This is for a high level game (Level 14). There are 4 bosses followed by the biggest of the BBEG. Here are the themes for each of them, I will spare you their long names and give their themes instead of brevity's sake. Ideally I'd like each of these to be unique and require players to be clever. This is a party of 5 players.
Opportunist- I want this guy to be themed around preying off of people's desires, and probably have traps punishing people for their tendencies well before the players actually meet him. A rigged chest here, an endangered family that turns out to be Rakshasas, etc. etc. For the actual fight, I am considering making it so that any time the player moves they get opportunity attacked, along with some machinations that makes moving around for them a necessity and a cost ratio issue.
Crazy- This one is themed around being incredibly intelligent but also very much insane. Lots of saves based off of mental stats here for the party. A dangerous gimmick I am considering is forcing the players to announce what they will do on their turn at the beginning of each round, and the boss having a chance to prepare methods to thwart or punish their actions before the round begins. This boss is definitely more Eldritch in nature.
Dreams- This boss is going to be one that can only be damaged in a character's dreams, meaning that it will be several instances of a one-on-one fight rather than 5 on 1. Additionally, it may not even be obvious that the player is encountering an enemy in his dreams until they take some grievous harm; this boss won't fight to 100 to 0, but whittle down their abilities to fight in the long run before making an official appearance and trying to finish them off.
Life and Death- This boss is centered around the cycle of death and birth, sort of a fertility goddess gone wrong. I have few ideas for this one.
So I'm a little confused/concerned about the Crazy Boss knowing what the players would do at the start of each round. While some combat is very planned out, a lot of the time players will adapt what they are doing with their turn based on what happened in the round. So if the boss tries to adapt at the start of a round can players adapt to what they do? Or would you require them to stick with what they said at the start of the round? And when in the round does this come into play? If the boss goes in the middle or even at the end of the round based on initiative order does he get to adapt at the start of the round? At a predetermined time in the round? Or only on his turn? It is something to consider because if he learns everything the players will do but is last in the initiative order then that gimmick could become a lot less dangerous.
The PCs would reveal their what they would do on their turn at the top of each round, and the BBEG gets to adapt to this regardless of where he is in initiative order. And the party members will be bound by what they say, and would be punished worse for not doing what they said they would be doing.
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This is for a high level game (Level 14). There are 4 bosses followed by the biggest of the BBEG. Here are the themes for each of them, I will spare you their long names and give their themes instead of brevity's sake. Ideally I'd like each of these to be unique and require players to be clever. This is a party of 5 players.
Opportunist- I want this guy to be themed around preying off of people's desires, and probably have traps punishing people for their tendencies well before the players actually meet him. A rigged chest here, an endangered family that turns out to be Rakshasas, etc. etc. For the actual fight, I am considering making it so that any time the player moves they get opportunity attacked, along with some machinations that makes moving around for them a necessity and a cost ratio issue.
Crazy- This one is themed around being incredibly intelligent but also very much insane. Lots of saves based off of mental stats here for the party. A dangerous gimmick I am considering is forcing the players to announce what they will do on their turn at the beginning of each round, and the boss having a chance to prepare methods to thwart or punish their actions before the round begins. This boss is definitely more Eldritch in nature.
Dreams- This boss is going to be one that can only be damaged in a character's dreams, meaning that it will be several instances of a one-on-one fight rather than 5 on 1. Additionally, it may not even be obvious that the player is encountering an enemy in his dreams until they take some grievous harm; this boss won't fight to 100 to 0, but whittle down their abilities to fight in the long run before making an official appearance and trying to finish them off.
Life and Death- This boss is centered around the cycle of death and birth, sort of a fertility goddess gone wrong. I have few ideas for this one.
So I'm a little confused/concerned about the Crazy Boss knowing what the players would do at the start of each round. While some combat is very planned out, a lot of the time players will adapt what they are doing with their turn based on what happened in the round. So if the boss tries to adapt at the start of a round can players adapt to what they do? Or would you require them to stick with what they said at the start of the round? And when in the round does this come into play? If the boss goes in the middle or even at the end of the round based on initiative order does he get to adapt at the start of the round? At a predetermined time in the round? Or only on his turn? It is something to consider because if he learns everything the players will do but is last in the initiative order then that gimmick could become a lot less dangerous.
The PCs would reveal their what they would do on their turn at the top of each round, and the BBEG gets to adapt to this regardless of where he is in initiative order. And the party members will be bound by what they say, and would be punished worse for not doing what they said they would be doing.