D&D 5E Undead Fire Giant Idea?

[Zardnaar]

I'm running a Drow campaign roughly based off the City Of the Spider Queen.

Anyway I want to convert Kurgoth to 5E and make him undead.

In 3E he had 5 levels of blackguard of Kossuth and was a half Fiend. So I'm 5 E give him some spells and convert half Fiend temple etc easy. Give him some undead and half Fiend immunities and resistence.

Here's the kicker though. I want to make him a legendary critter probably around CR 14 or 15.

His lair as such is a foundry with seepage from the Elemental planes of fire. The fire giants are producing ogre forged essentially Warforged that are ogre sized.

One of the bodies is a gargantuan sized fire giant Warforged as a new vessel for Kurgoth.

Any ideas?

 

[aco175]

Turn Resistance should be given and legendary actions such as forge spray, where lava spits from the forge or shooting soot that blinds the PCs.

Depending on you, give the giant some backup with a few forge workers that fight for a while before the giant remains. Maybe undead azers or salamanders.

 

[Zardnaar]

Turn Resistance should be given and legendary actions such as forge spray, where lava spits from the forge or shooting soot that blinds the PCs.

Depending on you, give the giant some backup with a few forge workers that fight for a while before the giant remains. Maybe undead azers or salamanders.

Minions are easy enough. Your spot and forge spray ideas are great I'll yoink them.

His lair is a coliseum.

 

[Stormonu]

Could also have as a legendary action/reaction he animates the nearby vessel to take an action.

Then, when he drops to 0 hit points, if the party hasn’t destroyed the vessel, he transfers his essence to the vessel for round 2 as a much more brutish battler, possibly with some special vulnerabilities due to the incomplete nature/forced transfer of his essence.

You could go with the angle that when the party encounters him, he’s already transferred his essence to the vessel ala magic jar and is just puppeting his old frame - the real target is the war forged vessel, and if the party defeats the Kossuth, he’ll try to possess PC’s until they figure out the source of the possession. Could have a legendary action that after the Kothus body is hit, he “lets go” of the puppet for a moment to attempt to overtake a PC and force them to use one of their own abilities against the party.

 

[Quartz]

How about Heat Metal as a Lair or Legendary Action as long as the anvil is intact? And how about making him a Death Knight? I really like the idea of him transferring his essence to a warforged; you might consider it a Mythic Trait.

As his lair is a colosseum then perhaps he could summon the ghosts of dead gladiators? Or that might be another Lair Action. Rather than individual ghosts, just have everyone be affected by a Toll the Dead attack or similar. The important thing being that it reduces the PCs' HP maxima. Of course, they'll have tricked out protection against fire damage, so Necrotic damage might be an unpleasant surprise.

 

[Quickleaf]

There's a frost giant zombie in the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount that might serve as inspiration, particularly its Numbing Aura and Freezing Stare. You could adapt fire/necrotic-themed variants as potential Legendary Actions.

His lair as such is a foundry with seepage from the Elemental planes of fire. The fire giants are producing ogre forged essentially Warforged that are ogre sized.

Oh! Sounds like you could use a Large-sized helmed horror to model a "ogre forged" imbued with a spirit of elemental flame.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I think some of the good ideas have involved things with the environs - the heat, the flame sprays, etc. What I think would be interesting, and also mean that you don't need to beef him up a TON, are have environmental effects that, if a PC doesn't deal with them (pulling them off damage duty) they make the fight harder.

For instance - what if while they're fighting the giant and his minions, one PC is occupied running around turning valves to depressurize the flame gouts for a round. They're still being active in the fight, but their duty is to run around, interacting with the environs to vent heat and pressure to avoid the sprays and/or cancel the insane heat of the forge?

My thinking was my understanding of the old Magtheridon fight on WoW where there were clickable cubes around the boss. People who used the cubes would take damage, but it would interrupt his Blast Nova ability and increase his damage taken if all five cubes were active. Magtheridon (tactics)

 

[Zardnaar]

The lair in 3.0.

Planar hotspot 100 years later, workshop, forges etc.

 

[Imaculata]

I recently used Fire Giants in my 3.5 game, which had some special abilities to raise their CR. They could strike multiple targets within range with each attack of their flaming great sword. They could also cause a small earthquake by pounding the ground, forcing every creature of a smaller size than the giant within a 30 ft. radius, to make balance checks or be knocked prone.

As for the forge idea, I once created a boss battle with a forge-golem, which could operate chains hanging from the ceiling. These allowed him to move a bucket of molten steel above the players, and drop it on top of them. The arena would also gradually fill with molten steel, thus shrinking the area where the players could safely stand.