Critique my Monster

[Walk Hard]

I will soon be running a 1 shot for a new group of players and just want a bit of critique on the boss monster.
I have not played in a wee bit over a year and not DM in 5E before, we are using this 1 shot to see how well we gel as a group before jumping into a full campaign so I would like for this to run well.

The party will be 6 - 8 level 3 characters, they will have spent some resources so will not be 100% fresh, but will likely complete a short rest just prior to the fight

I am using a modified Hook Horror, smaller than a normal Hook Horror with a faint red glow. Its hooks burst into flame during combat and its arms are a bit long/gangly to maintain its 10ft reach with its hooks
Burning Hook Horror - Medium Monstrosity

Str 18, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 9, Wis 12, Cha 7

AC16
Hit Points 86
Speed - 30ft, Climb 30ft
Saves - Con +4
Skills - Stealth +3, Perception +3
Senses - Blindsight 60ft, Dark vision 60ft.
Damage Resistance - Fire

Abilities
Echolocation - The Burning Hook Horror can't use its blindsight while deafened
Keen Hearing - The Burning Hook Horro has advantage on perception checks that rely on hearing

Actions
Multi Attack - the Burning Hook Horror makes two Hook attacks

Hook - Melee weapon attack, +6 to hit, reach 10ft, 2d4+4 piercing damage plus 2d4 fire damage

Fire Breath (recharge 5-6) The Burning Hook Horror exhales fire in a 15 foot cone, each creature in that area must make a DC12 dexterity saving throw taking 6d6 fire damage on a failed save or half as much on a success.


Legendary Actions
Attack - The Burning Hook Horror makes a single Hook attack

Fire Belch - The Burning Hook Horror belches out a small glob of fire targeting one creature within 20ft, +3 to hit, 2d6 fire damage

Smoke & Cinder (costs 2 actions) - The Burning Hook Horror exudes burning smoke filled with hot cinders through vents in its back. The smoke fills a 10ft radius around the Burning Hook Horror, all creatures within the area of effect suffers 4d6 fire damage, Constitution save DC12 for half, as they inhale the burning smoke.


Is this too strong or too weak for the proposed 6-8 level 3 characters?

[Amnestic]

Fire breath (average 21, max 36) might oneshot some people, and almost certainly will double-tap anyone who gets caught in Fire Breath and Smoke & Cinder (average 14, max 24).

If there's 6-8 characters I'm guessing some of them can heal on the fly, so not the end of the world, but something to be aware of. Depending on how they are grouped, initiative, etc. if you go full burst from the start it could wipe out half the group before they even really get to act.

[Avonar]

I think this is going to chew through the party quickly. Each of those hook attacks does an average of 14 damage, with up to 5 attacks every round that's going to maul a party of level 3s.

It'll be very party dependant I think. If you have a party that can spend all their resources for a super high damage burst, it'll end quick, but I'd imagine this thing will down at least one character every single round.

Those are my initial thoughts, but I'm not entirely sure about balancing an encounter for a 8 player party so who knows. But if the Hook Horror wins initiative, then some characters might by down before their first turn:

1) Hook Horror moves in, fire breath. Closes a little more.
2) First character goes, takes their turn. End of the turn, Hook Horror uses smoke.

Some characters might take 10d6 damage with no chance to move or avoid it.

Obviously, you don't have to do that, it's your creature and you control what it does, but it has the possibility of being real nasty. Maybe remove legendary actions and leave it with just the smoke burst it can do once per round (and maybe X times per short rest) as a reaction when hit?

[da newt]

IMO this boss vs 7 lvl 3 PCs will result in a very swingy encounter. With that many PCs, if they roll initiative well and use good tactics, they could take out a AC 16, 86 hp foe pretty quickly and if the Boss uses obscurement and singles out individuals, it can easily take out quite a few, if not all, of the PCs.

A 16 CON fighter will have ~29 hp and most PCs will have less. The boss can attack 5x/round at ~14 hp each = 70 hp/round, or more if it uses it's other abilities.

Your boss is very interesting, but also all over the place wrt CR (DMG pg 274). It has hp of a CR 2, AC of a CR 8, attack bonus of a CR 5, minimum DPR of a CR 11, save DC of a CR 0.

Balance vs a BIG party of low level PCs is hard - they have a very high cumulative offense, but a very low individual defense.

[Walk Hard]

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it!

I like the idea of dropping the legendary actions and giving it Smoke & Cinder as a reaction, the other thing I could think of is moving it's Fire Breath to a legendary action with a 2 action cost, so it can either Fire Breath or Smoke & Cinder and then combine this with dropping them both from d6 to d4.
I could also drop it's STR to 16 and couple that with dropping his hook attack to make it +5 to hit, 1d4+3 Piercing plus 1d4 Fire to rein that part in a bit too.
I am considering giving him a significant HP buff (30~) to give him an extra round or two of surviving.

