A creature that requires a sword fight

[Bannan_mantis]

I was wondering, for a campaign I was thinking of having a villain that has a high amount of respect for anyone who can best him in combat but combat alone and I was thinking. What abilities could he have that would make it much easier for a martial class to best him than say a spell caster, I already have given him magic resistance and immunities but I am wondering if there are other abilities that would help with this. (this is for DnD 5e but since it's home-brew if there's something from 4e or pathfinder that could be converted into 5e please say)

[Chijinda]

An Anti-Magic Field and the Mage Slayer feat seem like pretty good starting points. Perhaps he's carrying scrolls of Counterspell?

[Bannan_mantis]

Yeah that could work, the carrying scrolls I am not so sure as I would think he relies on physical abilities to fight but maybe he is able to just use his physical abilities to have a constant counter spell like effect.

[Chijinda]

Yeah that could work, the carrying scrolls I am not so sure as I would think he relies on physical abilities to fight but maybe he is able to just use his physical abilities to have a constant counter spell like effect.

This all depends on his mentality. You may wish him to be a warrior who prides himself on his ability to defeat mages without using any magic himself (in which case even the Anti-Magic field may be suspect), but if his mentality is closer to; "Fighting with magic is dishonorable, so I carry these counterspell scrolls to make sure my enemies can't use their dishonorable tricks against me", it could be justified.

But it all depends on his mindset with regards to that. Perhaps he uses a special toxin on his weapons that briefly disables magical abilities (just be careful about your PC's getting their hands on it!)

[Lunali]

Put the dueling grounds inside an antimagic field. This has the added benefit of restricting things to the difference in the characters' skills instead of their magic items.

[Connington]

Mage Slayer allows him to get in a melee attack as a reaction when a spell is cast, plus disasdvantage on saving throws. I'd go a step further by letting that reaction interrupt the spell, ala Roy's Spellsplinter Manuever. If he hit's with a melee attack as a reaction to a spell being cast, the caster makes a Concentration check (possibly with disadvantage) to successfully finish casting the spell. Effectively he gets a melee-range martial Counterspell.

[Knaight]

The antimagic field is an obvious one, but it might also be good to cut out a lot of the indirect magical attacks - an aura that stops incoming projectiles at a certain distance (maybe 15 feet or so, close enough for a good sword rush), a short range teleport that takes a full round that can counter the various wall spells and the like, a way around needing to breathe.

[Lunali]

Mage Slayer allows him to get in a melee attack as a reaction when a spell is cast, plus disasdvantage on saving throws. I'd go a step further by letting that reaction interrupt the spell, ala Roy's Spellsplinter Manuever. If he hit's with a melee attack as a reaction to a spell being cast, the caster makes a Concentration check (possibly with disadvantage) to successfully finish casting the spell. Effectively he gets a melee-range martial Counterspell.

Unless the character has something exceptional that lets him do this, you should avoid giving enemies abilities that are greater than what the players have available to them. If it is purely the result of training, it's hard to justify only enemies having access to these abilities.

[Chijinda]

Unless the character has something exceptional that lets him do this, you should avoid giving enemies abilities that are greater than what the players have available to them. If it is purely the result of training, it's hard to justify only enemies having access to these abilities.

If this character is the favoured champion of some God or another by virtue of his martial skill he could always have some manner of Divine protection.

[Knaight]

If this character is the favoured champion of some God or another by virtue of his martial skill he could always have some manner of Divine protection.

That's certainly an option, though with "creature" in the title here there's also a very obvious option of just being a type of creature that has some sort of relevant ability.

[noob]

It could be a level 21 wizard lich who have infinite armies of ice assassins of gods(that he use only as a tool for destroying the world and is not anywhere close to it in normal time) and who thinks he would like to do a sword fight with a worthy opponent.
Then the lich says "I am going to send an army of ice assassins of gods if people do not fight me with a sword" of course if the lich is defeated in any other way the world gets destroyed(and then the lich will re-spawn and do the same thing in other worlds) and if someone beats the lich in a sword fight the lich go to another world and restarts.(but you saved one world at least)

[Spectrulus]

An option would be a Rakshasa, they are literally immune to spells under a specific level, and only vulnerable magic piercing weapons. They also tend to be cunning, prideful, and seat themselves in positions of power.

[gkathellar]

I'm going to second the, "a spellcaster," idea. A gish who prefers a knock-down drag-out without buffs isn't hard to imagine. In this case, the heroes have their best chance in a brawl simply because it means the opponent is volunteering not to bring out his big guns. Bonus points for a divine gish of a god who favors this sort of thing.

Or to put it differently: "You mean, you'll put down your rock, and I'll put down my sword, and we'll kill each other like civilized people?"

[Nifft]

Many of the more memorable Star Wars antagonists were immune to force-magic and blasters, so they require sword-fighting.

... though I guess that's more of a setting conceit than an antagonist special trait.

[comk59]

I actually did this by introducing a new type of weapon called a Spell-Sunder blade. Crazy expensive and cannot be enchanted, but allows the wielder to deal damage to magical objects and effects and, more importantly, lets the wielder use their primary combat score for spell saves.

Not only was it a great fight, but it made our Battlemaster the happiest mercenary this side of the Everfrost mountains.

[Angel Bob]

If you're working with D&D, the Ring of Spell Turning and other magic-resistance items can heavily incentivize putting away the wand and breaking out the sword. I just ran a boss fight in 5e against a warrior with such a ring, and the sorcerer was so afraid of having her spells reflected at her that she chose to pick up a simple weapon and run into melee. Whether this was a good decision on the player's part is up for debate, but the ring definitely made them see the boss as "requiring" a sword fight.

[Yerok LliGcam]

um. Animated Sword? no one's mentioned that?

at the end of the day, magic will always be overpowering sword and shield. that's just the way things are in most ttrpg with those two elements.

but if you wanted you could have a mad wizard who just animates weapons! and hides in some unreachable place.

but yeah. animated swords. those require sword fights. haha.