Cyclops with barbarian levels

[Ryblackadder]

So my adventurers, 4-5 level 9 enemies are going to try to steal from a beholder and try not to be caught. There’s a patrolling Cyclops with a device around his neck that pumps... uhh... magic juice stuff that makes him enraged and have barbarian abilities like reckless attack resistant to yo **** ect. If the collar is destroyable, AC of 20 HP of 50, is this a fair challenge for my players? I don’t want to make this impossible but getting all these items isn’t gonna be a free lunch.

[Unoriginal]

What levels are the PCs?

[Ryblackadder]

The PCs are level 9

[HMS Invincible]

So my adventurers, 4-5 level 9 enemies are going to try to steal from a beholder and try not to be caught. There’s a patrolling Cyclops with a device around his neck that pumps... uhh... magic juice stuff that makes him enraged and have barbarian abilities like reckless attack resistant to yo **** ect. If the collar is destroyable, AC of 20 HP of 50, is this a fair challenge for my players? I don’t want to make this impossible but getting all these items isn’t gonna be a free lunch.

Are you afraid that they'll cheese it by magicking a solution? Examples, sneak past the cyclops, magical or otherwise. Or force some nasty Wis Saves. Otherwise, looks ok to me.

[Unoriginal]

Well, assuming that you're not changing anything else about the Cyclops, and according to what I calculated without checking the books (but with an online calculator), it's going to be an Easy (if they're 5) or Medium (if they're 4) Encounter.

The Cyclops virtualy has 258 HPs (Resistance from common damage types, but not all) and will deal around 38 damages per round. Not *that* hard to handle for a lvl 9 group, since it would make the Cyclops CR 9.

[gloryblaze]

A cyclops is only CR 6. If he's a solo encounter, you can probably just give him the abilities permanently and be fine. In fact, a cyclops with the following stat block only comes out to CR 11 by my calculation.



CYCLOPS VENOMJUICER
Huge giant, chaotic neutral
~
AC: 14 (Natural Armor, 19 with Venom)
Hit Points: 138 (12d12+60)
Speed: 30 feet
~
STR: 22 (+6)
DEX: 11 (0)
CON: 20 (+5)
INT: 8 (-1)
WIS: 6 (-2)
CHA: 10 (0)
~
Senses: passive Perception 8
Languages: Giant
Challenge: 11 (7,200 experience)
~
Poor Depth Perception. The cyclops has disadvantage on any attack roll against a target more than 30 feet away.
Venom Injection. As a bonus action, the cyclops uses the device around its neck to inject itself with a magical steroid. It gains the following benefits for the next minute:
-It adds its Constitution modifier to its AC.
-It deals an additional 3 damage each time it hits with a weapon attack.
-It has resistance to all damage but psychic damage.
-On each of its turns, the cyclops can make one greatclub attack as a bonus action.
-At the start of its turn, the cyclops can gain advantage on all melee weapon attack rolls during that turn, but attack rolls against it have advantage until the start of its next turn.
~
ACTIONS
~
Multiattack. The cyclops makes two greatclub attacks.
Greatclub. Melee weapon attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8+6) bludgeoning damage.
Rock. Ranged weapon attack: +10 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 28 (4d10+6) bludgeoning damage.


According to Xanny's, a good solo encounter for a party of 4 level 9 players is a CR 11 legendary creature. Since Cyclopes don't have legendary actions (and you sometimes have 5 players!) this monster would probably be a cakewalk for your party. You could toss in some legendary actions and maybe bump the CR to 12 if you want a real boss fight.

[CTurbo]

I've had my party fight a Barbarian Hill Giant before. I believe they were all level 7 and it was difficult but nobody died. They were super powered though with high rolled stats and plenty of magic items.

The Hill Giant has 10 hit die so I basically made him a 10 level Barbarian but did not add a subclass. Brutal Critical was brutal indeed.

Your party should be fine if they're fighting just one Cyclops. The action economy in 5 on 1 fight is too great without legendary actions.

[Ryblackadder]

Thank you all for your thoughts! Apparently I’ve been going easy on these guys :P and I was worried it would be too hard