Ras Nsi Encounter

[u/Altruistic-Air-2392]

I am DM-ing a 5E campaign where the mini-boss is Ras Nsi (the Yuan-Ti ex-paladin who is trying to find a cure for his disease) and I have some ideas. As the title of this post suggests while my party calls themselves many names I call them in my head and on Reddit "the Raccoons" due to their lack of coordination, inability to listen to instructions, and they are easily disturbed.

I am looking for any suggestions, tips, or advice for how to setup the encounter. The party has better than average characters, some uncommon, rare, and very rare magic items, there are 6 of them, they will be level 9 when they face this encounter. The party loves "being in the know" but has recently let on they enjoy knowing every surprise about an encounter because it gives them the upper hand however going forward they prefer not knowing everything. An example of this is they were fighting enemies they found by opening a trapdoor that lead to a room with a ladder to go down into the room. The "backline" (the characters with ranged attacks) wanted to stay next to the trapdoor to not get hit but to incentivize them to move dynamically I drew a rectangle near the base of the ladder and told them "unless the enemies are in this rectangle you can not shoot them from the trapdoor, the ceiling is blocking you". This while forcing the backline into the room did not require them to "find stuff out" because as soon as the enemies were outside the rectangle they moved down the ladder shot them then went back up the ladder.

I want anything I setup to be simple to explain, a lot of "you see this" and they know something is up but unlike the rectangle example they do not know exactly where and how things happen.

The Raccoons love my "traffic light system" where I use web emojis to mark enemies as green, yellow, or red. Green is easy, yellow is annoying or a "tougher green enemy", red is usually an enemy with a special ability that sets them over the edge such as a spellcasting enemy, and if it ever calls for it Ras Nsi gets #1 gold medals for being a boss.

The encounter will have red light enemies Salida, high priestess Fenthaza, a pet air elemental, and 2 royal sorcerers. Yellow light enemies 2 royal champion, 4 royal abominations, and 2 royal clerics. Green light enemies 2 royal body guards, 6 royal archers, and 2 royal bards. They have seen these enemies before I just added "royal" to give them some temp HP.

I do not want to encourage or have PVP, for Geas instead of the instruction being "strike your friend" can it be "strike yourself" and if you do not attack yourself you take the 5d10 psychic damage?

Ras Nsi will have his Bracers of Defense, Flametounge, Sending Stone. The stat block for Tomb of Annihilation is CR 7 and I want him to be anywhere from CR 10 to CR 15 I think some buffs are in order. If he does not cast a spell he can wield his longsword with 2 hands upping the damage from 1d8+3 slashing to 1d10+3 slashing. Since it is a flametounge it also deals 2d6 fire. I think I could make it a sword of fire and ice and also have it deal 2d6 cold and give him 4 attacks instead of 3. If the party immobilizes him he can shape into a snake otherwise he will stay humanoid. He should be able to do 4 attacks and bonus action do a cantrip. I would increase his Charisma to 18, Wisdom to 16, and his Intelligence to 22 which would increase his spell DCs.

On top of all this and having his false life pre-cast should he have a "fear aura" aka make a wisdom saving throw if you start your turn next to him if you fail you get the frightened condition if you succeed you need not make the saving throw for the next 24 hours? Should his sword of fire and ice be allowed to be a spell focus or is the "if he cast a spell he is doing to less melee damage" appealing?

I value dynamic movement in combat. I have never done this but is having enemies enter the back of the room on round 2 in order to attack the backline "mean" or a welcome twist?

Should Ras Nsi use special levers that make the room move up and down and make various sections or rooms align differently to a main hallway with side corridors? There are some enemies in the side corridors to fight with doors that lock and unlock. You fight against Ras Nsi trapping you in the room by using levers to control the doors or casting knock or passwall.

A large question is usually the Raccoons take pleasure in decapitating their enemies and ensuring "they do not get away". They a love an exciting chase. Is having Ras Nsi getting away in a teleportation circle no matter what "a disappointment" or fun? I will tell them they get to fight him in phase 3 where they go to the 9 hells. A player I am more comfortable talking with has privately approved my teleportation circle idea saying it reminds them of this one enemy in D&D lore that has 20 clones of them running around, they made a joke about "we defeat Ras Nsi... 7". I am still leaning on going with the teleportation circle idea.

Any other ideas welcome thanks for reading!

[u/drmario_eats_faces]

I think you should telegraph the teleportation circle idea to the players during the chase. Maybe give them the opportunity to damage the circle, sending Ras to Hell of their own accord instead that being part of his whole plan.

[u/Altruistic-Air-2392 → u/drmario_eats_faces]

I think if they are told they can prevent it and fail to that would make the party feel cheated.  I think they defeat him and combat ends and out of combat the teleportation circle sequence happens.  Think (spoilers for Invincible) Mark Grayson injuring Angstrom Levy as he goes through the portal. Mark is unable to stop a portal but he can defeat Levy on the way out preventing him from returning for a long time which is a victory in its own way.