Halsin should just turn into a bird and fly back to his Grove where he has responsibilities to the other druids to keep them safe and lead them. A leader wouldn't risk their life performing unnecessary risky heroics.

But overall.. yes, NPC's should be higher level that makes sense in the context and hierarchy of the world rather than match the level of the current party just because we need to be able to fight everyone "fairly". We don't need to be able to fight everyone everywhere. And the fights don't have to be fair either. If Halsin needs to be a potential enemy for the party to fight, the party should have help to balance the fight against an 11th level Druid rather than an archdruid having the stats of a novice druid. The Absolute already wants to get rid of Halsin and there are more powerful servants available for the task. Or there can be a plot to poison them or weaken them somehow before the fight. That would be so much more interesting an rewarding too compared to "just another fight".

If everything is scaled down to match the party, the party doesn't grow from beginners to heroes. Archdruids and archmages don't mean anything in the world. Always being a badass top dog who can beat anyone is a really boring lackluster dynamic.

Last edited by 1varangian; 13/08/21 12:39 PM.