First time DM here asking for advice. So I'm running a party of 6 (wizard, cleric, druid, bard, ranger, fighter) through Death House. Since the party size is so high I've had a hard time making combat challenging enough. So far I've been able to knock the squishy wizard 3 times and the fighter once but they managed to heal or pass death saves each time. I already have a cool scene planed to offer resurrection by the dark powers if one or many or all actually dies. They beat the armor, the broom, the grick, and the 4 ghouls without much difficulty. I may have fucked up by letting rose and thorn guard them in their room to take a long rest.

Last session ended with them beating the ghouls. As they recover the bard goes on his own to explore the cult leaders room. While digging through the chest Elisabeth emerges from the portrait, teeth and gums black with rot, eyes dark pools of madness. She screams at the Bard "Get out of my FUCKING house!" I had a cool song and everything behind it to amp up the drama. (Her Ghost- Dance with the Dead)

It seems boring to run her as is after the way I hyped her up. I already removed Gustav and made him a hanging corpse in the master bedroom so instead of two ghasts it's just her. My idea is to remove the shadows and mimic and make her a miniboss of sorts. Some ideas I've had is to add a feature called cult leader, which allows her once per day to revive 2 cult members. At the start of combat she will rez two of the ghouls. The bodies of the ghouls are currently blocking the path to the room with Elisabeth and the bard, blocking them off from the rest of the party.

I'm also planning to raise her HP from 36 to 60. Since she doesn't have gustav, and the combined HP of them both was 74 anyway. I may also give her a ranged attack where she spews black sludge from her mouth blinding players and doing damage.

Does this sound like a good idea? Any tweaks or suggestions? I just feel like having all these separate random encounters in the dungeon is boring. You beat the ghouls, go into this room, beat some shadows, try the door, it's a mimic. I'd much rather spend more time fighting an enemy the party has grown to hate and fear as they learned about her.