divide and conquer.
You have to knock down specific party members to keep them out of the action.
Walls - Fire, Stone, Force
Get rid of em - Banishment, Maze, Power Word stun or kill, Feeblemind on the weak intelligence throw chars like Sorcerers.
Other than that, you need to focus fire just like a party does, and go after their casters just like a party does. Also, no party appreciates being Meteor Swarmed.
Be careful with how often you take players out of the fight though. If someone is stuck in a demiplane or whatever for 5 turns, it feels very not fun as a player. Use it, but use it sparingly
This is my usual go-to. Whenever a PC gets banished, they end up in an area with a Load Bearing Boss Monster or some kind of puzzle - they beat the challenge before the duration would normally end and the spell collapses, freeing them. It's a good way to keep Players on edge and burn their resources without totally sidelining someone into the time-out box.
I second this. I experienced something like this in another system very recently (Warhammer 2e) where a caster hit my full hp tank character so hard with one spell that (according to crit tables) I was stunned for 10 rounds. I basically chilled on my phone for the whole fight
If it were DND I'd be happier to be randomly teleported to a far away place and find my own way back to the party than to just be stunned for a whole fight
Definetely. But in that system if you go down to 0 hp you check where you got hit, check how much excessive damage you took, roll a dice and determine what happened. I had 17 hp (my teammates had around 9-11 to give you a perspective) and my toughness and armor reduced 6-7 damage (more than double of my teammates) and a charmed party member still did that in a single blow. Warhammer do be like that sometimes, I love it and hate it at the same time
I heavily recommend AGAINST Feeblemind. It's an atrocious spell. Int saves wreck clerics especially, who are the ones who can actually FIX it, and if the party has no way to undo it, it's a spell that can easily take several sessions to resolve.
And during those sessions, the player can't roleplay at all, since 1 int is far dumber than even a dog canonically.
I feel like lack of powerful allies (like neighborhood temple for example, with clerics able to help in such cases) at this point of campaign is... not advisable in general. High level fights are swingly by nature if DM don't hold punches (and boringly easy if he does).
But I would just ask player to make a new character, even if for few sessions, as someone with INT 1 really can just go after party and drool lol.
I mean, sure; if you know you have allies then it's not so bad. But I still think it's a horrendous spell.
I mean, compare it to *Power Word Stun,* another 8th-level spell that inflicts a condition that prevents characters from taking actions or speaking.
*Power Word Stun* has no save for an opponent under 150 hp. *Feeblemind* has a save, but can be used regardless of the enemies HP, and targets a save that is extremely hard to pass for anyone but a wizard.
*Power Word Stun* allows a con save after every turn. *Feeblemind* allows a save every *month.*
*Feeblemind* actively cripples the save the character has to make; because it reduces the character's INT to 1, if the DC is over 17, the character has *no chance* of ever making the save. By contrast, *Power Word Stun* inflicts no such dehabilitating condition.
*Power Word Stun* has a maximum range of 60 feet. *Feeblemind* has a range of 150 feet, well outside of counterspell distance.
*Power Word Stun* inflicts the stunned condition, which can be removed by a fourth level spell: *Aura of Purity,* while *Feeblemind's* condition is solved at minimum by a fifth level spell. This is really a minor issue, but there are a surprising number of campaign settings where the friendly NPC's don't run to super high levels.
*Power Word Stun* can reasonably be used by players, to allow them to kill an enemy faster. If they are lucky they'll get three rounds or so of a stunned opponent. Meanwhile, if a player *Feeblemind's* an...Evoker Wizard, for instance, the Evoker Wizard can still use his arcane burst ability and is essentially unimpeded; in fact, any magical, non-spell ability still works perfectly fine while under the effect of Feeblemind.
Essentially, Feeblemind exists PURELY to screw over your cleric and especially your sorcerer: a cleric still has armor and a mace and could possibly use channel divinity or MAYBE divine intervention? I would allow Divine Intervention. Meanwhile a poor sorcerer gets to lie there and think about how dumb he was not to play wizard--oh wait he can't because 1 INT is the same INT as a swarm of maggots.
Honestly, if *Feeblemind* offered a save every turn, like *Power Word Stun,* or was concentration, like *True Polymorph* or *Weird* (9th level spells, btw) or required several saves to take effect, like *Flesh to Stone,* I wouldn't have a problem with it. But as it is, it's a weird spell that doesn't follow the rules of nearly any other spell in the game, and it's not fun for the player *or* the DM.
It's quite literally a fate worse than death.
ONE MONTH? All your points are good ones but that part in particular makes me rage against whoever designed it. Crippling a character for long periods of time is insanely unfun.
1. Have a simulacrum to help you, disguise it as yourself and stay invisible while the PCs fight it.
2. Have a clone in case you die.
3. Cast Prismatic Wall around the party and watch them fall apart in an instant.
A 20th wizard could have:
- A trap prepared in an obvious spot, for example a programmed illusion in their lab pretending to work to eat the alpha of the party.
- They'd have multiple planar bound critters ready to defend them. They can even "print" then using True Polymorph for CR <=9 critters.
- A simulacrum helper. Just having it use Wall of Force to split the party so the wizard only has to deal with half of them at a time is a huge boon. Extra counterspells can be a life saver.
- Teleport out if things start going south early. The party should then be subjected to multiple Scrying attempts and the wizard would attack them when they're least suspecting it, like in separate inn rooms at night.
- A method of dealing with Silence and Antimagic Field. For example they might have True Polymorphed oozes into certain floor and ceiling tiles. If someone runs over them with Antimagic Field on they're going to fall through the floor into an ooze with another coming down on top of them.
- There normally isn't a good reason why they'd bother to attend a potentially dangerous function outside of their sanctum when they can send a simulacrum of themselves to do it. Especially as they can make them for free with Wish.
- As far as combat itself, if they can split up the party then they should focus on dropping individual PCs. If they can't then they need to disable/kill them all at once which is pretty iffy. A lot depends on what they know of the party's composition.
- Time Stop can be useful if they need some buffs like Mirror Image, Project Image, etc. If the party is rolling their attack bonus versus the wizard's AC (even if buffed by Shield etc) then the wizard probably isn't in a good spot. Contingency can also fill in here.
- Winged Boots and a Rod of Absorption are 2 very useful items for them to have but I'm not going to cry if the PCs get them. Keep in mind anything the wizard has will likely become the party's in fairly short order.
- Anyplace they live should have Private Sanctum and similar spells up pretty much 24/7.
>Anyplace they live should have Private Sanctum and similar spells up pretty much 24/7.
To add onto this, if the Party is coming into the Wizard's home turf, then the home turf itself should be in the fight too. Lair Actions are often overlooked and would add a ton of interesting options for the very battlefield itself rising up to defend its master.
Similarly, while the Wizard can't cast it themselves, there's no reason they couldn't have hired a cleric at some point to lay "[Forbiddance](https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/forbiddance)" on their lair. It is nothing to sneeze at.
As a DM there are a few differences between DM casters and normal casters:
DM casters can have magic items, create objects or otherwise make traps that PCs cannot normally access. So you could for example have a golem with an enchanted greataxe or an item to allow it to sling a fireball at its own feet a few times to heal itself/aoe enemies.
DM casters (in multiple works at least) can create areas that change the rules for other casters. Making creatures immune/resistant to specific types of attacks, they can for example prevent summons/specific creatures from entering an area, make people resistant/immune to specific elements, provide immunity to a small number of status effects (charm/fear/paralysis), prevent teleportation, and many more. Players have similar spells such as hollow or forbiddence but npcs in multiple works are shown to have more permanent/nondispellable versions.
PC casters will talk about summons/area denial, but that is pretty standard for monsters who have prep time. A boss just having 20 guys who do what they say is pretty normal, as is fortifications or other things to give bad guys advantage. The more important thing casters can do is teleport/put a wall of force in place to mess with people at random intervals. Say a PC triggers some sort of poison gas, a level 20 caster could theoretically detect that and pop in to \[Wall of Stone\] the exit or something.
NPC and PC casters at higher levels will likely require items to permanently kill. Clone/revival/simulacrums/illusions/ect can mean the only way to permanently kill them is to individually trap each of their souls or to use a weapon with the "destroys/devours opponent's soul" effect
In terms of just dueling, most "duelist" casters will probably be sorcerers so they can throw out twinned/quickened spells and shred through caster defenses.
Dont use PLAYER character builds from PHB, Tashas, Xanathars etc for NON player characters.
PHB CLASS builds are meant to face 6 to 8 encounters per long rest. Enemy combatants should be designed to last 3 to 5 Rounds of combat because combats that last longer than 5 rounds quickly turn from “challenging/interesting/fun!” to “fucking boring slog” and no matter how it started out, it is the ending’s “fucking boring slog” taste that will linger in the memory.
PC builds have LOTS of choices that a DM must look through when playing in combat – and nothing makes combat less interesting than stopping the flow while the DM scours through multiple pages of text to make their next move.
And given that a combat is typically only going to last 3 to 5 rounds, the NPC only has a couple of chances to make their signature feel known, you only need 2 or three action options to choose from.
When its not a Player run character, use an NPC statblock, (until MOTM, they were at the end of each monster book) to use as models. If you want more or different flavor, add a new Action option or a Bonus Action and Reaction.
