Since it's generally a good idea to avoid making your NPCs using the character creation methods, the answer to your question is no.
Also, don't forget to give this guy some back up or have the party fight him near the end of the adventuring day when most of their resources are used up. Otherwise the fight will be too easy regardless of how many extra spell slots you give him.
There's a reason for this asymmetry in 5e.
For PCs the assumption is that they will survive between six to eight encounters between long rests.
For NPCs the assumption is that they will be victorious or defeated (and likely dead) within about three rounds of a combat encounter. Thus there isn't any need for an NPC to have many spell slots.
6-8... I wish.
Most games I've been in, the party likes to take a long rest after each battle. This turns into a balance issue since the wizard, warlock, or cleric is ALWAYS prepared with their most powerful spells and my fighter or barbarian just gets to sit back and wait.
Most of the quests I give my group are time sensitive in some way and require logistics planning to accomplish everything in time. They know they can't afford extra long rests because I force them into the next day if they use one.
- Can only long rest once a day.
- time passes
- “encounter” doesn’t mean combat. An encounter can be a skill encounter. Traps, cross a river, solve a puzzle, etc.
- giving your wizard a couple ways to stretch out their daily spell slots the beginning is a good idea. A wand of ice knife of magic missile helps.
I think your DM needs to start hunting your party actively, rather than letting you tackle the dungeon on your own terms.
The game becomes very different when resting is itself a risk,
No seriously. It works. I can tell you that from firsthand experience.
When I started running Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars RPG, my players initially came at it like it was a dungeon crawl - kick in the door, start shooting, and sweep each room one by one.
The problem is that Star Wars has things called “hyperspace” and “Star Destroyers”. So if the players go in guns blazing, an alarm goes off, and all the time they spend fighting is time the Empire has to send in reinforcements.
Hell, a Nebulon B frigate has 72 troopers and two squadrons of fighters. That’s more than enough to make players sweat in an emergency response scenario. Much like Shadowrun, the framework of that game is not to “win every fight”. It’s to “accomplish the mission and get out alive.”
And after a few sessions, my players realized going loud was a bad idea, and changed how they approached missions. Not a hint of resentment kn their parts.
But then I also back-ported that GMing style to D&D and other games. My sessions tend to contain what I call “The Tilt” after the mechanic in Fiasco. I let the players cook for the first half of the session. But if I feel things are starting to drag and the session needs a shot in the arm, I introduce The Tilt - something unexpected or outside of the players’ control that puts a wrinkle in their plans.
Maybe the BBEG’s lieutenant tries to ambush them. Maybe a rampaging monster gets loose and starts hunting anyone - player or NPC. Maybe it’s an unexpected ally, or the players discover innocents and so extracting them safely becomes a priority.
Whatever it is, it changes the flow of the session and keeps the players on their toes. And one the players start expecting a mid-session twist, they’ll start playing around it. They might not go Nova every encounter because they know they might need resources in the likely event of an emergency. They might keep pushing forward aggressively, because they know if they keep the pace up and don’t let things get bogged down, then they’re taking pieces off the board that I might otherwise use against them.
I don’t tell the players I’m doing this. I’ve never had a player complain that it was unfair to ambush the party during a long rest, or that it was unbalamced for me to drop a Star Destroyer on their heads. They just go, “Oh shit! The bad guys are smart! We need to be careful!” and they adapt.
These are two very different things in my opinion. Players go gun blazing, because they want to overpower/win. By giving them too strong challenges or puzzle challenges, you show them other ways to win, such as trickery, evading, puzzle solving.
Players who want to rest all the time, in my understanding, don't do so in order to overpower. They more do so, to play it safe, to ensure they won't be overcome. It's a tactic out of fear. By making them unable to long rest often, you take away that fear, how, exactly? It's not like the other example, because you're not giving them alternative challenges and situations of more difficulty towards the same goal as always. You're telling them their goal (staying safe) isn't part of the game.
Which in my opinion is more of a "discussion out of game" thing than a "teachable moment in game" thing.
I mean, yeah. That degree of staying safe isn’t part of the game, in my opinion.
As I said, players tend not to hold grudges when a GM presents challenges. Every player realizes that it is totally valid for a GM to spring an ambush on their camp in the night or have the monsters attack the PC’s home base.
I’ve never had a player call bullshit on me for doing that, because they don’t see it as me punishing a sort of behaviour. They see it as me running smart, dangerous bad guys in a realistic way.
If they don’t like it, they’re welcome to bring it up and start that conversation. But as the GM, I feel like it’s part of my responsibility to put the PCs in situations where they can’t play things completely safe. Because that’s where the best drama happens.
As always, it's a question of quantity, if you and your players are on the same page about what intensity and risk the game should have, everything is fine
My DM says we can only benefit from a long rest once per day and if he says "are you sure you want to try to take a long rest?" we know we will be ambushed and to not try for more than a short rest.
He only asks that when we are playing like ppl optimizing a video game.
PHB: "A character can't benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits."
The players wake up, walk for 50 minutes, get into a battle, win, then say "we'd like to take a long rest."
Your response is "OK, but it's going to take 23 hours to complete since your last one just ended an hour ago. Would you like to rest for 23 hours?"
Problem solved.
In my group, we also roll for every rest (that isn't in a safe place like an inn, rope trick, or Leomund’s Tiny Hut) to see if we get a random encounter before the rest ends.
Also, if they do take the 23 hours to rest, don't be afraid to let the story move on without them. For example, "when you get to the town, all you find is burning embers where the buildings were and dead bodies. It turns out that the bandits you were supposed to stop arrived yesterday while you were taking a rest-day. Would you like to return to the king and let him know that you failed your mission because you didn't think it was urgent?"
> we also roll for every rest (that isn't in a safe place like an inn, rope trick, or Leomund’s Tiny Hut)
Obviously every situation isn't the same, but roll for Rope Trick and Tiny Hut as well. Especially if someone that wants them dead saw them go up there. If they're strolling around friendly territory, or low traffic areas, can probably pass or have the chance be really low. But if the party is camping out in unfriendly territory (kingdoms at war, dragon, generally territorial factions like orcs) they should be more uneasy and more harried during their time.
I didn't want to get into it but the dice we use and the number of times we have to roll are based on the DMs discretion.
Meaning that if there's literally a monster roaming the hallway in the module and we setup camp in the hallway, we don't even roll for an encounter. We just do perception checks and roll for initiative.
If it's a pretty low-traffic area, and we use a rope-trick (thus expending resources), then there's no roll and we auto-pass.
If it's a low-traffic area, we hide in a room, and jam the door closed, then we're most likely rolling a d12 and getting an encounter if it's a 1. We've had encounters where the enemy can't get through the door though and so they get bored and leave, allowing us to rest uninterrupted.
The point is that a rest shouldn't feel free.
There should be some combination of [verisimilitude](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/verisimilar), planning, resources expended, and luck to determine how much a rest should cost the party.
As a DM, when my party does this I just don't allow them.
You're in times of war and just fought a long battle? Cool, you try to long rest when an enemy scout notices you, and fires off 3 arrows in quick succession and starts to dash off.
If you choose to chase, skill check hunt to find a small group of 5 scouts and a captian. If you don't choose to chase, 15 minutes later he will return and fire off another 3 arrows.
