Making a Tougher Boss Fight

[Kesnit]

At my DM's request, I am building the boss for our current dungeon. She wants a tough fight, but I'm really bad at estimating difficulty. I already know there are things about this guy that will make things harder, and some that will make things easier. All help in making this tougher would be appriciated.

The Party
Human Druid 9 who has traded off Wild Shape (and maybe animal companion?) for Monk unarmed damage and WIS to AC. (I have no idea where he found that ACF. If someone can point me in the right direction, I'd be thrilled.)
Human Rogue 5/SORC 4 (he will eventually rebuild for a Daggerspell Shaper, but is waiting until the NPC Artificer finishes his daggers.)
Elf Bard 9 with Dragonfire Inspiration
Feral Azuran Totemist 7 (me. I took +2 LA in exchange for allowing the Feral template to progress with my HD.)
Human TWF Ranger (new player. He was building his PC during our last session, so I have no idea what he is doing with it.)

Spoiler: The Current Boss

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Rathgar, Human Death Knight Warlock 8
STR 22 INT 10
DEX 16 WIS 12
CON -- CHA 18

96 (max) HP

Saves
FORT +2
REF +5
WILL +7

AC 20 (this is one of the things I would like to raise)
Touch 13
Flat Foot 17

Attack (also something I would like to raise)
Eldritch Claws +12 (1d6+4d6+5)
Eldritch Blast +8
Full Attack +12 / +7 (1d6+4d6+5)

Special Qualities
DR 2/cold iron
Fiendish Resilience
Immune to cold, electric, polymorph, mind-effecting, poison, sleep, paralysis, stun, disease, death effect, necromantic, critical hits, subdural damage, ability damage, ability drain, energy drain, death from massive damage
Does not need to make a FORT save unless the effect also affects objects.
Immune to Turn Undead. (It can be banished with holy word like an evil outsider.)
Spell Resist 20
Darkvision 60’
Fear Aura: Creatures of less than 5HD within 15 feet must make a Will save of 18 (10+ ½ HD + CHA mod) or be affected as a fear spell cast by a SORC of his level.

Feats
1) Mortalbane
1) Improved Unarmed Strike
3) Eldritch Claws
6) Superior Unarmed Strike: Increases damage of unarmed strikes. (Already factored in above)

Invocations
1) See the Unseen
2) Dark One’s Own Luck
3) Entropic Warding (this one is there because both the Druid and the Bard are archery focused)
4) Ignore the Pyre (to get fire resistance 8 against DFI)
5) Flee the Scene (the druid likes summoning grappling creatures)

Items (15,000 gold budget, from 2X standard treasure)
+2 Chain Shirt
Gloves of DEX +2
Amulet of Natural Armor +1
Boots of the Winterlands
Tome of Worldly Memory (MIC p 190)

I am allowed a lot of flexibility in building Rathgar. However, the DM has asked that I not give him too many options in any given round. (She can only juggle so much.) She is happy with him as a Warlock, so that needs to stay. On a personal note, I would prefer to NOT give him flight, as I have no way to fly or a ranged attack at the moment and would really prefer not to sit out another fight. (We had one with a Black Pudding two sessions ago where the only thing I could do was pretend to be a wall since any attack I made would just cut it in two rather than hurt it.) I can give him more class levels.

[Necroticplague]

The Party
Human Druid 9 who has traded off Wild Shape (and maybe animal companion?) for Monk unarmed damage and WIS to AC. (I have no idea where he found that ACF. If someone can point me in the right direction, I'd be thrilled.)

Here you go. Its pretty close to the bottom.

Druid

The druid might choose to give up her wild shape ability in exchange for becoming a swift and deadly hunter.

Gain:Bonus to Armor Class when unarmored (as monk, including Wisdom bonus to AC), fast movement (as monk), favored enemy (as ranger), swift tracker (as ranger), Track feat (as ranger).
Lose:Armor and shield proficiency, wild shape (all versions).

