I've run a few campaigns were the big bad seemed a little boring and did nothing much except bonk. My first solution was to throw more abilities (legendary/lair actions). It was about a year and half ago when I learned what action economy was. For those who don't know what action economy is it's how many actions each side of combat has. For example if a level ten party of five is fighting one adult red wyrm the wrym has stronger damage but has a lower action economy. The wrym can do a lot of damage on his turn but when it's over he is taking a long interrupted blow of damage from five players. You might think the simple solution is to throw minions into combat. The problem with that is it's boring and doesn't force the players to think about their actions. This is why I use spellcasters as big bads for most of my campaigns. Or more specifically abjurers. This is so I can separate my party with barriers and walls. By doing this you are forcing their actions to be focused on them rather the big bad. This is especially useful when you have one super powerful character. You should take careful considerate on who you separate from the party and how many characters you separate. This is a awesome strategy because it stresses out your players and their actions finally have consequences. Please, tell me how you run big bads.
I for one think all Big Bads are either meant to be stand-alone challenges by themselves allowing off-turn abilities that hamper the group (ie. legendary or Villain actions).
Or the big bad is tough but with his other troops as you described becomes a real challenge that requires a group to allocate attacks or spells to other targets who are hampering the party.
I propose an additional challenge which could be the environment as well. One where the Big Bad is familiar and not affected by the realm around it but the group could be affected in negative ways. ie. room is on fire or freezing or flooded or being sucked into a void... (Insert whatever reason you want here.) to name a few ideas. This could potentially do the same thing for the battle.
Epic battles should be epic. Even to the death of players. Muhahahahaha!... oh sorry, getting carried away.
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I live my life like a West Marches campaign, A swirling vortex of Ambitions and Insecurities.
That's a great point. I love it when the majority of the struggle in boss fights isn't even the boss but the environment around it. It just adds that extra spice to combat. I am commissioning a Minecraft campaign for my brother, and one thing I really wanted to emphasize is the deep dark and how it's environment is just as dangerous as the warden itself.
In my experience, solving the big bad problem with things like walls winds up with players who are frustrated and annoyed because they can't actually engage in the combat. I would say the big things are
Having the entire party go without any change in the tactical environment is boring. The boss should have legendary actions, or special reactions, or an extra initiative score, or something, to break up the PCs actions.
If you're planning on having a fight that lasts more than two rounds... change things up. It doesn't take that long to get bored by the same move over and over again, so consider multistage bosses or events triggered at certain health levels.
Give PCs something to think about other than just beating on the boss -- environmental hazards, zoning effects, minion spawns, ongoing damage that can be removed with an action, and so on.
Don't be afraid to use a really big beat stick. There's nothing wrong with one or two PCs being at zero hit points at the end of the boss's first turn, it's a distraction and gives the healers something to do.
1) Present the Players a Distraction: Even if it is only for a round or two, add an element that might cause players to spend part of the action economy on an affect that may or may not affect the outcome of the battle. Some examples are an object that shimmers when the boss takes damage (resulting in the the boss appearing to half any damage they take), stone creatures that move into the path of or obstruct the vision of the characters, or a structure that shoots fire in a cone AOE. Make the players think that destroying these objects might be needed to complete the task. Now, if they do, you should give them some benefit, but that benefit can vary based on the design. The point is if characters are using actions to take out elements they are not actively attacking the boss monster.
2) Design Reactions for the Boss: On one attack per round they can transfer the damage to a creature within 5ft of it. If a creature they can within 60ft they cause the caster to roll on the wild magic table. One a hit by a melee attack they can teleport up to 15ft to an open space. And that is not considering some of the existing spells and monster features that use a BA you can alter the character. Using a power reaction will cause the players to reevaluate their tactics.
3) Legendary Actions and Lair Actions: Level dependent, but something to always to consider. Especially the Liar Actions. Not only does this add some creative challenges to the encounter but experience players may realize and propose strategies to draw the monster away from the lair. A successfully executed player strategy is usually received very well pos-encounter.
