Need help challenging my Pc's - Encounter and enemy suggestions

[Rolero]

Hi there fellas, I'm having trouble creating encounters or finding interesting monsters that can challenge my players or give them an interesting fight. I know that not every encounter needs to be meaninful, but most of their last battles were no danger to them.

Before going on, I'll present you my party of PC. We have been playing for about a year and a half, so they have accumulated a decent array of magic items and gear:

-Human Vengeance Paladin 6 / Blade Fiend Warlock 3: Tank+DPS. He's got an adamantite fullplate, a Cimitar of speed and a Ring of Spell storing. He uses the ring asking the wizard to charge it with Shield and Absorb Elements. He goes sword+board and as a result has very high AC, is impervious to critical hits, Paladin blessings for high ST as well and goes Crit fishing with the Scimitar to Smite.

-Half Orc Arcane Knight Fighter 8 / War Cleric 1: another Tank and occasional DPS (when he surges combined with War priest) He's got Storm Herald (a Legendary Hammer from the Madness of the Rat King module), a Dragon Slayer TH Sword, a Ring and a Cape of Protection. High AC, some support spells.

-Tabaxi Lore Bard 9: Face and support specialist. Tend to be the emergency healer in combat, plus using cutting words, bless, counterspell, polymorph and other usual tricks of the class. Very competent player. He's got a +2 Rapier and a Periapt of Wound Closure.

-Human Shadow Sorcerer 9 - She loves blasting things. Like, it is always her first choice. Still, She has some utility spells and has learned (the hard way) to save her strength and not spend everything on one encounter. She has a Broom of Flying, a +1 Wand of the Warmage and a Pearl of Power. Her Metamagics are Subtle and Empowered.

-Human Evoker Wizard 9 - Fireball is his second name. With Sculpt Spells he takes out any minions the party might face in one spell. As any other mage, he has accumulated a good collection of spells, so he can prepare for lots of scenarios if allowed time for it. He's got the Staff of Dreams (from the Mind Blast module) allows for Sleep, Slow and Suggestion. He also have several Scrolls.

The group also have a figurine of wondrous power (Griffon) a Bag of Tricks (Gray) and various potions (notably, 2x Fire Giant Strenght)

So, a very powerful group, as it should be at this state of the campaign.

Some background info of my game. The campaign is set in a group of uncharted islands, that have been isolated from the world for milenia. Two world powers send their forces to colonize, an Empire and a League of Nations, creating two separate settlements. My players has aligned with the Empire, but (unaware for them) it is in the brink of civil war between a Cousin of the Emperor and the Cancellor who is governing the island (whose in reality is an Ancient Blue Dragon posing as human).

The next chapter in my log is the start of this power struggle, making my players pick a side. I expect them to pick the cousin, as she has been a loyal ally in the past and although they don't know the real identity of the governor, they don't trust him.

So, right know they are on a race trying to find the remnants of an ancient civilization with ruins across all the islands, trying to figure out how to use a macguffin that can (literally) alter reality. They got fire on their tails (again literally) as they run into a Red Dragon that knows about the powers of the artifact they are carrying, and has started pursuit. My players just flee his domains (a remote volcano) and a dessert that surrounds it.

They are about to return to the city and encounter the civil war that is about to start. However, most probably, they will go out again to investigate some leads I gave them: Two sets of ruins, one in the dessert, another in other island in the middle of a deep jungle.

TL;DR, very powerful group of players, high stakes political intrigue, the menace of war and two ancient dragons that want what the party has.

I have some ideas for NPC lackeys this powers can throw to the party, however, I tend to struggle creating random encounters or interesting fights when they are on the wild. Most monsters are sacks of HP that hit hard and nothing else. At this level, even big critters won't pose a real threat to them.

So, what do I need?

Some encounter suggestions and monsters themed for a Tropical Island Setting, Jungle locations and Fey lands, that can be a challenge for my players. Unless they are in a dungeon, it is rare that the encounter more than one or two fights when travelling, and I prefer to have one good fight than five footnote battles.

Thanks in advance ;)

[Aett_Thorn]

Unless they are in a dungeon, it is rare that the encounter more than one or two fights when travelling, and I prefer to have one good fight than five footnote battles.

Thanks in advance ;)

This may be the crux of your problem. You are designing encounters where the party can just nova, and thereby can just burn through the HP of whatever you create.

Creating fights where there are waves, or pacing it so that the party is out of some resources before the big fight, can go a long way to making those big fights a bit harder. Also, how are you using terrain, control effects, or monster abilities to restrict the ability of the party to just blow through the bad guy?

Are you creating non-combat encounters where the party might need to expend resources? Not every encounter needs to be against another creature. Sometimes it can be a large gorge that the party needs to fly over, or wilderness events that might cause some damage. If your party is always fighting fresh and at full power, the action economy in this version is going to highly favor the party over a single tough monster.

