New GM need help

Hello,

I've only recently started GMing and my group of players is now for the first time going to encounter a boss...
It's a big bad wolf...

My problem is that I'm unsure whether or not he may or may not be too strong for an APL 2 group with a tanky Fighter/Packmaster Hunter (with a Hunting Wolf as pet that doesn't engage in combat), a bruiser Brawler, an Earth Kineticist (Physical/Magical DPS (Still not sure if Earth Blast is physical or magical, anyone can help me with that too?)) and a cowardly Cleric who pretty much just cowers in fear and sometimes throws out a heal... (Honestly that's all he does.)

With regards to Magical Items, they have only 1, the Cleric has some sort of Talisman that randomly empowers his spells (this is a homebrew item, he has to roll a 1d100 if he casts a spell, things that could happen are all positive but rare, into the realm of cast at +1 CL, or + 1d6 to damage or healing... Can be really strong, but more likely to do nothing whatsoever.

Now the wolf is CR 4, which means it's APL + 2 which should be possible... I'm just scared of losing people's characters this early in the game on the very first boss, or even of a TPK... Especially since they all love their characters and I'd hate it if I lost their enthusiasm this way.

The wolf has the following stats:

Large Magical Beast
Init +5; Senses darkvision 120 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +11

AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +5 natural)
hp 37 (5d8+15)
Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +5

Speed 50 ft.
Melee bite +9 (1d8+6 plus trip)

Str 21, Dex 13, Con 17, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 10
Base Atk +4; CMB +9; CMD 20 (24 vs. trip)
Feats Run, Iron Will
Skills Perception +9, Stealth +8, Survival +5, Intimidate +7;
Languages Common

SPECIAL:[b]

[b]Fear Aura (DC 14)
60 ft, shaken if fail. (can only affect once per 24h.)

Frightful Presence (DC 14)
30 ft, shaken or panicked (<4 HD) (can only affect once per 24h.)
Happens if succeed at 15 DC Intimidate

Damage Reduction
5/good or silver

Feign Death (DC 12)
Creature feigns death and seems death, Will or Heal negates.

Regenaration 5, countered by Good, silver, spells with good

Resistance to Illusion

Obscuring Energy
Concealment (20%)|

Cheers,
Sorrol

It seems okay, but obviously tactics and luck can change everything. Do the PCs know they should have silver weapons (or good) for instance.) Then, do they have at least 1 or 2 silver weapons? Otherwise, with its DR negating a good amount of the damage and its Regeneration healing what does get through, this might go from a longer, tougher fight to a situation where they can't overcome it (without lucky critical hits.) Of course, if they do have silver weapons, then two key abilities of the creature are basically null and moot and are pointless, unless the PCs knew about them and the fact that they existed caused the party to go on a mission or quest to find or recover silver or good weapons, in which case this is fine and serves its purpose.

Assuming it's by itself, that's 1 creature's actions to 4, which tends to balance out and never works out in the bad guy's favor, but if you know that one Animal Companion and one PC (cleric) may not be fully effective (for role-playing reasons, inexperience, or whatever, not bad reasons) then you should also take that into account. You should be prepared to roll with any situation. The wolf may not always try and kill people, it may just knock them unconscious and work on another one, especially if it's fighting multiple foes. Even if it does beat them all, it doesn't necessarily have to kill them. You can have them wake up and their mule is dead or the animal companion 'lesser wolf' was instead mauled and eaten. Since it wasn't hungry, the Big Bad Wolf wandered off after the fight to heal. Just have some options ready.

Hmm I see what you're saying... Sadly it's an awakened wolf that has been corrupted... So it'll go for the kill just for sheer enjoyment (it already has done so to previous NPC adventuring parties, and they know this.)

They are unaware of the good or silver... But they are aware that there is a big bad that spreads an massive fear aura whom they saw leaving the wolf's cave.

Sadly with the way I'm running my campaign I don't have an easy or effective way of informing them about the good or silver without cheesing it... They've had plenty of opportunities to find out about it but never did...

They do not own any good or silver weapons, but the cleric would be able to enhance their weapons with good if he thinks about it, which he probably won't since he's a new player and doesn't do much buffing.

I could probably hint during the fight that he has DR/Good or Silver by spicing up the descriptions of their attacks...

Alternatively, you can provide the near universal out for Regenerating enemies and just include a stream in the battlefield. Remember, regeneration doesn't cover damage incurred by starvation or suffocation/drowning.

If your PCs are truely at a loss, you can have them throw a know check for that little factoid ("Occasionally, troll hunters are known to drown their quarries if disarmed of their acid/fire weapons" etc)

Have you disallowed knowledge checks? That isn't a cheese mechanism , it is the abstraction of what the character has learned living in a lethal world, as opposed to what the player knows.

Have you personally ever encountered a Komodo dragon? (Or pick other any other animal ) I haven't , but I know that it's bite is toxic. Why? Essentially a knowledge check...

looks doable. is this their first encounter of the day, or have they wasted resources on other things before this?

Have them encounter the wolf fighting a group and they get decimated, and they PCs can see the other group's weapons not working, except for a few silver arrows from an archer (they might retrieve some) or a silver dagger or something. Obviously that's not an invitation to take on the wolf with it, but instead a clue that they should go find some... which might lead to a small dungeon dive into a cave rumored to have some, or an old silver mine to get some ore for the local blacksmith.

While your PCs won't know that this monster requires silver, knowing that that SOME monsters require silver, cold iron etc. is something that should be considered common knowledge.

Having a backup weapon, even just a dagger, of silver and another of cold iron is pretty basic stuff that most PCs should know is important. If your players don't know that, you should probably tell them, although ideally that would have been done well before so it wouldn't give anything away.

Honestly the real wild card in this encounter is the Frightful presence ability. A few bad saves and half your party could be out of the fight for long enough for the rest to be killed. The creatures speed and vicious nature makes it hard to get away if things start to go bad.

The earth blast is a physical attack that can overcome DR/magic.

Just because the wolf will kill for enjoyment, doesn't mean it should just go after one person. Any non-mindless creature will generally drop one foe and move onto a next before finishing off any of them. Least, that's the way I've always seen things done, and have run myself.

When the PCs are gathering information (if they opt to do so), there could be a survivor (or two) telling a story about shooting the wolf with an arrow and that before his very eyes, the arrow was pushed back out and the wound was healed (Regeneration). Another confirming a similar story that his spear couldn't even pierce the thing's hide. (DR/silver or good)

It sounds like it could be tough for the PCs to keep the thing down for good; if they haven't had the opportunity to get an appropriate weapon, I think one should be readily available for acquisition somewhere in town. Perhaps there's a silver ritual athame at the cleric's temple. Perhaps the senile old man in town is paranoid of vampires. 3+ PCs can just keep wailing on it while the cleric (heroically) runs away to get a silver dagger and come back.

You went double down with abilities for a low CR, I mean both frightful presence and fear aura, also both regeneration and DR. And miss chance on top of that. I know you want it to be mean, but I would drop 1 or two things from it. Especially as PCs don't seem optimized.