4) Think 3-Dimensionally: Bosses can burrow, climb, fly, leap, or swim. For the players to plan actions base on how the boss can maneuver throughout the room.
5) Give the Boss a Weakness: If a boss flies, then track how many points of damage it takes during its turn and if they exceed a certain number they fall prone to the ground. If the spellcaster deals a certain type of damage on a failed save then attacks have advantage for the remainder of the round. This seems like it is making it easier on the players, and potentially it can, but the trade off here is if they realize a particular attack can result in a benefit to the party now the players actively adjust how they attack it. That means maybe they cast a spell challenging a bosses highest save modifier risking the successful save v. additional benefits if it fails. Or the Barbarian realize that Grappling the boss means it has to use a legendary act to get free thus robbing the boss of an attack option. The point here is entice the players to make attacks that are less conservative under the premise that a large payoff might incur.
The only time i will use the BBEG in fight scenario is when i want to make the party think they have beaten them only for it to come out later that they have been played for fools or if i want the campaign to end.
Other than that, the BBEG is really just a tool for the DM to add depth to the story.
While the PC's are doing one thing the BBEG is either preparing other things or their organization is planning and implementing other schemes some of which may be targeting the players maybe not to physically harm them but attacking their credibility locally or implicating them in a crime. sometimes the BBEG will blackmail people to hire the PCs to do things they might not do if BBEG were to try to hire them directly. Sometimes the BBEG 's goals will coincide with the party's and sometimes not. There may come a time where the BBEG has to go to the party because the situation is serious enough that they have to put aside their animosity out of enlightened self-interest and there might be a time the party has to swallow their pride and ask the BBEG for assistance.
tl;dr the Big bad evil guy is way more versatile than just its use as a fight.
Step 2: Cast Mirage Arcane on the area, making it look identical to what it already is so they don't see it ahead of time with Truesight
Step 3: First action is to rearrange pieces of the terrain (using Malleable Illusions, absolutely give this one the PC ability) to split the party up and keep them away from the BBEG until he/she's ready for them
Step 4: Fight each player 1v1 until they can break through the terrain that's been built (use the object damaging rules for that)
I've run a few campaigns were the big bad seemed a little boring and did nothing much except bonk. My first solution was to throw more abilities (legendary/lair actions). It was about a year and half ago when I learned what action economy was. For those who don't know what action economy is it's how many actions each side of combat has. For example if a level ten party of five is fighting one adult red wyrm the wrym has stronger damage but has a lower action economy. The wrym can do a lot of damage on his turn but when it's over he is taking a long interrupted blow of damage from five players. You might think the simple solution is to throw minions into combat. The problem with that is it's boring and doesn't force the players to think about their actions. This is why I use spellcasters as big bads for most of my campaigns. Or more specifically abjurers. This is so I can separate my party with barriers and walls. By doing this you are forcing their actions to be focused on them rather the big bad. This is especially useful when you have one super powerful character. You should take careful considerate on who you separate from the party and how many characters you separate. This is a awesome strategy because it stresses out your players and their actions finally have consequences. Please, tell me how you run big bads.
I like the advice.
I for one think all Big Bads are either meant to be stand-alone challenges by themselves allowing off-turn abilities that hamper the group (ie. legendary or Villain actions).
Or the big bad is tough but with his other troops as you described becomes a real challenge that requires a group to allocate attacks or spells to other targets who are hampering the party.
I propose an additional challenge which could be the environment as well. One where the Big Bad is familiar and not affected by the realm around it but the group could be affected in negative ways. ie. room is on fire or freezing or flooded or being sucked into a void... (Insert whatever reason you want here.) to name a few ideas. This could potentially do the same thing for the battle.
Epic battles should be epic. Even to the death of players. Muhahahahaha!... oh sorry, getting carried away.
I live my life like a West Marches campaign, A swirling vortex of Ambitions and Insecurities.
