This is the first question from our mailbag, a weekly feature where we answer questions about DnD, encounter building or being a DM.
Boss characters in DnD are one of our favorite things to come up with. Everything about the story has led up to this moment and the abilities you give to the boss will make it a satisfying or unsatisfying ending. Very specifically for the stat block, if we’re in a rush we look at comparable creatures, build the character in a generator, or give our best guess.
When we’ve got more time, we try to break it down into five different sections, each building the stat block for us:
- What have we built into the rest of the encounter that makes this boss special? This boils down to answering, “why is this person the boss?” Even if they’re not a BBEG, they are still a boss. How did they get there? Do they have followers? Why do the followers look up to or fear the individual? What have they done in the past, or how has the party encountered them previously? All great questions to help you start building out who this individual is and how they will fight. This is really their core six stats.
- What environmental abilities make them unique (lair actions, environmental advantages, traps)? Are you meeting them in the open field of battle? Or is it inside their throne room where they undoubtedly have many things that could kill the party? Will they run away or stay and fight? This will determine lair actions and any special abilities.
- What are their core features (defensive, offensive, balanced)? Mages are notorious glass cannons, while a man made completely of rock will have better defensive posture. Will the individual hide or take as much damage as they can? This will typically determine their attacks.
- What is a comparable boss or creature from the Monster Manual or other modules? This is where you can find the most help for AC/HP. Sometimes we’ll even create a character to get real detailed on levels and abilities. This will generate their six core stats as well as HP and AC.
- What are their strengths and weaknesses? Vulnerabilities, resistances, immunities? Or what about mental and physical strengths and weaknesses? Are they quick to anger, slow to act, all of these start to develop a story around their personality and stats. Self-explanatory here.
By answering these five questions you can start to determine AC/HP/action economy and potential lair opportunities and turn your boss battle into more than just the Barbarian raging and unaliving the boss before he gets to his monologue.
Maybe Glatubious Prim is just a regular dude, but his illusion magic has created a lot of lore around his capabilities. Ranxor is just a rock man that’s lost his way and stumbled into power.
There are other situational aspects like double-crossing, trickery, or general bamboozling that could make the reveal of the individual even more interesting. To not get too complex for now we’ll leave it there and let you tell us where else you’d like us to dig in.
Whatever the case may be, the five questions above will help guide you toward building a great stat block for your bosses in DnD.
What else do you consider when building out your boss stat blocks?
Tools For Creating Stat Blocks in DnD
For creating the stat blocks themselves, we use Homebrewery quite a bit. We’ll also sometimes use this AI Stat Block Generator for inspiration.
Homebrewery will auto-create the markdown for a stat block, you just have to fill out the rest. It’s one of the most straightforward routes to make sure you’ve accounted for all aspects in creating your stat block.