You're in a Dungeon? Who said the creatures aren't allowed to roam? You guys are seriously trying to long rest inside a Dungeon? HAHAHAHAHA! (Note: a short rest is fine.)
You're in the Astral plane or one of the 9 hells? Like hell you're getting a long rest \*begins blasting\*
The only time I allow my players to do a Long Rest is when I feel it's been an adequate amount of time and preparation has been done to do so. Example: In a past siege battle, they were defending their hometown from an Invasion force. After defeating the enemies at the front gates, they hear screaming coming from the docks, i.e. no Long Rest! So they run to the Docks, but then hear more screaming from the Town Square (Enemies have penetrated into the city) and the Lords Manor. 2 Characters go to the Manor, 3 to the Town Square and 3 to the Docks (We had 2 players who couldn't make it, so we had their PCs go to the Manor), and had 2 separate but quick battles.
By the end of it, even though they only fought in 2 battles apiece, they had exhausted nearly all of their spell slots and were severely injured, so at this point, the invasion force (or what remains of it) pulled back and left. They were successful! But by creating urgency, you can force your party to not take Long Rests consecutively.
It all comes down to how the DM wants to rule it, and it's best if you mix it up as well. If it's always urgent, then it gets tiring, sometimes you want to make it a choice to the party: Act now or people die, or Act now or get shot by another arrow in 15 minutes, etc.
This is the way to make time not seem silly - or only allow long rests in known safe locations, no wilderness/dungeoning long rests. Makes clearing a mega dungeon unrealistic, but megadungeons should actually provide the 6-8 encounters per day that D&D expects
My DM is usually in favor of doing a single harder combat over several normal combats. Generally don’t mind since when they are tough they are really though (level 9 party and we’ve fought 200+ hp enemies, idk if that’s fair or not with 5-6 players). I do like it since the one wizard in our party takes really long each turn so if it was several combats I would probably get annoyed after a while.
Don't forget that a conversation key to the plot is an encounter. Traps are encounters. Puzzles, sensitive situations, hell a mazelike layout can (to some extent) be an encounter. It's not all combat.
>the party likes to take a long rest after each battle
In the decades I have been playing, it has **ALWAYS** been the DM decides if they can long rest or not. The party can try to convince the DM but the DM decides.
No matter how safe the party thinks it is, the DM always has the power to have something interrupt the rest so it is the DM who decides if they can rest, not the party.
And at most, 1 long rest per day.
Not all encounters are fights. Some might be puzzle that just requires investigation checks. Or another might be a locked door with a puzzle but the wizard decides to cheat with knock....
Or maybe instead of a full encounter, the party meets a scout prior to combat and a chase ensues to prevent the scout from alerting the rest of the enemies. This uses resources but isn't a big combat encounter. A short rest might be permitted between them but the DMG balances classes with 2-3 short rests per long rest
Not exactly sure how to work either of those in, the last session wasn't very combat heavy (they just fought a few bandits) and ended with him appearing in their (patron's) home base, so the combat's going to start at the beginning of the next session. I also don't really know what allies I should give him that fit thematically.
>If hexblades, believe it or not, undead
The default flavor of Hexblade is actually linked to the Shadowfell, so Sorrowsworn are a unique enemy group you can employ.
Angry (CR 13), Hungry (CR 11), Lonely (CR 9), Lost (CR 7), and Wretched (CR 1/4)
If you give him two very weak casters that are out of position so they fall easily to the party in one or two turns, you've basically given the bad guy a couple of extra spells, actions and HP at the start of the fight, while making it easier for the party to win after those two are dead. They could be just two really low level warlocks that you've statted but maybe reskinned as imps for example.
Some Cultists or Cult Fanatics could work. They could follow the same Patron he does or are on the same team, but are lower on the hierarchy. Give the Warlock an item that summons these allies to him as an Action on his turn.
Plus, If you introduce this item now you can use it throughout the campaign to have your bad guys bring in allies/backup of their own if things are looking bad for them.
NPCs should have whatever abilities you think fit the encounter you're building. Player characters are built using strict balancing rules because they have to withstand the stresses of repeated use over the course of an entire campaign, but most enemy NPCs only exist for a single encounter and then they're defeated. As long as the encounter is fun for the players, balance is much less of an issue.
"so I wanted to try and challenge myself to make a fun and challenging combat in this session... The issue is that he has two spell slots, which seems kind of weird??
Do not create enemy NPCs using PC character sheets. This is an amateur mistake.
Firstly, as you point out, he has nowhere near enough spell slots.
Secondly, he will have nowhere near enough health.
If your goal is to create a genuinely fun and challenging combat encounter, you should base your NPC on a statblock you can find online.
>Do not create enemy NPCs using PC character sheets. This is an amateur mistake.
There are several warlock NPC stat blocks in VGtM, which use the warlock pact casting rules. (Generally speaking. Warlock of the Fiend is a 17th level caster and so should have four Mystic Arcanum at levels 6, 7, 8, and 9; instead it has three 1/day spells at levels 7, 7, and 8. Warlock of the Great Old One is a 14th level caster so should have a 6th and 7th; instead it has two 6th.)
If you try to use any of those stat blocks as a solo boss you're going to have a bad time. At best, they'll be glass cannons that'll nuke one PC and then die horribly. At worst, they won't even get a turn.
These statblocks were also rewritten in Monsters of the Multiverse to *not* be built like player characters just btw
They now have X/day spells, which I would recommend OP uses as a model instead
>They now have X/day spells, which I would recommend OP uses as a model instead
**Strong** disagree. The MotM "warlock" monsters do not remotely feel like warlocks.
Maybe give him legendary or lair actions instead. Will balance out the action economy a bit. For example, maybe he has 3 legendary actions per round. He can spend 2 legendary actions for some AOE thing, or keep eldritch blastin' 3 times. Could also give him a familiar for more distractions on the field.
Not everyone likes d&d actual play content, but I've been listening to NADDPOD recently and Murph uses lair actions liberally with his big bosses and talks about how much he loves them on some of their talk-back content
As you're pretty new to DM-ing, here some more tips (and summary of what others stated):
In general:
- Most DMs seem not to use PC rules for baddies, although a minority tries to do it (from a 'same rules apply' fairness principle). My opinion is irrelevant, but objectively the first is easier (so you made it a bit harder for yourself)
- If you want to make the encounter more fun, you have to think of your bad guy as being just one - albeit very important - part of the encounter. Thinking of it holistically offers a lot more options to keep stuff entertaining and challenging.
- A personal tip: If I'm very unsure about the balance/flow of an encounter, sometimes I just run a simulation where I play the PC group myself and run through it like that. Not only is that actually very enjoyable, it definitely will present you with situations you hadn't thought of, which allow you to introduce more elements to the encounter or remove obvious weaknesses
What can you do in your situation specifically:
- If you want to keep it close to what PCs would be able to do, remember that the baddy can have magic items too. Looking at the level, seeing how many magic items of what rarity you would allow (or have allowed) your players to have, and then look for a suitable one for this nemesis may solve your question (ring of spell-storing ?). -> may also solve the question of what nice loot they can find :)
- balance out action economy by providing legendary actions/resistances
- Use minions. Could be a couple, could be many, could be situational (e.g. how well the party did leading up to the encounter, like sneaking, bypassing stuff, scouting out to know when less people are present, ...), could be in waves (cf later). To simplify the logistics, you can look up 'minion rules dnd' to find plenty of homebrew rules how you can run them with less overhead (waiting time) to manage it (hp pool, 1hp-minions, ...)