[Flickerdart]

A character with 90 HP dies in two rounds of melee with that party at the most. Give him minions to offset the action advantage of the party. Also, consider some kind of concealment.

His offense is also downright terrible. 5d6+5 averages 22.5, which is okay, but +12 is terrible AB (there's no +7, they're natural weapons, so you attack with each at +12 once). What's your party's ACs? He's probably only hitting half the time, so you've got him dealing his 22 damage once and then dying in a hail of murder.

[ZamielVanWeber]

The Dragonlance Campaign Setting has a strictly stronger death knight template which comes online if you advance warlock to 9. Don't forget death knights show up with a small army of undead follows, which include ghasts and wights. Those aren't too dangerous by themselves, but a group of them flanking can get in some lucky hits that will weaken the party.

[Troacctid]

He needs more HP, or at least some DR. He's just going to get walloped by everyone and die in a round or two.

He also needs a way to break the action economy and get multiple effective turns per round, or the numbers advantage will easily overwhelm him.

I suggest putting him in an exoskeleton of magical energy that provides him with a big fat replenishing pool of temporary HP and allows him to shoot off an extra effect each round--preferably some kind of debuff or battlefield control. And give him a minion or two.

[Kesnit]

A character with 90 HP dies in two rounds of melee with that party at the most.

I know, which is why I am asking for help.

Also, consider some kind of concealment.

My problem here is money. I only have so much to work with, and most of that is going to try to get his AC up. I'm not sure I can afford an item that gives concealment/miss chance/etc.

His offense is also downright terrible. 5d6+5 averages 22.5, which is okay, but +12 is terrible AB

I am aware. I raised his STR as high as I could, but I can't afford an item that increases his AB.

(there's no +7, they're natural weapons, so you attack with each at +12 once).

I'll fix that on his sheet.

What's your party's ACs?

My Totemist has an AC of 29. The Bard and Rogue/SORC are high teens/low 20s. The Druid is probably mid- to high 20s, but I'm not sure since he's just changed PCs. No idea on the Ranger.

The Dragonlance Campaign Setting has a strictly stronger death knight template which comes online if you advance warlock to 9.

I'll check it out

Don't forget death knights show up with a small army of undead follows, which include ghasts and wights. Those aren't too dangerous by themselves, but a group of them flanking can get in some lucky hits that will weaken the party.

The DM was lucky with her rolls last session and kept rolling 20s. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened some more!

He needs more HP, or at least some DR.

Same money problem. Short of just giving him more HP (which I can), I don't have funds to raise it.

He also needs a way to break the action economy and get multiple effective turns per round, or the numbers advantage will easily overwhelm him.

I'm going to take ZamielVanWeber's recommendation and add some ghasts and wights.

Any recommendation on how many I should include?

I suggest putting him in an exoskeleton of magical energy that provides him with a big fat replenishing pool of temporary HP and allows him to shoot off an extra effect each round--preferably some kind of debuff or battlefield control.

That would blow the party's WBL to the Outer Planes and back. And we're already breaking it, since we have access to an NPC Artificer. (My old PC, who didn't work too well since I didn't have time for crafting.)

[Necroticplague]

A feat you might consider if you add another level is Beast Strike,it makes your unarmed attacks add you claw damage to it. Since unarmed strikes get iteritives, it boosts up the damage by a good bit.

[ExLibrisMortis]

You could deviate from the template and give him Unholy Toughness (cha to hp) and cha as deflection bonus to AC (or some natural armour). Neither of those abilities is out of place, or unheard of, especially for undead. So while it's technically homebrew, it's pretty tame. Add DR 5 or 10/bludgeoning (like a lich) and you have a sort of hybrid dry lich/death knight template that works nicely for a boss.

[Threadnaught]

Either give him a level or two, or some minions. Otherwise he'll go down too quickly without the ability to really hurt the party.

[(Un)Inspired]

Add three wights and three ghasts but give the wights 4 barbarian levels each and give the ghasts 4 levels of battle sorcerer.

