Building a BBEG

[Chalkarts]

I run a group with fluctuating attendance.
between 5&7 players, now level 5.

I want to build a BBEG badass Barbarian.
The stage is set and its already locked in stone that he's a heavy weapons melee fighter and they'll probsbly try to attack at range.
Given that the BBEG knows that his weakness is ranged defense, how would he compensate?
What kind of Magic Items or Feats would you give him to either let him close distance quickly or block ranged attacks?

I'm looking at lvl 8, but wonder if he should be stronger.

[Ganryu]

I used to do this as DM, but my advice is 'don't'. Don't make a player character as an enemy, it doesn't go down well as a fight. They have too few hits points and will get shredded by the PCs (Lvl 8, especially so). Reflavor an enemy as a barbarian. Give them a few abilities that seem barbarianesque.

I recommend using D&D 5th Edition Random Encounter Generator - Goblinist to find what would be a deadly encounter for a group. Put in a max of '1' if he's supposed to solo them. Find a monster with a similar 'feel' of level(I.e. not a spell caster, a melee brute). At the very least, you'll get proper HP, AC, damage, and to hit, which are the important numbers for you. Everything else reflavor.

The other, more arduous option, is to try and completely homebrew it. still do the above to find the CR, then put it to the Monster Creation Table.
Ember Dungeon Mastery — D&D 5e Monster Creation Table (Version 2) Here’s a... (tumblr.com)

Find the mean between defense and offense for the creature.


If this is a BBEG, make it a bit stronger than that, throw on a few abilities, but I find goblinist is pretty good for creating encounters.

Oh, far as magic items, give'em legendary resistances, or something to patch up crappy wisdom, as otherwise, your overlord will spend half of combat laughing to 'Tasha's Hideous Laughter' Maybe a berserk action that let's them power through and suspend the effect for their turn, but then they fall back to the status.

[J-H]

You want a pile of HP, especially against a 5-7 person party... something in the 150-200 range.
Give him resistance to physical damage so he's permanently raging.
Maybe give him a "knock arrows out of the sky" reaction.
Legendary resistance 1/round, max 3 total.
Mobility + barbarian for a speed of 45' per round, 90' when dashing, so they can't get away.
2 attacks plus a bonus action shove (prone or off a ledge) or disarm attempt, treating him as having proficiency in Athletics.
And a couple of followers, maybe a shaman or something.

Ramgar, a savage man from savage lands
AC 17 (Dex + Con)
HP 150
Speed 45'
Str 20, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 12
Saves Str +9, Dex +7, Con +8, Wis +6 Dex save simulates the barbarian's class feature, Wis save because he's a tough-minded leader
Legendary Resistance Ramgar can pass 1 save per round that he would otherwise have failed. Each time he does this, a blood vessel visibly pops in his face and he takes 10 points of damage.
CR 12 (PB +4)
Damage Resistances Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing
Skills Athletics +9 (with Advantage), Perception +6
Actions
Dash. this is to remind you he can
Multiattack. Ramgar attacks twice with his +1 Greatsword of Killing. Melee weapon attack, +10 to hit, 2d6+10 slashing damage, or GWM +5 to hit, 2d6+20 slashing damage.

Bonus Actions
Cleave When Ramgar reduces an enemy to 0hp, he can move up to half his speed and attack an extra time as a bonus action. Simulated GWM
Shove Ramgar makes an opposed Athletics check (with Advantage) against a defender's Athletics or Acrobatics check. On a success, Ramgar knocks the enemy prone, or pushes him back 5' per 5 points of difference between the two scores.
DisarmRamgar makes an opposed Athletics check (with Advantage) against a defender's Athletics or Acrobatics check. On a success, Ramgar knocks a weapon or arcane focus out of the defender's hand, and uses his free object interaction to kick it 1d6x5' in a direction of his choice.

Reactions
Bird in Flight. Ramgar can use his reaction to make an opposed attack roll at +10 versus a melee projectile aimed at him. If his attack roll is higher than the attacker's, the projectile is knocked to the ground and deals no damage.

Legendary Actions
Ramgar may take two legendary actions per round.
Attack. Ramgar makes a normal attack, shove, or disarm attempt.
Feral Move. Ramgar moves up to half his speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks
Command. Ramgar yells at one of his minions, who can use a reaction to immediately attack once or cast a cantrip.