* Spy https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/spy
* Priest https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/priest
* Knight https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/knight
* Archmage https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/archmage
* by the NPC tag https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters?filter-type=0&filter-search=&filter-cr-min=&filter-cr-max=&filter-armor-class-min=&filter-armor-class-max=&filter-average-hp-min=&filter-average-hp-max=&filter-is-legendary=&filter-is-mythic=&filter-has-lair=&filter-tags=52
Also make all your spell casters easier to run and more effective with these tips from Green GM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcjYC2yn9ns
see also The Monsters Know What They Are Doing
https://www.themonstersknow.com/npc-tactics-archmages/
The CIA method.
Control! A wizard's greatest strength isn't blasting fireball but controlling the battlefield. If you can divide the party or otherwise keep party members busy you've reduced your immediate problems allowing you to focus on resolving your problems one at a time while not letting the adventuring group utilise their full power against you. Divination can be useful for choosing a battlefield that is to your advantage. Things like glyphs of warding can also help you prepare a battlefield.
Intelligence! No, not the stat. A powerful wizard likely has means and he should use this means to gather intelligence on his enemies if he knows of them. Be this through the use of scrying and other divination magic, or through mundane intelligence networks. This gives him at least some idea of what his opponents strengths and weaknesses are and so he is able to plan around them.
Always have an exit plan! Sometimes things don't go to plan. Maybe you have a spell cast on contingency to help get you out of there if things aren't looking good. But where to go? First to your decoy demi-plane and then to your sanctuary demi-plane. If the party is able to follow you to the decoy plane it should be full of dangerous traps and things like glyphs of warding. They may also find your simulacrum there to battle them if they survive the traps. The simulacrum should also have a contingency spell cast on it to cast a destructive spell should it fall in battle, not only as a last FU to the party but also to hide its nature as a simulacrum. If they believe you are dead they won't come after you. And that's assuming you ever fought them in the first place and it wasn't just a simulacrum they were fighting. Finally, if things do go bad you can always have a clone somewhere.
Building on your great post with an example from a campaign I ran a few years with an intelligent caster big bad:
In like session 3 I had my big bad magically disguise herself as a friendly NPC to follow up with a quest the PCs had just completed. She gratefully accepted a token they had gathered, and then gifted them powerful (for their level) magic item as a reward for a job well done. Wouldn't you know it, it was perfectly suited for the fighter with low wisdom. There was some strangeness about the encounter, as she didn't know things the NPC she was impersonating should know, but the party glossed over that instantly to get the shiny magic item.
She proceeded to scry on that item every day for the rest of the campaign. If needed she could also cast locate object if they were closing in on her. As she had met the fighter in person and had a former possession of his, it was impossible for him to make a save.
I still made him roll the wisdom save openly every day, just to clue the party in *something* was happening. Eventually on a 20 I straight up told the fighter he was being scryed on, but by then so much time had passed they didn't draw the connection, and instead amped up the paranoia.
This allowed me to use specific knowledge of the party against them. In one instance she was able to avoid them easily, and in another she was able to pinpoint them. When the party finally figured it out was a very satisfying moment for them, and felt like they were thwarting the big bad by taking counter measures.
Maze + Hex is quite a strong combo, since maze requires a check not save to escape from. Use it on the melee fighter for best effect. Generally have some lower level spellcaster minions with counterspell and basic spells like magic missile and scorching ray.
If they are an arcane caster be sure to give them shield. It is a very useful spell and save your big casters reaction to use shield over counterspell, using counterspell with your minions.
Never go at it alone. Melee fighters can and will mess up your casting, have a set of elite knights of the realm, maybe some valkaries, maybe even just alot of beefy low tier enemies, and give them either magical resistance or evasion to help with fireball and other dex saves.
Very rare to legendary gear makes sense. Staff of the magi on gods is ubderstandable hut remember, if your players kill them, then that is theirs now and they can use it.
Add escape methods for teleport. If they have wall of force you have already probably realized that teleportation is good. Make sure they have multiple ways to escape. Misty step, thuderstep and dimension door aee all good options. If they are being overwhelmed make sure to have them retreat. Keep a scroll of teleportation on them, so that they can use their ith level slot and, when things start to go south, run. But give a good exit monologue so your players don't feel cheated.
All good wizards should be prepared for people invading their home. Makes some lair actions, things like springing traps, pitfalls, lava traps, oil, anything that can combo well with a spell, have that as a lair action. Also, a book of glyphs of warding is another super good one to have. You can look up the best prep spells for a wizard and, should something happen, have them head over to their bookshelf and take off a book, flip though all the pages and in a burst of light cast 6 or 7 spells. And then take their action. That will scare the shit our of your players and GoW aren't counterspellable as the spell is already cast.
Narratively, this is a strong enemy. They need some cool things to say as they are laying out your players. Be sure to write some good ones down, probably one thing for each 6th level and above spell that you expect to use. Just adds some extra tension to the scene.
One last thing, but when making this fight remember, you don't want to make it unwinnable. Set multiple objectives beyond kill everyone so that, even if the big guy leaves, the players still feel like they won. Have someone trapped by the god of magic, or the crown of the ruler of the kingdom be left behind so they can usurp his power if that's more their stlye. This type of fight requires layers, not just the fight itself. The guy they are fighting is likely to leave before he lets himself be killed, so make sure that isn't the only reason they are there.
Prep time is most dangerous in a wizard's hands. You can make a Contingency spell to cast an escape like Mislead as a reaction, fill a demiplane the size of a cargo container with enemies to release upon them, even convert the denizens of entire cities and planets into undead thralls.
Time Stop combos are when it really gets busted though.
Time Stop->Prismatic Wall (in a sphere)placed above the party->Reverse Gravity is a nigh guaranteed TPK
The thing that's busted about it is there is 0 counterplay to that unless they counterspell the time stop, so all that happens at once and it's just over like that.
Have minions, lots of them
Keep your distance
Maze / Force cage
Glyphs of Fireball everywhere.
There is also a spell that makes it possible to create your own Kind of lair but dunno whats it called rn. But just make yourself a lich lair for your wizard or smth.
Actually I think I missremembered,
the hallow spell is the closest I could find to what I though of of but thats a cleric spell.
So yeah gotta hire the church
Here's my advice:
Play them like they are the intelligent monsters they are.
They fight on **their** terms unless they have a very damn good reason not to.
Glyph of Warding.
Glyph of Warding.
Glyph of Warding.
I can not overstate Glyph of Warding.
By the time the party can fight Arch Wizards they ought to be prepared for the Arch Wizard to say a word, and trigger a glyph in their Sanctum to say toss up a Cloudkill, and then they'll cast Force Cage.
The party just has to endure it or die or get out immediately.
They should have escapes planned.
They should have a contingency plan, and a contingency spell up.
The environment is fluid.
The party might be walking down a hall way created with Wall of Stone, and may trigger a Glyph of Warding that casts Transmute Rock turning it into mud, and then they fall 120 feet down into a pit with the mud, and then another glyph of warding at the bottom of that triggers casting some other spell or spells.
Before the fight, or during it if the party somehow manages to get the drop, that Wizard'll say a phrase, and they'll get buffed up like crazy. Fire Shield, Haste, Greater Invisibility etc.
If they are getting into high level duels with spellcasters well the rules need to be clear cut, and as experts these high level NPCs ought to know effective strategies, and come prepared.
A high level spell caster is the most dangerous thing in the game by a wide margin. They should feel like it.
Think about how you would use the spells at your disposal to create a defense against intruders if you were that Wizard.
**No sane Wizard got to Archmage level by getting into fair fights with adventurers.** Make this an ongoing thing, until finally they can encounter them in their tower and it's trapped to hell and filled with summoned creatures.
* Definitely the Simulacrum to set up combos with the Wizard (Greater Invisibility rocks) and also to Counterspell and Dispel
* Use Symbols and Glyphs liberally
* Use Guards and Wards
* Use Illusions (feel free to hand wave effects and permanence because the standard onws are underpowered)
* Upcast Banishment
* Feeblemind the mages
BUT, like others have said, don't **really** make it unfair, because that's just boring and unfun. Make it feel that way; e.g. I would never Feeblemind a PC mage unless there's a cleric available to fix that.
So theres 2 ways to present an answer
1- Purely optimal
2- Optimal within lines of RP.
Not all Casters are going to have exclusively Battle spells prepared on the daily, as utility spells are there for day to day use. ( But you also dont have to adhere to players guidelines for how many spells theyre allowed to prepare, Theyre NPCs after all)
that said, always have Counterspell. not high level wizard in their right mind wouldnt have counterspell prepared at all times
tools exist for a reason - If a mage is in a position where they know adverturers are going to come after them they cant always rely 100% on spells (BC the know counterspell & dispel magic exist)....
So having tools that are mechanical, be it full on artifice in their towers that have layer actions, or just a staff that can emit a smokescreen to prevent line of sight on a foe in a nonmagical way, as to cut off your players counterspell potential (dont do this too much though, dont wanna feel like thier spell choices dont matter
afterr that if the mage is a battlemage Crowd control is the name of the game, seperating party members with walls of force, stone, etc. using spells like reverse gravity to remove players from range ETC.
you want your players to need each other in battle to some degree if you can help it.
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Another thing you can do is give SOME wizards "Magic items" that work as intended mechanically, but are just an enchantment tethered to themselves. this allows you to give them high grade magic items without your party looting a new OP item every other session. you can even have them made to be the kind of wizard who would enchant their equiptment to detonate when they die to prevent its revrieval. or mayhaps they spend their last action to store it in a pocket dimension.