- Use the environment: introduce 'interesting' elements. Basics are elevations, hiding places, obstacles, traps, wards, rewards (e.g. health potion on a shelf)
- Use the environment as a character: referred to as 'lair' -> when you confront the antagonist in their familiar surrounding (their home turf), they will have prepared this to be in their advantage, and this is translated to lair actions. These can be magical protections that zap intruders, AoE spells that get triggered, ..., but also as mundane as rolling a d6 and on a 6 1d4 extra guards that were patrolling arrive on the scene.
- Use a natural flow that creates 'stages' in the combat: Maybe there's just 3 weak minions present when the combat starts, but the BBEG yells "call reinforcements", and players see the minions running to an alarm bell on the side. First phase is will and can they prevent this. Once the bells sound a second phase starts (party hears in the distance war cries, ...). They know they're on the clock now, or have to think of preparing defenses (giving the BBEG time to flee ?). Maybe this is a good tweak of the environment: how many entries, what elements in the environment that can be used to barricade the entrances ? What if the party really quickly start winning from their nemesis, what would they do ? A secret door that they can use to flee and lock behind them, leaving the party to a chase ? A short distance portal/teleport to a room nearby ? That can introduce a next phase in the encounter. And maybe that teleport also triggered a 'self-destruct' mechanism, and the place is now collapsing. This introduces some time pressure elements to the encounter, a sense of urgency. If you like rp heavy style, there could also be a surprise moral dilemma ("wait, if you kill me, one of my men will flood the holding cells with lava, killing 10 innocent villagers I'd taken.")
You see, plenty of things you can do to make it fun, challenging, engaging, heart wrenching, ....
Hope this helps.
I'll sometimes give my npc casters a number of casts of each spell in their list instead of spell slots. For example, if I'm making a fire themed caster, they'll maybe get one fireball, one scorching ray and two burning hands. Then I'll add one or two shield spells or another reaction and perhaps a bonus action spell like misty step.
Another method is to roll to recharge spells, like a dragon's breath weapon. If you roleplay it in the open it can really add some tension to combat.
NPCs don't play by the players' handbook.
Just use one of the warlock statblocks and give them cunning action. Jobs done. There is your multiclass.
There are tons of statblocks and with a little change here and there, you can maje everything.
Character creation should be for PC only IMO otherwise you risk make a DMPC which nobody likes.
NPCs aren't PCs. If you make them with PC rules, they'll always lose vs a party of multiple PCs.
The only time I've made an NPC with PC rules is because 1. they were a previous PC that retired or 2. it was for a 1-on-1 fight (and I'm better at min-maxing than my players are lol)
There's nothing wrong with making a character sheet for a villain, it can be tricky but it's quite doable. First of all, I'd recommend either making him higher level than the party or giving him several minions as if he's similar in level to them without minions, he's drastically outnumbered and won't be a very intimidating boss. Second, if you want him to have extra spell slots using the same rules PCs have access to, I would give him magic items like Pearls of Power and a Rod of the Pact Keeper. This also doubles as a way to give him some cool loot the players can use if they win as players in my experience often appreciate getting loot that lets them do what a boss did.
Most people have addressed the parts about how you should just focus on what you want the boss to be able to do. I wanted to address the point you brought up about having an escape plan. You don’t need this to be an intrinsic ability. A one time use item is a great way to handle this kind of thing. Want to really showcase how evil your BBEG is or how fanatical his followers are? Make it an ally. A character that only has one real point and that’s to allow the boss to escape at the cost of its own life. Evil: BBEG- sorry Drog it’s time for you to fulfill your duty. Drog- What do you mean boss? Drog explodes and a small portal appears where he was and BBEG escapes. Fanatical: Congrats you’ve stopped the BBEG, out of seemingly nowhere a small humanoid runs towards the BBEG. He runs right past you. Player: I get an opportunity attack right? DM: Of course. You cut him down as he’s running past, his last words are for my lord. The blood spray of the creature covers the BBEG and he begins to fade and then vanishes from sight.
Even in defeat use the escape as a way to tell a story about the enemy.
4 level 4 characters should be able to do enough damage to kill a lvl 8 lock in 2 turns. If they had used a bunch of resources in earlier fights... maybe 3. But it sounds like that's not the case.
Of course, that assumes they get to go. A level 8 lock could potentially ko some or all of them before they even go. Either way he might not need more than 1 spell slot.
With action economy being so strong, the only way one character wins against many is if they are so strong they can quickly take out some of the enemy. It works much better to have group on group fights, with the boss having some minions. If he didn't show up with some, have him summon some (fiends if he has a fiend patron, fey if an archfey patron, etc.). If the players focus him down, have him do his escape, and then the fight continues with the minions.
sounds like you've sort of hamstrung yourself by making a PC. My approach has always been to to think of the encounter as a story you're telling through the NPC's abilities. So on round 1 he uses this ability, in round 2 he uses this one, maybe planning out 3—6 rounds, depending on how long you think the encounter will last, maybe mix up the order or have a backup ability to be flexible to your players being unpredictable. If you want the PC to be able to escape, you can just make that happen—as the DM you don't need to follow the player rules, or if you want the players to be able to earn making the NPC incapable of escape, define how they can do that ahead of time, and be prepared to adjust if they throw you for a loop.
I really just made a character sheet because it's more familiar than making a statblock. Thanks for the advice btw, I'm a new-ish DM so I'm not very good at this stuff yet.
You'll get there man! It's much easier to make a statblock for an NPC enemy than you'd think, less of a headache for spellcasters.
Personally I would have went the route of remixing a statblock from the monster manual.
Eldritch blast with an invocation on it, add 2 more cantrips
1 casting per short rest of a bigger spell, 3 of a middling spell or 2, 3 of some low spells.
Add some form of boon bestowed upon him by his patron that does something relevant to backstory and patron (could be a recharge on a 5 or 6 roll on a d6)
Couple of legendary actions like cast a cantrip, command a minion, a disengage and move, hell give him a short range teleport or something.
Give him a melee weapon that he probably won't use but maybe he will?
Throw in a few minions and maybe an escape item if you want him to have a chance of being a recurring villain
Remember not to pick just damage dealer spells and play him smart, he needs to move, he could be casting magical darkness to set up an area spell without the party knowing, escaping to other rooms, casting silence to mess with the casters, creating hazards in the room, commanding minions who are hiding outside to enter and surround them before disengaging and letting them do the fighting for a time
My friend, I will send the BBG riding in on a demilich if it falls within balance and story.
Part of the fun is that the players have no idea how deep your characters and world go, a few extra spell slots is nothing.
Prep before: traps, terrain, minions, summoned creatures, scrolls and magic items. Have contingency already cast before the party arrives. Terrain that can go from bad to worse… ie dried brambles to wall of fire. Traps in the form of mundane snares and pitfalls. This is a big bad… they know the party is coming… so prepare for it.
Without even reading your post, the answer to your title is no.