[Rolero]

Yes, I tend to create many social or explorer encounters, that can demand the use of resources. I am a big fan of JRPG, so I usually put puzles, traps and all kind of terrains to challenge the party.

I get the crux of the problem, but I just don't like to throw monsters at them without a reason, hence, unless they are in a "dungeon" situation, this kind of waves of enemies are going to be rare.

Of course, when I use an important monster or big baddy, the have lots of minions at their disposal. Problem is, this lackeys don't have the necessary punch to be dangerous most of the times. I try to be creative, grappling the spellcasters and carrying them to the center of the fight, throw AoE spells that can disable them (hipnotic patern, stink cloud) when enemy spellcasters are available, use traps or the escenario to separate them, etc.

However, I am most interested in monsters that can handle themselves on their own, or ones that can be exotic enough to get the upperhand without the party unconsciously metagaming to quickly adapt to it.

The CR tend to be BS, so I find it difficult to create balanced encounters.

[Merellis]

Well.

Despite not wanting to do multiple encounters, you could do the jungle arc as one big dungeon where they need to get on the island, get through to the ruins, conquer them, and get off the island as fast as possible.

Make it multiple zones, first zone being the fact that they either need to fly or climb their way up to the island. Tall cliffs and no place for the boat to dock. Split it between caves and climbing areas, throw in some harpies trying to throw them off and you have an interesting encounter and a tense way up. Even if they can all fly, you still have the harpies for an opening encounter for this.

The next zone would be the actual jungle. Posions, hunting traps, animal encounters, and the like. Throw in a few areas where they have to avoid some twisted abominations, or fight them.

Third Zone is a village that surrounds the ruins. These can be humans, snakes, lizardfolk, whatever you want really. The party then has to gain access to the ruins without getting an entire village of enemies down on their head. They have spells, magic items, and the like, but they still need to sneak up on here as the numbers aren't going to add up in the favor of the party.

Finally, have the ruins. Make it a small dungeon, add some automated defenses, maybe a few of the villagers who see this as a seat of power so only the strong can enter.

Make this all things that they need to handle as fast and efficiently as possible, maybe just some short rests, because we have one more twist for this particular part.

A rival party is trying to get there first, and they have a small window to beat them to the punch.

[darknite]

I'm getting a blue or green Abashi devil vibe as a mini-boss in this campaign for some reason.

[Segev]

Dragon turtles make good tropical ocean encounters.

A mysterious island that disappears and reappears in the distance, which, if they catch up to it, turns out to be a snare set up by goblin or kobold pirates who live on a flotilla of rafts and use nets between their boats to snare others, and have dresed their masts up as trees, etc.

Monkeys driven into unnatural aggression by a tribe of su-monsters, which hunt in packs and slip away in the trees if faced with serious retaliation...only to return when the party is resting (or trying to).

Shark Island, surrounded by a nasty reef and shark-infested waters, and on which live a number of land sharks (bullettes). Possibly the home of a transmuter wizard who polymorphs into sharks and land sharks to fight. Or maybe a druid, though I don't know if he can do bullette form with his resources. Maybe a specialized sea hag with alternate forms?

[patchyman]

Here's a classic that requires a little work to set up, but it can really up the stress factor for the PCs, and it works especially well if they are overconfident.

In a dungeon, the players come across a magic portal. The first character to touch it, gets sucked in. Ask the player to leave the room. Then, describe how all the magic seems to drain from the portal and it becomes inactive. Keep track of each round that goes by while the players examine the portal and try to figure out what to do. After 3 (or 4) rounds, the portal powers up again. Don't tell the players that it powers up automatically, let them think that something they did caused the portal to activate. Maybe one of the characters will rush through, maybe they won't want to take the risk. Continue tracking rounds. Each time a character touches the portal, send the player into the other room, and deactivate the portal. Once the last player has gone though, call everyone back into the room.

Describe how the first player arrives in the next room in the dungeon. Also describe the monsters surprised by the character's arrival (the monsters should be appropriate to a CR for the party, not the character). The other characters arrive when they touched the portal in the other room. If the team delayed in the first room, this could end up a brutal fight.

Since this is intended as a fair challenge, reward creativity. Perhaps the first character can delay the beginning of the fight with a Persuasion check (but the fight should start on the 3rd round at the latest). Perhaps detect magic or a high Arcana check can indicate that the portal uses conjuration magic (and therefore is probably safe to traverse). Let the characters "recharge" the portal by expending spells or charges from magical items.

[Dork_Forge]

From personal experience, make some difficult terrain to restrict their movement then ambush them a small horde of Shadows and Shadow Demons. Bump their hp a bit so they are a bit competitive and throw a +1/2 on their to hit. The strength drain of the shadows will greatly reduce the effectiveness of your strength players and very quickly endanger the lives of your casters. The shadow demons provide a more meaty higher damage enemy for the mix and allow them to move over the difficult terrain without any issue.

Bonus points if you use the flanking rule and take advantage of the Shadow Demons extra damage on advantage hits.