[da newt]

Stage the battle in a labyrinth or similar environment where it's neigh impossible to get more than 10' line of sight, or blind sense and a fog cloud. Give your BBEG legendary resistances and actions (movement and attacks/grapples) or at least BA - cunning actions hide/dash/disengage and 50' movement speed.

One melee guy vs a party is not easy to balance as they can all concentrate on just one target (a single stun or similar and it's over), and if he's tough enough to give the party a run for their money then he ought to be powerful enough to perma-kill one PC in a hurry.

A Tanarukk might be a good proxy, but I'd buff it a bit. For a party of 6 lvl 5 PCs I'd aim for something around CR 8. I'd think a Hezrou demon and Glabrezu should give you a good idea of challenge level.

I'd look for ways to add something interesting like an ability to possess one PC to turn on their party or something to make it more dynamic than 1 v 6 slug fest.

[Ganryu]

You want a pile of HP, especially against a 5-7 person party... something in the 150-200 range.
Give him resistance to physical damage so he's permanently raging.
Maybe give him a "knock arrows out of the sky" reaction.
Legendary resistance 1/round, max 3 total.
Mobility + barbarian for a speed of 45' per round, 90' when dashing, so they can't get away.
2 attacks plus a bonus action shove (prone or off a ledge) or disarm attempt, treating him as having proficiency in Athletics.
And a couple of followers, maybe a shaman or something.

Ramgar, a savage man from savage lands
AC 17 (Dex + Con)
HP 150
Speed 45'
Str 20, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 12
Saves Str +9, Dex +7, Con +8, Wis +6 Dex save simulates the barbarian's class feature, Wis save because he's a tough-minded leader
Legendary Resistance Ramgar can pass 1 save per round that he would otherwise have failed. Each time he does this, a blood vessel visibly pops in his face and he takes 10 points of damage.
CR 12 (PB +4)
Damage Resistances Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing
Skills Athletics +9 (with Advantage), Perception +6
Actions
Dash. this is to remind you he can
Multiattack. Ramgar attacks twice with his +1 Greatsword of Killing. Melee weapon attack, +10 to hit, 2d6+10 slashing damage, or GWM +5 to hit, 2d6+20 slashing damage.

Bonus Actions
Cleave When Ramgar reduces an enemy to 0hp, he can move up to half his speed and attack an extra time as a bonus action. Simulated GWM
Shove Ramgar makes an opposed Athletics check (with Advantage) against a defender's Athletics or Acrobatics check. On a success, Ramgar knocks the enemy prone, or pushes him back 5' per 5 points of difference between the two scores.
DisarmRamgar makes an opposed Athletics check (with Advantage) against a defender's Athletics or Acrobatics check. On a success, Ramgar knocks a weapon or arcane focus out of the defender's hand, and uses his free object interaction to kick it 1d6x5' in a direction of his choice.

Reactions
Bird in Flight. Ramgar can use his reaction to make an opposed attack roll at +10 versus a melee projectile aimed at him. If his attack roll is higher than the attacker's, the projectile is knocked to the ground and deals no damage.

Legendary Actions
Ramgar may take two legendary actions per round.
Attack. Ramgar makes a normal attack, shove, or disarm attempt.
Feral Move. Ramgar moves up to half his speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks
Command. Ramgar yells at one of his minions, who can use a reaction to immediately attack once or cast a cantrip.

[Spiritchaser]

I have successfully used PC’s as enemies before, but there are a couple of caveats.

1. War game it first. PCs tend to have a lot of options, and not a lot of staying power. You’ll likely find he goes down fast without a HP bump or minions, and becaus your BBEG may have a few more mechanics than the average enemy, you may very well find that your battle becomes bogged down and slow/not fun. Do you REALLY NEED this guy to be like a PC?

2 if so, Two suggestions.

1. Consider the plot and a little RP confrontation first.
2. Consider the environment

If you can RP a reason the PCs are going to have to want to kill this foe on a timely basis, you can incentivize them to attack him where they may not wish to

Example: the BBEG has stolen/obtained/extracted from the body of a mighty foe a sacred crystal/dragon heart/demons tooth/whatever and is having a tame shaman/warlock/dark priestess, etc. sacrifice it in a ritual which will hive him massive stamina (side effects may include demonic possession but he doesn’t seem to care because he knows he can shrug off a paltry demon/power requires any risk/he likes the idea of an alliance with dark forces/etc. )

The players can attack him early in a field of his choosing, or maybe come back later after the ritual is complete.

