Balancing A BBEG?

[Death_Lord12]

I have a party of about a dozen people who will all be level 20 when they finally face the BBEG in my campaign. I have no idea if the fight will be balanced or not though, because the whole CR thing is just confusing to me, especially with so many players.

This is what I am planning the BBEG being as of right now (may change slightly):
Race: Drow
Class: Dread Necromancer 20
Templates: Necropolitan, Lich (free from Dread Necro), Phantom, Entropic, Swarm-Shifter, Shadow Creature, Evolved Undead

I really don't want to remove any of those templates or anything, because it fits the BBEG's background very well, but I don't want it to be unkillable (just really hard to kill, and probably spread out between several fights). So what does the balance seem like here between the party and the BBEG? I have not included NPCs that aid the party, and I have not included the BBEG's items, though if it is easier to answer the question I can add those (at least the ones I know so far).

If the BBEG seems too strong, what are some ways to weaken him? Preferably without removing all of those templates.

If any more information is needed/wanted just ask.

Thanks in advance.


Edit: Here's some more information on the boss.
Feats: Mother Cyst, Stitched Flesh Familiar, Fell Frighten, Corpsecrafter, Bolster Resistance, Deadly Chill, Destruction Retribution, Nimble Bones
Flaw: Meager Fortitude

Dread Necromancer Advanced Learning Spells:
Kelgore's Grave Mist, Black Sand, Animate Dread Warrior, Greater Consumptive Field, Blackfire

Familiar: Spellstitched Quasit

Rituals:
The Ritual of Shadow Walking
As a standard action, teleport from one shadow to another within 100 ft at the cost of 2d4 HP, or hide inside of the 'shadowstuff' at the cost of 3d4 HP at the end of each round
The Ritual of Honest Pain
+2 bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy and Handle Animal checks
your lies cannot be detected as such by spells of lower than 5th level
you can lie freely within the bounds of a zone of truth or similar spell

Grafts: Weakening Arm x2

Equipment:
Iddawc:
+5 Wounding Vicious Intelligent Dagger
Deatchwatch spell continually active
Detect Undead spell at will
Inflict Moderate Wounds spell on wielder 3/day
Hold Person spell 3/day
Darkness spell 3/day
Fear spell 3/day
Crushing Despair spell at will

Boots of Nefarious Undead
Deals 1d4 negative energy damage per round to wearer as if by Black Sand spell
+3 Profane AC bonus

Gloves of Necrotic Cysts
if wearer has Mother Cyst feat and can cast Necrotic Cyst Spell, lets wearer cast Necrotic Cyst at will

Ring of Undead Mastery
Doubles amount of Undead wearer can control

The Three Skulls (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/The_Three_Skulls_(3.5e_Equipment)) (he has all three of them)

Ring of Concentrated Spellcraft
gives +26 competence bonus to concentration and spellcraft

Codex of Infinite Planes (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Codex_of_Infinite_Planes)
Being Undead combined with the above mentioned Ring of Concentrated Spellcraft should let the BBEG use the Codex with no issues, letting it use all the spells on it at will, letting him summon Nightshades and Shadow Elementals and do other fun stuff.

[Theobod]

Action economy will ruin him, strongly consider rings of counterspells, hard counters such as wind wall and terrain and minions, fight in waves and withdraw often, let the party waste resources on cr 13-15 nasties in groups, find ways to split them up, maybe even have the BBEG act once per round for each 4 players on the field and lob debuff left n right. Then he may survive long enough to be changed through a dungeon to his climactic demise. As is.... ganked into a greasy smear.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Drow dread necromancer 20 is a fine base for a BBEG facing a level 20 party, so let's have a look at the templates.

First the ones that don't do much: necropolitan overlaps with lich, Evolved Undead just adds some numbers and an SLA, which you could probably already duplicate with DN spells. No CR change.

Lich adds DR, some nice immunities, and great skill bonuses. Shadow increases speed, adds some minor defensive abilities, and grants Shadow Blend plus a Move Silently bonus. Phantom increases AC, and makes the MS bonus useless, thanks to incorporealty. For a spellcaster, these templates mostly mean: super stealth. You get near-permanent concealment, you can move without a sound, and you have a +8 bonus on Hide, Listen, and Spot checks (and +14 MS, but you auto-succeed on those).