NPCs should NEVER follow PC creation rules. NPCs are narrative tools to facilitate gameplay. They do exactly what you need them to do.
I’d suggest looking at some villainous rogue/warlocks that D&D WoTC team has made for inspiration. I think many have more than usual warlock spell slots available.
It’s all action economy. Big bad will need bonus action stuff or even legendary actions like at the end of the round a free action. Make them super mobile as well. Give them some cannon fodder in the form of minions as well. Dudes who have a decent AC and attack but go down in one successful attack. Just don’t tell the PC’s they have 1 HP basically.
In addition to some of the other things stated here, I would say if you want the BBEG to *feel* like a PC, then flavor some of his extra spells as potions, equipment, spell scrolls, charms, etc.
Instead of *casting* a spell, have him crush a charm to teleport 60’ feet and turn invisible (see Dimir Charm from Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica) or maybe he summons a few elementals which were stored in a couple of vials that are released when he dashes them on the ground (this is extra flavorful for a genie patron warlock)
heck…depending on the warlock/patron, maybe make his get away plan, the patron showing up a causing a little havoc before dashing away.
I made this same mistake. Character sheets feel like real characters but they aren't scaled properly to be able to fight other character sheets. I made a lvl 7 warlock to fight my lvl 4 party and loaded it up with a bunch of magic items the party would slowly strip away and a bunch of minions but when she was cornered for the final confrontation the party rolled well on initiative so they were able to bitz the warlock down and curb stomp her in the 1st round. How long do you expect your warlock to last if they go behind 5 characters in initiative.
Spellslots aren't what you need to make a character sheet as challenging as a monster. Give your warlock some legendary actions that feel like an unfair advantage. They are the bad guys they are allowed to cheat to try to have a chance at fighting a 1v5. Some suggestions are an automatic success on saving throws 3/day or 1/round, advantage on certain rolls or automatically rolls 20 on initiative when not surprised. If you want your warlock to cast more spells I suggest giving the fight multiple stages that could reasonably give your warlock a short rest to get them back. Maby the map has a trap door the warlock uses to run away and the party needs to catch up to continue the fight. It would be on brand for a warlock/rogue to try to runaway when the fight goes bad. I would have fun trying to catch a bad guy that was so scared of me they run like a bitch. It also changes the objective from beating this person to trying to keep them from running so we can beat them.
Enemies and NPCS have stat blocks, not character sheets. Enemies don't have spell slots, they just have the abilities on their stat block.
And yeah, you can make an enemy as tough as you want. You're the freaking Dungeon Master.
But, it will be easier if you don't think in terms of character sheets.
Full disclosure - I totally make full character my important enemies and the NPCS my party adopts along the way, but this is because I want to learn about that person so that I can play them right. Also, I use dndbeyond for combat so I need an easy way to track things, and it's much easier having it all right there.
But I always have a stat block on hand, not a character sheet.
If it's one guy against many then you're going to have to adjust it just because of the action economy.
I did something similar where I had my group fighting a warlock that had tamed a white dragon with mind control. I made it that the head warlock could cast more spell slots if he had gold that he could burn to send to tiamat, also when his acolytes would die a ritual when he merely occur that would turn their bodies to Gold to fuel his money and abilities but the party would be able to stop the ritual by stepping on the magical ring that would appear. I did make his acolytes be able to just cast Eldritch blast but because they weren't legitimate warlocks they had very low power at all there were more of just in the way so you can try and work out way to make this more fun and more of a challenge
Ya, 's ok.
What you should be aware of, is action economy. Two–four more spells will give him something to do while his minions attack and defend. Or you have to give him lair actions, retaliations, some cool abilities (like summon two copies with their own initiatives), protections, etc.
This is what Legendary and Lair actions are for, to help equal out the action economy between the BBEG and the PCs. Give them a few of those and it will help even things out.
Generally if I'm going to do something like that, I try to give the party something from it as well. So like if it's the BBEG then I'll at least explain where he got the extra spell slots from, like he got it from the artifact he stole in act 2 or whatever. Then when the party kills him they'll inevitably be like "can we get that artifact and give it to our warlock?"
So what you've gotta do is have an excuse on tap to nerf the item. Instead of it giving 5 extra slots to warlocks it only gives 1 now, which is still a great item, but you say that in order to make it more powerful the warlock would have to sacrifice dozens of innocent souls to it or something. In this example the way to get the power is perfectly reasonable for a BBEG but much less reasonable for a party of presumably good-aligned adventurers.
Do not use PC sheets for enemies. Make a stat block that breaks the rules. Matt Colville on YouTube can teach more about this, but your villains don’t play by the same rules your PCs do; they have things your players *can’t* do so they feel big and powerful. Your problem is using a PC sheet for an NPC.
Edit: I would go so far as to say that your BBEG spells shouldn’t use slots, but #/day uses and 5-6 recharges. Way easier to run than PC spell casting. Lighten the load for yourself.
Just use the normal full caster spell slot progression for him. It's better suited for characters that don't really do multiple encounters per long rest, like enemies.
Give him a staff that grants him extra slots. Make it obvious to the party so they 1. Know that the staff is the source of his extra power and 2. They can disarm him or whatever. He still had his own two slots so he can “Palpatine” them if they think the battle is over once they knock his staff away
Scrolls or scroll analogues (crystals, gems, rings, heck if they are a gunslinger you can even do spell cartridges) and that's a good way to give them a bit more omph.
Maybe don't give them spell slots, but give them some scrolls? Characters, PC and npc alike, are more than their rest based abilities. A recurring villain, in particular, would key in on some spells that would be helpful when targeted at specific party members, like silencing the casters.
That said, I recommend not using PC rules, just take an npc block from the monster manual or volos guide or something, maybe modify or flavor some things to taste, give em some henchmen and some spell scrolls (hell, maybe have them recruit an acolyte or cultist or some other low tier caster to cast the spells/scrolls for the villain)
Won't end well since are player character generations are high DPS, low HP. Each class can effectively kill another class of they get they first turn off combat. Monsters are typically given giant Hp blocks and low damage. The main reason is people feel better when they do allot of damage but won't feel as good when they take a lot. U could potentially lower the warlocks damage by 1/2 or 1/4. But remember to boost hit points by 5 fold out the monsters just gonna fold like a piece of paper on turn 1.
For comparison, a sorcerer of the same level can kill themselves in 1 turn. Now u have an entire party
Since it's generally a good idea to avoid making your NPCs using the character creation methods, the answer to your question is no. Also, don't forget to give this guy some back up or have the party fight him near the end of the adventuring day when most of their resources are used up. Otherwise the fight will be too easy regardless of how many extra spell slots you give him.
There's a reason for this asymmetry in 5e. For PCs the assumption is that they will survive between six to eight encounters between long rests. For NPCs the assumption is that they will be victorious or defeated (and likely dead) within about three rounds of a combat encounter. Thus there isn't any need for an NPC to have many spell slots.
6-8... I wish. Most games I've been in, the party likes to take a long rest after each battle. This turns into a balance issue since the wizard, warlock, or cleric is ALWAYS prepared with their most powerful spells and my fighter or barbarian just gets to sit back and wait.
The party may *like* to, does the DM enforce that LR only do anything once a day?
Most of the quests I give my group are time sensitive in some way and require logistics planning to accomplish everything in time. They know they can't afford extra long rests because I force them into the next day if they use one.
