I’m writing my first campaign and I need help coming up with a final boss. The whole quest is to track down a magic door that leads to a pocket universe where there’s a magical item that will grant a wish to the party but I need a boss to be protecting this item. I have everything else planned out but I need a final boss for it.
Might be stereotypical, but what about a bound Djinni? It could be bound to protect the item, but it only obeys the binding spell to the letter of the law and would rather be free and will actually help the party get the item if they can figure out a loophole. Depending on how clever your players are you can make it harder or easier (I would err on the slightly easier side or risk frustrating the party). Like if you don't want to make it too challenging, allow the Djinn to talk freely about the binding spell and it's commands. If you want to make it harder, make one of the commands be that it cannot tell anyone about its commands, but it can signal in subtle ways if the party guesses correctly.
If they can't figure it out the Djin will just use Create Whirlwind to push them out of the chamber, only resorting to combat if they resist to strenuously.
Yeah what the "boss" is is really dependent on what level the party is going to be at for this final encounter. But if we're just talking cool stuff, you mentioned pocket dimension, make the site the lair of a sphinx who can then mess with time and space with its lair actions in a completely non lethal fashion like TimCurtin recommends.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Sphynxes and Coatl, depending on level, are set up to be guardians of items like this. A sphynx could be very interestingl. It wouldn't necessarily have to be resolved by combat, of course: a sphynx stereotypically asks riddles, and with its plane-shifting abilities could easily set a series of tests to see if the characters are "worthy." Depends of course on what your players would enjoy. Will they view anything other than a grand finale battle with full fireworks as anticlimactic, or would they rather have a RP-heavy session in which they win by each resolving their personal issues and proving their moral right to pass? Another option, if you have a villain(s) who has been an antagonist for the PCs for a long time: they are racing the PCs for the item, which is protected by an elaborate trap system. The villains of course have a head start. This leads to a running fight with an entity or entities with whom they have a history, on a battlefield that shifts, has hazards (swinging blades! rolling boulders! pits to avoid! dramatically tilting floors!), and where victory can be achieved either by defeating the enemy or by getting to the item first and getting out intact. Ideally the item changes hands several times in the course of the fight. Give the rogue a chance to show off those sleight of hand skills, and the battlemaster to show off that disarm maneuver, and the arcane caster to put that misty step or spider climb to good use. Get in a good villain monologue while grasping the item. Even contemplate the possibility of the villain getting the wish if the PCs cannot manage to stop them, and dying spectacularly as they wish for something utterly hubristic that backfires in epic fashion (see Gollum, Midas, other examples too numerous to mention).
I’m writing my first campaign and I need help coming up with a final boss. The whole quest is to track down a magic door that leads to a pocket universe where there’s a magical item that will grant a wish to the party but I need a boss to be protecting this item. I have everything else planned out but I need a final boss for it.
Ideas please.
Might be stereotypical, but what about a bound Djinni? It could be bound to protect the item, but it only obeys the binding spell to the letter of the law and would rather be free and will actually help the party get the item if they can figure out a loophole. Depending on how clever your players are you can make it harder or easier (I would err on the slightly easier side or risk frustrating the party). Like if you don't want to make it too challenging, allow the Djinn to talk freely about the binding spell and it's commands. If you want to make it harder, make one of the commands be that it cannot tell anyone about its commands, but it can signal in subtle ways if the party guesses correctly.
If they can't figure it out the Djin will just use Create Whirlwind to push them out of the chamber, only resorting to combat if they resist to strenuously.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Look into a monster called Spell Weaver. They could cast multiple spells at once. Not sure if it made into 5e.
Something that doesn't need to do damage, just all really frustrating defense that just keeps your players inches away from getting their wish!
It depends on the level.
One idea could be that a powerful construct is guarding the item and the item is in the construct.
Yeah what the "boss" is is really dependent on what level the party is going to be at for this final encounter. But if we're just talking cool stuff, you mentioned pocket dimension, make the site the lair of a sphinx who can then mess with time and space with its lair actions in a completely non lethal fashion like TimCurtin recommends.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Sphynxes and Coatl, depending on level, are set up to be guardians of items like this. A sphynx could be very interestingl. It wouldn't necessarily have to be resolved by combat, of course: a sphynx stereotypically asks riddles, and with its plane-shifting abilities could easily set a series of tests to see if the characters are "worthy." Depends of course on what your players would enjoy. Will they view anything other than a grand finale battle with full fireworks as anticlimactic, or would they rather have a RP-heavy session in which they win by each resolving their personal issues and proving their moral right to pass? Another option, if you have a villain(s) who has been an antagonist for the PCs for a long time: they are racing the PCs for the item, which is protected by an elaborate trap system. The villains of course have a head start. This leads to a running fight with an entity or entities with whom they have a history, on a battlefield that shifts, has hazards (swinging blades! rolling boulders! pits to avoid! dramatically tilting floors!), and where victory can be achieved either by defeating the enemy or by getting to the item first and getting out intact. Ideally the item changes hands several times in the course of the fight. Give the rogue a chance to show off those sleight of hand skills, and the battlemaster to show off that disarm maneuver, and the arcane caster to put that misty step or spider climb to good use. Get in a good villain monologue while grasping the item. Even contemplate the possibility of the villain getting the wish if the PCs cannot manage to stop them, and dying spectacularly as they wish for something utterly hubristic that backfires in epic fashion (see Gollum, Midas, other examples too numerous to mention).