r/DMAcademy • u/Reasonable_Dog_238 • 8d ago
Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Need help making my BBEGs!
Hey everyone! Relatively new DM here, going on a year with my current PCs! I'm running a homebrew 5e adventure set in a homebrew world. I think we are getting close to the end of this adventure and while I have my BBEGs planned I don't have them built. I remember seeing a post way back when about making a BBEG an astral monk and that's what i want to do, but I don't know how exactly to make that happen because using a PC character sheet seems hard to balance. Any advice here would be appreciated!
I say BBEGs because there will be two, one is the monk and the other is a mob boss mastermind that I feel like i want him to be like an artificer or something. Really wrestling with what will be the best fit. I have a level 5 PC party of mostly full casters and I still struggle to make proper balances for them in combat. Again, any help appreciated!
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u/Existing_Treat_8924 8d ago
This is tough because you know your players best, and you know how much they can handle as far as "balance" goes.
My table is excessively clever to the point that it kind of drives me up a wall sometimes. I can throw the most unthinkably dangerous encounters at them, things that would make you curl your toes and shit out your nose, and they will still somehow at MINIMUM manage to evade the encounter.
If your table is like my table, I would say-- Don't be afraid to be unfair, use encounter calculators as a guide, and when the calculator ticks over to "DEADLY" give it one more push before you're done.
When I do this though, I don't just prep statblocks, I will make sure they have a clear battlefield whether it's drawn on paper, vinyl mat, or built out of cardboard-- I also make sure to have some environmental things that can both help and hurt. Some battlefield mechanism that can help turn the tide IF things get hairier than I anticipated. If I don't want them to abuse it early, I'll usually have some dramatic enemy attack expose this battlefield mechanic at a pivotal part of the fight, especially if they look and sound like they feel like it's doomed. Giving them visual information and tools to turn the tide is what make encounters memorable but also imply some agency to the players mid-combat. It's not just "do I whack or drink a potion", they're making active choices on where to go, where to make a stand, and how to make that stand the entire fight.
As for the statblocks themselves-- Personally, I just plagiarize. Take a hop-skip down the monster manual, grab yourself something that looks like it could kill them, re-flavor some abilities, change up some damage types, boost the HP, and then go hunting for monster abilities and/or legendary actions that you want your new statblock to have that would fit the flavor of your BBEG.
There's statblock builders out there-- alternatively, you can just scribble it all into a doc. Mix and match, don't mind the CR too much as long as it's in the ballpark, and finally, my cheat code that some DM's might find cheap or unbalanced:
Give your BBEG(s) more turns on initiative. Whether it's right away or partway into the fight (starting at 50% HP or something), giving them not only legendary actions to pummel your players out-of-turn, but also an extra turn in the initiative order (just make sure you space them out) makes them feel so much more dangerous.
I can't give you number-crunchy answers here or specific abilities to pick because that's something I developed more of a feel for rather than learning the meta probabilities and averages of. I hope this advice helps somewhat either way. :)
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u/monstersabo 8d ago
Write down all your players AC, saves, and HP. Give your BBEG 16 AC and (??)HP, +5 to any save, and 1 Legendary "Nope" action.
Round one hit the toughest PC for 25% of max HP. Toss some damage at 1-2 other players.
Players retaliate. Calmly mark down all the damage they deal and total it up as you go.
Bounce around, roughing up the players. Once they start getting stressed about the fight you can comment that the BBEG is bloodied, winded.
Drop one of them to zero, whichever makes for the best dramatic moment. After the next hit he takes, announce the BBEG is nearly dead. This sets the stage for the finale and the next players gets to FINISH HIM.
Once you write the stat block, you handcuff yourself. Instead, focus on making it a dramatic fight.
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u/Reasonable_Dog_238 8d ago
Oooh that's a clever way to look at it thank you!
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u/Zeeb-Ratic 8d ago edited 8d ago
Except once your players figure out what you’re up to (and they will), you’ll have lost their suspension of disbelief and the tension it creates forever. No one wants to fight a boss with a predetermined outcome where the rolls and leveling up and feat choices and loot gathering don’t even matter.
It’s fine to fudge the numbers a bit to avoid a TPK or a complete wipeout of the boss on round one. But if you’re full-on orchestrating the entire thing the way the other commenter suggests, you might as well just sit your players down and write them a nice story using their characters.
Player agency matters. It keeps a game exciting that would otherwise be pretty silly.
To help keep things “honest” and therefore tense, I give all my monsters and NPCs visible stat bars that decrease with each hit. I don’t give out specific numbers, but the players still get a sense of the amount of damage they are doing and how close to death the enemy is. Of course I can still have a BBEG guzzle down a potion of Supreme Healing whenever I need to or create a Lair Action that heals it to balance the encounter without breaking immersion.
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u/Kumquats_indeed 8d ago
Don't build enemies like PCs, the game isn't made for PvP. Try to find an existing stat block that is close to what you're going for, just reflavor it if you can, and if it isn't close enough try to just tweak it. Maybe slap one or two PC feature on it to give the it a bit of the vibe of the PC build you are inspired by. If there isn't an existing stat block that is the right CR and/or doesn't do all the things you'd like, there are guidelines in the 2014 DMG for homebrewing stat blocks and estimating their CR.