Hi everyone, I hope this is the right part of the forum to post. I'm planning to do a one shot as a DM with the group I play in (so far only as a player). I want to have some fun, and do something special, and so I am planning on doing a one shot roughly based on the classic film The Thing. I've decided to split The Thing into multiple types of monsters like in the video game, so The Thing as limbs, The Thing as an average enemy as it begins taking over it's victims and starts getting strongrr, and the boss version where it has collected so many npc's etc. to become a nightmarish mash of people... and I've already began designing my arctic map. My main issue is balance. I'm having the boss using the Rakshasa creature, tweaking the stats, such as it's vulnerable to fire.., and added some responses (how it would infect someone in combat when facing the boss, and for the other lesser versions of The Thing, how it could scare the characters (limits how often it can attempt), and I think it should work.. I defo want it to have shape changer spell, for the medium and boss versions, (which is level 9, but I'm tweaking the spell slots etc.), Soo what level should my players have, maximum 5 players, I might state that they will need to multi class with a magic class.. Should they start this session as level 14 (standard array)? I want it to be tough but not deadly. (I'm hoping it will be a minimum of 1 session but if the players don't finish I don't mind it continuing a couple more sessions). I'm thinking of creating another character that I give to any players that have been taken over by the creature, so any checks and saves and personality traits, they have to follow the extra sheet as they've been taken over and aren't in control. I'm making this into a distant sequel to the films and games. The Thing was never destroyed and it has evolved whilst dormant due to it having some memory of its previous encounters. I'm planning to have magic, psychic damage involved due to its evolution "and to help fit it in the D&D 5e system (which is the only system I've played and feel comfortable with). I hope this will go well, be fun to do this with more films and games in the future :) I'm definitely excited to attempt this, I just want to make sure it's balanced enough. Any other thoughts on how it could be improved are defo welcome as well. (I'll be allowing PHB and Xanathars),