The wights can rage and slam you guys while the ghasts can lay down BFC spells (grease and web and wall of smoke) and stench.

[Troacctid]

That would blow the party's WBL to the Outer Planes and back. And we're already breaking it, since we have access to an NPC Artificer. (My old PC, who didn't work too well since I didn't have time for crafting.)

It doesn't need to be a suit of armor. Make it a spell effect. The Demonbinder prestige class from Drow of the Underdark can do something very similar by binding fiends to themselves.

You could tie it to objects in the environment too. Maybe there are three giant orbs feeding into it with highly visible arcs of energy, and if the party destroys the orbs, it weakens the boss's defenses. Environmental effects are a great way to spice up boss fights.

[Seerow]

It doesn't need to be a suit of armor. Make it a spell effect. The Demonbinder prestige class from Drow of the Underdark can do something very similar by binding fiends to themselves.

You could tie it to objects in the environment too. Maybe there are three giant orbs feeding into it with highly visible arcs of energy, and if the party destroys the orbs, it weakens the boss's defenses. Environmental effects are a great way to spice up boss fights.

I'd second this suggestion, on top of the previously suggested modified Death Knight template to give Cha to AC and HP plus some DR.

Make each of the Orcs something like 50hp and Hardness 5. When all 3 are active, the Warlock gains 45 temp hp at the start of each round, 2 extra standard actions at some point in the initiative order other than his normal turn, and the ability to standard action issue an Unholy Burst that deals 4d8+8 negative energy damage to everything within 30ft (including himself), basically acting as an at-will AoE damage + heal for the undead.

When one orb is destroyed, he loses the Unholy Burst and the Temp HP drops to 30 per round.
When two orbs are destroyed, he loses 1 standard action and Temp HP drops to 15 per round.
When all orbs are destroyed, he is back to his normal warlock self.

[Flickerdart]

I know, which is why I am asking for help.



My problem here is money. I only have so much to work with, and most of that is going to try to get his AC up. I'm not sure I can afford an item that gives concealment/miss chance/etc.



I am aware. I raised his STR as high as I could, but I can't afford an item that increases his AB.

Honestly, all of his problems are from trying to be in melee. If he stuck to ranged attacks like warlocks should, hiding behind his minions, the low HP and AC won't be a problem, and touch attacks are much easier to land.

[Kioran]

The basic problem with monsters in D&D 3.5 is that they are often far too easy to burst down in 1-2 rounds - and advancing their class, while making them tougher, will also make them more likely to kill characters.
Ideally, the boss character would be threat to the characters who deals steady and threatening damage and does not go down right away. So you can either put templates on the monster to make it tougher (As in gaining HP, Con and resistances or DR), advance it with NPC classes/non-associated levels OR you can add minions/devices that slow down the characters.

Give him ghasts and wights as combat-minions that cannot be entirely ignored. Spellstitched Skeletons (Template from Complete Arcane) that can fire magic missiles at the party or provide additional AC (via the Aid Another action) and body block for the death knight to keep them from flanking or attacking. A construction with these shield orbs, like Seerow mentioned (Albeit a bit weaker than those. Holy cow).
A single boss monster that is essentially a humanoid NPC usually dies very quickly. Even if that NPC threatens the party, a fight lasting all of 1.5 rounds often doesn't feel that Epic...

[WhamBamSam]

It seems that the usual "created by a Dread Necromancer/Enhanced Undead Wizard" cheese won't work unless you also re-stat some god of death, but he could've been made on desecrated ground near an altar, which would be worth 16 HP, or 32 if it's a Fell Energy Desecrate. It's at least a little more by the book than just giving him more HP.

Since he's a warlock, he should be able to UMD a few scrolls (with maxed ranks, the Spellcraft synergy bonus, a masterowork item, he should be looking at a +19 to UMD checks related to scrolls), and low level ones are dirt cheap. If he knows the party is coming ahead of time, he can get a Mage Armor and maybe a Shield up for +8 AC at relatively little expense. He could also have a few of Wraithstrike on hand to make his full attacks more dangerous. The buffs to AC are easy to dispel of course, but it'll at least take an action from the Druid.