So basically, you have a level 20 dread necromancer, with slightly increased ability scores, improved defenses, and great stealth abilities. That seems like a fair challenge for a level 20 party, depending on the party you're dealing with. Make sure to exploit your stealth to counter their action advantage, but don't annoy your players with extended hit-and-run skirmishes they can't counter. Use your spells to set up walls of undead beatsticks ahead of time, and hide behind them.

[Theobod]

It would be a fair challenge for a party of 4, not the party of 12ish stated in the OP. But yeah, the seems to be use walls of minions, ones summoned by caster or inside their controller limit probably don't increase CR technically, allied undead will though so bear that in mind.

[ExLibrisMortis]

It would be a fair challenge for a party of 4, not the party of 12ish stated in the OP
...

Damn, I missed that. A dozen people, for real? You'll definitely need to triple the boss, sure. Maybe add a BFC crusader and a supporting divine caster?

[Madara]

I would suggest adding in an artificer, because the pre-fight buffs and access to very powerful magic items is really useful. I would also recommend going for stat damage, because that's always more threatening that hp damage.

[ExLibrisMortis]

I would also recommend going for stat damage, because that's always more threatening that hp damage.
It's really not. Immunity to ability damage is not only fairly common (especially at level 20, and with a 12-man party, there will be a lot of shared buffs), you also tend to get less ability damage than hp damage for the same investment. Mailman builds, for instance, are very threatening, more so than most ability damage builds.

[Death_Lord12]

A dozen people, for real? You'll definitely need to triple the boss, sure. Maybe add a BFC crusader and a supporting divine caster?

The thing is, because of the BBEG's background he tends to work "alone", meaning he will use other people to his advantage, but those are other completely seperate bosses. I added some more information on the BBEG in the original post, let me know what you think now that you have that info.

[Malroth]

You have Mother Cyst, that means the potential for dozens of living good aligned thralls to serve as meat shields or wand monkeys. One or 2 enslaved family members per player character will drasticaly reduce the party's ability to use AOE, Crowd control or Ubercharges. Just remember not to explode them untill they die because they'd loose their value as living hostages.

[Madara]

It's really not. Immunity to ability damage is not only fairly common (especially at level 20, and with a 12-man party, there will be a lot of shared buffs), you also tend to get less ability damage than hp damage for the same investment. Mailman builds, for instance, are very threatening, more so than most ability damage builds.

I guess it depends on how effective his party is. If the party really knows what they're doing, it's gonna be hard to have anything that even could be a challenge without pure fiat.

[mabriss lethe]

Simply put, a single character can't hope to compete with a party of 12 by himself. I'd change him from bog standard drow to Deepwyrm Drow, load up on some draconic aura feats and give him some Rebuked/controlled fodder for the fight. (An enslaved ghost or two as mid-level casters sounds about right alternating between BFC spells and dispelling anything the pc's try to put together), you'll also want a big-dumb-nasty of some sort, Zombie or Skeleton Dragon, maybe(dear old mum) alongside a squad of brutes to tangle with the melee types and some lesser incorporeal undead to give everyone a headache. He's a DN, they specialize in undead minion control. He doesn't have to work with anyone. They're just extensions of his will. The auras will lend the fodder some strength, and he can change them up as he wishes.

[Death_Lord12]

You have Mother Cyst, that means the potential for dozens of living good aligned thralls to serve as meat shields or wand monkeys. One or 2 enslaved family members per player character will drasticaly reduce the party's ability to use AOE, Crowd control or Ubercharges. Just remember not to explode them untill they die because they'd loose their value as living hostages.
I hadn't actually thought of using family members as hostages, probably because pretty much none of the players actually bothered with a background, though I could ask them to make one without telling them why. Originally I was just going to take over the entire capitol city (which is pretty much the only city), but this is a good use too.


Simply put, a single character can't hope to compete with a party of 12 by himself. I'd change him from bog standard drow to Deepwyrm Drow, load up on some draconic aura feats and give him some Rebuked/controlled fodder for the fight. (An enslaved ghost or two as mid-level casters sounds about right alternating between BFC spells and dispelling anything the pc's try to put together), you'll also want a big-dumb-nasty of some sort, Zombie or Skeleton Dragon, maybe(dear old mum) alongside a squad of brutes to tangle with the melee types and some lesser incorporeal undead to give everyone a headache. He's a DN, they specialize in undead minion control. He doesn't have to work with anyone. They're just extensions of his will. The auras will lend the fodder some strength, and he can change them up as he wishes.
Never heard of Deepwyrm Drow or Draconic Aura's, I don't want to change the feats up but where can I find the Drow? Also, seeing as how he has Plague of Undead spell he has, well, a plague of Undead, and even more so because of the ring of Undead mastery (see original post, edit section) , and would you consider Nightshades a 'big-dumb-nasty'? Because if so he can call them with a Gate spell (again, see original post, edit section, codex of infinite planes). My point is, he has some rather nasty/numerous minions.