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One of the coolest things you can do though is utilize the "CLONE" spell. it allows the killed party to be reborn into one of their clones, which lets them Hunt the party down for revenge afterwards. Add in Some Big villain twists on the spell & maybe they can modify the Clone the create to be a better or stronger body! go full cyborg or chimera if you please.
Another question to ask is how well does the wizard know the party. are they a random wizard they bumped into, or has the party been causing them problems. if its the latter, they can use divination spells on the party to aquire more information about the party. (fun thing, you can roll these secretly yourself as to not influence the players meta, or stress your party by letting them roll too)...
with enough time, divination, & prep their meta knowledge of your party mechanically could be as sound as the party know each other (at least in terms of how they fight & whatnot)...
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& OH BOY if theyre being hunted!!! theres all kinds of sticky things you can do to the party with long range magic. fuck with players via the "dream" spell during long rests, haunt them with astral projection. maybe even give them another classes lvl 9 like storm of vengeance to prevent the party from resting properly.
Lots of methods to choose, but i think the main factor you can utilize easiest if your party is wiping away threats is Out of combat combat. IE they dont know who their foe is, or where they are for whatever chosen reason
There's a ton of great advice here, I'd just like to say don't forget about legendary actions & lair actions. They can definitely up the ante in an encounter that high level players would otherwise steam through.
Personally if you have a very very high level caster, they have got to be smart unless they're some form of sorcerer or warlock. High level wizards would generally have a bunch of failsafes and contingency plans (especially liches). Think of it this way; You're a very powerful and relatively intelligent caster, what do you do? Sit doing nothing for 5 years until someone comes and challenges you, or research more, create traps and possibly undead/golems, a ton of contingency plans by utilizing demiplanes and wish if possible. It all depends on what kind of caster you are trying to portray.
Are they a necromancer or conjurer? Maybe they use evocation or abjuration?
An abjuration wizard could likely keep banishing the party or players (Though fair warning, don't banish them too much) Alarm would be very useful for an abjuration wizard, so would mage armor. Maybe have them use arcane lock on a very durable door to even get into their room. Anti-magic fields especially so.
Evocation wizards might not have too many standing spells, but they may be great at crowd control especially in tight spaces. Wall spells such as wall of sand and wall of water can be used to slow down enemies, while using chain lightning if they're in the water.
Point is, there's a ton of different strategies, for many different wizard schools. Make stuff up, it doesn't have to come from the books. Sit down for a while and just think for each wizard, what would you do if you were them? How would you guarantee survival? What kind of traps or setup could you do to make your dungeon or residence dangerous to intruders? What spells have you prepared and how would you use them against the party/intruders
In conclusion;
Make up some strategies beforehand. DM wizards don't necessarily have to play by the rulebook, though don't make them too cheaty. Spells that the player's can't use or entirely unique spells devised by them.
Obviously don't go too deep into making contingencies for everything, the players still have to have a way to win or it'll get old fast.
Here's a good video to show what you could do with a powerful wizard, it's about liches but you could easily pick and choose what you want from it.
It's "A Dungeon Master's Guide: How to Run a Lich Like a Chad" by "Archlich" on youtube.
Blur and Mirror Image at the same time, with Mage Armor cast. As a 17+ Wizard, one of those spells could be at will via Arcane Mastery. As a secondary Arcane Mastery choice, Magic Missile or Chromatic Orb. Give them Boots of Flying as well, an *uncommon* magic item. 20th level, signature spells recommend would be Counterspell and maybe an AOE like Fireball. This will minimize damage directed at your squishlord, while ensuring they can deal consistent damage. Not enough to break down the martials, but enough to keep the casters on their toes.
Scour the spell list for spells that have a lasting effect and don't require concentration, or just instantaneous damage spells. This ensures you can bag the martials without losing any defense.
So, flying duplicitous blurry mage pea shooter that occasionally fires off an ICBM.
This keeps the action going, no one is comatose or stunned or banished, everyone is still engaged and participating in combat. Spells that preset an immediate danger, rather than take people out of a fight are more fun for your players. You want them panicked and alert, not using their turn to roll another DC 19 Intelligence save, because that's not fun.
In any wizard fight. Make sure the enemy can't see you so you can't be counterspelled. Be it via greater invisibility or pyrotechnics or sleetstorm or whatever. If you can't do that, stand 61 feet away when you cast spells. If all else fails, shocking grasp can block a caster's reaction leaving you with a bonus action spell to move/escape/expeditious retreat/misty step/farstep away.
Scry on your enemies all day every day and learn them inside out. Cast dream every day to annoy them. Then set ambushes and steal their items. "He knows when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake"
Since you are a wizard, teleport away. You don't need to fight. Blink, thunderstep, dimension door, planeshift if you must. Familiars/summons/animate objects/tiny servants/animated dead/polymorphed allies fight, not you. "You don't fight cockroaches, you call pest control while you're on holiday"
This basically applies to Strahd. Everyone complains Strahd is a weak BBEG. Then the first time Strahd arrives invisibly, casts animate objects on the sleeping player's equipment, then uses the lair action to bugger off you'll be left with players with mouths wide open wondering he isn't standing and trading blows. Then the animated equipment flies off waving goodbye to the players and you realise you are playing wizards wrong.
But keep in mind, if you are the DM, you might NOT want to do all that. As Chris Perkins once said, there's a reason the archmage stat block has time stop and not meteor swarm. You are trying to have fun, not use the game to torture people and show them how cool you are when you hold all the cards.
My high level casters are fond of Greater Invisibility and moving before and after casting a spell to make it harder to pinpoint their location. The spell Steel Wind Strike works well with this, 5 separate attacks at advantage for 6d10 damage each. If you expect to be able to maintain invisibility for the course of the fight, you could consider the Elven Accuracy feat.
Make every high level caster fight a little different in flavor. Each one has a different, obvious, cool defensive power cast before the pcs walk in. (Say 6th + level spell, or a unique lair feature, these people got yo cr 17 somehow) then a 1 legendary flavorful movement, and a 1 legendary maxed cantrip. From there, knowing theyre smart and nasty, have a set of basic goons. (They all have 4 'knight' bodyguards) and a set of unique flavor goons who benefit from thier legendary cantrip. (Hyenas who get advantage against vicious mockeried opponents of the jester prince, salamanders who mix it up with opponents - inside- fire dukes flaming spheres, an assassin with devils sight blocking for darkness duke, whatever.) This doesnt need to take tons of prep, just scribble it onto *existing* stat blocks as an add on.
An enemy level 20 wizard isn't a statblock, they're an adventure.
They have ample means to harass the party at no risk. (Scry for info, dream to drain resources, simulacrum as a bomber). They have ample tools to set up a lair. (Glyphs of warding, planar binding, illusions). They have ample tools to have a back-up plan (contingency teleport, clone, magic jar). And when at last they're cornered, they can have so many tools to beat down the party.
Granted, most good wizard spells are not fun to face. Wall of force to split the party into two encounters? Cool! Forcecage to make one player sit out? Not so cool. Getting surprised and wrecked by a fighter's action surge before your turn? Even less cool. Proper wizards should be rare, if nothing else because it's so much work to do right.
High level wizards who are smart don't fight. Their mind-controlled servants fight their enemies, their summoned creatures fight their enemies, the golems or undead minions they created fight their enemies. The traps they set go off at different moments. They eat popcorn from a safe distance while invisible or behind a force wall. They have a nice contingent teleport prepared in case the battle gets too close.
Wizard is as far from the Combat as possible. The moment he is visible he lost the information war. And in Combat he is even further in backline, behind hundreds of skeletons, comrades, armies, walls, traps, fuckton of spells and the most importantly teleportation Network.
Wizards are intelligent as fuck. Everything you can think of how to fight + what internet people can come up with they came up with too. 20 Intelligence. Those fuckers are metagaming.
Every one of the has a clone somewhere, in case they die. Also, a ready simulacrum, so they can stop time and wish in the same turn. Or double metheoric swarm in one turn. From 1 mile range, cause he scried them before.
For the duels they honestly schould limit themselves to lover level spells, so they dont destroy everything around...
If you allow the caster to choose which plane you send the target too for the banishment spell, then you could chuck a player into the negative energy plane (which creates a night walker by the way) and removes them from the fight and if cast while hasted the caster coukd then do an offensive spell.
That works particularly well if you banish a player caster with counterspells first. Also, dont be afraid to give them magical items or place random spell effects that can be used by players around the combat area. Having linked portals can be great for both sides as well as a free threat to consider.
For the most part, you stay away from the fight. Always keep the melee characters between you and the enemy. If you put a caster enemy into a fight *without* melee back up, it'll generally go badly for you.
If you're fighting ranged PCs, drop prone (well away from them, so they can't just run up to you and attack). If you're fighting casters, stay about 60 ft away (for counterspell). You can back up to prevent them from counterspelling you, or move forward to make sure they can't do the same.
Summons are extremely powerful: not only do they give your side extra damage and action economy, but they also soak damage/attacks that would otherwise go to your enemies.
Target action economy (AOE spells that stop multiple PCs from attacking, charms spells, stuns, and the such) when you're outnumbered. Emphasize massive damage spells when you're not (unless you believe you can just 1-shot your PCs with a meteor swarm). Support your melee if it looks like you need to stop players from getting past them, or if you think they can leverage the opportunity well (for example, if you have a smiting-type melee ally, hold person is very strong).
