So my idea is a gigantic (150 ft. long?) demonic centipede that shoots flaming oil from it's mouth (fireballs essentially but they leave a burning area behind) and it creates shockwaves and stuff. Also, you have to destroy it from its tail to its head 10 foot chunk by ten foot chunk because otherwise its plating is so thick its practically invulnerable and the tail end is the only part that isn't fully covered. Every time you deal enough damage to the end chunk, it ruptures and falls off, cracking the plating on the next chunk and allowing you to damage it. I wan't it to be a challenge for level 9-10 party of four as a climatic fight to save a town from this evil demonic creation. The only problem is I have no idea how to make, balance, or run this kind of thing, and some advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you!
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DM: He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones.
Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
Down, down, down the road, down the Witches Road
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
Well... the largest issue I see is balancing against the lethality of the thing. What you're describing sounds like a pretty high-end monster, at least from a size perspective, as most creatures that size have health and damage that would pretty easily clap a party of level 9-10 players. A Purple Worm is a good comparison for something of a similar size, and it's CR 15. A centipede of that size should have a ton of hp, Strength and Con out the wazoo, and a swallow ability, for sure. Couple that with the fire breath, and I don't see a way to make a traditional battle not a three-turn TPK.
That said, nothing says this has to be a traditional battle. I'd collaborate with your players on this one. I assume they know they're going to have this showdown. Have them spend a session or two preparing with the townsfolk for the creature's arrival. They can set traps, they can establish healing waystations, they can build barricades and choke points. They might train a militia to distract the creature or a fire brigade to counter its fire breath. While doing this, you start building out your combat session around the decisions they make. On game day, give your players a map of the town, set up with a series of "nodes" that represent the various preparations they've built. They lead the creature from node to node, triggering traps, engaging with firefighters who eliminate the fire breath, swinging by the local church for some quick heals, etc. Each time they stop at a node, they have to destroy a segment of the monster before they can move on.
As for the monster itself, I'd look at something like a Purple Worm as a starting point. Probably cut waaaay down on the damage and the sting. Probably could add something like a Young Red Dragon-equivalent fire breath (it looks like a lethal amount of damage, but if the players have time to prepare, they should be able to find a way to counter it). If you want it to stick to things, you could drop the base damage and then say if they fail a save, they catch fire and must spend an action to douse themselves or take additional fire damage every turn.
I think the issue will be the size. At 150’ long, that would be 15 10’ increments. Will you allow damage to spill over? If you say each chuck takes 50 hp to destroy, and the party does 52, does the extra 2 roll into the next chuck or just kind of vanish?
If you don’t let it roll over, you are probably looking at the party destroying 1-2 chunks per round, which would means a 7-10 round fight. That would be pretty epic, but it would take a long time, and once fights go longer than 5 rounds, things usually start going badly for the party (and can get a little frustrating for the players irl, though destroying chunks will help show progress so that might not be as bad) after 10 rounds, lots of spells would stop (all the duration 1 minute ones) and then things are going to be really rough.
So I’d say maybe treat it like a math problem. Figure out your party’s average damage per round, and use that to set the thing’s hit points so the fight will last however long you want it to last.
I’d also make that fireball thing a recharge power. And you’ll want to give it some legendary resistance, otherwise hold monster ends the fight in the first round. And some legendary actions to break up the character’s turns. I’d probably give it a burrow speed, without the tunnel building trait, and tremor sense as that can really be fun (for the DM) since the thing will have total cover while underground, but it could still rise up from underneath to attack.
I’d also think about it trying to flee. If it gets knocked down to only 1-3 segments, it would probably want to run.
DM: He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones.
Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
Down, down, down the road, down the Witches Road
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
To follow up on a point earlier: the most interesting part of a boss fight is generally figuring things out; once you understand its move set, the rest of the fight can easily turn into a slog. As such, I recommend designing epic fights to have phases (like video game bosses), where each phase lasts no more than 2-3 rounds before you mix things up. For example, you could have additional effects trigger when five segments have been destroyed, and again when ten segments have been destroyed (at ten segments destroyed, I might cause it to metamorphose into something else -- say, a giant moth-demon -- and leave the entire segment destruction shtick behind).