If they choose the early battle, put the fight in a region with lots of cover (boulders/treeswhatever), and dense smoke/fog/ice crystal filled clouds. Have plumes of volcanic fumes/toxic swamp gas/golf ball sized hail. The BBEG has blind fighting. and knows where the toxic fumes are/where there is shelter from the hail. The players will need to figure it out, while deciding if they should break up the party to find this guy or stick together, making avoiding vents/hail/whatever harder.

Want to really mess with the party?

He’s a barbarian yes, but he also has a few levels of echo knight

[Chalkarts]

I have successfully used PC’s as enemies before, but there are a couple of caveats.

1. Consider the plot and a little RP confrontation first.
2. Consider the environment

The Players have 2 options they're weighing.

They're going to stalk the target for a bit so they can pick their moment.

They know where the guy relaxes at a sauna bathhouse thing, They could attack him there and catch him completely unarmed and unenhanced but in close quarters and not alone, the bathhouse security would aid the bbeg.
Or they can catch him out in the open somewhere to take him out alone, but he'd have all of his gear, which is gear I want the group to get, but I want them to earn it. I'd be ok with someone getting taken out in this fight. I'm going to hype it up as a possibility and ask everyone to think about their next character in the build up to the next session.

[strangebloke]

don't use the PC creation rules for monsters. Use it as inspiration. You may want to give this guy resistance to b/s/p for example but he shouldn't have the limitations of an actual barbarian. Using the PC rules always ends up being too restricting, and also tends very strongly toward extremely annoying encounters because of how PC abilities differ from NPCs.

The other thing of course is that generally melee meatgrinder enemies aren't very interesting as boss encounters. I would stronger recommend you give our guy some extraordinary effects, like bellowing with rage to apply a fear effect, or the ability to chase down a fleeing enemy as a reaction, or smack arrows out of the air.

Beyond all that, my advice here is pretty straightforward: Two headed two tailed bifurcated snake monster.

Solo encounters suck. Solo monsters are really vulnerable to certain kinds of tactics, and in order to 'balance' them you need to way overtune things like HP and damage which only deepens the problem. Legendary actions and saves help here, but IMO you can take it a step further. Give your monster two turns, maybe even three. Split their HP into two and then have them lose one of their turns once half of it is gone. This essentially will look like a solo encounter while effectively being an encounter against two monsters. You can do this even if there are some mobs of lesser enemies around, it really helps the boss feel powerful.

If you need to justify it you can have the second turn be the actions of a powerful spirit that's possessing him (or standing over him like a Stand from Jojo's)

[Chalkarts]

Ramgar, a savage man from savage lands
AC 17 (Dex + Con)
HP 150
Speed 45'
Str 20, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 12
Saves Str +9, Dex +7, Con +8, Wis +6 Dex save simulates the barbarian's class feature, Wis save because he's a tough-minded leader
Legendary Resistance Ramgar can pass 1 save per round that he would otherwise have failed. Each time he does this, a blood vessel visibly pops in his face and he takes 10 points of damage.
CR 12 (PB +4)
Damage Resistances Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing
Skills Athletics +9 (with Advantage), Perception +6
Actions
Dash. this is to remind you he can
Multiattack. Ramgar attacks twice with his +1 Greatsword of Killing. Melee weapon attack, +10 to hit, 2d6+10 slashing damage, or GWM +5 to hit, 2d6+20 slashing damage.

Bonus Actions
Cleave When Ramgar reduces an enemy to 0hp, he can move up to half his speed and attack an extra time as a bonus action. Simulated GWM
Shove Ramgar makes an opposed Athletics check (with Advantage) against a defender's Athletics or Acrobatics check. On a success, Ramgar knocks the enemy prone, or pushes him back 5' per 5 points of difference between the two scores.
DisarmRamgar makes an opposed Athletics check (with Advantage) against a defender's Athletics or Acrobatics check. On a success, Ramgar knocks a weapon or arcane focus out of the defender's hand, and uses his free object interaction to kick it 1d6x5' in a direction of his choice.

Reactions
Bird in Flight. Ramgar can use his reaction to make an opposed attack roll at +10 versus a melee projectile aimed at him. If his attack roll is higher than the attacker's, the projectile is knocked to the ground and deals no damage.

Legendary Actions
Ramgar may take two legendary actions per round.
Attack. Ramgar makes a normal attack, shove, or disarm attempt.
Feral Move. Ramgar moves up to half his speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks
Command. Ramgar yells at one of his minions, who can use a reaction to immediately attack once or cast a cantrip.

