The right level for a villain.

[An Enemy Spy]

What level should I make my villains so that they're in that sweet spot where the heroes can't just wail on them with superior numbers but they also won't steamroll the party with ease?

[Venger]

the encounter calculator will provide a jumping off point. it is available freely on the srd (http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/)

how many pcs do you have, what level are they, and it'll tell you.

beyond that, what is the breakdown in your party, and what's the op level? are these mooks the party is supposed to grind through, is it an arc boss, or is it the final boss? any information you provide will be helpful?

[ExLibrisMortis]

One thing that may help is "stupid multiclassing", like fighter 4/wizard 9 instead of wizard 9 or wizard 15. That way, your villains are somewhat stronger in hp/saves/bab/cl (with Practiced Spellcaster), but the spells they're throwing aren't much out of league with the PCs'.

[ManicOppressive]

You can also build villains in ways that express their level but do poorly against a party of heroes. A ridiculous single-target damager who can only hit one person per round but can't knock them instantly from full to -10 isn't actually a threat to a well-organized party of five, nor is an army-hosing AoE focused character who rolls everything against Reflex saves and does elemental typed damage.

A single character needs to be three to five levels higher than a heroic (1-10) level party, or four to seven levels higher than a paragon (11-17) party to really run the risk of flattening them. Obviously that isn't to say that a villain of those levels who is overly-optimized won't do so, but most DMs don't really wind up playing their villains to perfect optimization standards anyway.

Mirror matches against roughly equally-numbered parties perhaps a level lower than the player party are a fantastic way to sight in character builds safely, and you can tweak relative numbers and levels from there. Instead of one big meaty level 16 dropped on your level 12 party, go for a pair of level 14s with a small group of level 9s running minor roles. 3.5 is not a friendly system to solo characters of any stripe.

[DrMotives]

One thing that may help is "stupid multiclassing", like fighter 4/wizard 9 instead of wizard 9 or wizard 15. That way, your villains are somewhat stronger in hp/saves/bab/cl (with Practiced Spellcaster), but the spells they're throwing aren't much out of league with the PCs'.

I like doing that myself. Monster levels work well for that as well, getting those RHD to work as a damage sponge for an antagonist instead of a hindrance for PCs is nice. Also, I did something in a similar fashion with a low-wisdom cleric. Gluttony domain, so he had Enlarge as an SLA, and his 13 wisdom let him use some spells to turn himself into a melee brute without letting him use more "caster-y" spells against the PCs. He was a decent minor villain for the party.

[StreamOfTheSky]

When in doubt, lean towards over leveling the villain, and just sandbagging like crazy so he is less lethal than he really should be.
If he's a caster, don't use his highest spell levels.
If he's a martial, use a random implement as a weapon or just some +1 piece of junk.
Spread attacks amongst the whole party even though focus fire is the far more effective tactic. If he's a melee type, have him move around a lot. Both so he can unwisely spread the love to everybody and so he can never get a full attack off.

D&D (3E and PF at least) are a whole heck of a lot better at making someone better at killing things with level ups than they are with helping someone survive stuff.
If you realize a round or two into the fight that you're pulling your punches a little too much, you can easily shift into "less stupid mode."

[DarkSoul]

Regarding casters, I've found myself tuning them to have one spell level higher available than the PC's do. They've just hit level 14, so I'll give an enemy 8th level spells but won't go all the way to 9ths unless it's just one.

[King of Nowhere]

When in doubt, lean towards over leveling the villain, and just sandbagging like crazy so he is less lethal than he really should be.
If he's a caster, don't use his highest spell levels.
If he's a martial, use a random implement as a weapon or just some +1 piece of junk.
Spread attacks amongst the whole party even though focus fire is the far more effective tactic. If he's a melee type, have him move around a lot. Both so he can unwisely spread the love to everybody and so he can never get a full attack off.


As a player, I immediately recognize when an opponent is intentionally fighting badly, and it ruins the experience of the fight. It's like knowing that the dm is fudging rolls in your favor.

As a dm I build my bosses so they can go nova and have a good chance of killling one pc. I do that because my party has a cleric and a druid and both prepare multiple heals, so the boss either has a decent chance to drop one pc, or it is no threat at all.
then again, getting raised is not a problem in my campaign, so I tend to err on the side of high letality with easy resurrection.
I know that if I overpower the villain, the party will grab their dead, teleport away, and cast some resurrections. the diamonds needed are poket change by now. and then they will say "damn, that boss was really strong", and then they would prepare better next time and would win. Feel great for everyone involved. to them, because they defeated a strong and competent opponent through superior strategy, and to me, because my bosses will actually feel like legitimate threats. Or maybe they win by bringing allies, in which case they will be glad they worked hard to establish good relations with those allies, and I will be happy because by establishing those relations they get involved in the campaign world.
Both as player and as dm, I hate when an npc is set up as an extremely powerful and brilliantly competent individual, and then he fights like a moron and goes down like a shmuck.

