Feedback on boss monster for tonight's DnD session
Hello tabletop peeps! I have completed a monster design for my first ever boss creature, and I wanted to get some quick feedback. This is all based on a previous post where I got ideas from y'all, here: https://tildes.net/~games.tabletop/1cjn/designing_my_first_dnd_boss_fight_with_a_giant_mimic_5x_lvl_5_characters
Players are a group of 5 lvl 5 characters, fairly magic heavy and lower hp overall.
The boss creature is a mimic that appears to be a large stone fountain with blood in it. If a PC touches it or stabs it, then they (or their weapon) will be grappled for the start of combat. At that point, the mimic will sprout 6 tentacles that each can travel up to 40ft from the main body and wield a weapon. All tentacles will operate on the same turn as the main body.
Healing Pool in the boss room
The boss room is a large room with a pool in it where blood is mixed with water that has flowed over a magic crystal to produce a healing solution. The idea is that the PCs will figure out that they can either heal themselves by dipping into the pool, prevent the boss from getting close to the pool, or that they can break the magic crystal to prevent the boss from healing. Several of the boss abilities reference this pool.
Mimic main body:
STR 16 (+3)
DEX 10 (+0)
CON 20 (+5)
INT 16 (+3)
WIS 12 (+1)
CHA 8 (-1)
HP 200
Main body loses 20hp if a tentacle dies
Armor Class: 13
Speed: 15 ft
Proficiency Bonus: 2
Damage Resistances: None
Immunities: Poison, Acid, Sleep, Charm
Abilities
Harden: Cannot take other actions, harden body to stone and increase AC to 18, as well as resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, cold, fire
Spew Blood: Begin charging up blood, PCs can see mouth direction. At the beginning of next turn, spew acidic blood in a 180 degree arc for 30 ft. Deals 3d6 acid damage, half damage on DEX 14 save. Mimic main body cannot do anything on its next turn as it recovers.
Chomp: +5 to hit. 1d12+3 piercing damage
Charge: If no arms are left, it will spew blood from the back and charge at a target. Increase speed to 45ft, and deal (+5 to hit) 4d6+3 bludgeoning damage to a target. Dex15 save for half damage.
Sword Tentacle (x3)
HP 20
Armor Class 13
Speed 30 ft
Damage Resistances: None
Damage Immunities: Poison, Acid
Abilities
Harden: Cannot take other actions, harden body to stone and increase AC to 18, as well as resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, cold, fire
Heal: If the healing pool is nearby, soak arm in the pool to heal it fully, and heal the main body for 15hp. Alternatively, resurrect a different defeated tentacle instead of healing self or the main body.
Slice: +5 to hit. 1d8+3 slashing damage
Shield Tentacle (x1)
HP 20
Armor Class 13
Speed 30 ft
Damage Resistances: None
Damage Immunities: Poison, Acid
Abilities
Harden: Cannot take other actions, harden body to stone and increase AC to 18, as well as resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, cold, fire
Heal: If the healing pool is nearby, soak arm in the pool to heal it fully, and heal the main body for 15hp. Alternatively, resurrect a different defeated tentacle instead of healing self or the main body.
Shield Bash: +5 to hit. 1d4 + 3 bludgeoning damage
Defend: As a reaction, give disadvantage to an attack when an ally 5ft away is attacked
Crossbow Tentacle (x1)
HP 20
Armor Class 13
Speed 30 ft
Damage Resistances: None
Damage Immunities: Poison, Acid
Abilities
Harden: Cannot take other actions, harden body to stone and increase AC to 18, as well as resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, cold, fire
Heal: If the healing pool is nearby, soak arm in the pool to heal it fully, and heal the main body for 15hp. Alternatively, resurrect a different defeated tentacle instead of healing self or the main body.
Heavy Crossbow shot: +2 to hit. 1d10 piercing damage
Handy Tentacle (x1)
HP 20
Armor Class 13
Speed 30 ft
Damage Resistances: None
Damage Immunities: Poison, Acid
Abilities
Harden: Cannot take other actions, harden body to stone and increase AC to 18, as well as resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, cold, fire. Cannot harden when grappling a PC.
Heal: If the healing pool is nearby, soak arm in the pool to heal it fully, and heal the main body for 15hp. Alternatively, resurrect a different defeated tentacle instead of healing self or the main body.
Grapple: +5 to hit. Grab a target, they can avoid it with a DC16 strength saving throw. If the target is successfully grappled, they can escape with a DC14 strength save at the start of their turn.
Squeeze: If a target is grappled, squeeze them for 1d6+3 bludgeoning damage.
Throw juice: If the healing pool is within range, scoop up a handful of purple juice and throw it at a skeleton to resurrect it.
Potential Adds
There are two skeletons in the room that can be resurrected by the Handy Tentacle with it's "throw juice" ability, should the fight is too easy for the PCs or they are hanging back too far. These adds are Boneknights from page 6 on this link: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-Mv5UKsPhrHkBqSf9vo1
Conclusion and Questions
Is this a fun boss? I aim to have the tentacles each fighting a different person, so I don't think I'll wipe the party out too quickly, but I know of the mystical "action economy" and I might be overdoing things.
Also, how do I rate the CR of such a creature? And how much gold should a party earn for such a fight? Thanks for helping out a new DM!
It's a very well stocked room with a very interesting boss! My advice is to be flexible: frequently check the facial expressions of your players and tension levels of folks in the room -- are they laughing? Are they barely able to contain themselves from wanting to go first and do more cool things? Are they coming with up crazy wild ideas? Are they spending a bit of time at least thinking about what their characters with their various back stories would likely do, instead of only thinking as a min-maxing human player?
