Current Events > DnD players, would you consider this boss overtuned? *Critical Role spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://i.imgur.com/wQwlcci.png

The tl;dr is:

• 22 AC
• Sheet says 460 HP, but the comments on this post mostly agree she was likely more around 300
• Four attacks per action with +14 to hit
• Bonus action off-hand attack with a weapon that doubles the DC of a concentration check it causes
• Can spend a legendary action to attack
• On any attack, she can spend a Psi die to deal extra damage and force a DC 19 strength save to knock someone prone
• Bonus action to get a flight speed double her walking speed for a turn
• Two Action Surges (not listed on the sheet, the guy who compiled it forgor)
• At half health, she goes SSJ. Her AC becomes 25, she becomes resistant to all damage, and she regains both her Action Surges.
• On top of this, she used a healing potion that restored 66 HP after she'd become resistant to all damage, meaning she healed 132 in practical terms
• She had a special backpack that let her use the Echo Knight's Manifest Echo ability. Basically she makes three shadow clones. When she makes an attack action, she gets a free extra attack from a clone. As a bonus action, she can use 15 feet of movement to swap places with a clone.

This was the latest boss fight they had on CR and I thought it was a bit fuckin' much even for seven level thirteen characters. She opened combat by oneshotting their transformed blood hunter. They managed to get her backpack away from her before she could use it even once and she still nearly TPK'd the party.

Never heard of Critical Role seems interesting.

All depends on the party composition and what items the DM has let the party acquire.

7x level 13 character?

no that's fine.

if anything HP could be even higher.

I'm like 20 something episodes behind right now, and I knew who it was before entering the topic just from the earlier run in they had with her..

On paper alone, she is insanely powerful.

Now, because I'm not caught up yet, I don't know how many tools and chances they may have missed to make the fight easier beforehand. They do have a habit of not preparing adequately a lot of times, or straight up missing opportunities to swing things their way ahead of time.

A party of 7 lvl 13 characters can easily take on a Demlich in their own lair. Most ancient dragons wouldn't even be a real threat to them.

I don't think this homebrew boss is that overtuned for the strength level the party could output.

Seems pretty balanced to me. I don't know what the party composition is, but with the low wis and cha saves a combination of wizards, warlocks, and bards could burn through those in a single turn then get them under a cc effect.

Interesting. I guess the cast not being the best players is why she seems so much. They did burn some of their resources earlier that same day by going on two separate infiltration missions but nothing too crazy.

If it changes anything, their party composition is:

• Battle Master Fighter
• Homebrewed Sorta Wild Magic Barbarian
• Sorcerer
• Sorcerer/Warlock
• Blood Hunter/Rogue
• Druid/Rogue (don't ask on that one)
• Cleric

But oh, as I mentioned, she OKO'd their blood hunter in their first round, so it was really 6v1.

i watched that episode yesterday, and i was honestly getting a bit frustrated at how much stuff he kept piling on there
the part where she regained her Action Surges felt a bit much

i love Matt. he's a great DM, but had it not been for the end twist, i would most likely just end up frustrated if i was in Travis position for example

ROBANN_88 posted...

i watched that episode yesterday, and i was honestly getting a bit frustrated at how much stuff he kept piling on there
the part where she regained her Action Surges felt a bit much

Yeah, you could visibly see the fight go out of them when she took the potion.

The only thing that seems a little excessive to me is the +14 to hit but even that depends on what magical items the players had.

If this was a group of veteran, well tuned DnD players, a single boss against 7 level 13 characters needs to be absolutely cracked. Action economy alone would ruin most single enemy encounters in this scenario, especially when you throw multiple spellcasters into it. I know for a fact that the CR cast has Silvery Barbs as a spell (Which let's not even get into how utterly broken that spell is and why it should be banned outside of it's own universe of Strixhaven), so having a top tier enemy like this isn't the worst idea.

The problem is none of the CR cast outside of maybe Ashton actually build to their strength and are really well optimized, as evidenced by the Druid/Rogue. So suddenly the huge advantage in action economy isn't as important.

Flaming_Fire619 posted...

I know for a fact that the CR cast has Silvery Barbs as a spell (Which let's not even get into how utterly broken that spell is and why it should be banned outside of it's own universe of Strixhaven

Funny you say that, Marisha stopped bothering to use it because the boss had such a huge bonus to hit that it was a wasted spell slot virtually every time.

Though to your other point, she forgot she could also give folks advantage with it.

is there any way to bypass/remove resistances in 5e, like you can do with some special potion or weapons in BG3?

and again, i love Laura, but i felt...i don't wanna say frustration/annoyance but something to that.... when she did Shocking Grasp and then decided to stay in place cause she was afraid of Attack of Opportunity, completely forgetting that Shocking Grasp removes reactions.
only cause i've used it for that so many times myself

pegusus123456 posted...

Funny you say that, Marisha stopped bothering to use it because the boss had such a huge bonus to hit that it was a wasted spell slot virtually every time.

Though to your other point, she forgot she could also give folks advantage with it.

This goes back to the CR table not being well optimized though. Because a truly optimized and knowledgeable table wouldn't be using it on the attacks that already have a really good chance to hit. If the party had any sort of debuffs/crowd control spells, you use Silvery Barbs to force a reroll on successful saves and just ruin their day, or like you said try to give individuals advantages. I didn't watch the episode so don't know if any crits happened, but you can also just use it on crits to make them reroll for a normal hit.

There's a lot of ways SB is just way too good for the spell slot it's found at, but I get that with a +14 to hit in 5e, it's not the most optimal spell for the situation.

Flaming_Fire619 posted...

I didn't watch the episode so don't know if any crits happened, but you can also just use it on crits to make them reroll for a normal hit.

Ah, she did do that.

Come to think of it, I don't know if Marisha knows she can use it on saving throws. I don't remember her ever using it that way and that would have definitely come in handy in this fight. And as someone who only gets their DnD knowledge from this show, I was also under the impression you could only use it on attacks.

Fuck me, that spell is broken.