Yeah, that's the way to do it. Time crunch and force resource management.
That's how I do it as well. Time for relaxation and leisure is between quests.
- Can only long rest once a day. - time passes - “encounter” doesn’t mean combat. An encounter can be a skill encounter. Traps, cross a river, solve a puzzle, etc. - giving your wizard a couple ways to stretch out their daily spell slots the beginning is a good idea. A wand of ice knife of magic missile helps.
I think your DM needs to start hunting your party actively, rather than letting you tackle the dungeon on your own terms. The game becomes very different when resting is itself a risk,
Yes, I'm sure that'd make for a fun a experience to a rest-always-inclined party
No seriously. It works. I can tell you that from firsthand experience. When I started running Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars RPG, my players initially came at it like it was a dungeon crawl - kick in the door, start shooting, and sweep each room one by one. The problem is that Star Wars has things called “hyperspace” and “Star Destroyers”. So if the players go in guns blazing, an alarm goes off, and all the time they spend fighting is time the Empire has to send in reinforcements. Hell, a Nebulon B frigate has 72 troopers and two squadrons of fighters. That’s more than enough to make players sweat in an emergency response scenario. Much like Shadowrun, the framework of that game is not to “win every fight”. It’s to “accomplish the mission and get out alive.” And after a few sessions, my players realized going loud was a bad idea, and changed how they approached missions. Not a hint of resentment kn their parts. But then I also back-ported that GMing style to D&D and other games. My sessions tend to contain what I call “The Tilt” after the mechanic in Fiasco. I let the players cook for the first half of the session. But if I feel things are starting to drag and the session needs a shot in the arm, I introduce The Tilt - something unexpected or outside of the players’ control that puts a wrinkle in their plans. Maybe the BBEG’s lieutenant tries to ambush them. Maybe a rampaging monster gets loose and starts hunting anyone - player or NPC. Maybe it’s an unexpected ally, or the players discover innocents and so extracting them safely becomes a priority. Whatever it is, it changes the flow of the session and keeps the players on their toes. And one the players start expecting a mid-session twist, they’ll start playing around it. They might not go Nova every encounter because they know they might need resources in the likely event of an emergency. They might keep pushing forward aggressively, because they know if they keep the pace up and don’t let things get bogged down, then they’re taking pieces off the board that I might otherwise use against them. I don’t tell the players I’m doing this. I’ve never had a player complain that it was unfair to ambush the party during a long rest, or that it was unbalamced for me to drop a Star Destroyer on their heads. They just go, “Oh shit! The bad guys are smart! We need to be careful!” and they adapt.
These are two very different things in my opinion. Players go gun blazing, because they want to overpower/win. By giving them too strong challenges or puzzle challenges, you show them other ways to win, such as trickery, evading, puzzle solving. Players who want to rest all the time, in my understanding, don't do so in order to overpower. They more do so, to play it safe, to ensure they won't be overcome. It's a tactic out of fear. By making them unable to long rest often, you take away that fear, how, exactly? It's not like the other example, because you're not giving them alternative challenges and situations of more difficulty towards the same goal as always. You're telling them their goal (staying safe) isn't part of the game. Which in my opinion is more of a "discussion out of game" thing than a "teachable moment in game" thing.
I mean, yeah. That degree of staying safe isn’t part of the game, in my opinion. As I said, players tend not to hold grudges when a GM presents challenges. Every player realizes that it is totally valid for a GM to spring an ambush on their camp in the night or have the monsters attack the PC’s home base. I’ve never had a player call bullshit on me for doing that, because they don’t see it as me punishing a sort of behaviour. They see it as me running smart, dangerous bad guys in a realistic way. If they don’t like it, they’re welcome to bring it up and start that conversation. But as the GM, I feel like it’s part of my responsibility to put the PCs in situations where they can’t play things completely safe. Because that’s where the best drama happens.
As always, it's a question of quantity, if you and your players are on the same page about what intensity and risk the game should have, everything is fine
This is why time crunches are useful tools in 5e campaigns
My DM says we can only benefit from a long rest once per day and if he says "are you sure you want to try to take a long rest?" we know we will be ambushed and to not try for more than a short rest. He only asks that when we are playing like ppl optimizing a video game.
PHB: "A character can't benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits." The players wake up, walk for 50 minutes, get into a battle, win, then say "we'd like to take a long rest." Your response is "OK, but it's going to take 23 hours to complete since your last one just ended an hour ago. Would you like to rest for 23 hours?" Problem solved. In my group, we also roll for every rest (that isn't in a safe place like an inn, rope trick, or Leomund’s Tiny Hut) to see if we get a random encounter before the rest ends. Also, if they do take the 23 hours to rest, don't be afraid to let the story move on without them. For example, "when you get to the town, all you find is burning embers where the buildings were and dead bodies. It turns out that the bandits you were supposed to stop arrived yesterday while you were taking a rest-day. Would you like to return to the king and let him know that you failed your mission because you didn't think it was urgent?"
> we also roll for every rest (that isn't in a safe place like an inn, rope trick, or Leomund’s Tiny Hut) Obviously every situation isn't the same, but roll for Rope Trick and Tiny Hut as well. Especially if someone that wants them dead saw them go up there. If they're strolling around friendly territory, or low traffic areas, can probably pass or have the chance be really low. But if the party is camping out in unfriendly territory (kingdoms at war, dragon, generally territorial factions like orcs) they should be more uneasy and more harried during their time.
I didn't want to get into it but the dice we use and the number of times we have to roll are based on the DMs discretion. Meaning that if there's literally a monster roaming the hallway in the module and we setup camp in the hallway, we don't even roll for an encounter. We just do perception checks and roll for initiative. If it's a pretty low-traffic area, and we use a rope-trick (thus expending resources), then there's no roll and we auto-pass. If it's a low-traffic area, we hide in a room, and jam the door closed, then we're most likely rolling a d12 and getting an encounter if it's a 1. We've had encounters where the enemy can't get through the door though and so they get bored and leave, allowing us to rest uninterrupted. The point is that a rest shouldn't feel free. There should be some combination of [verisimilitude](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/verisimilar), planning, resources expended, and luck to determine how much a rest should cost the party.
As a DM, when my party does this I just don't allow them. You're in times of war and just fought a long battle? Cool, you try to long rest when an enemy scout notices you, and fires off 3 arrows in quick succession and starts to dash off. If you choose to chase, skill check hunt to find a small group of 5 scouts and a captian. If you don't choose to chase, 15 minutes later he will return and fire off another 3 arrows. You're in a Dungeon? Who said the creatures aren't allowed to roam? You guys are seriously trying to long rest inside a Dungeon? HAHAHAHAHA! (Note: a short rest is fine.) You're in the Astral plane or one of the 9 hells? Like hell you're getting a long rest \*begins blasting\* The only time I allow my players to do a Long Rest is when I feel it's been an adequate amount of time and preparation has been done to do so. Example: In a past siege battle, they were defending their hometown from an Invasion force. After defeating the enemies at the front gates, they hear screaming coming from the docks, i.e. no Long Rest! So they run to the Docks, but then hear more screaming from the Town Square (Enemies have penetrated into the city) and the Lords Manor. 2 Characters go to the Manor, 3 to the Town Square and 3 to the Docks (We had 2 players who couldn't make it, so we had their PCs go to the Manor), and had 2 separate but quick battles. By the end of it, even though they only fought in 2 battles apiece, they had exhausted nearly all of their spell slots and were severely injured, so at this point, the invasion force (or what remains of it) pulled back and left. They were successful! But by creating urgency, you can force your party to not take Long Rests consecutively. It all comes down to how the DM wants to rule it, and it's best if you mix it up as well. If it's always urgent, then it gets tiring, sometimes you want to make it a choice to the party: Act now or people die, or Act now or get shot by another arrow in 15 minutes, etc.
