D&D 5E Crowd Control and an Anti-Climactic Boss Fight

[CapnZapp]

Third: No boss worth their salt should be without an almost-as-powerful lieutenant, a lair full of traps, and a horde of minions. They should be prepared, sneaky, min-maxed, and definitely high level by comparison to his foes.

Boss fights with lieutenants and henchmen are no problem in D&D, they already work reasonably well.

The problem is about the solo BBEG fight. Which, by definition, includes a total number of one (1) enemy for the whole party to fight.

 

[CapnZapp]

Legendaries already break the rules, with their legendary actions. Believe me, the simulationist didn't win anything in the edition.

Nor is simulationism at odds with solo enemies, who are a match for a whole team. A huge demon or gargantuan dragon should be a match for a whole team of adventurers. They just didn't do the math right, in order to make it work that way.

Ah!

Okay, so let's discuss that math.

Let's start by: What math are you thinking of?

I think more posters might chime in if we understand what numbers you have in mind

 

[The Crimson Binome]

What math are you thinking of?

Hit points are the most immediate concern, since solo monsters tend to die before they can do anything to threaten a well-rested party. If you simply double the HP of a monster, then that's a lot like fighting two encounters in a row. If the monster had three or four times as many HP, then that's like fighting three or four encounters in a row.

The point is just that it needs to be able to stick around long enough to inflict an entire day's worth of attrition over the course of one encounter.

 

[Dit464]

There is the Angry DM's stuff, which Gneech pointed out earlier.