One thing I've seen sometimes: players might be hesitant to "mess around" with stuff in the boss's room -- you mentioned there's a healing pool, but they might think whatever heals a monster would hurt them and vice versa. Sometimes players would frustratingly not touch something that helps them with a ten foot pole because they think it's booby-trapped. You might want to flavour text a bit, something like, "a soft fragrance of spring and warm bunnies waft from the purified water after touching the glowing crystal". If they're really stubborn, make debris fly into healing water and splash one of the players with spray, healing 1hp.
Another thing that's common is that players hate it when monsters and especially bosses heal. We want to do it as players, but it feels cheap and unfair when monsters do it. Think about video games and how often they chug potions. Do you remember how much we hated pokemon trainers who heal their pokemon? Do it very early on in the encounter -- sparingly if at all after that -- use it as more of a threat to drive the story -- telegraph "imma creep towards the heal unless you do something~~~" very early so they have at least two rounds to stop it. Remember that your players might be able to regain HP, but if they've already spent their daily's, then more HP aint gon help 'em.
At the end of the day, it's not about stats and cool abilities of your monsters: it's about if your players have a great time showing off things they want to do, and rewarding them for unique and off beat solutions and engagement.
Good luck and let me know how it goes!!
Wonderful suggestion with splashing the party, I think that's great. And I also appreciate the advice on healing the boss, my motivation there was entirely that I didn't want the party to just run around outside the monster's rather slow speed hitting it with ranged attacks, I wanted to force them to get closer. I'll think about how to do that without making it feel bad.
someone mentioned tentacles burrowing : ) maybe they're very long tentacles that can reach the whole room and being close to the core is actually the safest thing to do....
Hmmm... making them a bit slower but unlimited range actually would be kinda interesting. Makes people run around all over the place! I like forcing player movement, so this has appeal.
I agree, sounds like a fun fight and I like your feedback.
Just a couple thoughts:
It does sound pretty cool! I second a lot of what chocobean said about gauging the players and minding how they interpret the pool.
As for the hands, you say at the top 40ft but then per hand 30ft. I might even slow them down to 20ft if you've got a slow party. You could compliment the change with a special "lunge/sprint" for 60+ft, I think it'd be nice flavor for them too.
I might retune the healing to only resurrect tentacles at half health, maybe even drop the heal amount to a static 10.
I do like the idea of utilizing adds as an on the fly difficulty modifier.
I think each tentacle needs its own initiative though, perhaps the sword tentacles could share a turn.
Though you know better than I what your party can handle! Maybe y'all are better combat players than the folks I've played with. Make sure to update us on how the session goes!
The hands have a maximum distance from the main body, which I've set at 40ft. Each hand can move up to 30ft on it's turn, but can't ever be more than 40ft from the body. Sorry for the confusion on that!
Still, I might indeed slow them down, and I like the idea of removing some of the healing amount. It's meant more as a threat and a note for the players anyway!
Oh that makes sense, I'll chalk that up to me not reading close enough and being sick. I guess I was thinking they'd have unlimited range when I wrote that. You could mix their speeds too, like maybe handy is fastest since it has nothing and shield/crossbow are slowest? With limited range, having all their turns at once wouldn't be as lethal then and would make more thematic sense.
If y'all are playing in a physical space, it might be fun to tie string to each tentacle mini, plus it'd help keep track of the limited range.
Shoot, you could even create a later variant of this guy that does have more of the unlimited range/burrowing aspect too!
Oh I'm totally borrowing the string to mini idea. Genius. It'll let the players really gauge how far/close they have to be
Since it’s a mimic, it seems to me that your setup could be that it mimics the healing pool. Characters enter the room already down some hp. There is an old stone plaque indicating the pool in the room will heal them. But there are two pools.
But yeah. This will be fun for them and you might even get to kill one or two adventurers if you’re lucky!
That's part of the idea for the pool, actually! If somebody dies, they can resurrect in the pool and get a little bit of character story to add to their adventure. And since the boss will destroy the magic crystal (unless the players destroy it first) with it's death throws, the pool won't be relevant for anything long-term.
I'm not sure anyone addressed this point. CR is pretty complicated for a whole encounter, more so if you're doing milestone levels rather than XP based, even more so if you are creating your own.
In terms of rewards, that's gonna be very specific to the economy of your campaign. How much does a healing potion cost, other magic items they might find for sale? Do you like your players to have many or few magic items? What was the context for this fight; ie was it a unique encounter that happened, a mini boss, a final boss in this dungeon?
From what you said above you described it as a boss of sorts. That should carry some substantial reward but it doesn't need to be strictly gold.
I'm curious how the encounter went! Any thoughts after playing it?
The main thing is engaging your players and giving them oppurtinities to use their skills. Outside of that, you can adapt however you need to. It looks like fun and I think it's a flexible enough encounter.
The main thing that sticks out to me is that this fight could very easily be cheesed with fireball. You mentioned a magic heavy group and with that in mind, on top of nuking the tentacles, that's 120+(fireball damage) damage to the main body and will trivialize your fight.
If that becomes a thing, I would regenerate tentacles and not let the tentacle damage affect the main body. Stagger the regeneration so that the players will know to focus on the body, but still have to keep the tentacles in mind.
You all have a DND session? Man I wish I could find a steady group for a game. Scheduling is always the hardest part.