D&D 5E Half-Dragon and Cambion "Template" Advice

[Lennaire]

Hi all. I'm currently working on a few NPCs for an eventual adventure that I'll be running after getting some pre-made adventures under my belt.

I know that there really aren't Templates per se in 5e and that you normally don't create NPCs the same way, though I am planning on making at least the main NPC from scratch the same as a pc.

Here's the question...

I remember the half-dragons having more ability score modifiers than they do now has that changed or am I missing something? If anyone has modified the template to "fix" this?

Also does it seem that the cambion should have more extras than just additional charisma or am I also missing something there?

 

[Sunseeker]

In 5E, bonus mods are pretty scarce to keep with bounded accuracy.

Here's the 3.5 SRD on half-dragons: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/halfDragon.htm
They get a whole mess of bonus stats.
I know there is a Cambion in 3.5, but the SRD only has half-fiend: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/halfFiend.htm
They also get a slew of stat buffs.

This is not the case in 5E.

 

[Lennaire]

Ah, ok. That's what I thought.

Next question is has anyone had any success in creating more powerful NPCs to throw into the campaign mix? This characters isn't really going to be the main antagonist though there will be times when he plays that role.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I've had to create foes to challenge 14th level parties. It's not easy.

For an important encounter, consider Legendary Resistance and Legendary Actions. That can up the resilience of a monster and greatly improve its action economy.

 

[Dan Chernozub]

And there is a template for a half-dragon in the Mm.

 

[Sunseeker]

Ah, ok. That's what I thought.

Next question is has anyone had any success in creating more powerful NPCs to throw into the campaign mix? This characters isn't really going to be the main antagonist though there will be times when he plays that role.

At higher levels i have to do a lot of custom work for important npcs to make them a challenge for the party. Its not terribly hard, but theyre usually breaking bounded accuracy.