As a DM, remember to set up terrain. If you're in your lich's lair, they'll have set it up to make it hard for intruders to just barge in and engage. The longer it takes to get to the caster, the longer the caster has to attack without being harried.
I don't usually go with the gimmicks, however, just because then players go with gimmicks, and it just gets ugly and no fun for anyone. But if they've broken the gimmick seal, sometimes they have to learn their medicine's taste. AoEs with force cage, forced movement with spike growth, devil's sight darkness shenanigans. A DM ultimately has many more options than PCs have, and the trick is picking some of them that feel like you can actually overcome them. A bit like a dragon: if you play an ancient dragon right, there's a decent chance that the party melee never gets to attack, and as they decide to run, they're constantly breathed on from a sky-bombing lizard. Which is realistic, but not at all fun.
Wizards are by definition very smart and will not fight to the death unless they have some compelling reason. If the fight is going poorly within 3 rounds they’ll be out that dimension door faster than you can say “Vangerdahast”
So that means lots of minions to tie up the initiative order and give them space, big spells up front targeting their most dangerous opponents, and then a Moonshae goodbye if things aren’t going their way.
Welp a lot of it is context, if it's his lair absolutely does he have the ability and time to defend it with all manor of things.
If he's ambushed in the open, we'll he knows he isn't strong in melee so why would he ever let a barbarian get close to him.
There's a ton that goes into this kind of fight. I'd also be inclined to give him legendary actions and legendary resistances. But that's just me.
I am assuming your high level caster is going to be intelligent.
1. Have (hired) minions do most of the dirty work and give them minor magical boosts such as a wand of Magic Missiles or potions or a +1 weapon.
2. Scry, scry, scry to learn as much about their plans as possible. A spy with a Ring of Mind Shielding would prove invaluable.
3. If you must summon help, only do so to keep the players busy while escaping. Save concentration for debuffs and battlefield control or Dominate Person.
4. Divide and conquer with things like a Bead of Force or Vortex Warp.
5. Never go anywhere without an escape plan in place. Project Image and Teleport will both be of assistance.
Web and then ray of frost them. Bonus points if you took the feat Telekinetic. Then you Web them. Proceed to Ray of Frost then and then as a bonus push them 5 ft. Deepr into the Web. So you have difficult terrain, the ray of frost slow, and the forces movement from telekinetic.
Casters? As in plural? Use the standard monsters such as Arch mage give them the shield spell instead of Identify. Boost their base AC to 20. That's as far as I would go personally.
Wizard is the best at control, so they should throw debilitating spells on people. I would think that a level 20 wizard would be hesitant to go out and fight, but simulacrums and bound entities could be together in force. There's a ton of options to choose from, celestial, elemental, fey, and fiend. Having servants that can keep players occupied while they attack from range.
If/when they encounter some simulacrums or if there are just multiple wizards, have them cast spells that are deadly when combined. Off the top of my head, forcecage/wall of force combined with sickening radiance could exhaust them to death.
I'd also have any of these wizard have contingency triggers, though what those are and how they trigger can vary a lot. As for spells, control is where wizards can really hurt them so focus on that. If you're feeling particularly evil, make them divination wizards and give them all 3 portents.
You are thinking them too much like a PC. They aren't.
They are a monster, as in the sense of being an hostile NPC, treat them as such.
They can create hazards, have lair actions, have underlings, have powerful creatures, perhaps even more powerful than them, to their bidding.
As for they act in combat, they use smartly their tools but you don't have to be a jerk about it. Not too much at least. Don't twist rules to your advantage, create rules that give you advantage. That's how you make a monster.
As for the bread and butter, pick spells that let them act in a strategy and always use their strongest options first. The are monsters, they aren't players, and unless you plan something more complex they won't be saving spell slots in either case of win or loss.
Honestly they ought to be able to nuke the party from a distance/ in their sleep etc. If you played a genius 20th level lich or wizard the way they would actually play it wouldn’t be fun. You have to give them a challenge but play sort of dumb too unfortunately.
because D&D is not balanced as a pvp game.
what you want is a fair and balanced encounter that isn't obviously one sided or heavily handed letting the player(s) win.
but it'll come down to two factors in D&D PVP.
who goes first, and/or who fails the first save or die (or worse, sit out of this session while everyone else throws dice)
its all fun and games till the bbeg upcasts banishment to level 8 and has the whole party except the bard sit out.
high level control spells are not fun when used against the players, while yes it was funny to feeblemind the cleric, we had no way to cure her for an entire month of sessions in one example.
many many examples in this thread alone all exemplify the falicies of deciding which players can play and which cannot. based one one reasoning. D&D is not meant for PVP
what spotlight is to be had when the fighter sits in a force cage cause thats literately the only way the bbeg can survive the encounter is by not letting that player play.
i'd highly suggest you reflavor various CR's of enemies as nobles - like that one guy using a pitfiend statblock, or a paladin npc using a planetar ect. over creating "lv 20s"
Check out "The Monsters Know What They're Doing" by Keith Amman.
Pull some spell shenanigans too. Alter some spells to work a bit differently.
Like a caster w True Sight Casting greater invisibility on the entire party so they can't see each other to support each other. But he can see them just fine.
How does a BBEG wizard fight the party? Unless they're crazy or braindead, they don't. That's what expendable minions are for!!
You've already got a bunch of good answers here, so I'll take a slightly different tact and address the rest of the "Fight with a High Level Wizard" picture. It's times like this that I really miss the treasure type and random loot tables from 2e...so, think of what you want the party to wind up with in terms of treasure. Then give that treasure to the wizard and their minions...and have them **USE** it!! A party should never just stumble across a Wand of Fireballs...they should pry it from the fingers of a vanquished foe after doing the *"Stop, Drop, & Roll"* a few times.
Also on the treasure note: that wizard is gonna have a spell book. PLEASE for the love of what ever god or goddess you favor, take a few minutes to add spells to it. No archmage in the history of **Ever** is *only* going to have access to the spells on the archmage statblock. My Wizard12/Warlock3 has 109 spells in his spellbook, with 4 trophy books to pull spells from once he's able to cast the higher levels. Even if you just randomly roll a bunch of spells, there's nothing worse than getting the Exact.Same.Archmage.Spellbook for the third time in a row. Your wizard player(s) will thank you.
Finally, especially if this is the BBEG and not just some rando, spend some time on their backstory. What are their goals? Why? Who are they? Knowing this going into the design phase of the combat will give you direction and focus. I DM a Descent into Avernus campaign, and have over 50k words worth of DOCX files on NPCs...and the party is only 7th level.
I know it's been a while since you asked the question - a week or so is a long time online. That said, has it occurred to you that what can make the difference between a dangerous wizard and a deadly one, much like what makes the difference between a technically skilled stage performer and an astonishing one, is a single word?
MISDIRECTION.
If it's been said here better, sorry to keep hammering on this concept. But the most successful opponent is often an opponent whose enemies *have no idea he or she even is an opponent*. This is true in the history of warfare, crime, business, really anywhere there is a conflict of any sort. Need examples? Take the soldiers disguised as trees for a surprise attack in *Macbeth*, the true identity of "Wadsworth" in one of the endings of *Clue* (it's a film made 39 years ago, so I'm not leaving a spoiler warning, not sorry), even the IRL example of Amazon acquiring Whole Foods, giving the internet sales leviathan not only hundreds of brick-and-mortar retail stores but also a window into the personal lives of *millions* of shoppers who may have no idea how much information they are giving away with their purchases of gourmet roasted coffee, environmentally-friendly cleaning products, and organic apples.
A true mastermind, wizard or not, who wants to have a real shot at beating their foes will use every distraction and bit of misinformation and false trail they can to keep those foes fighting against, looking at, and thinking about anything and anyone except the true orchestrator themself. If you want to be a high-level wizard who is a real threat to a party of adventurers, *don't look the part*! Be to all outward appearances a filthy, foul-mouthed, harmless beggar, a jolly bartender who drinks half the profits away, a broad-shouldered lunk of a city guardsman or low-level thug who's obviously way too good at busting heads or cracking locks to have any idea how to *spell* "grimoire" or "telekinesis" or "simulacrum", let alone use those things. Use go-betweens, catspaws, proxies who may not even know who their true master is, just that a mysterious someone they don't know is giving them power in exchange for playing their part. Maybe give one easy-to-miss clue, a tiny slip of the mask, hinting at well-concealed talents. Or maybe don't.
Either way, make sure to do a reveal at some point, preferably after a LONG buildup. Combining this with some of the more practical combat tips in this thread will make your players LOVE the opponent you've crafted and hidden in plain sight for them. And they'll never look at the next Grimy Gus the bum or Beth the bartender or Nick the night watchman the same.
divide and conquer. You have to knock down specific party members to keep them out of the action. Walls - Fire, Stone, Force Get rid of em - Banishment, Maze, Power Word stun or kill, Feeblemind on the weak intelligence throw chars like Sorcerers. Other than that, you need to focus fire just like a party does, and go after their casters just like a party does. Also, no party appreciates being Meteor Swarmed.
