Prison of the Hated Hack: short English version

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During an event I played, as the GM, Prison of the Hated Pretender, a fantastic OSR dungeon. I used the D&D 5e conversion included in the module itself. I liked it very much!

I just noticed a small issue in the 5e stat block of the Pretender, the main NPC of the dungeon. He has incredibly good defenses (very high HP, resistance to physical damage…) but his attacks are really weak. So, if a fight starts (and my players started it…), it becomes unnecessarily long and boring.

I have a couple of proposals, depending on how you want to interpret the Pretender.

A) Weak Pretender

We might see the Pretender as a pathetic character, a miserable wretch: he’s not really dangerous, and if you kill him you just put an end to his misery. If you see the Pretender in this way, then I suggest the following:

• Decrease hit points and hit dice to: 15 (2d8+6). Or, as an alternative, decrease them to 30 (4d8+12) and remove the resistances. I prefer the first one, which leaves more room for tactical creativity, but it’s also true that the phantasms of vengeance already have this quality.

B) Strong Pretender

If, instead, you want the Pretender to be a tough, disturbing, powerful being, a really dangerous opponent to engage face to face, then I suggest the following:

• Give him proficiency (so, an extra +2) to Con, Wis and Cha saving throws.
• Change the claw attack as follows: +4 to hit, 5 (1d6+2) slashing damage and 2 (1d4) poison damage (because claws are filthy and infect).
• Optional: give him a special power, insane gaze: as a bonus action, he can look into the eyes a creature within 30 feet to make it confused (as for the confusion spell) for 1 round; a DC 12 Wis saving throw negates the effect.