D&D 5E Quick help on an NPC build

[ElterAgo]

Game tomorrow night and the campaign took an unexpected turn.

The group is going to be trying to capture a Zentarim agent in the middle of a high class restaurant dinner. The human agent has been seen to cast invisibility and dimension door.

Group is 3 pcs of level 8. Weird mish-mash of classes to use blades and arcane abilities. I want this to be challenging, but possible.

How would you build this agent?

 

[Stormonu]

I'd use the Assassin stat block as the base (with max hit points instead of average), and add under

Bonus Actions:

Invisibility (3x/day): The assassin gains the Invisible condition for up to one minute or until it attacks. If it uses two uses as a standard action, the invisibility is not broken when the assassin attacks.

Reactions:

Dimension Door (1x/day): After being the target of an attack, the assassin teleports 400 feet to an unoccupied location. If the assassin is reduced to half hit points or less, it automatically uses this ability the next chance it gets.

I'd probably also have a couple "bodyguards" (CR 6 - 8, depending on how difficult you want to make things) blended in with the other diners who leap to the agent's defense if he is attacked in the restaurant.

I think this is appropriate to drop here for how things might go if the PCs want to start a fight:

 

[aco175]

Is this intended to be a solo fight with the PCs all ganging up on him? There would likely be others in the restaurant that get involved and most trying to flee. Guards could arrive in a xd6 rounds and local bouncers may be on site to break up things. The Zhent may have a hat of disguise to make things interesting and the hide skill to allow him to change without being noticed.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

In a city-environment, dimension door will be a near-guaranteed escape. I think only a counterspell will stop it.

 

[ElterAgo]

They don't have counterspell, so I'm not sure what they were planning on to deal with that. Since it is a rich folks restaurant, I thought it might be reasonable for it to have a dimensional lock on it for security. They haven't tried, so wouldn't have noticed it.

This is an upscale 'rich folks' establishment. They have guards on site. The group is planning to impersonate city guards in order to keep others out of the conflict.

I like the idea of a couple of mooks at another table to interfere. That's a good idea.
Yes, there will be several others present that are mostly trying to flee. Plus some wait staff.

The agent is meeting with a mid-importance noble for 'business' meeting. The group has already conned this noble into working with them.

Do you think she should only have those to spells, or should I actually make her more of a sorceress?

 

[Stormonu]

You could go with more spells for sure if you want them to be more spell-based than martial. It all really depends on how you want to depict the individual.

Alternatives you could go with:

Mage - generic wizard, just swap out the appropriate spells (or add them to spells known) with the two from above.
Conjurer (Wizard) - specialist wizard, has the ability to add minions to the fight to complicate the PC's efforts
Drow Mage - possibly reskin the race and drop sunlight sensitivity or uses a constant disguise to hide their heritage
Githyanki Knight - again, a possible reskin but this would be a fighter/mage enemy

In each of the cases above, since this is sort of a mini-boss, I'd strongly recommend giving them max hit points, and bonus and reaction abilities (or legendary abilities) so they can handle 3-4 party members ganging up on them.

 

[ElterAgo]

Probably not the Githyanki Knight for this encounter. Her actions up until know have been more 'sneaky rogue-ish' in addition to the 2 observed spells.

I've got the Drow involved in something else in the campaign. I don't want them to become to pervasive yet.

I do kinda like the Conjurer idea. If some monsters start appearing in the middle of the restaurant, that would definitely complicate things for them.

Hmm... Darkness. Summon X. Then try to escape in the confusion.