We just had our weekly session tonight, and I am just giddy with joy at how it turned out. My party has been hacking through the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure (with ample homebrew changes) and they just defeated the final boss. I changed Nezznar significantly, as instead of an evil drow mage bent on crafting magic items with the Forge of Spells, he is an indifferent drow IT guy called in to help maintain a magic telecommunications relay (long story, lost of homebrew). This guy has literally no damage spells at all, just utility stuff like Unseen Servant and the Badge of Authoritah. Despite this, he has been talked up for weeks as the shadowy figure behind every monster, the puppet master and Big Bad Evil Guy, so when I introduced him to the fight, as ominous footsteps slowly walking out of his room, my players were terrified. He cast Calm Emotions on turn one (shouting "Respect my authoritah!" of course) and four of five players failed their save. With everyone else being super chill about maybe being murdered, the party Warlock did his damnedest every turn to persuade his party to snap out of it, never bothering to attack Nezznar. For three turns the party was freaking out, thinking they were all going to die at any second, trying to fight off being Calmed, then evading a Web spell, before they finally rallied and the Warlock decided to throw a bomb at Nezznar. Up to that moment he had been completely calm and dignified, but once an actual threat emerged he broke down like a baby and begged for his life, but the Wizard was too pissed to listen and burned him to a cinder. It was only after killing him that they found his spell book and discovered how little a threat he was. I practically died from laughter as the Paladin threw a fit, calling me an evil bully. Best DMing moment so far! 
