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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steampunkette" data-source="post: 9314570" data-attributes="member: 6796468">I dunno...Remember, this presumes a single BBEG fighting off 4 player characters and getting to this point. Let's assume the players are second level. Average health would be in the range of...Fighter: 20 (Con +2)Rogue: 16 (Con +1)Cleric: 18 (Con +1)Wizard: 10 (Con +1)For them to be able to get people down to "One hit" without defeating them outright their damage needs to be -around- 8 per hit. Assuming they get two swings a round, or are able to deal about 8 damage twice, they need to land -about- 6 hits on the party to get everyone that low on health.Assuming the Cleric has done no healing, of course. Any healing requires another hit, on average, to counteract.One hit puts the Wizard at 2. Two hits puts the cleric at 2. One hit puts the Rogue at 8. 2 hits puts the Fighter at 4.So we'd be looking at Round 4, and none of the players have an initiative coming up, so they've taken their turns.The BBEG has taken 4 attacks from each party member. 16 swings. And is now "One hit away" from falling. Assuming they're hitting for 8 as well, that's 128 points of damage. And any round in which the Cleric healed and forced the BBEG to take another swing is another 32 damage on average.So we're probably looking at a BBEG with around 130-140hp fighting level 2 players and spreading their attacks across them fairly evenly in order to whittle down the entire group to their last legs. Now we could go into questions of AC and ToHit bonuses or the actual minutia of Sneak Attacks and Optimal Spell Use but really it's not about getting an exact measure of how much HP the BBEG has so much as getting a comparison between the BBEG's damage and the party's and how long it would take, roughly, to set up the situation in the OP. So let's not get any more pedantic than we have to.If the BBEG were looking to Roflstomp the party they kill the Cleric round 2 with the third hit and then swings on the Wizard, negating the issue of healing altogether. Then the Wizard in round 3 with the first swing and the Rogue takes a hit. This alone ensures the BBEG's survival. Then the Rogue drops in found 4 and the second hit for round 4 goes to the Fighter, Fighter drops in round 5 after two more hits.Being generous and saying it takes the full 6 rounds to drop the entire party, the maximum output assuming every party member lands a hit on every round they can take a swing is an uncomfortable 116. Out of the 130-140hp the BBEG needs to make the situation match the OP. The Cleric got to act round 1 and has been waiting for the inevitable TPK ever since, and has probably been watching Tiktoks for the last hour of the session.If the GM plays "Bully" in this scenario, it's a roflstomp in which the players didn't really have much of a chance. Even adding in a couple of crits doesn't offset the overall calculation by much and still leaves the BBEG with a comfortable spread of HP.If the GM plays "Bad guy toying with his food" it's a lot more play for everyone at the table and the party -almost- gets him before he escapes with one party member dropped at the last moment for dramatic effect. And with a couple of lucky shots, the game could've gone the other direction. (Which is generally why your BBEG in this situation should have closer to 150 HP to make it a real squeaker if the party manages a crit over the course of 16 attacks)Anyway. Yeah. No chance TPK vs. high drama toying with the same bad guy is fairly simple to do, really.</blockquote>

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