I've got external enemies in my Ravnica campaign. I guess I'm sort of OCD about the status quo and "canon" and, knowing the fates of many of the Guildmasters in Guilds of Ravnica/Ravnica Allegiance, I'm reluctant to put my players on a path toward a fight with them (though my current intention is to make Elesh Norn the final boss, with the party recovering the Golgothian Sylex that I've had Urza hide pieces of across various planes, forcing them to collect them, to detonate on New Phyrexia.)
But we do have ten nice stat blocks representing the various Guildmasters. But how do they stack up?
The Guildmasters are all legendary, appropriately enough, though they weirdly don't have lair actions. I'm also a little surprised at their relatively low CR. Niv-Mizzet is the toughest, at CR 26, but things go down pretty rapidly from there, with Rakdos at 24, Aurelia at 23, Jarad Vod Savo at 22, Isperia at 21, and the rest of them under CR 20.
The weirdest of them is the "Obzedat Ghost" block, which represents the five members of the Orzhov Syndicate's ruling ghost council. We'll return to this one.
What I've found running a higher-level campaign (they're only level 11 at this point - though they stand a good chance of hitting 12 after tonight) is that a single monster can be intensely high by CR and still struggle to threaten a big party.
I think that D&D has tended to focus on tier 1 and 2. And to be fair, it's manageable for both DMs and players. But it's also a bit frustrating given all the really cool things you start to get at higher levels. Obviously, it's those really cool things one gets that makes it tougher to balance higher-level content, but I'd like to see the game designed a little more around the assumption that you're going to be taking things to those high levels.
Let's look at each Guildmaster statblock and do a bit of an analysis on how tough they would be. Naturally, given the positions they hold, I'd never have any of these people fight the party on their own, and the composition of the Guildmasters' squad is naturally going to be a major factor in making them a bigger challenge. But let's look at their own capabilities and see how tough they hypothetically are.
We'll go alphabetical by guild.
Azorius - Isperia:
Isperia's a big honking Sphinx, but at CR 21, having only 261 health and an AC of 17, she's actually pretty fragile. She does have immunity to psychic and nonmagical weapon damage, though the former will only affect a narrow category of player (and the latter is sort of a given for any high-level monster and is rarely relevant.) The fact that she can fly is, I think, going to be a key way she avoids getting killed.
She's a spellcaster, which I think is always a little tricky for boss monsters, given the action economy of spellcasting. Granted, her multiattack allows her to use her claws and a spell, which helps with this. But her spell selection is almost all utility. She can cast Imprisonment twice a day, which is massively flavorful, but I think most of her spells are better used out of combat, perhaps if the players come to her for aid (and fill out the proper forms.)
Supreme Legal Authority is really what makes her shine, with a high-DC Intelligence saving throw (one that some player characters might automatically fail without something like bless) that she can use to lock down entire action types - she can prevent the Barbarian from attacking, the Cleric from casting spells, etc. This is, honestly, pretty nasty, and while one can become immune to it for a day if one succeeds, I think few players will, and also, she can keep doing this all day, potentially locking down more and more types of action.
Boros - Aurelia
Aurelia's got 287 HP and an AC of 22, which is decent, but she'll still want to rely on her extremely fast flying speed to evade danger (150 ft.)
Aurelia doesn't have a ton of unique features. What she does have is a pretty intense damage output, dealing about 120 damage per round (if she hits with all three attacks, which she probably can with a +15 to hit.) Her Warleader's Helix (a reference to a classic Ravnica card, Lightning Helix) isn't going to pump out as much damage, but can keep an ally in the fight.
Aurelia has the condition immunities that you'd expect an angel to have, as well as the damage resistances/immunities. But there's nothing here that's mechanically all that crazy - nothing to really shut down players other than the massive damage she can put out. I almost suspect that she's more likely to be an ally to players than a foe (which is how I'm intending to use her when the Darksteel Colossus the Phyrexian conspiracy has been constructing is unleashed on the Tenth District - using the Warforged Colossus stats and treating it as if it's got adamanine armor and having her "tank.")
Dimir - Lazav
Lazav is the first of the "really, only CR 17?" guildmaster stat blocks. At 18 AC and only 204 health, he will get shredded if the party actually manages to get into melee with him. The key, though, is that Lazav should never, ever stand and fight. He's the leader of the sneakiest, most clandestine guild, and he should always know exactly where to run to make sure the party following him falls into a bottomless pit. With a +19 to Stealth, he's going to have a very good chance of evading detection. He can shape shift as a bonus action and thus should be able to dash into a crowd and disappear at the first sign of trouble.
In terms of damage output, he puts out a modest 60 damage per turn if all his attacks hit. Again, I think this stat block is entirely built around his escaping the party, and his psychic defenses trait means that the party will never know for sure if they're talking to him unless they incapacitate him.
Golgari - Jarad Vod Savo
At only AC 17 and 180 HP, he looks very fragile, but he also regenerates 25 health per turn unless he takes fire or radiant damage, which should extend his life a bit, depending on party size (and how much access they have to those elements.) He also has a zombie's undead fortitude, which can save him even if they do burn him down (though radiant will get around this as well.)
As a variation on liches, he's got a lot of spellcasting, though only up to 7th level spells. Unlike Isperia, these are a bit more combat-oriented, with stuff like finger of death, cloud kill, etc. Also, like Isperia, he can replace one of his melee attacks with a spell.
Like any Lich, I think you want an absolute wall of undead minions to defend him to make the fight even remotely challenging. Finger of Death is a scary spell, but if it's the one action he gets to do before he's dead, it's not actually going to be a big deal.
