D&D 5E Bag of Beans killed 2 PCs, solo bosses suck, and where to go from here....

[toucanbuzz]

Looking where to go from here since a bag of beans nearly wiped out my gamers.

Last session, Player remembered several real-life months ago they obtained a mysterious bag and got it identified it as a bag of beans. So, of course they had to plant it. We're in a fey-heavy, dark fairy-tale heavy, campaign. The magical beanstalk is well known. This party of 5 5th level characters unfortunately planted a CR16 mummy lord.

Two observations: (1) they very nearly beat it, with the exception of an absurdly high damage roll on a spell on my part (I roll in view). Had I rolled average, PC victory. So, the recent post about CR 16 solo needing to challenge 5 5th level PCs, scripted for my last session. And, (2) ummm, really #1 continued. Solo bosses in D&D don't match their CR.

So, weird naughty word happens and even in death we can find new story lines. So, I need ideas on where to go with a CR16 Mummy Lord. He killed off 2 PCs. PC #1, paladin with powerful artifact weapon made in part by the gawd of the dead, who HATES undead. Mummy has her body and the weapon. PC#2 had pre-determined on death his warlock patron snatches him away, no rez possible.

So yeah, I've got a CR 16 Mummy Lord very confused to be in a forested faery land in possession of a powerful artifact sacred to the gawd of the dead, who HATES undead in this setting. This Mummy Lord is in the middle of the PC barony, a rival monster kingdom about to invade, rival city states that fear expansion of their kingdom, a soon-to-be awakened cyclops lich in a nearby barony's ruins who will resume world conquest on behalf of his long-dead conquering race, and a supreme fey threat yet to be fully unveiled.

So, ideas where my poor Mummy Lord goes and does? I really wasn't expecting this...

 

[Savage Wombat]

Well, mummies would have to be patient. I'd say he first finds a place to retreat to, where he can learn what he's up against before making any kind of non-defensive move. Mummies are also traditionally passive, but that doesn't need to apply here.

I'm kind of curious how much a "powerful artifact weapon" in the hands of a 5th level party contributed to their ability to almost defeat a CR 16 opponent.

 

[tommybahama]

1. PC #1 is now a greater zombie (Tales from the Yawning Portal) in service to the mummy lord. I would keep the artifact on the greater zombie.
2. The mummy lord uses his divination spell to find the nearest ruins or burial ground. He animates any corpses he finds to create more undead servants. By casting at 6th level he will gain six regular zombies in addition to the greater zombie.

3. From the ruins/burial ground the mummy lord will raid surrounding settlements to collect treasure and slaves for his lair. Some evil fey may willingly join his faction. The longer the PCs wait to deal with the mummy lord, the larger his treasure horde and number of minions will grow.

4. Eventually the greater zombie will become a variant undead revenant (monster manual) if he isn't dealt with. He will have spells equivalent to a Level 5 Oathbreaker paladin.

If the party have trouble locating the mummy lord's lair then you can drop a rumor that there have been outbreaks of locust swarms destroying the areas near his lair. The locusts are from the mummy lord's insect plague.

 

[Lyxen]

Honestly, before complaining about the CR values of monsters, you should be checking the actual power level of your PCs. The fact that, at 5th level, they already have "powerful artifact weapon made in part by the gawd of the dead" makes me suppose that they are all optimised, using all options like feats and possibly multiclassing. Is that the case ?

Moreover, the mummy lord is a very well known case of a delicate monster, because of its vulnerability to fire. So if the PCs know about it and exploit it, it makes the monster much weaker. Was it the case ? Did your PCs use fire ? Was there any reason these 5th level character would know that fire would be effective against that monster ?

In any case, by its very nature, 5e is fairly swingy, the combination of a d20 and of bounded accuracy which limits the range of differences between a powerful monster and a weaker one inherently makes it so.

But if you boost the offensive capabilities of PCs (artefacts, powerful builds through feats), you will have PCs that are offensively very powerful but defensively weak (few hit points). When you combine this with a solo monster that is also very unbalanced (it's a well known fact about the mummy lord, CR 15 but only 97 HP and an easy to exploit vulnerability) you have an extremely swingy situation, like you noted yourself.

Try that with another CR 15 monsters like a green abishai (187 hp and many resistances, no vulnerability and a DC 17 confusion) or any of the CR 15 dragons (flying, breath, etc.) and you will not get the same result at all.

So if there is something to be learned here, is that you have to be careful in designing encounters. 5e is not 4e which was designed with restrictions but with balance in mind. 5e's objective is NOT to be balanced, for once, so if you introduce further imbalance, you will get very swingy situations, and it's not really fair to say that the design sucks, when the problem is the unbalanced way you are using it, not even correcting for the imbalances that you are introducing (overly powerful PCs for their levels but therefore weak defensively, imbalanced monsters).

