What level: NPC Bosses?

[The Shadowdove]

Hey forum-lurkers,

I have a three person party (occasional 4th npc member) that I am dming for and was wondering if you know a good way to determine single npc enemy class level. Vuman shadow Monk, tiefling tempest cleric, aasimar undying warlock.

They are level 7 and soon I hope to put them up against two different single boss encounters. One will be a dragon born battle master, the other an evil cleric.

I want the battle to be challenging but doable for each encounter. Something that they should be able to limp away from if they don't screw up too badly or roll too poorly, but potentially deadly if they aren't properly prepared or playing their classes to their full extents.

Magic items are not too big of an issue, as we don't have anything much more than trinkets and a couple of +1 weapons scattered among the party. The boss may have a special item that they will have to share if they win.

In general (as I know things vary) for these encounters, and future encounters, how many more levels should a boss with class levels have than the party?

Thank you in advance,

Dove

[gfishfunk]

The Xp of the NPC (for a single monster) should be around 1500-1600 per character, totaling 4500 - 4800. That is right around CR 8, CR 9.

I would (preferentially) go CR8 and include two henchmen who do zero damage but end up buffing (with bless or something similar), debuffing (slow?) or healing (cure wounds at first level, nothing bit) the big bad so that you have an additional targets for the PCs.

One CR8, two CR1s (without attacks), about 50-70 hp each, AC14-ish. Nothing terribly hard to hurt. Most parties will ignore them anyway to burn down the main badguy.

[Leith]

If they can get a full rest in before the battle CR 9-10 should be sufficient. You could go higher if your players are good strategists. To get that you're probably looking at 16-20th level NPCs.

[Malifice]

Cant help you mate as I dont use statted out NPCs anymore.

I just pick one of the NPCs from the MM or another sourcebook and reskin them (maybe changing spells out a bit, or changing gear or a few cosmetic changes here or there, or exchanging an ability like parry for another one like brute or pack tactics). I assure you, your players wont know the difference.

Its worked reliably for 11 levels now. Age of Worms campaign and Alustan was a mage, Payday teetum was a Thug, Balabar Smenk was a Spy, and so on.

CRs are worked out for you, and it takes an awful lot less time for someone who is probably only going to use those stats for a single encounter. Its cut prep time down from several hours (Pathfinder) of statting up monsters, adding levels and templates, selecting feats etc for reasonable threats to an optimized party down to an hour or two a week.

Id have a look at the NPCs statted up in Volos. There are mages, paladins and Warlock NPCs in there.

[MinotaurWarrior]

As Gishfunk said, we're looking for CR 8-9

Dragonborn Battlemaster:

So, to start, let's just look at level 9: That gives us 58+(9x ConMod)hp, AC 18-21, Burst Damage (1d6+1d8+Mod)x4 to (2d6+1d8+mod)x4, and sustained damage of (1d6+Mod)x2 to (2d6+Mod)x2

Immediately, we run into the eternal problem of NPC monsters, which is the HP / AC imbalance. You can always just fudge it, but what I'd go with here is just giving him 20CON (103HP + 1d10+9 Second Wind) and S&B Defense style for AC 21. This gives you defensive CR 7, meaning you'd need offensive CR 11 for an overall CR9

Give him a battleaxe, and you've got (1d8+1d8+STRMOD)x4 burst, (1d8+STRMOD)x2 sustained. With STR 20, that's 56 and 19 Damage. There's also the Breath attack, with 3d6 damage presumably hitting two people for 21 damage. Even with a +9 attack Mod, that's way below CR 11.

Now, there are three options - increase class levels further, give him a magic item, mess with feats, or fudge details.

Feats are fun! The one that comes to mind here is MI:Warlock, for Hex. That puts your burst DPR at 70 and your normal DPR at 26, not counting opportunity attacks. That makes your offensive CR 11 for the first round, and 5 in subsequent rounds, assuming a pure burst strategy. That seems good enough


Evil Cleric

Spellcasters are harder to do. You've got to think of their casting gameplan.

Evil Spirit Guardians are cool, so let's assume that's his concentration slot. You're also going to have spiritual weapon, most likely. Then, what is the evil cleric actually going to cast with their action each turn? Eh, let's make it a death Cleric with Chill Touch

At minimum that's 6d8+WISMOD, if the PCs are spread out, and 11d8+WISMOD if the death cleric can get two of the PCs. That's offensive CR 4-9 depending on if the Death Cleric can get the PCs together.

Let's make it scarier. A level 8 Cleric has two 4th level slots. Using them for spirit guardians and spiritual weapon gives us 8d8+Wismod damage against a single target, and 14d8+Wismod against two targets. That's offensive CR 5-10 depending on PC grouping.

Then you need your defenses. You've got 43+ConMod HP, and 17+DexMod AC (Half plate + shield). Aaaand you've got cleric spells. 4x1st lvl, 3x2nd lvl, 3x3rd lvl. You're looking for a way to get to ~200 effective HP.

What I think sounds cool: Have glyphs of warding set up to create a phase change. When the Death cleric dies, they get revivified and a Beacon of Hope is set up. Then they cast sanctuary on themselves, and start self-healing.

Also, because it's a death cleric, why not have some skeleton archers in the mix. They're CR 1/4, so shouldn't affect balance.

[Foxhound438]

generally double the level of the party is okay, so long as you don't give the enemy a bunch of "save or die" effects. Throwing in a few extras is fine as well.

[MinotaurWarrior]

generally double the level of the party is okay, so long as you don't give the enemy a bunch of "save or die" effects. Throwing in a few extras is fine as well.

A level 14 Death Cleric with just Spirit Guardians + Spiritual Weapon + Weapon attack will deal 12d8+1d6+32+StrMod+WisMod (~98) against a single target in a single round. That kills a level 7 PC straight out.