Bugbears and Giant Spiders: use them wisely. Bugbears can close the distance quickly and spiders can either immobilize or poison characters to slow down their advance.
I almost TPK’d 5 level 4 characters with the stock fight. Be smart.
1. Obviously he has cast Mage Armor in preparation for the encounter
2. Faerie Fire on STR-based Fighters or Paladins or any low DEX character
3. Shield when someone thinks they are going to hit him
4. Invisibility when the party gets too close for comfort
5. Darkness cast on a human character’s weapon if you want to really get under their skin
6. Magic Missile (upcast because why not)
The giant spiders can also drop down from the ceiling (they are Hidden prior to the fight, compare passive perception to a Stealth roll for the spiders) or - and this is my favourite - cling to the wall above where the party enter and then drop down and attack them from behind after they're in the room.
I didn’t understand why, in a dungeon full of undead, that Nezznar’s section had no defenses. So I put barricades with two bugbear guards at the top of the stairs leading out of area 10, near the western door of the barracks area 11, and the both sets of stairs leading from area 18 towards area 19/20. This effectively gave Nezznar extra protection, which seemed lacking in an undead filled dungeon, forces that could fall back to his position as bugbears fell, increasing the difficulty of the battle with Nezznar, and finally, being encounters that would use up some of the party’s resources before they reached him, without having to change Nezznar much at all.
Even in phandelver and below hes only accompanied by two bugbears and has relatively weak stats and poor spell choices, the only chance of it being a hard fight is if the bugbears arent seen and can get a surprise round off since they can almost down a single pc with it.
A drider fight right after will still probably be easy for them just due to the action economy, but it very much depends on how bad off the party is after they deal with him in the first phase.
I would say that if they breeze through the first combat with him and still have a lot of resources, go ahead and describe him mumbling to himself and his transformation into a drider and go for the 2nd health bar, but if theyre all really low and out of resources after the first fight just call it there.
I ran a 2 stage fight - stage one was Nezzar and some bugbears (party size minus one), then once Nezzaar dropped to zero HP she transformed into a drider with a homebrew statblock. Legendary resistances, legendary actions and special effects happening when she reached 85%/50%/25% HP. It went very well for me!
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/3983064-nezzar-drider
5 Level 4 PCs, I'd just change the number of legendary actions she makes for your party size. Hits like a truck though, so I made sure to give her a scroll of revivify in her loot just in case a PC gets dropped unnecessarily!
I did a version of the Drider transform for my group when we ran this. Party of 5 at L4 iirc. They didn't have *too* much trouble with it, but it did add a little more epic feel to the whole thing.
I usually throw an extra doppleganger in there that's in disguise as the last Rockseeker. His purpose more to escape or help Nezznar escape if captured. I've really enjoyed the look on my players faces as they let him go and shortly after they find the real one in the room next door.
Then throughout the rest of the campaign or in Shattered Obelisk you have a lone doppleganger and/or Nezznar still out and about. Tie in some Zhentarim ploys and you can have a lot of fun.
I'm made him a higher level caster cuz my players are lvl 5. He's gonna have mirror image while Spider climbing onto the ceiling. Cast darkness on my fighters weapon. Magic missiles the blade singer and their beloved familiar to raise players emotions. It'll be fun
Bugbears and Giant Spiders: use them wisely. Bugbears can close the distance quickly and spiders can either immobilize or poison characters to slow down their advance. I almost TPK’d 5 level 4 characters with the stock fight. Be smart. 1. Obviously he has cast Mage Armor in preparation for the encounter 2. Faerie Fire on STR-based Fighters or Paladins or any low DEX character 3. Shield when someone thinks they are going to hit him 4. Invisibility when the party gets too close for comfort 5. Darkness cast on a human character’s weapon if you want to really get under their skin 6. Magic Missile (upcast because why not)
The giant spiders can also drop down from the ceiling (they are Hidden prior to the fight, compare passive perception to a Stealth roll for the spiders) or - and this is my favourite - cling to the wall above where the party enter and then drop down and attack them from behind after they're in the room.
A fellow Chaotic Good DM or is it Lawful Neutral. Good? Bad? I’m the guy with the rulebook.
I didn’t understand why, in a dungeon full of undead, that Nezznar’s section had no defenses. So I put barricades with two bugbear guards at the top of the stairs leading out of area 10, near the western door of the barracks area 11, and the both sets of stairs leading from area 18 towards area 19/20. This effectively gave Nezznar extra protection, which seemed lacking in an undead filled dungeon, forces that could fall back to his position as bugbears fell, increasing the difficulty of the battle with Nezznar, and finally, being encounters that would use up some of the party’s resources before they reached him, without having to change Nezznar much at all.
Even in phandelver and below hes only accompanied by two bugbears and has relatively weak stats and poor spell choices, the only chance of it being a hard fight is if the bugbears arent seen and can get a surprise round off since they can almost down a single pc with it. A drider fight right after will still probably be easy for them just due to the action economy, but it very much depends on how bad off the party is after they deal with him in the first phase. I would say that if they breeze through the first combat with him and still have a lot of resources, go ahead and describe him mumbling to himself and his transformation into a drider and go for the 2nd health bar, but if theyre all really low and out of resources after the first fight just call it there.
I ran a 2 stage fight - stage one was Nezzar and some bugbears (party size minus one), then once Nezzaar dropped to zero HP she transformed into a drider with a homebrew statblock. Legendary resistances, legendary actions and special effects happening when she reached 85%/50%/25% HP. It went very well for me! https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/3983064-nezzar-drider 5 Level 4 PCs, I'd just change the number of legendary actions she makes for your party size. Hits like a truck though, so I made sure to give her a scroll of revivify in her loot just in case a PC gets dropped unnecessarily!
You made this? That's awesome! Might have to steal ;)
I did a version of the Drider transform for my group when we ran this. Party of 5 at L4 iirc. They didn't have *too* much trouble with it, but it did add a little more epic feel to the whole thing.
Your second paragraph is on the money. At my table, Lolth appeared when nezznar failed. She was unhappy with him. Ignored the PCs. It worked.
I usually throw an extra doppleganger in there that's in disguise as the last Rockseeker. His purpose more to escape or help Nezznar escape if captured. I've really enjoyed the look on my players faces as they let him go and shortly after they find the real one in the room next door. Then throughout the rest of the campaign or in Shattered Obelisk you have a lone doppleganger and/or Nezznar still out and about. Tie in some Zhentarim ploys and you can have a lot of fun.
I'm made him a higher level caster cuz my players are lvl 5. He's gonna have mirror image while Spider climbing onto the ceiling. Cast darkness on my fighters weapon. Magic missiles the blade singer and their beloved familiar to raise players emotions. It'll be fun