[Seerow]

A construction with these shield orbs, like Seerow mentioned (Albeit a bit weaker than those. Holy cow).

The idea behind what I proposed is to make them powerful enough you need to destroy them, and destroying them takes more effort than a single standard action.

Honestly if anything I worry they're not enough. I've seen 9th-10th level parties burst through 300+ damage in a single round even without high op shenanigans. If the party can get into position to go to town on the Warlock (and since he's melee, that likely won't even be hard to do), that could still be insufficient. (Though proper tactical use of minions, positioning, and invocations should make that enough to seem really threatening and hard to wear down).

[KingSmitty]

give it two levels of rogue so it can get evasion

[Wacky89]

Maybe make him a Boneclaw (MM3) as base? Boneclaw is CR5, Warlock is a non-assosiated class so every 2 warlock levels is only adding +1 CR

You could make him a Boneclaw / Warlock 10 for only a CR 10 encounter

[Kioran]

The idea behind what I proposed is to make them powerful enough you need to destroy them, and destroying them takes more effort than a single standard action.

Honestly if anything I worry they're not enough. I've seen 9th-10th level parties burst through 300+ damage in a single round even without high op shenanigans. If the party can get into position to go to town on the Warlock (and since he's melee, that likely won't even be hard to do), that could still be insufficient. (Though proper tactical use of minions, positioning, and invocations should make that enough to seem really threatening and hard to wear down).

The thing I had an issue with wasn't so much the hardness and HP of the Orbs, or the "shield"/Temp HP they bestowed - if the shield was any weaker than 30 (enough to absorb 1.5 - 2 attacks worth of damage or 1 spell) the characters could ignore it. If anything, I would even increase the shield to 20 per orb.
I thought the additional actions and most pronouncedly the negative energy burst were too strong. Too much offense and too little defense in your upgrade in my opinion.

The overall power level is not the issue - The party looks like they are by and large Tier 3 with a strong druid thrown in. Standard MM1 CR will probably not measure up - so the shield can easily be worth 1-2 CR without going too far. So if we go by your example I would space the orbs so there is at least 10ft. between them and the warlock and 10ft. between each sphere, meaning that the characters have to spend actions to get to the target and to take them down.

Then I would upgrade the shield (+20 or even 25 per orb), lower the passive AoE damage (maybe to 2d8+5 or something) and only give the action if 2+ spheres are still active. Or even let the spheres give 20 temp HP and +1 deflection to armor for each sphere. Make the orbs a little squishier (35 or 40HP) to compensate for the spacing, a character who can do damage should be able to take them down in 1-2 rounds tops.

The characters will have a hard time rushing down the middle and taking out the Warlock, but it might not be smart or necessary to take out all the spheres, just enough to remove the extra action and weaken the burst.

As I said, I love the overall idea, but too much damage and too little defense just has the same net effect as just increasing the HD/ECL - the objective is not much tougher, but deadlier, and bursting the boss down in 1-2 rounds is still the ideal tactic.

[Gwachitallemall]

Since the orbs seem to be based off the FF8 Garden Master battle anyways, here's an idea.

3 Orbs, 1 Orb acts each turn, Warlock gets his normal actions a turn.

1st Orb: Every 3 turns, casts Harm on the Warlock, Caster Level 15? (Since the warlock is undead, acts as 150 HP boost.)

2nd Orb: Every 3 turns, casts Mass Inflict (Enter spell level you wish to use here) wounds, Caster Level 15.

3rd Orb: Every 3 Turns, casts Summon Undead (Enter Spell level you wish to use here), Caster Level 15.

Temp HP as everyone else has said. either, 30 HP a round, or 40, or 50 or 60, 60 -20 for each orb gone. (Ending with 0 for 0 orbs.)

You'd need to designate which orb was which, which may be too confusing unless you name them something like Harm, Mass, Summon, on the initiative list.