I'm guessing his biggest worry should be actually getting hit so much that healing won't help much, would that be a good assumption?

[LTwerewolf]

Deepwyrm drow are in dragon magic. Without changing some things your bbeg (big bad evil guy) is more of a peg (pathetic evil guy) and will be killed within a round, maybe but probably not two, of the fight starting. You can't ask for help and then say you're not willing to change any of the important things.

[mabriss lethe]

Deepwyrm drow and the draconic aura feats are both in Dragon Magic. It's basically a regular drow but with different SLAs and the Dragon blooded subtype. The feat let's you learn an aura off if the Dragon shaman list (PHB2). It scales with level if the character is also Dragon blooded. It's a neat little boost to your army of the damned.

Nightshades would definitely qualify as a big nasty. They can also double as a supplimental caster for dispelling and can provide a the mob of incorporeal undead to harrass the pcs.

[PersonMan]

I'd shy away from the 'kidnapped family members' thing, and just get a number of undead minions or other conscripted/coerced 'allies'. Perhaps some people the PCs know, who have all been forced to fight them in order to save their families.

[SirNMN]

All I can say is have a boat load of quell with him the last thing you want is a cleric or paladin turn BBEG or single handedly wipe out his a whole wave or his forces. i would advance them to 10 hit die and buff their cha and/ or give them turning feats to they can attempt to shut down the clerics/any divine casters they party has

[barakaka]

http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/

This makes balancing encounters much easier, I use it for all my encounters and it allows me to think of how fun the encounter will be rather than just balancing for CR. Although with 12 players, you'll still have a rather rough time.

Another thing is to load up on area of effect damage. This allows for everyone to feel like they're a part of the fight, and equates to more actions. Part of this should be caused by the terrain though. Force the PCs to hop into a Teleportation Circle to reach the BBEG. Give him time to prepare and place a huge number of traps to welcome the adventurers. This gives him pseudo actions to damage or debuff the party with. The DMG or http://www.d20srd.org provide rules for resetting traps.

[TheCrowing1432]

Dread Necromancers simply dont have the power to hold off 12 20th level characters. Loads of minions are cool, but they are mostly zombies and skeletons with some enhanced undead thrown in.


20th Level is getting near epic, and in that range, you're playing rocket tag. Battles should be over in a few rounds. Especially if high level divine casters are involved.


If this were a wizard with time stop and wish shenanigans, then he would have a better chance, but as it is...I cant forsee this lasting all that long

[Inevitability]

The necropolitian template is impossible to add here, unless you use shenanigans (Humanoid Heritage is popular) to shift your type back. After all, only humanoids benefit from the DN's capstone, and afterwards you're undead and can't become a necropolitian.

[Requiem_Jeer]

This has potential. First off, this guy's going to need a LOT of minions. Good ones. Fortunately, he has Animate Dread Warrior.

Make a level 18 character (with npc wealth, naturally) for each of the party members. Apply Dread Warrior template to each one. Profit. For bonus points, make them thematically similar to a specific member. If you have a raging axe-wielding berserker, have their opposite number be, say, a Primeval (class is in Frostburn). Boil down each of their character concepts to a very broad archetype, then make something different also of that archetype.

On top of this, fill out the rest of his control with 16-20HD skeletons so they can die and heal the real fighters as well as soak hits.

[pilvento]

This has potential. First off, this guy's going to need a LOT of minions. Good ones. Fortunately, he has Animate Dread Warrior.

Make a level 18 character (with npc wealth, naturally) for each of the party members. Apply Dread Warrior template to each one. Profit. For bonus points, make them thematically similar to a specific member. If you have a raging axe-wielding berserker, have their opposite number be, say, a Primeval (class is in Frostburn). Boil down each of their character concepts to a very broad archetype, then make something different also of that archetype.

On top of this, fill out the rest of his control with 16-20HD skeletons so they can die and heal the real fighters as well as soak hits.

THIS! and bonus points if the BBEG took the time to search for an ancester of each PC to make this happen...

You can even split the party into 3 diferent 4 man teams, have them all face their anti-them while the BBEG supports the dread warrios from the shadows. Once they blow most of their resources combine the encounter and start the final fight.