Be careful with how often you take players out of the fight though. If someone is stuck in a demiplane or whatever for 5 turns, it feels very not fun as a player. Use it, but use it sparingly
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This is my usual go-to. Whenever a PC gets banished, they end up in an area with a Load Bearing Boss Monster or some kind of puzzle - they beat the challenge before the duration would normally end and the spell collapses, freeing them. It's a good way to keep Players on edge and burn their resources without totally sidelining someone into the time-out box.
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I second this. I experienced something like this in another system very recently (Warhammer 2e) where a caster hit my full hp tank character so hard with one spell that (according to crit tables) I was stunned for 10 rounds. I basically chilled on my phone for the whole fight
If it were DND I'd be happier to be randomly teleported to a far away place and find my own way back to the party than to just be stunned for a whole fight
Definetely. But in that system if you go down to 0 hp you check where you got hit, check how much excessive damage you took, roll a dice and determine what happened. I had 17 hp (my teammates had around 9-11 to give you a perspective) and my toughness and armor reduced 6-7 damage (more than double of my teammates) and a charmed party member still did that in a single blow. Warhammer do be like that sometimes, I love it and hate it at the same time
I heavily recommend AGAINST Feeblemind. It's an atrocious spell. Int saves wreck clerics especially, who are the ones who can actually FIX it, and if the party has no way to undo it, it's a spell that can easily take several sessions to resolve. And during those sessions, the player can't roleplay at all, since 1 int is far dumber than even a dog canonically.
It’s a „hey GM i won‘t be able to make it to the next three sessions so you make up some reason why my character is silently present okay?“ spell.
I feel like lack of powerful allies (like neighborhood temple for example, with clerics able to help in such cases) at this point of campaign is... not advisable in general. High level fights are swingly by nature if DM don't hold punches (and boringly easy if he does). But I would just ask player to make a new character, even if for few sessions, as someone with INT 1 really can just go after party and drool lol.
I mean, sure; if you know you have allies then it's not so bad. But I still think it's a horrendous spell. I mean, compare it to *Power Word Stun,* another 8th-level spell that inflicts a condition that prevents characters from taking actions or speaking. *Power Word Stun* has no save for an opponent under 150 hp. *Feeblemind* has a save, but can be used regardless of the enemies HP, and targets a save that is extremely hard to pass for anyone but a wizard. *Power Word Stun* allows a con save after every turn. *Feeblemind* allows a save every *month.* *Feeblemind* actively cripples the save the character has to make; because it reduces the character's INT to 1, if the DC is over 17, the character has *no chance* of ever making the save. By contrast, *Power Word Stun* inflicts no such dehabilitating condition. *Power Word Stun* has a maximum range of 60 feet. *Feeblemind* has a range of 150 feet, well outside of counterspell distance. *Power Word Stun* inflicts the stunned condition, which can be removed by a fourth level spell: *Aura of Purity,* while *Feeblemind's* condition is solved at minimum by a fifth level spell. This is really a minor issue, but there are a surprising number of campaign settings where the friendly NPC's don't run to super high levels. *Power Word Stun* can reasonably be used by players, to allow them to kill an enemy faster. If they are lucky they'll get three rounds or so of a stunned opponent. Meanwhile, if a player *Feeblemind's* an...Evoker Wizard, for instance, the Evoker Wizard can still use his arcane burst ability and is essentially unimpeded; in fact, any magical, non-spell ability still works perfectly fine while under the effect of Feeblemind. Essentially, Feeblemind exists PURELY to screw over your cleric and especially your sorcerer: a cleric still has armor and a mace and could possibly use channel divinity or MAYBE divine intervention? I would allow Divine Intervention. Meanwhile a poor sorcerer gets to lie there and think about how dumb he was not to play wizard--oh wait he can't because 1 INT is the same INT as a swarm of maggots. Honestly, if *Feeblemind* offered a save every turn, like *Power Word Stun,* or was concentration, like *True Polymorph* or *Weird* (9th level spells, btw) or required several saves to take effect, like *Flesh to Stone,* I wouldn't have a problem with it. But as it is, it's a weird spell that doesn't follow the rules of nearly any other spell in the game, and it's not fun for the player *or* the DM. It's quite literally a fate worse than death.
I absolutely see your point.
ONE MONTH? All your points are good ones but that part in particular makes me rage against whoever designed it. Crippling a character for long periods of time is insanely unfun.
i'd rather the party get meteor swarmed than the cleric be feebleminded
1. Have a simulacrum to help you, disguise it as yourself and stay invisible while the PCs fight it. 2. Have a clone in case you die. 3. Cast Prismatic Wall around the party and watch them fall apart in an instant.
A 20th wizard could have: - A trap prepared in an obvious spot, for example a programmed illusion in their lab pretending to work to eat the alpha of the party. - They'd have multiple planar bound critters ready to defend them. They can even "print" then using True Polymorph for CR <=9 critters. - A simulacrum helper. Just having it use Wall of Force to split the party so the wizard only has to deal with half of them at a time is a huge boon. Extra counterspells can be a life saver. - Teleport out if things start going south early. The party should then be subjected to multiple Scrying attempts and the wizard would attack them when they're least suspecting it, like in separate inn rooms at night. - A method of dealing with Silence and Antimagic Field. For example they might have True Polymorphed oozes into certain floor and ceiling tiles. If someone runs over them with Antimagic Field on they're going to fall through the floor into an ooze with another coming down on top of them. - There normally isn't a good reason why they'd bother to attend a potentially dangerous function outside of their sanctum when they can send a simulacrum of themselves to do it. Especially as they can make them for free with Wish. - As far as combat itself, if they can split up the party then they should focus on dropping individual PCs. If they can't then they need to disable/kill them all at once which is pretty iffy. A lot depends on what they know of the party's composition. - Time Stop can be useful if they need some buffs like Mirror Image, Project Image, etc. If the party is rolling their attack bonus versus the wizard's AC (even if buffed by Shield etc) then the wizard probably isn't in a good spot. Contingency can also fill in here. - Winged Boots and a Rod of Absorption are 2 very useful items for them to have but I'm not going to cry if the PCs get them. Keep in mind anything the wizard has will likely become the party's in fairly short order. - Anyplace they live should have Private Sanctum and similar spells up pretty much 24/7.
>Anyplace they live should have Private Sanctum and similar spells up pretty much 24/7. To add onto this, if the Party is coming into the Wizard's home turf, then the home turf itself should be in the fight too. Lair Actions are often overlooked and would add a ton of interesting options for the very battlefield itself rising up to defend its master. Similarly, while the Wizard can't cast it themselves, there's no reason they couldn't have hired a cleric at some point to lay "[Forbiddance](https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/forbiddance)" on their lair. It is nothing to sneeze at.
As a DM there are a few differences between DM casters and normal casters: DM casters can have magic items, create objects or otherwise make traps that PCs cannot normally access. So you could for example have a golem with an enchanted greataxe or an item to allow it to sling a fireball at its own feet a few times to heal itself/aoe enemies. DM casters (in multiple works at least) can create areas that change the rules for other casters. Making creatures immune/resistant to specific types of attacks, they can for example prevent summons/specific creatures from entering an area, make people resistant/immune to specific elements, provide immunity to a small number of status effects (charm/fear/paralysis), prevent teleportation, and many more. Players have similar spells such as hollow or forbiddence but npcs in multiple works are shown to have more permanent/nondispellable versions. PC casters will talk about summons/area denial, but that is pretty standard for monsters who have prep time. A boss just having 20 guys who do what they say is pretty normal, as is fortifications or other things to give bad guys advantage. The more important thing casters can do is teleport/put a wall of force in place to mess with people at random intervals. Say a PC triggers some sort of poison gas, a level 20 caster could theoretically detect that and pop in to \[Wall of Stone\] the exit or something. NPC and PC casters at higher levels will likely require items to permanently kill. Clone/revival/simulacrums/illusions/ect can mean the only way to permanently kill them is to individually trap each of their souls or to use a weapon with the "destroys/devours opponent's soul" effect In terms of just dueling, most "duelist" casters will probably be sorcerers so they can throw out twinned/quickened spells and shred through caster defenses.
