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r/DMAcademy•
editjosh

Question on How to Improve Villain in The Sunless Citadel (Minor Spoilers Only, which are hidden inside)

Spoiler

Hello! I'm a new DM running The Sunless Citadel from Tales from the Yawning Portal for my players (and hiding spoilers on that module here), who basically dominate any combat encounter they run into ( they took >!Durnn!< down in 3 rounds and didn't break a sweat, even after I threw >!extra goblins !<in). They are soon approaching the boss at the end of the module and I want to make the fight a fun and memorable one. So I need tactical help for that.

Any ideas how to beef up the encounter without making it a TPK? I thought that since one of my PCs is a Druid, >!like the BBEG who I assume is Level 2,!< I could give the villain a Druid Circle (not specified in the book), use Wild Shape against them for extra HP, theme the Circle chosen as dark, and use some benefits from that.

Maybe using Circle of the Shepard from XGE to do a Spirit Totem Bonus Action with the Hawk Spirit for Advantage on rolls. Or the UA Circle of Twilight for Harvest Scythe's Life Drain one a couple of spells to heal the Villain.

Or maybe I could use a Lair Action, but then I am at a total loss.

What are your thoughts and advice? I want my players to destroy this Villain, but I also don't want another short battle for the finale.

Posted Aug 18, 2020, 1:39 AM UTC

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Friend135•

Giving the BBEG a bonus action and/or a reaction is a good idea. You could give him a bonus action where he blows a horn that summons minions. If you’ve never used minions, check out this video by Matt Colville.

Building on the minions idea, you could give the BBEG a lair/legendary action that commands the minions to take an attack action against a nearby enemy. Another idea (which I stole from another DM running LMoP) is that the minions could be playing war drums; while the drums are audible, the minions receive a bonus to their attack rolls! Or perhaps they impose disadvantage on certain saving throws that the PC’s make if they can hear the drums.

In short, give the BBEG something that is cohesive with whatever else is on his side. It makes for a much more interesting combat!

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editjoshOP•

Matt Colville is such a huge help to us new DMs, I agree with him on the minions. This module already has built in minions coming, in the form of >!Twig Blights entering each round!< but I'll have to find a good reason to give the PCs a condition.

Thinking about it, I do think >!the terrain is difficult to move through, !<I have to try to play that up too! Thanks for the advice and jogging my memory a bit.

2
Kalak85•

Look up a decent statblock for the Gulthias Tree and have it jump in mid-battle, or right at the end when the players are wearily high fiving themselves!

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editjoshOP•

Ha! That sounds super evil. But I also want them to destroy the tree and release the evil spirit of the Vampire so that maybe I can have them play Heart of the Nightfang Spire and make them realize this is all their fault!

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Kalak85•

Tree dies, the vampire rises up, yawns, stretches, thanks them for their assistance and mists away, dismissing them!

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editjoshOP•

Was already planning on doing something similar. "guys, you started some world ending ish. Whatcha gonna do now?"

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Kalak85•

Awesome, I love it. And cool, hadn't noticed haha

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editjoshOP•

Also, happy cake dayyyyy

2
t___d___•

Just finished running this as a first time DM too. Wasn't really sure how this final battle would go as the party I'm running is only 3 PCs but they can do some decent damage. I didn't end up tweaking things much, I think I gave the main villain a bit more HP to keep things going and end the fight in a satisfying way for the players (ie. not have an NPC make the final blow).

What made the combat interesting is that the party had blown through all their spell slots and healing fighting their way through the lower level. I let them take a short rest to get HP up but if they wanted to fully recharge they would have to go back up the the first level to safe ground and then fight their way through again which they decided against, so they went into the final battle not quite as tough as they usually are, so you could try and wear down some of their resources before they get to the boss.

Using the Paladin's sword Shatterspike to try and break the parties weapons was quite fun too. I had him destroy one of the PCs hand axes and then try and destroy his war hammer which his character loves, so that made things exciting as they were worrying they would end up with no decent weapons or spells.

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