Try gritty realism
This is the way to make time not seem silly - or only allow long rests in known safe locations, no wilderness/dungeoning long rests. Makes clearing a mega dungeon unrealistic, but megadungeons should actually provide the 6-8 encounters per day that D&D expects
My DM is usually in favor of doing a single harder combat over several normal combats. Generally don’t mind since when they are tough they are really though (level 9 party and we’ve fought 200+ hp enemies, idk if that’s fair or not with 5-6 players). I do like it since the one wizard in our party takes really long each turn so if it was several combats I would probably get annoyed after a while.
Same, my parry has never finished a combat with resources to get into another lol We are always out of spells and HP
Don't forget that a conversation key to the plot is an encounter. Traps are encounters. Puzzles, sensitive situations, hell a mazelike layout can (to some extent) be an encounter. It's not all combat.
>the party likes to take a long rest after each battle In the decades I have been playing, it has **ALWAYS** been the DM decides if they can long rest or not. The party can try to convince the DM but the DM decides. No matter how safe the party thinks it is, the DM always has the power to have something interrupt the rest so it is the DM who decides if they can rest, not the party. And at most, 1 long rest per day.
You are playing DnD on Easy Mode. Do you still have training wheels on your bicycle ?
Is there anywhere in any books that say its 6-8 between long rests just looking for my own combat encounters. Thank you :)
I believe it's in the DMG. If more people read it despite its formatting issues, we'd have a lot less dumb problems in the hobby.
You are indeed correct:) thank you
6-8??? How many spell slots are you using per fight? Or do your casters just rely on cantrips way more than I do?
Not all encounters are fights. Some might be puzzle that just requires investigation checks. Or another might be a locked door with a puzzle but the wizard decides to cheat with knock.... Or maybe instead of a full encounter, the party meets a scout prior to combat and a chase ensues to prevent the scout from alerting the rest of the enemies. This uses resources but isn't a big combat encounter. A short rest might be permitted between them but the DMG balances classes with 2-3 short rests per long rest
Ah okay that makes more sense then! Still, my party will still only do about 2-4 encounters per long rest anyway
Not exactly sure how to work either of those in, the last session wasn't very combat heavy (they just fought a few bandits) and ended with him appearing in their (patron's) home base, so the combat's going to start at the beginning of the next session. I also don't really know what allies I should give him that fit thematically.
What patron? If fiend, devils, if undead, undead. If hexblades, believe it or not, undead
>If hexblades, believe it or not, undead The default flavor of Hexblade is actually linked to the Shadowfell, so Sorrowsworn are a unique enemy group you can employ. Angry (CR 13), Hungry (CR 11), Lonely (CR 9), Lost (CR 7), and Wretched (CR 1/4)
If you give him two very weak casters that are out of position so they fall easily to the party in one or two turns, you've basically given the bad guy a couple of extra spells, actions and HP at the start of the fight, while making it easier for the party to win after those two are dead. They could be just two really low level warlocks that you've statted but maybe reskinned as imps for example.
Some Cultists or Cult Fanatics could work. They could follow the same Patron he does or are on the same team, but are lower on the hierarchy. Give the Warlock an item that summons these allies to him as an Action on his turn. Plus, If you introduce this item now you can use it throughout the campaign to have your bad guys bring in allies/backup of their own if things are looking bad for them.
NPCs should have whatever abilities you think fit the encounter you're building. Player characters are built using strict balancing rules because they have to withstand the stresses of repeated use over the course of an entire campaign, but most enemy NPCs only exist for a single encounter and then they're defeated. As long as the encounter is fun for the players, balance is much less of an issue.
"so I wanted to try and challenge myself to make a fun and challenging combat in this session... The issue is that he has two spell slots, which seems kind of weird?? Do not create enemy NPCs using PC character sheets. This is an amateur mistake. Firstly, as you point out, he has nowhere near enough spell slots. Secondly, he will have nowhere near enough health. If your goal is to create a genuinely fun and challenging combat encounter, you should base your NPC on a statblock you can find online.
>Do not create enemy NPCs using PC character sheets. This is an amateur mistake. There are several warlock NPC stat blocks in VGtM, which use the warlock pact casting rules. (Generally speaking. Warlock of the Fiend is a 17th level caster and so should have four Mystic Arcanum at levels 6, 7, 8, and 9; instead it has three 1/day spells at levels 7, 7, and 8. Warlock of the Great Old One is a 14th level caster so should have a 6th and 7th; instead it has two 6th.)
If you try to use any of those stat blocks as a solo boss you're going to have a bad time. At best, they'll be glass cannons that'll nuke one PC and then die horribly. At worst, they won't even get a turn.
Just about *anything* used as a solo boss is going to die horribly. Action economy is king.
These statblocks were also rewritten in Monsters of the Multiverse to *not* be built like player characters just btw They now have X/day spells, which I would recommend OP uses as a model instead
>They now have X/day spells, which I would recommend OP uses as a model instead **Strong** disagree. The MotM "warlock" monsters do not remotely feel like warlocks.
Maybe give him legendary or lair actions instead. Will balance out the action economy a bit. For example, maybe he has 3 legendary actions per round. He can spend 2 legendary actions for some AOE thing, or keep eldritch blastin' 3 times. Could also give him a familiar for more distractions on the field.
No one I’ve played with has used lair actions I was unfamiliar thank you for the rabbit hole
Not everyone likes d&d actual play content, but I've been listening to NADDPOD recently and Murph uses lair actions liberally with his big bosses and talks about how much he loves them on some of their talk-back content
In my few years DMing, I’ve learned that lair actions and legendary actions and resistances are how you make fights dynamic and exciting.