@Da Newt - in regards to its CR being all over the place I took the Standard Hook Horror (CR3) bumped his AC by 1, gave him 11 extra HP, dropped his size from Large to Medium, dropped his 2d6 hooks to 2d4 but then added all the fire damage, gave him the same breath as the Hell Hound and then the Legendary actions.

How does that feel?

[quindraco]

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it!

I like the idea of dropping the legendary actions and giving it Smoke & Cinder as a reaction, the other thing I could think of is moving it's Fire Breath to a legendary action with a 2 action cost, so it can either Fire Breath or Smoke & Cinder and then combine this with dropping them both from d6 to d4.
I could also drop it's STR to 16 and couple that with dropping his hook attack to make it +5 to hit, 1d4+3 Piercing plus 1d4 Fire to rein that part in a bit too.
I am considering giving him a significant HP buff (30~) to give him an extra round or two of surviving.

@Da Newt - in regards to its CR being all over the place I took the Standard Hook Horror (CR3) bumped his AC by 1, gave him 11 extra HP, dropped his size from Large to Medium, dropped his 2d6 hooks to 2d4 but then added all the fire damage, gave him the same breath as the Hell Hound and then the Legendary actions.

How does that feel?

You can improve defenses in a big way by shifting abilities into the creature's statline, which will improve its saves and skills (and bizarrely not alter its CR in any way).

Taking the standard hook horror as an example, rewritten this way it's more durable with no change in CR:

1) Remove all natural armor and increase Dexterity to 20.
2) Remove proficiency in Perception and increase Wisdom to 16 (in fact, you can set this as high as you like without ever changing the CR, but you shouldn't actually push on this logic unless you hate your PCs).
3) Increase Constitution to 24 and reduce hit dice to 6. Hook horrors have a +2 proficiency bonus anyway, so reducing hit dice to be closer to 4 makes sense.

This creature now has radically improved Dex, Con, and Wis saves, and is much stealthier. You can muck with its Strength, but that will alter its accuracy, so that's more involved.

[da newt]

I'd think a mild decrease in offense and a mild boost to hp will make for a more easily balanced / less swingy combat.

Maybe 16 ST for a hook attack +5 to hit, for 1d8+3 piercing and 1d6 fire damage each (av = 11).
Add a LA of move 30', and add a limit of using each LA only once per round (no repeats).
Add 20 hp.

Or remove all the LA, add cinders AoE as an optional attack action, change hp to 65 and have a pair of hookers (2 v 7).

[Walk Hard]

Okay so taking a bit from what everyone has said here is where I'm at now.

I've softened up its attacks, dropped his AC by 1 but given him Parry as a reaction, buffed his statline and HP and added a move action to the legendary actions.
I've also placed the ranged attack as a standard option so I can have him share damage around a bit easier to those that are not in melee who are likely to get fairly chewed up by the fire breath and cinders ability.

As this is just a 1 shot and not an on-going campaign I am not *too* worried if I drop one or two characters in the fight.
My rough plan on this fight is that the Horror will open with his breath, use the legendary action to get into a beneficial spot and then drop cinders, from there just whittle away with hooks and fire belches to the more healthy characters.
Going well I will have most players being fairly injured but alive at the end of the 1 shot

I forgot to mention earlier that as a bit of a failsafe I will be giving out an item earlier on in the 1 shot that will grant a character fire resistance and will give the party a potion of fire resistance that may or may not get used before this fight.

Burning Hook Horror - Medium Monstrosity

Str 16, Dex 20, Con 22, Int 9, Wis 16, Cha 7

AC15
Hit Points 116
Speed - 30ft, Climb 30ft
Saves -
Skills - Stealth +7, Perception +5
Senses - Blindsight 60ft, Dark vision 60ft.
Damage Resistance - Fire

Abilities
Echolocation - The Burning Hook Horror can't use its blindsight while deafened
Keen Hearing - The Burning Hook Horror has advantage on perception checks that rely on hearing

Actions
Multi Attack - the Burning Hook Horror makes two Hook attacks or one Hook attack and a Fire Belch attack

Hook - Melee weapon attack, +5 to hit, reach 10ft, 1d8+3 piercing damage plus 1d6 fire damage

Fire Breath (recharge 5-6) The Burning Hook Horror exhales fire in a 15 foot cone, each creature in that area must make a DC12 dexterity saving throw taking 5d6 fire damage on a failed save or half as much on a success.

Fire Belch - The Burning Hook Horror belches out a small glob of fire targeting one creature within 30ft, +7 to hit, 2d6 fire damage

Reactions
Parry - The Burning Hook Horror adds 2 to it AC against one melee attack that would hit it. To do so the Burning Hook Horror must be able to see the attacker

Legendary Actions
Attack - The Burning Hook Horror makes a single Hook or Fire Belch attack

Move - The Burning Hook Horror takes a standard move action

Smoke & Cinder (costs 2 actions) - The Burning Hook Horror exudes burning smoke filled with hot cinders through vents in its back. The smoke fills a 10ft radius around the Burning Hook Horror, all creatures within the area of effect suffers 4d4 fire damage, Constitution save DC12 for half, as they inhale the burning smoke.