and flow of information is the real focus. For example, the encounter might be resolved by getting the boss to believe something that isn't true, or by trapping him in his own machine. Perhaps he has a couple of golems who don't try to kill the party, just shove and grapple and disarm so that the other PCs cannot help the one who's in the chair?

But it also sounds like there needs to be a lot of set-up work. You said they're going into the Underdark, which implies they're not there already. Why are they going? Who is this boss and why is he interested in these random newcomers? Where abouts will the encounter take place - maybe they need to be captured and wake up in chains, or they need a reason to infiltrate this guy's dungeon, or... something?

I guess I just feel like balancing the chair-weapon thing isn't the biggest issue here.

[Moosoculars]

I think that drug was a typo and you meant drag. So that when the slaver hits the of with his mace then a bear trap would go off and capture the pc allowing him to drag them around.

Given the power level of your pcs 5+ally ogre. A cyclops would make a very good brute slaver. For the club I would just have the cyclops make a grapple roll against the pc and if successful you can describe the effect of the trap on the club.

Any self respecting slaver would have a spare cage ready to go that they can throw a pc into when grappled.

Perhaps you could also have slave guards holding long chain leads to three or four snarling animals. Say wolves or perhaps quaggoths to keep the underdark theme. They could be released to run down escapees.

A covered cage with a basilisk or two could also cause some fun when the pcs uncover and free the slaves.

[SMac8988]

Ya it was a typo, sorry was posting from my phone.

They are originally going to save a town member that they have grown close to who was taken by the slaver. They big boss with by the queen of the town they are going into.

I do really like the idea of the drug though on the trap, maybe give them like weakness or something.

But I was thinking of making him like a roided up dark elf, to match the theme of the town they are going into. Or maybe even have the queen have spliced his genetics with a Cyclops or something. I want to give him a few other things with him, their boss fights have been like individual big bads for the past few sessions and I want to make it a bit harder.

[Kurt Kurageous]

I guess I just feel like balancing the chair-weapon thing isn't the biggest issue here.

If you got Ninja Prawn's attention, this has to be good.

What you are asking for is already in the monster manual. It's spiderwebs.

Your slaver has a ettercap or two and lots of giant spiders. Giant spider webs everywhere. Doing a DC (say 10) vs DEX every 5 feet of move or restrained means players are gonna probably get hung up in a 30' move. DC 12 to break free wastes an action. Acting while restrained is bad news, as attack at dis, and getting attacked at adv. This magnifies the effects of all other attacks/attackers.

Yes, fire clears this quick. That's why you have a lot of webs in a big open space and the ambushers above, or side tunnels concealing your ambushers. Darkvision is rendered nil because you can't see very well/far through webs. This will limit your ambushers.

Then mix in your hunting traps.

All of the spiders and ettercaps don't have to be present in the encounter, so you can use your CR/XP budget on drow shooting bolts of sleep at the restrained.

[SMac8988]

Not entirely what i was looking for. Maybe for the big boss drider i was planning that would be awesome. But this was more meant as the slaver, and a few others. DDebating between several other darl elves or basilisk could be fun.