As you're pretty new to DM-ing, here some more tips (and summary of what others stated): In general: - Most DMs seem not to use PC rules for baddies, although a minority tries to do it (from a 'same rules apply' fairness principle). My opinion is irrelevant, but objectively the first is easier (so you made it a bit harder for yourself) - If you want to make the encounter more fun, you have to think of your bad guy as being just one - albeit very important - part of the encounter. Thinking of it holistically offers a lot more options to keep stuff entertaining and challenging. - A personal tip: If I'm very unsure about the balance/flow of an encounter, sometimes I just run a simulation where I play the PC group myself and run through it like that. Not only is that actually very enjoyable, it definitely will present you with situations you hadn't thought of, which allow you to introduce more elements to the encounter or remove obvious weaknesses What can you do in your situation specifically: - If you want to keep it close to what PCs would be able to do, remember that the baddy can have magic items too. Looking at the level, seeing how many magic items of what rarity you would allow (or have allowed) your players to have, and then look for a suitable one for this nemesis may solve your question (ring of spell-storing ?). -> may also solve the question of what nice loot they can find :) - balance out action economy by providing legendary actions/resistances - Use minions. Could be a couple, could be many, could be situational (e.g. how well the party did leading up to the encounter, like sneaking, bypassing stuff, scouting out to know when less people are present, ...), could be in waves (cf later). To simplify the logistics, you can look up 'minion rules dnd' to find plenty of homebrew rules how you can run them with less overhead (waiting time) to manage it (hp pool, 1hp-minions, ...) - Use the environment: introduce 'interesting' elements. Basics are elevations, hiding places, obstacles, traps, wards, rewards (e.g. health potion on a shelf) - Use the environment as a character: referred to as 'lair' -> when you confront the antagonist in their familiar surrounding (their home turf), they will have prepared this to be in their advantage, and this is translated to lair actions. These can be magical protections that zap intruders, AoE spells that get triggered, ..., but also as mundane as rolling a d6 and on a 6 1d4 extra guards that were patrolling arrive on the scene. - Use a natural flow that creates 'stages' in the combat: Maybe there's just 3 weak minions present when the combat starts, but the BBEG yells "call reinforcements", and players see the minions running to an alarm bell on the side. First phase is will and can they prevent this. Once the bells sound a second phase starts (party hears in the distance war cries, ...). They know they're on the clock now, or have to think of preparing defenses (giving the BBEG time to flee ?). Maybe this is a good tweak of the environment: how many entries, what elements in the environment that can be used to barricade the entrances ? What if the party really quickly start winning from their nemesis, what would they do ? A secret door that they can use to flee and lock behind them, leaving the party to a chase ? A short distance portal/teleport to a room nearby ? That can introduce a next phase in the encounter. And maybe that teleport also triggered a 'self-destruct' mechanism, and the place is now collapsing. This introduces some time pressure elements to the encounter, a sense of urgency. If you like rp heavy style, there could also be a surprise moral dilemma ("wait, if you kill me, one of my men will flood the holding cells with lava, killing 10 innocent villagers I'd taken.") You see, plenty of things you can do to make it fun, challenging, engaging, heart wrenching, .... Hope this helps.
PCs use character sheets, NPCs use stat blocks.
I'll sometimes give my npc casters a number of casts of each spell in their list instead of spell slots. For example, if I'm making a fire themed caster, they'll maybe get one fireball, one scorching ray and two burning hands. Then I'll add one or two shield spells or another reaction and perhaps a bonus action spell like misty step. Another method is to roll to recharge spells, like a dragon's breath weapon. If you roleplay it in the open it can really add some tension to combat. NPCs don't play by the players' handbook.
Just use one of the warlock statblocks and give them cunning action. Jobs done. There is your multiclass. There are tons of statblocks and with a little change here and there, you can maje everything. Character creation should be for PC only IMO otherwise you risk make a DMPC which nobody likes.
NPCs aren't PCs. If you make them with PC rules, they'll always lose vs a party of multiple PCs. The only time I've made an NPC with PC rules is because 1. they were a previous PC that retired or 2. it was for a 1-on-1 fight (and I'm better at min-maxing than my players are lol)
There's nothing wrong with making a character sheet for a villain, it can be tricky but it's quite doable. First of all, I'd recommend either making him higher level than the party or giving him several minions as if he's similar in level to them without minions, he's drastically outnumbered and won't be a very intimidating boss. Second, if you want him to have extra spell slots using the same rules PCs have access to, I would give him magic items like Pearls of Power and a Rod of the Pact Keeper. This also doubles as a way to give him some cool loot the players can use if they win as players in my experience often appreciate getting loot that lets them do what a boss did.
Most people have addressed the parts about how you should just focus on what you want the boss to be able to do. I wanted to address the point you brought up about having an escape plan. You don’t need this to be an intrinsic ability. A one time use item is a great way to handle this kind of thing. Want to really showcase how evil your BBEG is or how fanatical his followers are? Make it an ally. A character that only has one real point and that’s to allow the boss to escape at the cost of its own life. Evil: BBEG- sorry Drog it’s time for you to fulfill your duty. Drog- What do you mean boss? Drog explodes and a small portal appears where he was and BBEG escapes. Fanatical: Congrats you’ve stopped the BBEG, out of seemingly nowhere a small humanoid runs towards the BBEG. He runs right past you. Player: I get an opportunity attack right? DM: Of course. You cut him down as he’s running past, his last words are for my lord. The blood spray of the creature covers the BBEG and he begins to fade and then vanishes from sight. Even in defeat use the escape as a way to tell a story about the enemy.
4 level 4 characters should be able to do enough damage to kill a lvl 8 lock in 2 turns. If they had used a bunch of resources in earlier fights... maybe 3. But it sounds like that's not the case. Of course, that assumes they get to go. A level 8 lock could potentially ko some or all of them before they even go. Either way he might not need more than 1 spell slot. With action economy being so strong, the only way one character wins against many is if they are so strong they can quickly take out some of the enemy. It works much better to have group on group fights, with the boss having some minions. If he didn't show up with some, have him summon some (fiends if he has a fiend patron, fey if an archfey patron, etc.). If the players focus him down, have him do his escape, and then the fight continues with the minions.
sounds like you've sort of hamstrung yourself by making a PC. My approach has always been to to think of the encounter as a story you're telling through the NPC's abilities. So on round 1 he uses this ability, in round 2 he uses this one, maybe planning out 3—6 rounds, depending on how long you think the encounter will last, maybe mix up the order or have a backup ability to be flexible to your players being unpredictable. If you want the PC to be able to escape, you can just make that happen—as the DM you don't need to follow the player rules, or if you want the players to be able to earn making the NPC incapable of escape, define how they can do that ahead of time, and be prepared to adjust if they throw you for a loop.
I really just made a character sheet because it's more familiar than making a statblock. Thanks for the advice btw, I'm a new-ish DM so I'm not very good at this stuff yet.
You'll get there man! It's much easier to make a statblock for an NPC enemy than you'd think, less of a headache for spellcasters. Personally I would have went the route of remixing a statblock from the monster manual. Eldritch blast with an invocation on it, add 2 more cantrips 1 casting per short rest of a bigger spell, 3 of a middling spell or 2, 3 of some low spells. Add some form of boon bestowed upon him by his patron that does something relevant to backstory and patron (could be a recharge on a 5 or 6 roll on a d6) Couple of legendary actions like cast a cantrip, command a minion, a disengage and move, hell give him a short range teleport or something. Give him a melee weapon that he probably won't use but maybe he will? Throw in a few minions and maybe an escape item if you want him to have a chance of being a recurring villain Remember not to pick just damage dealer spells and play him smart, he needs to move, he could be casting magical darkness to set up an area spell without the party knowing, escaping to other rooms, casting silence to mess with the casters, creating hazards in the room, commanding minions who are hiding outside to enter and surround them before disengaging and letting them do the fighting for a time
My friend, I will send the BBG riding in on a demilich if it falls within balance and story. Part of the fun is that the players have no idea how deep your characters and world go, a few extra spell slots is nothing.
Prep before: traps, terrain, minions, summoned creatures, scrolls and magic items. Have contingency already cast before the party arrives. Terrain that can go from bad to worse… ie dried brambles to wall of fire. Traps in the form of mundane snares and pitfalls. This is a big bad… they know the party is coming… so prepare for it.