[Techwarrior]

The best answer is 'don't.' Single individual threats are almost never actually threatening to a competent party of PCs. I tend to roll with CR+2 for lieutenant style fights and CR+4 for things at the end of an arc. It is important thought that these fights aren't just a single creature. Having minions that are weak, but threatening helps to give the encounter more depth without significantly making it less likely the party succeeds.

[Elkad]

Regarding casters, I've found myself tuning them to have one spell level higher available than the PC's do. They've just hit level 14, so I'll give an enemy 8th level spells but won't go all the way to 9ths unless it's just one.

That's my rule of thumb as well. And don't forget the mooks. Jam up the battlefield with crap the Barbarian can't charge through (or at least gets a bunch of attacks against his shock-trooper dumped AC after the fact), and can take readied potshots against the Wizard when he tries to cast. I don't care its just Goblins backing up the L15 evil wizard, give him something.

If you aren't putting mooks in, make SURE your badguy gets to prep all his buffs. Or at least has an escape option prepped and a high Init modifier, so he can do a running retreat while he buffs, and then turns back on the party when he's cornered/ready.

Bosses all get elite array or better stats, and often maximum hitpoints. Hitpoints are probably the easiest thing to fudge from behind the screen, so if the party has passed his average hitpoints, but hasn't got to his maximum, you can have him die at any point.

Just don't block epic wins. If the barb crits for 4x damage on his opening attack and knocks the boss to -100, it sucks for you. But the party will remember that epic roll long after the campaign has passed.

[ElderDarren]

In my campaign I typically build them about five levels ahead of the party, and then gradually increase their capacity in a fight until it is challenging but not unwinnable. It is far gentler on immersion to "warm-up" a higher level monster or nemesis than it is to suddenly cut their legs out when the dice are against your party. This is especially true for Casters. Having some higher level nova spells in their back pocket for a fireball-n-teleport combo has saved my Arc villains from more than one fight.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

PCs tend to optimize for offense because, at the metagame level, the best defense is preventing the enemy from acting, and the same build resources that increase defense by X might increase offense by 2X.

As the DM, if you insist on creating a solo encounter, I would instead optimize for defense and action economy with just enough raw offense to put a scare into the PCs. One way to do this is the aforementioned "extra semi-useless HD" strategy, but that's a bit too wasteful of hit dice for my taste (for an NPC; monster advancement is fine). Spell load outs can be selected to make the character very hard to locate, target, and affect. Feats/features/items can be taken to increase the defenses of casters and non-casters alike.

Once you've done that, it depends on the op level of the party relative to you, and whether the NPC is a caster or non-caster. If you optimize as much as your PCs, I'd say take their party level plus 3, 3 more if it's not a caster, and then optimize for defense over offense.

[Psyren]

The key is avoiding single-monster encounters. Those are too swingy - either the players will steamroll them due to action economy, or they'll be so tough that they cripple the party almost instantly before finishing them off.

Consider instead giving your boss one or more of the following:

1) Henchmen: these are additional foes that are less dangerous than the boss itself. Killing them gives the players a sense of advancement while also diverting the party's attacks from the main threat. They also give the enemies enough actions to match the party.

2) Terrain/traps: The environment itself can be something the party has to struggle against. Perhaps the fight takes place in a puzzle room or mechanical contraption, or there are shifting magical runes that only affect the party, or natural hazards like an active volcano.

3) Special actions: One of 5e's better innovations was giving boss monsters special action types like Lair Actions and Legendary Actions. This helps them keep up with a party that is beating on them, as above.

[atemu1234]

Well, the logic I use is this:
A group of four PCs have an encounter level of their level +4, so it makes sense that they should encounter bosses of around that level. Usually I have a villain that's two or three levels above the average party level with two lackeys at or around the party's level. That way the action economy doesn't make the boss fight too easy.

[False God]

IMO: The "Boss" should be ~2 levels higher than the party average.

But the boss should also never be caught without minions. At the end of the day the player's biggest advantage is their sheer number of turns compared to the enemy. Outside of special sub-villains and lieutenants, those guys cap out at half average party level. Add in an assortment of mooks and you've got a good "bad guy party" going.

So if your party is level 10, your Villain is level 10-14 depending on your tastes and they should almost always be hanging out with their own "party" of, IMO, 1 lieutenant (APL-2 to 1/2+1 APL), 2 minions(APL 1/2 or less) and 3-5 mooks (totally nooby level 1 guys). Providing the party with plenty of distractions and the bad guy with plenty of extra "turns" so the party can't just wallop on him.

Kinda depends on your level of party and your intended level of villain too. Low level parties might require more "compacted" numbers than presented above.

But the big point at the end of the day is that the villain needs "turns" more than it needs levels.