I'm just going to give this the Magic Items I want the group to have and use this guy, lol.
This is pretty badass. And I think, if there were bad decisions made on a players part, he could 1 round drop a few of them. I want his first attack to scare the rest of them.

[J-H]

Thanks, I enjoy the good feedback

He absolutely could kill a PC or two if they let him isolate one PC without support. You'll want to pre-think about some of his tactics. Hopefully they do more than just "attack for damage" and hit him with things like Grease, caltrops, entangle, frostbite, etc.
Offloading some of his legendary actions onto the minions (shaman, archers, etc.) should keep things even more engaging without letting him dump 5 attacks onto a single target in a round.

[da newt]

Ramgar always has his sword with him - even in the sauna, and he's perfectly happy to battle buck naked (+5 to intimidation checks if he's attacking in the buff).

[Sorinth]

I probably wouldn't go with a reaction to mitigate ranged damaged. I'd rather something like:

Warcry (Bonus Action or maybe legendary action)
You let out a menacing warcry, creatures of your choice within 60ft must make a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened until the end of your next turn. While frightened in this way a creatures movement speed is reduced to 0 as the fear roots them in place.

This essentially gives the BBEG a range of 140ft since they can move, dash and then Warcry. And it can cause some player panic as a failed save sends the kiting plan into disarray. I went with a lower DC because of the larger AoE, an alternative would be to have it target only one player but increase the DC.

Another option would be something like a Horn of Valhalla, if the BBEG can summon some minions in the player's midst then the kiting plan becomes much harder to execute. Plus it's a nice reward for player loot. Maybe modify what it summons based on the BBEG's theme, if for example they are the leader of the Eagle Tribe, then summoning some Giant Eagles would be better, if the BBEG has a fire theme then some small fire elemental like creatures, etc...

[EggKookoo]

Solo encounters suck. Solo monsters are really vulnerable to certain kinds of tactics, and in order to 'balance' them you need to way overtune things like HP and damage which only deepens the problem. Legendary actions and saves help here, but IMO you can take it a step further. Give your monster two turns, maybe even three. Split their HP into two and then have them lose one of their turns once half of it is gone. This essentially will look like a solo encounter while effectively being an encounter against two monsters. You can do this even if there are some mobs of lesser enemies around, it really helps the boss feel powerful.

I'm going to play with this when my group gets back together (other players are DMing, I get to finally play!). I have a solo encounter in mind that's going to really be 4 lower-power monsters from a mechanical perspective, for 1:1 parity with the party. Narratively, it's a single creature, but each "instance" will get its own turn during the round, complete with actions, bonus actions, reactions, and movement. I think the trick to handling a solo encounter is to simply not make it a solo encounter (SINO - Solo In Name Only).

I like Angry's Paragon thing but I feel like he overexplains it somehow. It's really a pretty simple concept. At least as long as you're willing to break narrative from mechanical (i.e. one narrative baddie but multiple mechanical baddies).

[strangebloke]

I'm going to play with this when my group gets back together (other players are DMing, I get to finally play!). I have a solo encounter in mind that's going to really be 4 lower-power monsters from a mechanical perspective, for 1:1 parity with the party. Narratively, it's a single creature, but each "instance" will get its own turn during the round, complete with actions, bonus actions, reactions, and movement. I think the trick to handling a solo encounter is to simply not make it a solo encounter (SINO - Solo In Name Only).

I like Angry's Paragon thing but I feel like he overexplains it somehow. It's really a pretty simple concept. At least as long as you're willing to break narrative from mechanical (i.e. one narrative baddie but multiple mechanical baddies).

Angry overexplains everything, its his brand at this point.

But yes, custom solo monsters are best when treated as being solo in name only, and I will almost always give them some form of mob-like creature if only to make things a bit more varied.

[Unoriginal]

Ramgar always has his sword with him - even in the sauna, and he's perfectly happy to battle buck naked (+5 to intimidation checks if he's attacking in the buff).

I would give him a decent unarmed atrack and the capacity to use improvised weapons with proficiency.

Then let him go to town on the PCs with a sauna brazero-thing, benches and a bathtub (with someone in it or not.)

[Chalkarts]

Ramgar always has his sword with him - even in the sauna, and he's perfectly happy to battle buck naked (+5 to intimidation checks if he's attacking in the buff).

My version fights with a Maul, its a perfect sphere atop an iron shaft. If the player claim it and examine the sphere they'll find it etched with a perfect map of the globe. Before he attacks he tells the players, "Boy, the weight of the world is comin' down on you."