Demon Orc boss

Here is how the boss will look btw:

Phase 1:



Phase 2:

Maybe solve two birds with one stone, have some visible aspect of the ritual be 'consumed' to allow the boss to trigger it's dark ones luck power.

I don't know what kind of levels your PCs are at but this fight is likely to be really challenging. A way to make this a little bit manageable there should be a way to trigger the second phase other then dropping them to 0. I would tie this to the ritual components listed above (I am imagining sacrifices by the way but you can use whatever you want.) when there is no more of them left stage two begins. This lets the PCs force stage 2 to start by killing the sacrifices while also depriving the boss of one of his powerful abilities.

Thanks for the feedback.

Dark One's Luck is a warlock feat in the PHB (fiend patron) and is once per short/long rest and was meant to be that for him too. But I really love the idea of him taking energy from somewhere to use it, thus they can prevent him from doing it by themselves by stopping the rituals somehow.

There are 5 level 7 PCs with one level 5 NPC/DMPC they rescued last session. A Mountain dwarf mystic (UA class) who I'm assuming they will bring along since they thought he was awesome and helpful. He is not opposed to killing some of the orcs now living in his ancestral city.

Having thought about the encounter more here is how it goes in my mind.

PCs enter the throne room where Shauzug is and where the rituals are happening. They see him talking to a reoccurring bad guy (Shauzug's "boss") who will not be happy to see them. He will tell Shauzug to kill them while he slips away. Depending on how much alive the PCs are after the fight he may or may not still be there.

Enemies:
Shauzug (orc)
Eye of Gruumsh x1
Orog x2

Medium Encounter

Wizard is particularly fond of Hold Person or possibly Polymorph (recently got that), this is where his +7 Wis saving throw and Dark One's luck comes in

Shauzug "dies" and turns into his demon version killing all the remaining orcs and getting +1 to initiative for everyone still alive (so up to +3).
He is not as intelligent and loses all tactics

1/4 hp lost: Demon Blood

• gain 4 strength (+2 to hit; +2 to damage)

• Resistance to fire

• Affected by Bane (1st level) (subtract 1d4 from attacks and saving throws)


1/2 hp lost: Arms of Hadar

• Tendrils of dark energy erupt from Shauzug

○ Anyone who starts their turn within 5 feet of him must succeed on a DC 15 Str Saving throw or take 1d6 necrotic damage

• Shauzug's movement speed is reduced to half (20 feet) and his charge ability changed to anyone within 40 feet.


3/4 hp lost: Hell rifts

• At the start of his turn Shauzug can spawn 2 hell rifts (up to a maximum of 6) at two points he can see within 120 feet. If there are 6 hell rifts open he can instead close 2 and open them elsewhere.

○ The hell rifts take up a 5 ft space

○ Any creature that starts it turn within 10 feet of the rift must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity Saving throw. On a failed save the target takes 1d8 fire damage or half as much on a successful save.

○ Shauzug can walk through a hell rift and appear from another (this costs 5 feet of movement)


Thus making him more dangerous the less hp he has, this is a first draft of the new elements of the fight which might be a bit much atm I realize now that I type them out.

The room will be quite large so avoiding Hell rifts shouldn't be too hard.

Thanks that's some great feedback. Hadn't though about that. While I don't think it will be an impossible fight (well maybe with the 3 extra phases) I'll definitely tone it down to 3 phases as you suggested, with ways for them to interact with the battle terrain which can help them.

Need go back to the drawing board a bit...