That's a great point. I love it when the majority of the struggle in boss fights isn't even the boss but the environment around it. It just adds that extra spice to combat. I am commissioning a Minecraft campaign for my brother, and one thing I really wanted to emphasize is the deep dark and how it's environment is just as dangerous as the warden itself.
In my experience, solving the big bad problem with things like walls winds up with players who are frustrated and annoyed because they can't actually engage in the combat. I would say the big things are
1) Present the Players a Distraction: Even if it is only for a round or two, add an element that might cause players to spend part of the action economy on an affect that may or may not affect the outcome of the battle. Some examples are an object that shimmers when the boss takes damage (resulting in the the boss appearing to half any damage they take), stone creatures that move into the path of or obstruct the vision of the characters, or a structure that shoots fire in a cone AOE. Make the players think that destroying these objects might be needed to complete the task. Now, if they do, you should give them some benefit, but that benefit can vary based on the design. The point is if characters are using actions to take out elements they are not actively attacking the boss monster.
2) Design Reactions for the Boss: On one attack per round they can transfer the damage to a creature within 5ft of it. If a creature they can within 60ft they cause the caster to roll on the wild magic table. One a hit by a melee attack they can teleport up to 15ft to an open space. And that is not considering some of the existing spells and monster features that use a BA you can alter the character. Using a power reaction will cause the players to reevaluate their tactics.
3) Legendary Actions and Lair Actions: Level dependent, but something to always to consider. Especially the Liar Actions. Not only does this add some creative challenges to the encounter but experience players may realize and propose strategies to draw the monster away from the lair. A successfully executed player strategy is usually received very well pos-encounter.
4) Think 3-Dimensionally: Bosses can burrow, climb, fly, leap, or swim. For the players to plan actions base on how the boss can maneuver throughout the room.
5) Give the Boss a Weakness: If a boss flies, then track how many points of damage it takes during its turn and if they exceed a certain number they fall prone to the ground. If the spellcaster deals a certain type of damage on a failed save then attacks have advantage for the remainder of the round. This seems like it is making it easier on the players, and potentially it can, but the trade off here is if they realize a particular attack can result in a benefit to the party now the players actively adjust how they attack it. That means maybe they cast a spell challenging a bosses highest save modifier risking the successful save v. additional benefits if it fails. Or the Barbarian realize that Grappling the boss means it has to use a legendary act to get free thus robbing the boss of an attack option. The point here is entice the players to make attacks that are less conservative under the premise that a large payoff might incur.
The only time i will use the BBEG in fight scenario is when i want to make the party think they have beaten them only for it to come out later that they have been played for fools or if i want the campaign to end.
Other than that, the BBEG is really just a tool for the DM to add depth to the story.
While the PC's are doing one thing the BBEG is either preparing other things or their organization is planning and implementing other schemes some of which may be targeting the players maybe not to physically harm them but attacking their credibility locally or implicating them in a crime. sometimes the BBEG will blackmail people to hire the PCs to do things they might not do if BBEG were to try to hire them directly. Sometimes the BBEG 's goals will coincide with the party's and sometimes not. There may come a time where the BBEG has to go to the party because the situation is serious enough that they have to put aside their animosity out of enlightened self-interest and there might be a time the party has to swallow their pride and ask the BBEG for assistance.
tl;dr the Big bad evil guy is way more versatile than just its use as a fight.
Just published a map on DriveThruRPG The Forgotten Temple
Step 1: Have illusionist wizard BBEG
Step 2: Cast Mirage Arcane on the area, making it look identical to what it already is so they don't see it ahead of time with Truesight
Step 3: First action is to rearrange pieces of the terrain (using Malleable Illusions, absolutely give this one the PC ability) to split the party up and keep them away from the BBEG until he/she's ready for them
Step 4: Fight each player 1v1 until they can break through the terrain that's been built (use the object damaging rules for that)
Just hope they don't think of Dispel Magic.
This is good advice but Im bad at DMing. :)