D&D 5E Boss Fight Advice

[Benjamin Olson]

I'd just have the player character get leveled up to 20, and then add a few special features from demon prince stat blocks (legendary actions, legendary resistances, any resistances or immunities demon princes have). Then they get to take advantage of all the high level class features they never got to experience in normal play.

 

[fba827]

As a finale of a campaign, one of the players is being transformed into a demon and will take on the party.

(snip)

I REALLY hope you mean "...one of the characters...."

That is all.

(sorry, i had to )

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

(snip)

I REALLY hope you mean "...one of the characters...."

That is all.

(sorry, i had to )

We take our D&D very seriously.

 

[Blue]

Proficiency in CON saves, and high CON. Then maybe a feature that gives it advantage on CON saves--maybe in circumstances that are straightforward for it to finagle, but not guaranteed.

Monks do tend to do bad things to boss fights. I'm tempted to houserule monks to only be able to use stunning fist once per target per round, but I would not institute that houserule right before a boss fight.

General consensus is that monks are on the weaker end of the acceptable power curve. Boss fights are one of the places they get to shine - I would be wary about diluting that too much. This is the monk's place to shine, even if it's just burning through legendary saves. If this party is better vs. boss fights than others, let them enjoy that strength - they will have weaknesses as well.

 

[Blue]

I'd just have the player character get leveled up to 20, and then add a few special features from demon prince stat blocks (legendary actions, legendary resistances, any resistances or immunities demon princes have). Then they get to take advantage of all the high level class features they never got to experience in normal play.

PC rules built characters and monster-rules build have very different ratios of survivability vs. damage. A level 20 character will not have the HPs to survive novas from the rest of the party. Also since a PC build doesn't have any legendary action the action economy will be heavily tilted in the party's favor, so the foe will get 1-2 actions total. And without legendary saves itg may not get a chance to take them as it's stun-locked by the monk or action-denial from others.

Basically, this would be a short and unsatisfying fight.

 

[Blue]

The monk tends to ruin most combats. But I'm wondering if giving the boss sentinel and polearm master to AoO and stop crazy movement and prevent monk from moving too easily might be too powerful on top of everything. I'm not sure what powers to replace for that.

That sounds a little to on-the-nose for blunting one character's abilities. A CR 23/25 minotaur barbarian should already have good CON saves, then add in legendary saves. The new Baphomet in MPMM has +15 CON saves. Plus things like Reverse Gravity as a Lair action that it can choose to ignore for itself.

 

[prabe]

General consensus is that monks are on the weaker end of the acceptable power curve. Boss fights are one of the places they get to shine - I would be wary about diluting that too much. This is the monk's place to shine, even if it's just burning through legendary saves. If this party is better vs. boss fights than others, let them enjoy that strength - they will have weaknesses as well.

I don't mind the monk stunning three or four things in one turn. I do mind the monk spamming Stunning Strike until the boss-type fails. I've found that damage auras kinda work to keep the monk from just standing there spamming stuff, but that's plausibly not exactly right for Notbaphomet ...

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

The monk can achieve 200 feet of movement in a round. He moves in, stunning strikes with every hit and then runs away with mobility. But the save is only 13 so baphomet can only fail on a 1

 

[prabe]

The monk can achieve 200 feet of movement in a round. He moves in, stunning strikes with every hit and then runs away with mobility. But the save is only 13 so baphomet can only fail on a 1

Find a way to give him Advantage on that. There's a difference between 1/20 for four rolls and 1/400 for four rolls. As someone whose dice luck is ... nonstandard, I strongly recommend this.

 

[Blue]

The monk can achieve 200 feet of movement in a round. He moves in, stunning strikes with every hit and then runs away with mobility. But the save is only 13 so baphomet can only fail on a 1

Looking again at the MP:MM Baphomet, he's AC 22. There's precious little that boost Monk's attack bonus. Let's assume +5 DEX and a +1 from something else. That's +11 at 13th level. So he needs an 11 or more to hit - dead even at 50%. So averaging two hits a turn, that works out a touch less a 10% chance that there will be a single failed save. Which can eat up a legendary save so that the monk feels they accomplished something for the Ki points they spent.

While people seem to be on this, it seems like math says that it's fine.