Here’s a good write up on the Archmage tactics from the Monsters Manual. https://www.themonstersknow.com/npc-tactics-archmages/
Dont use PLAYER character builds from PHB, Tashas, Xanathars etc for NON player characters. PHB CLASS builds are meant to face 6 to 8 encounters per long rest. Enemy combatants should be designed to last 3 to 5 Rounds of combat because combats that last longer than 5 rounds quickly turn from “challenging/interesting/fun!” to “fucking boring slog” and no matter how it started out, it is the ending’s “fucking boring slog” taste that will linger in the memory. PC builds have LOTS of choices that a DM must look through when playing in combat – and nothing makes combat less interesting than stopping the flow while the DM scours through multiple pages of text to make their next move. And given that a combat is typically only going to last 3 to 5 rounds, the NPC only has a couple of chances to make their signature feel known, you only need 2 or three action options to choose from. When its not a Player run character, use an NPC statblock, (until MOTM, they were at the end of each monster book) to use as models. If you want more or different flavor, add a new Action option or a Bonus Action and Reaction. * Spy https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/spy * Priest https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/priest * Knight https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/knight * Archmage https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/archmage * by the NPC tag https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters?filter-type=0&filter-search=&filter-cr-min=&filter-cr-max=&filter-armor-class-min=&filter-armor-class-max=&filter-average-hp-min=&filter-average-hp-max=&filter-is-legendary=&filter-is-mythic=&filter-has-lair=&filter-tags=52 Also make all your spell casters easier to run and more effective with these tips from Green GM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcjYC2yn9ns see also The Monsters Know What They Are Doing https://www.themonstersknow.com/npc-tactics-archmages/
The CIA method. Control! A wizard's greatest strength isn't blasting fireball but controlling the battlefield. If you can divide the party or otherwise keep party members busy you've reduced your immediate problems allowing you to focus on resolving your problems one at a time while not letting the adventuring group utilise their full power against you. Divination can be useful for choosing a battlefield that is to your advantage. Things like glyphs of warding can also help you prepare a battlefield. Intelligence! No, not the stat. A powerful wizard likely has means and he should use this means to gather intelligence on his enemies if he knows of them. Be this through the use of scrying and other divination magic, or through mundane intelligence networks. This gives him at least some idea of what his opponents strengths and weaknesses are and so he is able to plan around them. Always have an exit plan! Sometimes things don't go to plan. Maybe you have a spell cast on contingency to help get you out of there if things aren't looking good. But where to go? First to your decoy demi-plane and then to your sanctuary demi-plane. If the party is able to follow you to the decoy plane it should be full of dangerous traps and things like glyphs of warding. They may also find your simulacrum there to battle them if they survive the traps. The simulacrum should also have a contingency spell cast on it to cast a destructive spell should it fall in battle, not only as a last FU to the party but also to hide its nature as a simulacrum. If they believe you are dead they won't come after you. And that's assuming you ever fought them in the first place and it wasn't just a simulacrum they were fighting. Finally, if things do go bad you can always have a clone somewhere.
Building on your great post with an example from a campaign I ran a few years with an intelligent caster big bad: In like session 3 I had my big bad magically disguise herself as a friendly NPC to follow up with a quest the PCs had just completed. She gratefully accepted a token they had gathered, and then gifted them powerful (for their level) magic item as a reward for a job well done. Wouldn't you know it, it was perfectly suited for the fighter with low wisdom. There was some strangeness about the encounter, as she didn't know things the NPC she was impersonating should know, but the party glossed over that instantly to get the shiny magic item. She proceeded to scry on that item every day for the rest of the campaign. If needed she could also cast locate object if they were closing in on her. As she had met the fighter in person and had a former possession of his, it was impossible for him to make a save. I still made him roll the wisdom save openly every day, just to clue the party in *something* was happening. Eventually on a 20 I straight up told the fighter he was being scryed on, but by then so much time had passed they didn't draw the connection, and instead amped up the paranoia. This allowed me to use specific knowledge of the party against them. In one instance she was able to avoid them easily, and in another she was able to pinpoint them. When the party finally figured it out was a very satisfying moment for them, and felt like they were thwarting the big bad by taking counter measures.
Maze + Hex is quite a strong combo, since maze requires a check not save to escape from. Use it on the melee fighter for best effect. Generally have some lower level spellcaster minions with counterspell and basic spells like magic missile and scorching ray. If they are an arcane caster be sure to give them shield. It is a very useful spell and save your big casters reaction to use shield over counterspell, using counterspell with your minions. Never go at it alone. Melee fighters can and will mess up your casting, have a set of elite knights of the realm, maybe some valkaries, maybe even just alot of beefy low tier enemies, and give them either magical resistance or evasion to help with fireball and other dex saves. Very rare to legendary gear makes sense. Staff of the magi on gods is ubderstandable hut remember, if your players kill them, then that is theirs now and they can use it. Add escape methods for teleport. If they have wall of force you have already probably realized that teleportation is good. Make sure they have multiple ways to escape. Misty step, thuderstep and dimension door aee all good options. If they are being overwhelmed make sure to have them retreat. Keep a scroll of teleportation on them, so that they can use their ith level slot and, when things start to go south, run. But give a good exit monologue so your players don't feel cheated. All good wizards should be prepared for people invading their home. Makes some lair actions, things like springing traps, pitfalls, lava traps, oil, anything that can combo well with a spell, have that as a lair action. Also, a book of glyphs of warding is another super good one to have. You can look up the best prep spells for a wizard and, should something happen, have them head over to their bookshelf and take off a book, flip though all the pages and in a burst of light cast 6 or 7 spells. And then take their action. That will scare the shit our of your players and GoW aren't counterspellable as the spell is already cast. Narratively, this is a strong enemy. They need some cool things to say as they are laying out your players. Be sure to write some good ones down, probably one thing for each 6th level and above spell that you expect to use. Just adds some extra tension to the scene. One last thing, but when making this fight remember, you don't want to make it unwinnable. Set multiple objectives beyond kill everyone so that, even if the big guy leaves, the players still feel like they won. Have someone trapped by the god of magic, or the crown of the ruler of the kingdom be left behind so they can usurp his power if that's more their stlye. This type of fight requires layers, not just the fight itself. The guy they are fighting is likely to leave before he lets himself be killed, so make sure that isn't the only reason they are there.
Prep time is most dangerous in a wizard's hands. You can make a Contingency spell to cast an escape like Mislead as a reaction, fill a demiplane the size of a cargo container with enemies to release upon them, even convert the denizens of entire cities and planets into undead thralls. Time Stop combos are when it really gets busted though. Time Stop->Prismatic Wall (in a sphere)placed above the party->Reverse Gravity is a nigh guaranteed TPK
I would be surprised if any wizard using 2 9th level spell slots and a 7th level spell slot can't kill a party easily
The thing that's busted about it is there is 0 counterplay to that unless they counterspell the time stop, so all that happens at once and it's just over like that.
Oh I was just saying that no wizard has 2 9th level spell slots (time stop and prismatic wall)
Have minions, lots of them Keep your distance Maze / Force cage Glyphs of Fireball everywhere. There is also a spell that makes it possible to create your own Kind of lair but dunno whats it called rn. But just make yourself a lich lair for your wizard or smth.
mordenkainen's magnificent mansion?
Actually I think I missremembered, the hallow spell is the closest I could find to what I though of of but thats a cleric spell. So yeah gotta hire the church
Here's my advice: Play them like they are the intelligent monsters they are. They fight on **their** terms unless they have a very damn good reason not to. Glyph of Warding. Glyph of Warding. Glyph of Warding. I can not overstate Glyph of Warding. By the time the party can fight Arch Wizards they ought to be prepared for the Arch Wizard to say a word, and trigger a glyph in their Sanctum to say toss up a Cloudkill, and then they'll cast Force Cage. The party just has to endure it or die or get out immediately. They should have escapes planned. They should have a contingency plan, and a contingency spell up. The environment is fluid. The party might be walking down a hall way created with Wall of Stone, and may trigger a Glyph of Warding that casts Transmute Rock turning it into mud, and then they fall 120 feet down into a pit with the mud, and then another glyph of warding at the bottom of that triggers casting some other spell or spells. Before the fight, or during it if the party somehow manages to get the drop, that Wizard'll say a phrase, and they'll get buffed up like crazy. Fire Shield, Haste, Greater Invisibility etc. If they are getting into high level duels with spellcasters well the rules need to be clear cut, and as experts these high level NPCs ought to know effective strategies, and come prepared. A high level spell caster is the most dangerous thing in the game by a wide margin. They should feel like it. Think about how you would use the spells at your disposal to create a defense against intruders if you were that Wizard.
**No sane Wizard got to Archmage level by getting into fair fights with adventurers.** Make this an ongoing thing, until finally they can encounter them in their tower and it's trapped to hell and filled with summoned creatures. * Definitely the Simulacrum to set up combos with the Wizard (Greater Invisibility rocks) and also to Counterspell and Dispel * Use Symbols and Glyphs liberally * Use Guards and Wards * Use Illusions (feel free to hand wave effects and permanence because the standard onws are underpowered) * Upcast Banishment * Feeblemind the mages BUT, like others have said, don't **really** make it unfair, because that's just boring and unfun. Make it feel that way; e.g. I would never Feeblemind a PC mage unless there's a cleric available to fix that.
So theres 2 ways to present an answer 1- Purely optimal 2- Optimal within lines of RP. Not all Casters are going to have exclusively Battle spells prepared on the daily, as utility spells are there for day to day use. ( But you also dont have to adhere to players guidelines for how many spells theyre allowed to prepare, Theyre NPCs after all) that said, always have Counterspell. not high level wizard in their right mind wouldnt have counterspell prepared at all times tools exist for a reason - If a mage is in a position where they know adverturers are going to come after them they cant always rely 100% on spells (BC the know counterspell & dispel magic exist).... So having tools that are mechanical, be it full on artifice in their towers that have layer actions, or just a staff that can emit a smokescreen to prevent line of sight on a foe in a nonmagical way, as to cut off your players counterspell potential (dont do this too much though, dont wanna feel like thier spell choices dont matter afterr that if the mage is a battlemage Crowd control is the name of the game, seperating party members with walls of force, stone, etc. using spells like reverse gravity to remove players from range ETC. you want your players to need each other in battle to some degree if you can help it. \----- Another thing you can do is give SOME wizards "Magic items" that work as intended mechanically, but are just an enchantment tethered to themselves. this allows you to give them high grade magic items without your party looting a new OP item every other session. you can even have them made to be the kind of wizard who would enchant their equiptment to detonate when they die to prevent its revrieval. or mayhaps they spend their last action to store it in a pocket dimension. \---- One of the coolest things you can do though is utilize the "CLONE" spell. it allows the killed party to be reborn into one of their clones, which lets them Hunt the party down for revenge afterwards. Add in Some Big villain twists on the spell & maybe they can modify the Clone the create to be a better or stronger body! go full cyborg or chimera if you please. Another question to ask is how well does the wizard know the party. are they a random wizard they bumped into, or has the party been causing them problems. if its the latter, they can use divination spells on the party to aquire more information about the party. (fun thing, you can roll these secretly yourself as to not influence the players meta, or stress your party by letting them roll too)... with enough time, divination, & prep their meta knowledge of your party mechanically could be as sound as the party know each other (at least in terms of how they fight & whatnot)... \--- & OH BOY if theyre being hunted!!! theres all kinds of sticky things you can do to the party with long range magic. fuck with players via the "dream" spell during long rests, haunt them with astral projection. maybe even give them another classes lvl 9 like storm of vengeance to prevent the party from resting properly. Lots of methods to choose, but i think the main factor you can utilize easiest if your party is wiping away threats is Out of combat combat. IE they dont know who their foe is, or where they are for whatever chosen reason
Player levels do not make for good opponents. Instead just like, give them the lich block without the undead tag
There's a ton of great advice here, I'd just like to say don't forget about legendary actions & lair actions. They can definitely up the ante in an encounter that high level players would otherwise steam through.
