Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 NebraskaBeef Sep 24, 2014 12:00:47	I am new to DM’ing and am about to start a 5e group full of mostly new to D&D friends of mine.  I plan on running the starter box to get us all familiar with the rules and build a good group dynamic up to lvl 5, then transition to a house campaign from there.   I love the antagonist I have cooked up for the team.  He is a Dragonborn multi-classed Eldritch Knight / Arch Fiend Warlock w/ an imp familiar.  He will use various stooges, generally be a nuisance to the PC’s and eventually have to get killed dead.   My problem is that much like Cartman on the Anime episode of South Park, he has lots and lots of powers.  His character sheet is ridiculous.    His role playing options are fantastic, but due to how he is set up he has so many spell options it could end up being hard to play come go time with a complex character in addition to DM’ing the session.  In your experience is it better to keep the attack powers simple, i.e. just a few spells good spells?  Or will his incredible versatility be a good challenge for the party that eventually takes him down?
#2 iserith Sep 24, 2014 12:05:03	It sounds like you created an NPC by building a PC. While I imagine the DMG will have some guidelines for adding class levels to monsters, monsters and PCs don't work exactly the same. Monsters are made to be quite a bit simpler than PCs and so I would look to the Monster Manual to find something that fits and go from there.
#3 teron82 Sep 24, 2014 12:13:27	I don't think there is anything wrong with creating a pc to use as a villain. Jsut bear in mind equivalent level is not necessarily going to equate to CR nicely. As a DM, it is nice to have a simple monster without a lot of selecting and choosing what powers to have to use, because it slows down the game too much when you are worrying about multiple aspects of the game. However, as a villain, it might be nice ot have options. What I would do is simply give the villain out of combat powers and in combat powers--ie, rituals, but also have a few combat spells.
#4 Ansbach Sep 24, 2014 13:03:24	When I saw this thread title I assumed that you meant the complexity of his evil plans.  I rarely stat out my main villian at all until it's close to time for the final encounter - better to leave it open and flexible.  He definitely sounds overly complex to me.  A 0-level Magistrate can be a more fearsome opponent than a high level evil PC.     His plans and motivations are much more important than his stats.  As a new GM, I think it would be wise to focus on what he is doing, why, and how the PCs can interefere - then stat him later, after several missions have played out.  Besides, your PCs will have changed quite a bit by then anyway so you will have a much better idea then of how to make him a strong combat challenge.
#5 Shiroiken Sep 24, 2014 13:51:26	The easiest plan to use this villain is the same way a good player would. You have some abilities that you have only for combat (some ranged, some melee), and you have some for out of combat utility. For the most part, you problably don't need to flesh out the non-combat abilities, unless you think it might come up during a session.
#6 NebraskaBeef Sep 24, 2014 14:19:50	Points well taken, I definitely have my answer.  Thanks guys.   I was actually going to start another thread about my ideas for campaign story hooks and how this character would come into play.  If I can get any feedback I’d love to rack your brains.   I am going to use the 5 factions provided in the back of the players handbook and create NPC’s for them.  The main 2 for the campaign will the Lords’ Alliance and the Zhentarim.  Those factions will have a presence in the major cities and will sort of act like quest hubs if the group decides to play a faction based game.  The other 3 factions will have specialty npc’s that the groups can take along on missions if they need some back up.   I plan to use the Dragonborn as an agent of Asmodeus.  Basically to give the group of PC’s a nasty bad guy to chase if they choose to.  If they ignore him it may come back to bight them.   Thoughts?
#7 BW0222 Sep 24, 2014 18:07:36	NebraskaBeef wrote:
#8 woif Sep 24, 2014 18:41:15	As many have said you don't need a full start block for your primary villain until near the end of a campaign so I wouldn't worry too much about that (unless you are planning a 1shot session) if my villain is a powerful humanoid, I'll decide what his class is and maybe 1 or 2 "iconic" abilities for him that may come up before the final battle (particularly important for caster boss). It sounds like you already have most of that thought out so you've got what you'll need for a while, now it's time to start getting into his motivations and schemes. When it comes time to actually fight said boss, I usually try to use the monster mechanics in place (recharge and 1/day abilities). For your EK/warlock, look through the MM a bit to you find something kind of like what you want (deathknight maybe?) and tweak things until he starts looking like the concept you have. Alternatively just wait till DMG comes out and hope players don't encounter him till then.
#9 Ansbach Sep 24, 2014 19:36:13	Another point - if you are planning on running them through Lost Mines first, that will take many, many sessions so I think a bunch of work on the next leg of the campaign is premature.  More importantly, Lost Mines will give you a lot of opportunites and ideas to insert another bad guy and further develop the campaign.     Having the post-Lost Mines badguy develop naturally during Lost Mines will be 100x more effective than inventing a bunch of new stuff now.
#10 NebraskaBeef Sep 25, 2014 6:46:19	Awesome!, thanks for all the feedback!   I can see that I might be just a tad over excited to run my own campaign and am putting the cart befor the horse.   I just need to put in the time, get some DM'ing under my belt, and make some rookie mistakes.   Thanks again for all the feedback