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<blockquote data-quote="ExploderWizard" data-source="post: 6698199" data-attributes="member: 66434"><p>Well first of all, is to keep in mind the resources and knowledge the villain has and use them. Your death ward casting cleric is a great example of a resource that you just forgot to use. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite3" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":(" /></p><p></p><p>Beyond that, I try not to have the most important bad guys be glass cannons. I build NPCs like monsters making sure they have appropriate HP to their CR rating. Some of them have class abilities similar to the PCs and also abilities not available to PCs because " monster". Any villain with a halfway decent CR is going to have enough HP to not get one-rounded. Looking at the DMG guidelines, even a CR 2 villain could have up to 100 hit points. A CR 7 or 8 villain could have close to 200 hit points. </p><p></p><p>A lot of my fighter villains have abilities like action surge, second wind, and battle master maneuvers but their base stats are still designed as if they were a monster of their CR. </p><p></p><p>Beyond the stats, also remember to play the villain as smart as their INT and WIS indicate. Would an 18 INT wizard villain freely enter combat against a whole party of seasoned adventurers if there were ANY other means of dealing with or avoiding them?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ExploderWizard, post: 6698199, member: 66434"] Well first of all, is to keep in mind the resources and knowledge the villain has and use them. Your death ward casting cleric is a great example of a resource that you just forgot to use. :( Beyond that, I try not to have the most important bad guys be glass cannons. I build NPCs like monsters making sure they have appropriate HP to their CR rating. Some of them have class abilities similar to the PCs and also abilities not available to PCs because " monster". Any villain with a halfway decent CR is going to have enough HP to not get one-rounded. Looking at the DMG guidelines, even a CR 2 villain could have up to 100 hit points. A CR 7 or 8 villain could have close to 200 hit points. A lot of my fighter villains have abilities like action surge, second wind, and battle master maneuvers but their base stats are still designed as if they were a monster of their CR. Beyond the stats, also remember to play the villain as smart as their INT and WIS indicate. Would an 18 INT wizard villain freely enter combat against a whole party of seasoned adventurers if there were ANY other means of dealing with or avoiding them? [/QUOTE]
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