Balancing around 1 Big Fight

[DireSickFish]

I've got the players hunting down 5 minibosses for McGuffins right now. The first 3 have all had dungeons of various shapes and forms. The third one is going to be a druid with a pack of weartigers. Instead of doing the 6-8 daily encounter structure I'd like to do a "hunt" with 1 big fight at the end. The Druid will give them the option of a hunt through the woods to see who the better killer is. The party has 5 players so the Druid would be taking only 4 of the weartigers along with him. This lets the party not have to fight their way through a whole pack.

The party is 5 level 6 characters.
Paladin - Very tanky with 21 AC and Heavy Armor master
Sorcerer - Shadow sorcerer with AoE and darkness shenanagins
Bard - Whisper bard and has a lot of save or suck like Fear, and Bestow Curse
Wizard - Diviner that doesn't bring a lot damage wise and focioused on utility
Ranger - Tends to go down in fights unless he can Zepher strike and use the movement to stay out of engagement

So not powerhouses in combat, but not pushovers either. I was looking at using 4 Weartigers and trying to find a CR5 to reskin for the Druid. It's 12,400xp that way when a deadly encounter is 7,000xp. If I use wearwolf stats instead making the 4 weartigers CR3s that drops me down to 9,200xp so still deadly but far less so and easily mangable.

Anyone have experience in tailoring 1 big fight for the day? Any advice on what kind of CRs I should be using for a group of 5 where 1 of them is elite? Is there a good stat block somewhere I could use for the druid?

[willdaBEAST]

The biggest thing to consider with one big fight is that it greatly favors classes or races that have immensely powerful abilities that they can only use once per long rest. When there's no cost for expending all your resources (novaing) and no reason to carefully ration them, certain builds are going to shine more.

I would also recommend building in some ways that the less combat focused PCs can contribute to the battle. Can they take advantage of the terrain or environment? Are there hostages that need to be saved? Things of that nature can allow for all of the party members to contribute.

[DireSickFish]

The biggest thing to consider with one big fight is that it greatly favors classes or races that have immensely powerful abilities that they can only use once per long rest. .

I agree with you. And my biggest worry is that the players will hold back on burning hot enough to win the fight. They know I like the standard adventuring day, and I use it pretty well to challenge them. So they've become very good at holding off on abilities and using them strategically.

[Elistan]

I agree with you. And my biggest worry is that the players will hold back on burning hot enough to win the fight. They know I like the standard adventuring day, and I use it pretty well to challenge them. So they've become very good at holding off on abilities and using them strategically.

If you are well known for sticking to the standard adventuring day, then this might be the perfect opportunity to throw something completely different at your players. Give them the chance to nova, especially the Paladin and the Sorcerer, since they typically don't get many opportunities to do so. If they don't nova hard enough, just have some sort of backup safety net in place for when they lose (or don't, depending on how hardcore your table is).

The other approach would be to have a single battle but have it equal multiple encounters. Remember that an encounter is anything that causes the players to burn resources. Have them encounter the Druid/tigers several times, each time burning through a few more resources before the final confrontation. Have the non-involved weretigers harry the party during the hunt, striking from the shadows and disappearing before the PCs can kill them. Have traps and monsters placed in the woods by the Druid in order to weaken the party. The Druid is a BAD GUYTM, and [s]he has no reason to play fair, particularly if the PCs have a reputation (they are in Tier 2, after all).

[DireSickFish]

I would like to do something to spice up the hunt to make it multiple encounters. But I'm not coming up with many ideas for that either. It's going to take place in a jungle and the weartigers have pretty much wiped out anything close to a combat encounter.

[Elistan]

I would like to do something to spice up the hunt to make it multiple encounters. But I'm not coming up with many ideas for that either. It's going to take place in a jungle and the weartigers have pretty much wiped out anything close to a combat encounter.

Druids are all about nature and animals, and you make it sound like the weretigers serve the Druid, to an extent. It's not hard to believe that the Druid would have some favorite beasts that they protected from the weretigers for exactly this purpose. Giant bears, tigers, apes, snakes, cats, etc. Don't let them rest or recover for more than a few minutes at a time. Force them to keep moving and don't give them much of an opportunity to plan or strategize without risking discovery or danger. Make sure that if they do lose the hunt, the Druid and the weretigers ambush them in a location that clearly favors their enemies.

Have environmental effects that drain resources or just put the PCs on edge.
The jungle constantly shifts around them, making it nearly impossible for them not to get lost.
Thorny vines writhe and snake, grabbing the PCs at random and causing damage.
If the PCs use fire damage to attempt to clear the vines, the plants coalesce into some sort of treant/vine monster.
The Druid causes a huge lightning storm that strikes the PCs at random intervals, forcing them to look for shelter (and abandon the hunt) or take attrition damage.
An elephant stampede rips through the area, forcing the PCs to flee into some nearby gullies or canyons to escape, which are then struck by a flash flood.
Etc.