Platypusbill
2018-02-22, 08:57 AM
(I suspect one of my players might be browsing this forum. If that is the case, Otto, stop reading now.)
I'm preparing an encounter for a 3rd-level party of three adventurers (a Half-Elf Swashbuckler Rogue, Half-Orc Open Hand Monk, and a Human Shadow Sorcerer). The encounter will involve a scarecrow (CR1) and a witch, basically a Devil's Tongue Tiefling with 6 levels of Fiend Warlock. The preliminary iteration of the witch is built almost entirely as a PC, except it has an extra Eldritch Invocation and the Dark Devotion trait from Cultists, but no Pact Boon. Stat block:
https://i.imgur.com/2a9dyvP.png
The intention is that the encounter is deadly and the characters will probably need to spend most of their resources to overcome it, as they are fully rested and this is pretty much all I expect them to run into before their next long rest. To that end, a CR 1 (the Scarecrow) and a CR ~3 monster should challenge them appropriately according to the DMG guidelines.
As of now, the monster building rules say the witch has a defensive CR of 1/2 and an offensive CR of 2, for an average of 1. However, there are many variables that are going to affect the difficulty of the fight, which makes this difficult to balance:
-The scarecrow might be able to get a surprise round and/or Unseen Attacker advantage because of False Appearance. I am going to roll perception checks, which might let the characters notice it before this happens.
-The scarecrow's Terrifying Glare is going to be pretty devastating if it lands (slightly less than 50/50 chance on average) because the paralysis eats the target's actions for one round, grants advantage to the next attack of the scarecrow and the witch, and melee attacks auto-crit. The witch's Vampiric Touch then has a roughly 80% chance of hitting and a 50% chance of knocking out the paralysed PC (except the Half-Orc Monk) instantly, on top of healing the witch for half as much. Vampiric Touch is likely to be the go-to action for the Witch as it's pretty powerful in this scenario, and the ability to use it multiple times as long as the concentration is held helps compensate for having only two spell slots.
-The Sorcerer may end up wasting resources and a turn to cast Darkness, which she can see through (she managed to more or less trivialise a previous encounter with this) only to find that the witch (but not the scarecrow) can also see through it.
-Armour of Agathys could also be pretty powerful because it grants 15 THP and deals 15 damage with no save to melee attackers (both the Rogue and Monk are mainly melee fighters) and it's likely to require two hits before it is depleted. Might allow an Arcana check to recoginse the spell so they know that they can use ranged attacks to deal with it.
Overall, do you think these factors are enough to consider the witch a CR 3 monster? She is pretty squishy for CR3, especially if she doesn't spend a turn to cast Mage Armour, but I feel the spells and other abilities could cause the fight to spiral out of control. Of course, DM fiat can be invoked to adjust things as the fight progresses if it's too hard (e.g. poor target selection, such as using the Terrifying Glarge + Vampiric Touch combo on the Half-Orc Monk) or too easy (e.g. she could get the Pact of the Chain familiar and use an action to summon an imp).
I'm preparing an encounter for a 3rd-level party of three adventurers (a Half-Elf Swashbuckler Rogue, Half-Orc Open Hand Monk, and a Human Shadow Sorcerer). The encounter will involve a scarecrow (CR1) and a witch, basically a Devil's Tongue Tiefling with 6 levels of Fiend Warlock. The preliminary iteration of the witch is built almost entirely as a PC, except it has an extra Eldritch Invocation and the Dark Devotion trait from Cultists, but no Pact Boon. Stat block:
https://i.imgur.com/2a9dyvP.png
The intention is that the encounter is deadly and the characters will probably need to spend most of their resources to overcome it, as they are fully rested and this is pretty much all I expect them to run into before their next long rest. To that end, a CR 1 (the Scarecrow) and a CR ~3 monster should challenge them appropriately according to the DMG guidelines.
As of now, the monster building rules say the witch has a defensive CR of 1/2 and an offensive CR of 2, for an average of 1. However, there are many variables that are going to affect the difficulty of the fight, which makes this difficult to balance:
-The scarecrow might be able to get a surprise round and/or Unseen Attacker advantage because of False Appearance. I am going to roll perception checks, which might let the characters notice it before this happens.
-The scarecrow's Terrifying Glare is going to be pretty devastating if it lands (slightly less than 50/50 chance on average) because the paralysis eats the target's actions for one round, grants advantage to the next attack of the scarecrow and the witch, and melee attacks auto-crit. The witch's Vampiric Touch then has a roughly 80% chance of hitting and a 50% chance of knocking out the paralysed PC (except the Half-Orc Monk) instantly, on top of healing the witch for half as much. Vampiric Touch is likely to be the go-to action for the Witch as it's pretty powerful in this scenario, and the ability to use it multiple times as long as the concentration is held helps compensate for having only two spell slots.
-The Sorcerer may end up wasting resources and a turn to cast Darkness, which she can see through (she managed to more or less trivialise a previous encounter with this) only to find that the witch (but not the scarecrow) can also see through it.
-Armour of Agathys could also be pretty powerful because it grants 15 THP and deals 15 damage with no save to melee attackers (both the Rogue and Monk are mainly melee fighters) and it's likely to require two hits before it is depleted. Might allow an Arcana check to recoginse the spell so they know that they can use ranged attacks to deal with it.
Overall, do you think these factors are enough to consider the witch a CR 3 monster? She is pretty squishy for CR3, especially if she doesn't spend a turn to cast Mage Armour, but I feel the spells and other abilities could cause the fight to spiral out of control. Of course, DM fiat can be invoked to adjust things as the fight progresses if it's too hard (e.g. poor target selection, such as using the Terrifying Glarge + Vampiric Touch combo on the Half-Orc Monk) or too easy (e.g. she could get the Pact of the Chain familiar and use an action to summon an imp).