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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6698850" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Mechanisms I've used include:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> [*=1]Death Ward. [*=1]Augury/Divination in advance (which function mechanically similar to inspiration/Portent respectively, due to house rules) before engaging with PCs. [*=1]Armor of Invulnerability on a scro Eldritch Knight 12. [*=1]Class levels in Sorcerer on my dragons (for Shield, Counterspell, Mirror Image, Blur, etc.). [*=1]Everybody makes death saves. No auto-death at 0 HP. In your example, the cleric minion could have just Healing Worded the bad guy back on his feet after the Fireball. [*=1]Total cover, or at least partial cover from minions. [*=1]Overwhelming firepower close at hand. In one case, PCs were able to take down a neogi wizard using Evard's Black Tentacles (cast through a doorway into the neogi ship), but the spell ended on the same round the neogi hit 0 HP, because the PCs were too busy responding to an umber hulk sally to maintain the spell inside the ship. So a human slave stabilized the neogi with medicine checks (humans have a vested interest in keeping their neogi master alive, because it is customary to eat half the slaves of a dead neogi in the feast celebrating the transition of power) and he is still alive, unbeknownst to the players. [*=1](Similar to #7.) Bodyguards in a nonhostile confrontation. The scro Eldritch Knight mentioned above had two Planar Bound Air Elementals, a Fighter/Warlock mounted on a flying void worm, two spellcasters (Diviner 9 and Tempest Cleric 7, although the Diviner could not cast spells due to spelljamming helm effects), and nine scro troops with him (orc stats, plus breastplates and longbows). If the encounter had turned into a general melee instead of single-combat-for-fun-and-information, he was well-placed to make a fighting withdrawal if he couldn't win the fight outright. [*=1]Lucky feat. [*=1]Indomitable fighter feature. [*=1]Cloak of Displacement (again on the scro). PCs never discovered this because the PC who fought him used spells only, but it was there just in case. [*=1]Pre-buffs: Free Movement, Longstrider, Bless.</li> </ol>I've also planned but not yet used Contingency (Armor of Agathys V, or Dimension Door) on Warlock/Wizard hybrids. An extra 25 temp HP when you drop below 40 HP can make a big difference in survivability.Basically, just treat the NPC like an NPC who has goals and actually wants to stay alive, and then do all the things that you can't figure out why your players don't do, like recon, recruiting minions, casting Death Ward, using poisons, and learning Shield. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> NPC opponents are super fun and I always feel a little bit guilty when using them because I didn't have to work to create them, like players do with their PCs.</blockquote>

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