D&D 5E Party vs Demogorgon

[Tyler Dunn]

Does the following party stand a chance against Demogorgon at level 20(full power outside his lair)?

Half-Orc Bear Totem Barbarian

Tiefling Lore Bard

Forest Gnome Divination Wizard

Stout Halfling Gunslinger Fighter

Variant Human War Cleric

If not, what can I do to make the fight more even?

 

[DND_Reborn]

Yes.

Properly played, the Forest Gnome could kill Demogorgon as a solo without any help from the others.

But, if you give Demogorgon some help, it might stand a chance against the party and make the fight interesting for the PCs.

 

[commandercrud]

Long before level 20 even.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

If they're all level 20, Demogorgon would likely be the one in trouble.

When my party fought Demogorgon in Out of the Abyss they were in the 10th-13th level range and it was a fight that lasted hours. No one died because they were good about healing, but it was close. Demogorgon's gazes can be used to shut down spells that require line of sight with a target, which meant the spellcasters really were limited in their options unless they wanted to risk those gaze effects.

 

[Stalker0]

If you mean would the Demogorgon stand a chance ... honestly its not looking good for him.

Here is the issue, Demogorgon's Gaze is laughably bad for this high a level. All a player has to do is suffer "blindness" against demogorgon in return for complete immunity to the save.

In other words, 1 player in 5 suffers a minor inconvenience (his party tells him what square Demo is in, and he attacks at disadvantage) vs Demo spending his entire action.... its no contest, any sane party will do this in a heartbeat.

So then it comes down mainly to a brawl. Demo has 400 hitpoints, a 22 AC, and some decent elemental resistance. While the tentacle "I can't heal the damage" looks scary, 28 average hitpoints is garbage damage at this level. He has no special movement, no fly, no teleport.

So if this is 1 monster vs 5 party members...the party members slam dunk this. They just wail on the poor demo until he is dead. Maybe the demo does some decent damage to one of them....but he is going to paste in a few rounds.


Honestly the Demo is just a poorly designed monster for his CR...he has none of the needed tricks to hurt a party of such high level, and none of the special defenses really needed to stand against them. If you want to make a subtle change that would ramp him up a bit, give him a 3rd legendary action, and remove the "avert your gaze" silliness of the effect. Then he at least has some teeth....even then my money would be on the party, but at least it would be a fight.

 

[shadowoflameth]

If they are all 20th agree. Demogorgon is going down. The Wizard and possibly the lore bard can do Wish and the cleric can use Divine intervention with an automatic chance of success. Being blinded is bad for the fighter and Barbarian but the casters don't care much at least they can still do their most effective attacks and buffs. In our game the party took on a Half Dragon Empyrean at 20th level. The heroes failed every save and the dragon succeeded at every save and hit with every attack. The heroes still won easy.

 

[Dax Doomslayer]

I'm not sure if this helps but @dave2008 just made a 'mythic' version of Demogorgon making him akin to 2 CR28 monsters. See post #44:

D&D 5E - 5e Updates: Monstrous Compendium

TRex makes me think of Giant Ape. KING KONG MYTHIC BATTLE!

www.enworld.org