I'm in a bit of a pickle and I'm hoping some of you GMs here can help me out.
I'm GM for at rather large group of low level players. (12 players where most are level 3 and three are level 5.) So as a group they can do a lot of damage, but each of them die quite easily....
I've always had trouble finding good encounters for them. So far I've set them up against swarms of things and a few made up monsters that do little damage, but who's got a lot of HP.
BUT now I'd like to set them up against one "normal" NPC.... A sort of final boss. But if he's too low level they kill him in no time and if his level is too high, he might kill most of the low level characters.... A few dead is fine, but I'm not interested in killing off half the team.
Hope you see my problem....Anyone got an ide what I could do? 
So, this might be a little bit too fancy, but... How about making something like a 'trap room' in a castle or a dungeon, or something like that?
You could have the PCs fight several normal bosses at once within the trap room, with them being split into smaller groups that are separated artificially by collapsible walls, or something like that. The trick is to give your players a chance to break down the barriers between groups, in order to give them a sense of having influence over their surroundings despite being artificially trapped. You could even make this encounter a little bit of a puzzle by making the closed-off sections easy to connect if you make clever use of some kind of mechanics behind the walls, but difficult to connect if players attempt to force themselves a way through the walls. That way, you'd also ensure that the bosses in the closed-off sections get enough time to 'shine' before the players figure out a way to collapse the walls and reunite their strengths.
Sure, it requires you to figure out how you are going to get them trapped and what the mechanics behind the walls should be, but I think it would be a really good and fun solution to your problem, especially if you keep in both the boss fight and puzzle elements.
This shows how quantity beats quality in this game much more easier than in previous editions. If you aim for a final boss, remember that the designers didn't think much further than 8 PCs (and even that is a stretch). So you might be better off in making some adjustments here and there. Since your PCs are double to triple as much as assumed, you can double to triple hit points, legendary actions and/or per day uses of traits without too much harm, as long you don't focus them too much.
Or maybe you could (instead of more legendary actions) give the antagonist multiple turns in one round to even the odds a bit, even though it won't help as much with controlling effects.
Consider Lair Actions, since this can work out like another monster or two.
Or consider more minions, when the heroes comes as half an army, the villain should have his own pack to counter them. Another way is mind-controlling PCs to do the villains bidding, it makes your side stronger and their side weaker. And some players enjoy to play their mind-controlled characters themselves.
And more AoEs might come in handy. 12 adventurers in a tiny room plus fireball equals ouch.
Kentus wrote:
Very large groups of players can be a huge challenge for a DM. You might consider a "boss fight" setup that requires the group to split up for the duration of the fight:
Two groups have to disrupt separate rituals (in different rooms) that are empowering the boss, and defend the ritual gizmo (statue, altar, gem, etc) from the boss's minions who are trying to restore their leader's power.
The third group engages the boss and his bodyguards directly.
Once the boss is defeated, the ritualist minions and such surrender, flee, or fight to the death, whatever is most appropriate.
Another option is to design a multiple-part encounter with waves and actions on subsequent rounds. Set the encounter with environmental hazards that impede the group or add win conditions that requires bringing the antagonist in alive for trial, as an example.
Jacklind wrote:
I suggest using the lair abilities and adding them onto a lower level monster and give him helpers. with lair actions and being a minor caster with one or two cantrip level abilities would be a good chalange. You can focus having lower level minion types be important to kill yet weak enough that the lower level players are vital even if they are not going 12 vs 1 with a single badie. a small hord of goblins can kill any one so having enough of them that they are a threat and need to be killed will keep every one involved.
Jacklind wrote:
Jacklind wrote:
I'd be tempted to do a running batle.
use the mage from the basic D and D and add a race to it. Then modify the lower level spells to mostly be defensive (mirror image at level 2, Wall of fire at level 5) Just a few spells can stay more offensive. Run the encounter through a complex with lots of his minions. He is visable and orders the attack, using a cantrip to do a little damage here or there. If any player looks like they will get though or lay a hit on the mage he retreats while the minions slow them down. Each time the PC's get a hit on the mage he retreats to the next room. Each room presenting a different challenge toteh players
eg first room : 8-10 orc guards, orders the attack and retreats to the next room, using misty step or fly to get to a high up ledge with a corridor leading from it. When PC's reach the room thre are anotehr group of minions there and if it looks like they are getting through the minions the mage he fireballs the room and leaves through the corridor (which slopes at 30 degrees up. if they follow he releases a bag of marbles at them to slow them down. At the top of the corridor he crosses a chasm by a rope bridge and leaves two orcs bosses behind to slow them down. If you want to be cruel you can have him cut the bridge while they are on it, (dropping them into water with a creature in it down below) so they have to climb up what is left of the bridge.
Use the wall of fire to cut some PC's off from the others so they have to fight different creatures on each side of the room. Have him use misty step to "jump" past a section of corridor, If the PC's persue carelessly they will find out why he jumped over that section of the corridor.
Use corridors and spacing to force the PC's to move in single file or seperate them into 2 or more groups. By having a defensive focused mage it give him more time to use other resources and traps that he has set up.
My suggestion would be to split your gaming group. Get someone who knows the rules and ask them to be a second DM.
This doesn't nessessarly mean the 12 players can't all be in the same room.
The second team can have their own encounters while still futhering the plot as a whole. You could then bring the two groups back together during the non-combat phases of the adventure where they can exchange information and boast.
This has the added benifit of training a second DM which is good for your local gaming community and improving the quality of the adventure as a whole.
Check out world bosses from MMOs or a board game like Sentinels of the Multiverse and steal some mechanics from there. You can't play 12-on-1 with straight D&D rules, but limit yourself. Some ideas for mechanics:
- Boss has stages. Every time his hp are depleted (or X rounds pass, or whatever) he transitions to a new stage, with new abilities and new HP. "Haha! You just killed my illusion!"
- Boss has summons that buff him or synergize with him. You can't target/hurt the boss until you deal with the summoned creatures. "You'll never get me behind this force field! Wait, don't attack the force field machine!"
- Chase scene!
- Puzzle fight: boss has tricky immunities or counterattacks. For example, after taking damage of type X he is immune to that damage type until he is hit with something different. Or he gets +1AC every time he gets hit in a round. Or he's immune to damage from anyone that goes before/after him in a round. Or he auto-casts silence or darkness on anyone who hits him from melee/range. Or no single attack is allowed to do more than X hp of damage to him. Or he rusts/disenchants weapons that hit him. Give him some funky reactions that throw the players off balance.
- Multiple actions per round. Others have mentioned this, but the boss should get to go after every 3-4 players. This is basically what Lair and Legendary Actions accomplish. For example, give him a funky haste spell: after a player declares their action but before it happens, the boss rolls 1d4 and if it's a 4 the boss gets to go first and the player can't change his action choice.
Aside from boss fights, you should probably consider some anti-focus-fire combat mechanics. For example:
- Enforce spacing restrictions. Limit the number of great weapon fighters that can surround and engage a single target. Even though the grid has eight spaces surrounding one, you can't have eight two-handed swords swinging in that space.
- Create enemy objectives that force players to engage more enemies. For example, any enemy that isn't engaged in a round should run straight towards the nearby peasants and start slaughtering them. If your players lock enemies down with sentinels, have the enemy boss distribute single use misty step amulets to all his minions
- If a player gets knocked out or killed, an enemy should immediately grab the body and start dragging it away for some nefarious purpose.
Hope these ideas are helpful
Jacklind wrote: