5th Edition definitely favors the players. By tier 4 (levels 17-20) it's insanely hard to throw a tough enough enemy to actually beat them, or even make them all that nervous. I recently ran a level 18 one-shot in which I had Orcus use his undead-summoning abilities to bring in two death knights and an adult blue dracolich and the party (which was six level 18 characters with, perhaps, a generous assortment of magic items) took him to town, with only the cleric dropping unconscious during the fight (I did manage to bloody some of them.)
I've come to the conclusion that almost every foe you want to be a big, epic battle, should be preceded by a pretty serious marathon of other fights to drain resources from the party. If even Orcus with maxed-out health (which I recommend for any "boss" monster) can go down that easily, you've really got to pull no punches when building encounters meant to challenge the group.
As a sidenote: player power here is a feature, not a bug. You want the party to succeed and win their battles. But I do sometimes worry about making things boring if they aren't deadly enough. Given how relatively easy it is to get some resurrection magic (especially in later levels,) I think it's not that unreasonable to want boss fights to see at least two party members knocked out, and maybe even killed (as long as there's an expectation that they can be brought back.) I'm always cheering for my players, but I want them to feel like they really pulled their win from the jaws of defeat, rather than yawning through another easy fight. (That being said, the way I build my characters, I tend to want them to pull off everything impeccably and do massive damage on every round, so maybe DM me and Player me have to have a talk.)
Still, a single solo monster attacking the party starts to feel really hard to pose a threat at higher levels.
But then there's Sul Khatesh.
Now, Sul Khatesh, one of the two Overlords from Eberron, has a beefy CR - she's 28, which makes her tied for 3rd highest CR in the whole edition (Tiamat and the Tarrasque share 1st, so I skip 2nd,) sharing that rank with the other Overlord, Rak Tulkhesh.
Rak Tulkhesh is sort of the ultimate weapon swarm - literally, he's a giant fiend surrounded by a cloud of slashing weapons. He's got a boatload of health and does a massive amount of damage.
Sul Khatesh, by contrast, is focused on magic, with tons of powerful At Will spells (including counterspell, shield, fireball, and lightning bolt. If she gives up her reaction, she can basically sit at 27 AC at all times, which actually makes her as tank-y as my Eldritch Knight Fighter...)
She's also got a sort of Eldritch Blast equivalent attack, and a magic staff, though you'll probably only use these as legendary actions.
So far, she doesn't look that scary with 475 HP, which is a lot, but not insurmountable (maxed it's 700).
But then we get to Arcane Cataclysm.
This once-a-day action calls down three 40-ft radius (which is utterly massive) spheres of disruptive magic that do 11d12 (about 71) force damage to anyone who fails a dex save (oh yeah, the DC is 26, so good luck.) But again, that's just damage. No big deal, right?
Well, the spheres that explode linger as anti-magic zones for an hour.
That's disruptive, to be sure, but given how spellcasting-focused she is, it just means constricting the battlefield, right?
No, because her magic is immune to them.
So Sul Khatesh drops these massive spheres - just one of which is likely taking up most of your battle map - and then steps inside, and she's now immune to everything the spellcasters are doing to her.
Oh, and also the martial classes. Because you know what else? She's immune to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. And if you bring your weapon into that sphere, it just becomes a normal weapon.
In a lot of ways, this looks like a monster designed to be unkillable. And she almost is. Yes, the Arcane Cataclysm action takes a long rest to recharge, so you could wait her out, running away and hiding while you wait for the fields to dissipate. And honestly, that might be one of your best options. She can teleport once a day, so I think, tactically, if she senses that the zones are about to fade she might just peace out and go elsewhere, making it very tough (but not impossible) to figure out where she's gone.
But there are a couple other options.
The first is artifact weapons. Artifacts are the exception to antimagic zone's deactivation of magic items. Now, artifacts are extraordinarily rare, and usually come with some sort of drawback, but if you get your hands on one, this will be an invaluable option for getting some damage on her if she's in her zone.
The second is grappling. As I read it, Sul Khatesh is not immune to the initial damage of the Arcane Cataclysm, so she'll need to move into it. She doesn't have any real mobility tools other than her teleport, which means that for the most part, she's only got a 40 ft movement speed (well, and she can fly and hover, so... ooh boy.)
If she drops one of the spheres just next to her, she can move to its center immediately afterward, which means that you've got to drag her 40 feet out. The good news is that she has proficiency in neither athletics nor acrobatics, and is not immune to the grappled condition. She does have a +4 to Strength and a +5 to Dexterity, so even if your beefiest level 20 Barbarian is the one to grab hold of her, she could escape. As a DM, I'd have her use her action to do so given how valuable staying in the sphere is to her.
But I think what's really exciting here is that there'd be a significant, possibly multi-round effort to just drag her out. And all the while, she's got legendary actions with which she can strike the person grappling her with her magic staff that does 36 force damage on a hit (which most Barbarians can't simply shrug off) or whisper her Maddening Secrets to the Barbarian, who will have to make an impossible-without-bless-or-resistance-or-something Wisdom save or get stunned.
I'm tempted to run another one-shot and unleash a fully-rested party against her and just see if they can even do anything to her.
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