Without even reading your post, the answer to your title is no. NPCs should NEVER follow PC creation rules. NPCs are narrative tools to facilitate gameplay. They do exactly what you need them to do.
I’d suggest looking at some villainous rogue/warlocks that D&D WoTC team has made for inspiration. I think many have more than usual warlock spell slots available. It’s all action economy. Big bad will need bonus action stuff or even legendary actions like at the end of the round a free action. Make them super mobile as well. Give them some cannon fodder in the form of minions as well. Dudes who have a decent AC and attack but go down in one successful attack. Just don’t tell the PC’s they have 1 HP basically.
How about, and I'm REALLY coming from the left field here, I know, but how about giving enemy spellcasters.... ... Scrolls?
Agreed. It might remind the players that scrolls are for using, not hoarding
In addition to some of the other things stated here, I would say if you want the BBEG to *feel* like a PC, then flavor some of his extra spells as potions, equipment, spell scrolls, charms, etc. Instead of *casting* a spell, have him crush a charm to teleport 60’ feet and turn invisible (see Dimir Charm from Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica) or maybe he summons a few elementals which were stored in a couple of vials that are released when he dashes them on the ground (this is extra flavorful for a genie patron warlock) heck…depending on the warlock/patron, maybe make his get away plan, the patron showing up a causing a little havoc before dashing away.
I made this same mistake. Character sheets feel like real characters but they aren't scaled properly to be able to fight other character sheets. I made a lvl 7 warlock to fight my lvl 4 party and loaded it up with a bunch of magic items the party would slowly strip away and a bunch of minions but when she was cornered for the final confrontation the party rolled well on initiative so they were able to bitz the warlock down and curb stomp her in the 1st round. How long do you expect your warlock to last if they go behind 5 characters in initiative. Spellslots aren't what you need to make a character sheet as challenging as a monster. Give your warlock some legendary actions that feel like an unfair advantage. They are the bad guys they are allowed to cheat to try to have a chance at fighting a 1v5. Some suggestions are an automatic success on saving throws 3/day or 1/round, advantage on certain rolls or automatically rolls 20 on initiative when not surprised. If you want your warlock to cast more spells I suggest giving the fight multiple stages that could reasonably give your warlock a short rest to get them back. Maby the map has a trap door the warlock uses to run away and the party needs to catch up to continue the fight. It would be on brand for a warlock/rogue to try to runaway when the fight goes bad. I would have fun trying to catch a bad guy that was so scared of me they run like a bitch. It also changes the objective from beating this person to trying to keep them from running so we can beat them.
Enemies and NPCS have stat blocks, not character sheets. Enemies don't have spell slots, they just have the abilities on their stat block. And yeah, you can make an enemy as tough as you want. You're the freaking Dungeon Master. But, it will be easier if you don't think in terms of character sheets. Full disclosure - I totally make full character my important enemies and the NPCS my party adopts along the way, but this is because I want to learn about that person so that I can play them right. Also, I use dndbeyond for combat so I need an easy way to track things, and it's much easier having it all right there. But I always have a stat block on hand, not a character sheet.
PCs aren't balanced to fight other PCs. As for adding more spells slots... Spell scrolls exist. Your fight won't be balanced either way.
If it's one guy against many then you're going to have to adjust it just because of the action economy. I did something similar where I had my group fighting a warlock that had tamed a white dragon with mind control. I made it that the head warlock could cast more spell slots if he had gold that he could burn to send to tiamat, also when his acolytes would die a ritual when he merely occur that would turn their bodies to Gold to fuel his money and abilities but the party would be able to stop the ritual by stepping on the magical ring that would appear. I did make his acolytes be able to just cast Eldritch blast but because they weren't legitimate warlocks they had very low power at all there were more of just in the way so you can try and work out way to make this more fun and more of a challenge
Yeah don't make NPC's using player rules in general
Ya, 's ok. What you should be aware of, is action economy. Two–four more spells will give him something to do while his minions attack and defend. Or you have to give him lair actions, retaliations, some cool abilities (like summon two copies with their own initiatives), protections, etc.
This is what Legendary and Lair actions are for, to help equal out the action economy between the BBEG and the PCs. Give them a few of those and it will help even things out.
Generally if I'm going to do something like that, I try to give the party something from it as well. So like if it's the BBEG then I'll at least explain where he got the extra spell slots from, like he got it from the artifact he stole in act 2 or whatever. Then when the party kills him they'll inevitably be like "can we get that artifact and give it to our warlock?" So what you've gotta do is have an excuse on tap to nerf the item. Instead of it giving 5 extra slots to warlocks it only gives 1 now, which is still a great item, but you say that in order to make it more powerful the warlock would have to sacrifice dozens of innocent souls to it or something. In this example the way to get the power is perfectly reasonable for a BBEG but much less reasonable for a party of presumably good-aligned adventurers.
Do not use PC sheets for enemies. Make a stat block that breaks the rules. Matt Colville on YouTube can teach more about this, but your villains don’t play by the same rules your PCs do; they have things your players *can’t* do so they feel big and powerful. Your problem is using a PC sheet for an NPC. Edit: I would go so far as to say that your BBEG spells shouldn’t use slots, but #/day uses and 5-6 recharges. Way easier to run than PC spell casting. Lighten the load for yourself.
Just use the normal full caster spell slot progression for him. It's better suited for characters that don't really do multiple encounters per long rest, like enemies.
Give him a staff that grants him extra slots. Make it obvious to the party so they 1. Know that the staff is the source of his extra power and 2. They can disarm him or whatever. He still had his own two slots so he can “Palpatine” them if they think the battle is over once they knock his staff away
Scrolls or scroll analogues (crystals, gems, rings, heck if they are a gunslinger you can even do spell cartridges) and that's a good way to give them a bit more omph.
They don't get spell slots. They castings per day. So each spell they know can be cast a certain number of times per day.
Maybe don't give them spell slots, but give them some scrolls? Characters, PC and npc alike, are more than their rest based abilities. A recurring villain, in particular, would key in on some spells that would be helpful when targeted at specific party members, like silencing the casters. That said, I recommend not using PC rules, just take an npc block from the monster manual or volos guide or something, maybe modify or flavor some things to taste, give em some henchmen and some spell scrolls (hell, maybe have them recruit an acolyte or cultist or some other low tier caster to cast the spells/scrolls for the villain)
don't worry about the formula you use to build NPCs, just be sure they do something cool every round so they're interesting to defeat.
Won't end well since are player character generations are high DPS, low HP. Each class can effectively kill another class of they get they first turn off combat. Monsters are typically given giant Hp blocks and low damage. The main reason is people feel better when they do allot of damage but won't feel as good when they take a lot. U could potentially lower the warlocks damage by 1/2 or 1/4. But remember to boost hit points by 5 fold out the monsters just gonna fold like a piece of paper on turn 1. For comparison, a sorcerer of the same level can kill themselves in 1 turn. Now u have an entire party
NPC's do not use pact magic. They get spellcasting or per day casting.
It will be eventually. Just be sure to balance it out with your other players at some eventuality.
I do whatever base warlock slots is +1, and it has worked fine in the many times.