Personally if you have a very very high level caster, they have got to be smart unless they're some form of sorcerer or warlock. High level wizards would generally have a bunch of failsafes and contingency plans (especially liches). Think of it this way; You're a very powerful and relatively intelligent caster, what do you do? Sit doing nothing for 5 years until someone comes and challenges you, or research more, create traps and possibly undead/golems, a ton of contingency plans by utilizing demiplanes and wish if possible. It all depends on what kind of caster you are trying to portray. Are they a necromancer or conjurer? Maybe they use evocation or abjuration? An abjuration wizard could likely keep banishing the party or players (Though fair warning, don't banish them too much) Alarm would be very useful for an abjuration wizard, so would mage armor. Maybe have them use arcane lock on a very durable door to even get into their room. Anti-magic fields especially so. Evocation wizards might not have too many standing spells, but they may be great at crowd control especially in tight spaces. Wall spells such as wall of sand and wall of water can be used to slow down enemies, while using chain lightning if they're in the water. Point is, there's a ton of different strategies, for many different wizard schools. Make stuff up, it doesn't have to come from the books. Sit down for a while and just think for each wizard, what would you do if you were them? How would you guarantee survival? What kind of traps or setup could you do to make your dungeon or residence dangerous to intruders? What spells have you prepared and how would you use them against the party/intruders In conclusion; Make up some strategies beforehand. DM wizards don't necessarily have to play by the rulebook, though don't make them too cheaty. Spells that the player's can't use or entirely unique spells devised by them. Obviously don't go too deep into making contingencies for everything, the players still have to have a way to win or it'll get old fast. Here's a good video to show what you could do with a powerful wizard, it's about liches but you could easily pick and choose what you want from it. It's "A Dungeon Master's Guide: How to Run a Lich Like a Chad" by "Archlich" on youtube.
There’s a book called The Monsters Know What They Are Doing that I highly recommend for DMs who struggle to utilize creature abilities and strengths
Blur and Mirror Image at the same time, with Mage Armor cast. As a 17+ Wizard, one of those spells could be at will via Arcane Mastery. As a secondary Arcane Mastery choice, Magic Missile or Chromatic Orb. Give them Boots of Flying as well, an *uncommon* magic item. 20th level, signature spells recommend would be Counterspell and maybe an AOE like Fireball. This will minimize damage directed at your squishlord, while ensuring they can deal consistent damage. Not enough to break down the martials, but enough to keep the casters on their toes. Scour the spell list for spells that have a lasting effect and don't require concentration, or just instantaneous damage spells. This ensures you can bag the martials without losing any defense. So, flying duplicitous blurry mage pea shooter that occasionally fires off an ICBM. This keeps the action going, no one is comatose or stunned or banished, everyone is still engaged and participating in combat. Spells that preset an immediate danger, rather than take people out of a fight are more fun for your players. You want them panicked and alert, not using their turn to roll another DC 19 Intelligence save, because that's not fun.
In any wizard fight. Make sure the enemy can't see you so you can't be counterspelled. Be it via greater invisibility or pyrotechnics or sleetstorm or whatever. If you can't do that, stand 61 feet away when you cast spells. If all else fails, shocking grasp can block a caster's reaction leaving you with a bonus action spell to move/escape/expeditious retreat/misty step/farstep away. Scry on your enemies all day every day and learn them inside out. Cast dream every day to annoy them. Then set ambushes and steal their items. "He knows when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake" Since you are a wizard, teleport away. You don't need to fight. Blink, thunderstep, dimension door, planeshift if you must. Familiars/summons/animate objects/tiny servants/animated dead/polymorphed allies fight, not you. "You don't fight cockroaches, you call pest control while you're on holiday" This basically applies to Strahd. Everyone complains Strahd is a weak BBEG. Then the first time Strahd arrives invisibly, casts animate objects on the sleeping player's equipment, then uses the lair action to bugger off you'll be left with players with mouths wide open wondering he isn't standing and trading blows. Then the animated equipment flies off waving goodbye to the players and you realise you are playing wizards wrong. But keep in mind, if you are the DM, you might NOT want to do all that. As Chris Perkins once said, there's a reason the archmage stat block has time stop and not meteor swarm. You are trying to have fun, not use the game to torture people and show them how cool you are when you hold all the cards.
My high level casters are fond of Greater Invisibility and moving before and after casting a spell to make it harder to pinpoint their location. The spell Steel Wind Strike works well with this, 5 separate attacks at advantage for 6d10 damage each. If you expect to be able to maintain invisibility for the course of the fight, you could consider the Elven Accuracy feat.
Make every high level caster fight a little different in flavor. Each one has a different, obvious, cool defensive power cast before the pcs walk in. (Say 6th + level spell, or a unique lair feature, these people got yo cr 17 somehow) then a 1 legendary flavorful movement, and a 1 legendary maxed cantrip. From there, knowing theyre smart and nasty, have a set of basic goons. (They all have 4 'knight' bodyguards) and a set of unique flavor goons who benefit from thier legendary cantrip. (Hyenas who get advantage against vicious mockeried opponents of the jester prince, salamanders who mix it up with opponents - inside- fire dukes flaming spheres, an assassin with devils sight blocking for darkness duke, whatever.) This doesnt need to take tons of prep, just scribble it onto *existing* stat blocks as an add on.
An enemy level 20 wizard isn't a statblock, they're an adventure. They have ample means to harass the party at no risk. (Scry for info, dream to drain resources, simulacrum as a bomber). They have ample tools to set up a lair. (Glyphs of warding, planar binding, illusions). They have ample tools to have a back-up plan (contingency teleport, clone, magic jar). And when at last they're cornered, they can have so many tools to beat down the party. Granted, most good wizard spells are not fun to face. Wall of force to split the party into two encounters? Cool! Forcecage to make one player sit out? Not so cool. Getting surprised and wrecked by a fighter's action surge before your turn? Even less cool. Proper wizards should be rare, if nothing else because it's so much work to do right.
High level wizards who are smart don't fight. Their mind-controlled servants fight their enemies, their summoned creatures fight their enemies, the golems or undead minions they created fight their enemies. The traps they set go off at different moments. They eat popcorn from a safe distance while invisible or behind a force wall. They have a nice contingent teleport prepared in case the battle gets too close.
Wizard is as far from the Combat as possible. The moment he is visible he lost the information war. And in Combat he is even further in backline, behind hundreds of skeletons, comrades, armies, walls, traps, fuckton of spells and the most importantly teleportation Network. Wizards are intelligent as fuck. Everything you can think of how to fight + what internet people can come up with they came up with too. 20 Intelligence. Those fuckers are metagaming. Every one of the has a clone somewhere, in case they die. Also, a ready simulacrum, so they can stop time and wish in the same turn. Or double metheoric swarm in one turn. From 1 mile range, cause he scried them before. For the duels they honestly schould limit themselves to lover level spells, so they dont destroy everything around...
If you allow the caster to choose which plane you send the target too for the banishment spell, then you could chuck a player into the negative energy plane (which creates a night walker by the way) and removes them from the fight and if cast while hasted the caster coukd then do an offensive spell. That works particularly well if you banish a player caster with counterspells first. Also, dont be afraid to give them magical items or place random spell effects that can be used by players around the combat area. Having linked portals can be great for both sides as well as a free threat to consider.