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Hello,
So my idea is a gigantic (150 ft. long?) demonic centipede that shoots flaming oil from it's mouth (fireballs essentially but they leave a burning area behind) and it creates shockwaves and stuff. Also, you have to destroy it from its tail to its head 10 foot chunk by ten foot chunk because otherwise its plating is so thick its practically invulnerable and the tail end is the only part that isn't fully covered. Every time you deal enough damage to the end chunk, it ruptures and falls off, cracking the plating on the next chunk and allowing you to damage it. I wan't it to be a challenge for level 9-10 party of four as a climatic fight to save a town from this evil demonic creation. The only problem is I have no idea how to make, balance, or run this kind of thing, and some advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you!
DM: He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones.
Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
Down, down, down the road, down the Witches Road
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
Well... the largest issue I see is balancing against the lethality of the thing. What you're describing sounds like a pretty high-end monster, at least from a size perspective, as most creatures that size have health and damage that would pretty easily clap a party of level 9-10 players. A Purple Worm is a good comparison for something of a similar size, and it's CR 15. A centipede of that size should have a ton of hp, Strength and Con out the wazoo, and a swallow ability, for sure. Couple that with the fire breath, and I don't see a way to make a traditional battle not a three-turn TPK.
That said, nothing says this has to be a traditional battle. I'd collaborate with your players on this one. I assume they know they're going to have this showdown. Have them spend a session or two preparing with the townsfolk for the creature's arrival. They can set traps, they can establish healing waystations, they can build barricades and choke points. They might train a militia to distract the creature or a fire brigade to counter its fire breath. While doing this, you start building out your combat session around the decisions they make. On game day, give your players a map of the town, set up with a series of "nodes" that represent the various preparations they've built. They lead the creature from node to node, triggering traps, engaging with firefighters who eliminate the fire breath, swinging by the local church for some quick heals, etc. Each time they stop at a node, they have to destroy a segment of the monster before they can move on.
As for the monster itself, I'd look at something like a Purple Worm as a starting point. Probably cut waaaay down on the damage and the sting. Probably could add something like a Young Red Dragon-equivalent fire breath (it looks like a lethal amount of damage, but if the players have time to prepare, they should be able to find a way to counter it). If you want it to stick to things, you could drop the base damage and then say if they fail a save, they catch fire and must spend an action to douse themselves or take additional fire damage every turn.
I think the issue will be the size. At 150’ long, that would be 15 10’ increments. Will you allow damage to spill over? If you say each chuck takes 50 hp to destroy, and the party does 52, does the extra 2 roll into the next chuck or just kind of vanish?
If you don’t let it roll over, you are probably looking at the party destroying 1-2 chunks per round, which would means a 7-10 round fight. That would be pretty epic, but it would take a long time, and once fights go longer than 5 rounds, things usually start going badly for the party (and can get a little frustrating for the players irl, though destroying chunks will help show progress so that might not be as bad) after 10 rounds, lots of spells would stop (all the duration 1 minute ones) and then things are going to be really rough.
So I’d say maybe treat it like a math problem. Figure out your party’s average damage per round, and use that to set the thing’s hit points so the fight will last however long you want it to last.
I’d also make that fireball thing a recharge power. And you’ll want to give it some legendary resistance, otherwise hold monster ends the fight in the first round. And some legendary actions to break up the character’s turns. I’d probably give it a burrow speed, without the tunnel building trait, and tremor sense as that can really be fun (for the DM) since the thing will have total cover while underground, but it could still rise up from underneath to attack.
I’d also think about it trying to flee. If it gets knocked down to only 1-3 segments, it would probably want to run.
Thanks, these suggestions are good
DM: He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones.
Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
Down, down, down the road, down the Witches Road
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
To follow up on a point earlier: the most interesting part of a boss fight is generally figuring things out; once you understand its move set, the rest of the fight can easily turn into a slog. As such, I recommend designing epic fights to have phases (like video game bosses), where each phase lasts no more than 2-3 rounds before you mix things up. For example, you could have additional effects trigger when five segments have been destroyed, and again when ten segments have been destroyed (at ten segments destroyed, I might cause it to metamorphose into something else -- say, a giant moth-demon -- and leave the entire segment destruction shtick behind).