Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Help balancing solo encounters for a party of six
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7516432" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>Usually, this would call for a legendary monster (and potentially some homebrewing). However, since you've got 1st-level PCs and the lowest CR legendary monsters are Yestabrod (CR 4, OotA) and Unicorn (CR 5), you'll probably want to make your own or think outside the box.</p><p></p><p>My suggestion is a ritual arena combat with a Nilbog (CR 1, VGtM), and a whole tribe of goblin onlookers. When "slain", the nilbog can possess any of the goblins in the crowd – turning it into the new nilbog – before they are declared victorious by the chief. So the trick is the PCs need to prevent it from possessing any goblins through plot-devised magic, <em>protection from evil</em>, or something else. A few keys to running this "solo" encounter smoothly...</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Play up the goblin politics; the chief really wants the nilbog gone, but can't act against it directly due to the elevated place the nilbog holds in goblinoid culture (and the chief being subject to the Nilbogism trait). So the chief demands everyone follow the rules of the ritual combat strictly; if PCs start attacking the goblin crowd, that's going to forfeit the ritual combat. You'll want A LOT of goblins, far more than a fair fight, to disincentive "let's just kill them all" thinking.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The nilbog only has 7 hit points and possessing a goblin takes an action. It's possible, depending on your party's composition & optimization (and good rolls), that they might take out the nilbog fast, leaving it playing catch-up the rest of the fight just possessing goblins. Two potential solutions here: one is to run with it and have the new nilbog use Nimble Escape to hide amid the crowd until its next turn when it can use its action for spells/attacks, while the other is to slightly cheat & give the nilbog a high initiative score (20 or so).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Since it's easy to "kill" the goblin possessed by the nilbog, be generous with interpreting how the players can use the Ready action.</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 7516432, member: 20323"] Usually, this would call for a legendary monster (and potentially some homebrewing). However, since you've got 1st-level PCs and the lowest CR legendary monsters are Yestabrod (CR 4, OotA) and Unicorn (CR 5), you'll probably want to make your own or think outside the box. My suggestion is a ritual arena combat with a Nilbog (CR 1, VGtM), and a whole tribe of goblin onlookers. When "slain", the nilbog can possess any of the goblins in the crowd – turning it into the new nilbog – before they are declared victorious by the chief. So the trick is the PCs need to prevent it from possessing any goblins through plot-devised magic, [I]protection from evil[/I], or something else. A few keys to running this "solo" encounter smoothly... [list][*]Play up the goblin politics; the chief really wants the nilbog gone, but can't act against it directly due to the elevated place the nilbog holds in goblinoid culture (and the chief being subject to the Nilbogism trait). So the chief demands everyone follow the rules of the ritual combat strictly; if PCs start attacking the goblin crowd, that's going to forfeit the ritual combat. You'll want A LOT of goblins, far more than a fair fight, to disincentive "let's just kill them all" thinking. [*]The nilbog only has 7 hit points and possessing a goblin takes an action. It's possible, depending on your party's composition & optimization (and good rolls), that they might take out the nilbog fast, leaving it playing catch-up the rest of the fight just possessing goblins. Two potential solutions here: one is to run with it and have the new nilbog use Nimble Escape to hide amid the crowd until its next turn when it can use its action for spells/attacks, while the other is to slightly cheat & give the nilbog a high initiative score (20 or so). [*]Since it's easy to "kill" the goblin possessed by the nilbog, be generous with interpreting how the players can use the Ready action.[/list] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Help balancing solo encounters for a party of six
Top