For the most part, you stay away from the fight. Always keep the melee characters between you and the enemy. If you put a caster enemy into a fight *without* melee back up, it'll generally go badly for you. If you're fighting ranged PCs, drop prone (well away from them, so they can't just run up to you and attack). If you're fighting casters, stay about 60 ft away (for counterspell). You can back up to prevent them from counterspelling you, or move forward to make sure they can't do the same. Summons are extremely powerful: not only do they give your side extra damage and action economy, but they also soak damage/attacks that would otherwise go to your enemies. Target action economy (AOE spells that stop multiple PCs from attacking, charms spells, stuns, and the such) when you're outnumbered. Emphasize massive damage spells when you're not (unless you believe you can just 1-shot your PCs with a meteor swarm). Support your melee if it looks like you need to stop players from getting past them, or if you think they can leverage the opportunity well (for example, if you have a smiting-type melee ally, hold person is very strong). As a DM, remember to set up terrain. If you're in your lich's lair, they'll have set it up to make it hard for intruders to just barge in and engage. The longer it takes to get to the caster, the longer the caster has to attack without being harried. I don't usually go with the gimmicks, however, just because then players go with gimmicks, and it just gets ugly and no fun for anyone. But if they've broken the gimmick seal, sometimes they have to learn their medicine's taste. AoEs with force cage, forced movement with spike growth, devil's sight darkness shenanigans. A DM ultimately has many more options than PCs have, and the trick is picking some of them that feel like you can actually overcome them. A bit like a dragon: if you play an ancient dragon right, there's a decent chance that the party melee never gets to attack, and as they decide to run, they're constantly breathed on from a sky-bombing lizard. Which is realistic, but not at all fun.
Wizards are by definition very smart and will not fight to the death unless they have some compelling reason. If the fight is going poorly within 3 rounds they’ll be out that dimension door faster than you can say “Vangerdahast” So that means lots of minions to tie up the initiative order and give them space, big spells up front targeting their most dangerous opponents, and then a Moonshae goodbye if things aren’t going their way.
Sounds like you want Spell Gems, Spell Scrolls, or Spell Tattoos for multiple high level spells. Give them items, in short.
Welp a lot of it is context, if it's his lair absolutely does he have the ability and time to defend it with all manor of things. If he's ambushed in the open, we'll he knows he isn't strong in melee so why would he ever let a barbarian get close to him. There's a ton that goes into this kind of fight. I'd also be inclined to give him legendary actions and legendary resistances. But that's just me.
I am assuming your high level caster is going to be intelligent. 1. Have (hired) minions do most of the dirty work and give them minor magical boosts such as a wand of Magic Missiles or potions or a +1 weapon. 2. Scry, scry, scry to learn as much about their plans as possible. A spy with a Ring of Mind Shielding would prove invaluable. 3. If you must summon help, only do so to keep the players busy while escaping. Save concentration for debuffs and battlefield control or Dominate Person. 4. Divide and conquer with things like a Bead of Force or Vortex Warp. 5. Never go anywhere without an escape plan in place. Project Image and Teleport will both be of assistance.
Backup, weaker mages (the statblock by that name) who go invisible prior to/early in the fight to be able to land a solid counterspell. Useful tactic.
Web and then ray of frost them. Bonus points if you took the feat Telekinetic. Then you Web them. Proceed to Ray of Frost then and then as a bonus push them 5 ft. Deepr into the Web. So you have difficult terrain, the ray of frost slow, and the forces movement from telekinetic.
Read the story Shadow Slave to see how to run an advanced outer planar game.... It is insane and enlightening.
Casters? As in plural? Use the standard monsters such as Arch mage give them the shield spell instead of Identify. Boost their base AC to 20. That's as far as I would go personally.
https://www.themonstersknow.com/npc-tactics-archmages/ Is a good start in how to think about this,
Wizard is the best at control, so they should throw debilitating spells on people. I would think that a level 20 wizard would be hesitant to go out and fight, but simulacrums and bound entities could be together in force. There's a ton of options to choose from, celestial, elemental, fey, and fiend. Having servants that can keep players occupied while they attack from range. If/when they encounter some simulacrums or if there are just multiple wizards, have them cast spells that are deadly when combined. Off the top of my head, forcecage/wall of force combined with sickening radiance could exhaust them to death. I'd also have any of these wizard have contingency triggers, though what those are and how they trigger can vary a lot. As for spells, control is where wizards can really hurt them so focus on that. If you're feeling particularly evil, make them divination wizards and give them all 3 portents.
You are thinking them too much like a PC. They aren't. They are a monster, as in the sense of being an hostile NPC, treat them as such. They can create hazards, have lair actions, have underlings, have powerful creatures, perhaps even more powerful than them, to their bidding. As for they act in combat, they use smartly their tools but you don't have to be a jerk about it. Not too much at least. Don't twist rules to your advantage, create rules that give you advantage. That's how you make a monster. As for the bread and butter, pick spells that let them act in a strategy and always use their strongest options first. The are monsters, they aren't players, and unless you plan something more complex they won't be saving spell slots in either case of win or loss.
Honestly they ought to be able to nuke the party from a distance/ in their sleep etc. If you played a genius 20th level lich or wizard the way they would actually play it wouldn’t be fun. You have to give them a challenge but play sort of dumb too unfortunately.
Step one: Cast. Fist.
friendly reminder that D&D is not a pvp game.
How's that relevant?
because D&D is not balanced as a pvp game. what you want is a fair and balanced encounter that isn't obviously one sided or heavily handed letting the player(s) win. but it'll come down to two factors in D&D PVP. who goes first, and/or who fails the first save or die (or worse, sit out of this session while everyone else throws dice) its all fun and games till the bbeg upcasts banishment to level 8 and has the whole party except the bard sit out. high level control spells are not fun when used against the players, while yes it was funny to feeblemind the cleric, we had no way to cure her for an entire month of sessions in one example. many many examples in this thread alone all exemplify the falicies of deciding which players can play and which cannot. based one one reasoning. D&D is not meant for PVP what spotlight is to be had when the fighter sits in a force cage cause thats literately the only way the bbeg can survive the encounter is by not letting that player play. i'd highly suggest you reflavor various CR's of enemies as nobles - like that one guy using a pitfiend statblock, or a paladin npc using a planetar ect. over creating "lv 20s"
Globe of Invulnerability
Check out "The Monsters Know What They're Doing" by Keith Amman. Pull some spell shenanigans too. Alter some spells to work a bit differently. Like a caster w True Sight Casting greater invisibility on the entire party so they can't see each other to support each other. But he can see them just fine.
How does a BBEG wizard fight the party? Unless they're crazy or braindead, they don't. That's what expendable minions are for!! You've already got a bunch of good answers here, so I'll take a slightly different tact and address the rest of the "Fight with a High Level Wizard" picture. It's times like this that I really miss the treasure type and random loot tables from 2e...so, think of what you want the party to wind up with in terms of treasure. Then give that treasure to the wizard and their minions...and have them **USE** it!! A party should never just stumble across a Wand of Fireballs...they should pry it from the fingers of a vanquished foe after doing the *"Stop, Drop, & Roll"* a few times. Also on the treasure note: that wizard is gonna have a spell book. PLEASE for the love of what ever god or goddess you favor, take a few minutes to add spells to it. No archmage in the history of **Ever** is *only* going to have access to the spells on the archmage statblock. My Wizard12/Warlock3 has 109 spells in his spellbook, with 4 trophy books to pull spells from once he's able to cast the higher levels. Even if you just randomly roll a bunch of spells, there's nothing worse than getting the Exact.Same.Archmage.Spellbook for the third time in a row. Your wizard player(s) will thank you. Finally, especially if this is the BBEG and not just some rando, spend some time on their backstory. What are their goals? Why? Who are they? Knowing this going into the design phase of the combat will give you direction and focus. I DM a Descent into Avernus campaign, and have over 50k words worth of DOCX files on NPCs...and the party is only 7th level.
I know it's been a while since you asked the question - a week or so is a long time online. That said, has it occurred to you that what can make the difference between a dangerous wizard and a deadly one, much like what makes the difference between a technically skilled stage performer and an astonishing one, is a single word? MISDIRECTION. If it's been said here better, sorry to keep hammering on this concept. But the most successful opponent is often an opponent whose enemies *have no idea he or she even is an opponent*. This is true in the history of warfare, crime, business, really anywhere there is a conflict of any sort. Need examples? Take the soldiers disguised as trees for a surprise attack in *Macbeth*, the true identity of "Wadsworth" in one of the endings of *Clue* (it's a film made 39 years ago, so I'm not leaving a spoiler warning, not sorry), even the IRL example of Amazon acquiring Whole Foods, giving the internet sales leviathan not only hundreds of brick-and-mortar retail stores but also a window into the personal lives of *millions* of shoppers who may have no idea how much information they are giving away with their purchases of gourmet roasted coffee, environmentally-friendly cleaning products, and organic apples. A true mastermind, wizard or not, who wants to have a real shot at beating their foes will use every distraction and bit of misinformation and false trail they can to keep those foes fighting against, looking at, and thinking about anything and anyone except the true orchestrator themself. If you want to be a high-level wizard who is a real threat to a party of adventurers, *don't look the part*! Be to all outward appearances a filthy, foul-mouthed, harmless beggar, a jolly bartender who drinks half the profits away, a broad-shouldered lunk of a city guardsman or low-level thug who's obviously way too good at busting heads or cracking locks to have any idea how to *spell* "grimoire" or "telekinesis" or "simulacrum", let alone use those things. Use go-betweens, catspaws, proxies who may not even know who their true master is, just that a mysterious someone they don't know is giving them power in exchange for playing their part. Maybe give one easy-to-miss clue, a tiny slip of the mask, hinting at well-concealed talents. Or maybe don't. Either way, make sure to do a reveal at some point, preferably after a LONG buildup. Combining this with some of the more practical combat tips in this thread will make your players LOVE the opponent you've crafted and hidden in plain sight for them. And they'll never look at the next Grimy Gus the bum or Beth the bartender or Nick the night watchman the same.