D&D 5E LMoP Villian

[Uller]

Tonight my group is continuing on with LMoP. I've set it in Nentir Vale 10 years after the events of Reavers of Harkenwold and Thunderspire Labyrinth (those PCs are now NPCs), sprinkled a few hooks for some 4e adventures and some homebrew ones. They've found a few that they may be following in the near future but for now I think they are on their way to Cragmaw Castle and then Wave Echo Cave.

We started this at 3rd level (having played the playtest already some of my players didn't want to return to 1st level) so difficulty has been scaled up. They just cleared Thundertree and are now 5th level. I am planning on keeping Cragmaw Castle fairly easy and quick so we can complete it in one session (I've beefed up a few of the encounters...the Grick is now a Grick Alpha and the Owl Bear is now a Shambling Mound...the door has "Garbage Disposal" written on it in goblin and a little trap door that can be used for dropping trash into it's lair. King Grol is a Bugbear Chief and his body guards are Bugbears). Rather than a doppleganger with King Grol there is going to be a slaver from Thunderspire Labyrinth...probably an agent of the Duergar. King Grol has kept Gundren alive because he knows a dwarf with mining skills might be valuable to someone...when the PCs arrive Grol and the slaver are negotiating a price for Gundren and a bunch of other prisoners.

So now I am looking at beefing up Wave Echo Cave to make it a good challenge for five 5th level characters. That's easy enough. But now I'm thinking about who Black Spider is. I don't think he's a drow (too obvious). But we already know he enchanted Iarno (the Glasstaff was a "gift" that enslaved Iarno's mind...the party had to quest to Agatha to break the curse, free Iarno and make the staff safe to use). I'm thinking Black Spider is one of two things (or perhaps both):

A corrupted Mage of Saruun: He has reopened the Well of Demons in Thunderspire Labyrinth and needs the Forge of Spells so he can create an item that will allow him to control the Guardian (not a dragon...it's a demon) to overthrow the Mages of Saruun and take control of Thunderspire Labrynth. Perhaps he's in league with the Duergar who want revenge on the PCs (now NPCs) that damaged them so badly. -OR (AND?)- He's actually an agent of the wizard (don't recall his name at the moment) trapped in the Pyramid of Shadows. He know's the location of the Pyramid or at least how to make it appear but is working on creating an item to allow the wizard to free himself (he thinks he is working on an item to allow him to take control of the Pyramid and gain it's power).

Either way...what about the crunch? What level to make him a suitable and perhaps recurring foe? Class? Race? Maybe 8th? Obviously he's a spell caster of sorts. We haven't had too many Sorcerers. So maybe a sorcerer with a lot of enchanty type spells (makes a good "spider"...he weaves webs of deceit to trap his victims...). Maybe he's actually a monster (mind flayer?). At first I was actually thinking of having him be an ancient black dragon with spell casting ability and all these goblins and such were all just his agents. Obviously he won't even be in Wave Echo Cave then...it will just be another of his agents trying to secure the Spell Forge for him (her?...her would be better I think) or even just gathering treasure for Black Spider's hoard and he'd be more of a background villain for a long time.

I'd love to hear some ideas from others.

 

[KarinsDad]

Make him at least 9th level as a caster. From recent experience, I've found that being two spell levels above the PCs (if you are going arcane spell casters) allow for a reoccurring villain that can keep coming back instead of a one shot that the PCs quickly take out. 5th level Sorcerer or Wizard spells allow for Teleport Circle, a reason for him to keep getting away early on. 5E villain spell casters are stuck with the same concentration limitation as PCs, so they need a lot of cannon fodder to make up the action economy slack. They can no longer just sit there with 8 spells up and running, and tagging the PCs from afar. A single PC Hold Person can really mess up their day, so they need to be hard to approach.

 

[Uller]

Make him at least 9th level as a caster.

Yeah, I think you're right. I think I'm just going to use the Mage in the MM as the template (it looks to be a 9th level caster), swap out some spells to make them more conniving/escape type spells to give him a good chance of escaping. He's got 4 giant spider minions and he'll surely have a familiar that can spy on the party. I think Disguise Self will be one of his spells and he can show up later whenever I want, assuming he survives. In Thundertree I was expecting the dragon to survive but the Arcane Trickster managed to lock it down with three castings of Tasha's Hideous Laughter, so who knows!

 

[Cernor]

I made The Black Spider a 7th-level Eldritch Knight with magic armour and weapons (which naturally lose their enhancement bonuses when exposed to sunlight). Bending the rules a tad to give him Blur, and he'll be sitting pretty at 21 AC, 4 potential Shield spells, and attacks against him will have disadvantage... While he can Action Surge for 4 attacks in one turn, and Second Wind to heal. With the Giant Spiders restraining his targets using their webs, he should be able to tear through the party's weaker characters with ease. If he's the BBEG, I want him to be a challenge: my party demolished the dragon and made it look easy!

 

[Uller]

So I created a version of BlackSpider using the Mage as a template...I beefed him up a bit and outfitted him with lots of spells like Confusion and Fear (and spells to help him escape). I've also decided that something like the Forge of Spells should be guarded by something really frightening...

So Mormesk is not going to be just a weak wraith or even a normal wraith. He's going to be a spell caster too...9th level like Black Spider. The party will have to decide what it's goal is. Do they just want to prevent Black Spider from attaining the forge and leave the guardians in place? Do they want the forge for themselves? One of the members of the party is a high elf sent into the world to find lost relics that the elves had given to "lesser" races and secure them. Black Spider will probably try to gain some leverage on the party to force them to help him. He can't defeat the wraith on his own. Or he may use the wraith to rid himself of the party...lots of possibilities. But no matter what, I want this dungeon crawl to be one where the party is forced to feel like they are the ones who are hunted and have to struggle to survive. Cragmaw Castle was a slaughter. King Grol and his Bugbear guards died in just a couple of rounds. The horde of goblins that came in reaction died in a volley of shatter and fireball spells leaving the middle sections of the castle so covered in gore we decided it was difficult terrain and anyone who entered it had to make a DC 11 Dex save to avoid slipping or tripping on the mess...