Gruul - Borborygmos
Borborygmos has a somewhat healthier HP at 270, but only an AC of 14, which means that it'll be rare for higher-level players to miss him.
Beyond legendary actions, he's actually not too dissimilar from your standard cyclops. His maul hits hard and can knock a creature prone, but I think this is another case in which you're going to need a ton of minions to keep the fight interesting.
Izzet - Niv-Mizzet
Kind of a variant on an Ancient Red Dragon, he's got an AC of 22 and 370 HP, which is decent if a bit low for CR 26. Again, flight is going to be important to keep the party from shredding him.
While he's got a dragon body and a pretty nasty fire breath (DC 25 Dex and 26d6 damage in a 90 ft. cone) the focus here is very much on his spellcasting, because he's a wizard.
Here we actually get some cool things. His Locus of the Firemind trait allows him to concentrate on two spells at once, so he can Maze the non-intelligence caster and then use Reverse Gravity to deal with the melee folks. He can also change the elements of his spells, like casting "thunderball" instead of fireball and "chain cold" instead of chain lightning, which might not come into play super often, but is something I might just have him do to show off.
He also actually gets a 9th level spell, and can cast Prismatic Wall, which he absolutely should.
Still, you'll want him to stay aloft or behind the Prismatic Wall and keep foes at a distance, as his melee damage output is only 60 per round, which at his level is not going to be as big a deal as what he can do with his spells.
Orzhov - Obzedat Ghost (Council)
Ok, this one is probably the weirdest and the one I struggle the most to evaluate. The idea here is that you're never going to face just one of these guys at a time. They have an action called Convene the Ghost Council, which allows them to summon the other four members nearby. Each is only CR 8, but according to Xanathar's Guide, CR 8 monsters are one that you should have with about a 1:1 ratio with level 20 characters in a balanced encounter.
The thing is, by spreading out the danger between five creatures, a few other elements go down - their save DC for their spells is only 16, and they only have a +8 to hit, which means that they're just going to be missing players pretty frequently.
And each of them only has 110 HP. They do grant an additional 1 AC per other member of the council nearby, so they should usually have an AC of 18, but... it's a little underwhelming.
You're going to need a ton of scary minions to keep this fight challenging, and ironically, the Obzedat members themselves might play more the role of the minions in the fight, with maybe some big death knight or other undead hulk being the "big scary monster."
Frankly, I might change the stat block in a few ways, perhaps treating them a bit more like a Hag Coven (with shared spellcasting capabilities) and make that shared spellcasting much scarier with a much higher DC, and also having them use a single health pool (550 total HP) so that the party can't just focus them down one at a time and make the fight trivial toward the end.
Rakdos - Rakdos
Weighing in at 300 HP with an AC of 22, this demon lord is decently beefy (ironically his damage resistances/immunities are more like that of a devil in normal D&D) and I think it's always important to point out that he can fly, which will help him survive.
Maybe the biggest thing for Rakdos that's going to make him nasty is Captivating Presence, which is a passive aura that charms creatures nearby with a DC 25 Wisdom save - something that many player characters simply won't be able to make without supernatural help.
Rakdos puts out 74 damage per turn with his attacks and can cast 5th level Hellish Rebukes all day, so it's going to be extraordinarily punishing for melee characters.
While I think any charm-immunity spell like a devotion paladin's aura is going to trivialize a lot of Rakdos' worst nastiness, and his 300 HP isn't really all that much for a high-level party to handle, I think we've got one of the better and scarier boss-monsters here. (Fitting, as he's also the second highest CR at 24.)
Selesnya - Trostani
Trostani has an AC of 17 and 252 HP - but I think that perhaps more than any other guild leader, you're not going to fight her (plural them?) alone.
There's nothing really amazingly unique here, except that, like a lot of spellcasting guildmasters, she can do melee attacks and a spell within her multiattack, though most of her spells are concentration ones, so you'll have to figure out how to actually use that (at will dispel magic can mess with a party's buffs, though.)
In fact, I think that her anti-magic capabilities are her real interesting strong suit, like how her Touch of Order can "turn off" a magic item for a turn. Her spell save DC is 24, so a damaging spell like Moonbeam will be hard to avoid (though since her spells are innate spellcasting, she can't upcast them.)
Simic - Zagana
Zagana is second-lowest in terms of CR, and has a paltry 130 hit points and an AC of 16 - there's a good chance the party's tankier characters will have more health than she does.
I think you're going to want to take advantage of the fact that she's a merfolk to put your party at disadvantage in an underwater fight. Indeed, her single weapon attack causes a thunder wave-like effect that deals a bit more damage underwater.
Mostly, though, she's a spellcasting wizard, and you'll want to use her prismatic spray, wall of ice, and other high-level spells.
But again, you also want her to have a ton of massive Krasis monsters to act as tough tanks and minions while she can evade the party and cast spells from afar.
Conclusions:
I think the stat blocks I've come to like the most here are the ones with a really unique flavor, particularly those that can lock down a party in a nasty way, like Rakdos' charm aura or Isperia's Supreme Legal Authority. A lot of these are just kind of beefy monsters, but don't really inspire.
In theory I love the Obzedat Ghost stat block, but while having a "collective" boss monster is very cool conceptually, I think there are some issues with the implementation which would make these feel like a pretty underwhelming fight. I might give them some much more powerful cleric spells but have them share spell slots. Basically, give them higher save DCs and let them share health, essentially acting as a single powerful monster with multiple bodies and a lot of legendary-ish actions.
No comments:
Post a Comment