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

The Mummy Lord would find a place to hide and recover and learn about the artifacts it just gained. Then it will try to take control of one of the main factions, grow its power, take over the entire region and be the Big Bad Evil Guy for the whole campaign.

* evil laughter *

Seriously though, it needs many many minions if it gets to build the Giant Pyramid that it really wants to have.

 

[Lanefan]

Looking where to go from here since a bag of beans nearly wiped out my gamers.

Last session, Player remembered several real-life months ago they obtained a mysterious bag and got it identified it as a bag of beans. So, of course they had to plant it. We're in a fey-heavy, dark fairy-tale heavy, campaign. The magical beanstalk is well known. This party of 5 5th level characters unfortunately planted a CR16 mummy lord.

Two observations: (1) they very nearly beat it, with the exception of an absurdly high damage roll on a spell on my part (I roll in view). Had I rolled average, PC victory. So, the recent post about CR 16 solo needing to challenge 5 5th level PCs, scripted for my last session. And, (2) ummm, really #1 continued. Solo bosses in D&D don't match their CR.

So, weird naughty word happens and even in death we can find new story lines. So, I need ideas on where to go with a CR16 Mummy Lord. He killed off 2 PCs. PC #1, paladin with powerful artifact weapon made in part by the gawd of the dead, who HATES undead. Mummy has her body and the weapon. PC#2 had pre-determined on death his warlock patron snatches him away, no rez possible.

So yeah, I've got a CR 16 Mummy Lord very confused to be in a forested faery land in possession of a powerful artifact sacred to the gawd of the dead, who HATES undead in this setting. This Mummy Lord is in the middle of the PC barony, a rival monster kingdom about to invade, rival city states that fear expansion of their kingdom, a soon-to-be awakened cyclops lich in a nearby barony's ruins who will resume world conquest on behalf of his long-dead conquering race, and a supreme fey threat yet to be fully unveiled.

So, ideas where my poor Mummy Lord goes and does? I really wasn't expecting this...

Question: what are the other three characters doing and do they have enough left in the tank to maybe finish this mummy off before it has a chance to recover and get its bearings?

 

[MarkB]

The Bag of Beans produces a Mummy Lord complete with pyramid, so it effectively comes with its own lair. Would it want to set up where it is, or would it prefer to find a way to return itself and its pyramid back to where they belong?

 

[Swarmkeeper]

The Bag of Beans produces a Mummy Lord complete with pyramid, so it effectively comes with its own lair. Would it want to set up where it is, or would it prefer to find a way to return itself and its pyramid back to where they belong?

Good point. Did the OP use the Mummy Lord's legendary and lair actions, I wonder?

In general, though, I do agree that solo bosses punch under their CR. Which is why I (1.) view CR as just a general guide rather than having any real expectations about it and (2.) typically have some minions, very low level or otherwise, accompanying a boss.

That said, the outcome of the encounter you (@toucanbuzz) describe sounds amazing. The PCs nearly defeated it but didn't and now have two big reasons (well, three, if you count retrieving the sword which might be calling out to the heroes to avenge its former wielder) to pursue the mummy lord into the pyramid lair. If the players want to do that, perhaps the two new PCs are already inside the pyramid - captured or otherwise already adventuring there for some reason - the old and new PCs end up being able to bond and team up.

If a pyramid would be too off-putting in the campaign setting, I might have it appear as an "iceberg"... meaning just the very top might be visible with the bulk of it underground. The pyramid certainly creates a bit of a side quest but, IMO, that's part of the wackiness that can ensue when the bag of beans gets introduced into a campaign.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Some thoughts:

4 or 5 PCs in a party use an xp factor of 1 against a solo monster. 6 PCs would use 0.5. In my experience, 5 well built PCs with some powerful magic items should be treated as 6 PCs and use the 0.5 multiplier against solo monsters.

Now you will have an adjusted xp value of 7500, only slightly above 6600 for 6 PCs or 5500 for 5 PCs.
So killing 2 PCs even with a loss is about what deadly is meant to be. It does not mean deadly in the sense of "all PCs will die", but rather "enemies have a good chance to challenge a well rested party".

Edit: as said in the post above: even a few zombie minions spread out might have tipped the balance heavily towards the mummy lord. I have challenged lvl 5 PCs with 5 Zombies, 4 creeping claws and a CR2 Wizard with a wand of magic missile. (i think it was CR2).

 

[J-H]

As above - the mummy starts gathering minions, setting up traps to deter intruders, using divinations to orient itself, and determining what it's going to do next.

It's a mummy lord, an intelligent and OLD undead. What does it want, in the context of your game?
-Is it a researcher of some sort? Astronomy? Alchemy? Arcane symbols?
-Does it just want to kill people and make them undead?
-Does it want to shut down necromancy and secure dead bodies as dead?
-Does it want to become a new pharoah?
-Who does it worship? In past editions of D&D, mummies with magic often had clerical magic.