If the party are always doing an Alpha Strike, and they always win because of the way that encounters are structured, then they'll keep using Alpha Strike as a tactic.
As mentioned, multiple opponents is probably the easiest way to go. That doesn't mean that you have to throw a bunch of easy encounters on your players before theboss battle but if the boss shows up alone then they deserve to die horribly in the first few round. Now if the boss has a few trusted sidekicks around then it's a completely different situation.
Mix it up a bit. A coupl eof tough sidekicks and a handful of easy to kill minions. Being able to do 50 points of damage in one attack is kind of wasted if the thing you hit only has 12 HP. And sure, you can ignore that minion but then it might stab your cleric for 2HP causing a concentration check that might drop the cleric's Spirit Guardians. Or it might flank the paladin for advantage. Combine that with a few traps, some cover and some tricks from the boss and you'll have a boss that will hopefully survive longer without having to be a HP sponge.
I want the battles to be challenging enough to be worth the effort but I don't want to have to soften the party up half a dozen times before each boss.
I hate to be mean, but I think that's the wrong approach. Look at a movie or a book. The protagonist doesn't have just one fight in the entire movie, they have lots of fights, against tougher and tougher enemies, before meeting the final enemy at the end of the movie.
Ah-nold didn't just fight the Predator once - he had some fights against the insurgents, some fights with his party against the Predator, then a one-on-one fight with the Predator where he got the stuffing kicked out of him so he had to run away and think smarter, then the final fight.
Part of the point of random encounters is to drain party resources, to force players decisions. "Do we use lots of resources in this fight, or not use the resources and get damaged, meaning we approach the next fight with our resources intact but damaged?"
The characters also shouldn't know how many fights they are going to be in before meeting the boss encounter, forcing them to carefully budget their resources (again, forcing them to make decisions - which is a fundamental part of a game).
Once in while, the boss fight should just be plain missing. Leave the players searching around saying, "Huh? Where's the boss?"
lol my favorite one is giving the boss a reactive ability that causes an attacker to recoil the damage dealt that resets with a legendary action. Now they gotta regroup and figure out how to bait the reaction to deal their damage, all while managing the boss's attacks as well. Watching a paladin go first and pop a crit smite into the reflect shield and obliterate themselves? Priceless.
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Another thing that can be done is having the enemy take the fight to them, attacking when they're unprepared.
If the party are always doing an Alpha Strike, and they always win because of the way that encounters are structured, then they'll keep using Alpha Strike as a tactic.
As mentioned, multiple opponents is probably the easiest way to go. That doesn't mean that you have to throw a bunch of easy encounters on your players before theboss battle but if the boss shows up alone then they deserve to die horribly in the first few round. Now if the boss has a few trusted sidekicks around then it's a completely different situation.
Mix it up a bit. A coupl eof tough sidekicks and a handful of easy to kill minions. Being able to do 50 points of damage in one attack is kind of wasted if the thing you hit only has 12 HP. And sure, you can ignore that minion but then it might stab your cleric for 2HP causing a concentration check that might drop the cleric's Spirit Guardians. Or it might flank the paladin for advantage. Combine that with a few traps, some cover and some tricks from the boss and you'll have a boss that will hopefully survive longer without having to be a HP sponge.
I hate to be mean, but I think that's the wrong approach. Look at a movie or a book. The protagonist doesn't have just one fight in the entire movie, they have lots of fights, against tougher and tougher enemies, before meeting the final enemy at the end of the movie.
Ah-nold didn't just fight the Predator once - he had some fights against the insurgents, some fights with his party against the Predator, then a one-on-one fight with the Predator where he got the stuffing kicked out of him so he had to run away and think smarter, then the final fight.
Part of the point of random encounters is to drain party resources, to force players decisions. "Do we use lots of resources in this fight, or not use the resources and get damaged, meaning we approach the next fight with our resources intact but damaged?"
The characters also shouldn't know how many fights they are going to be in before meeting the boss encounter, forcing them to carefully budget their resources (again, forcing them to make decisions - which is a fundamental part of a game).
Once in while, the boss fight should just be plain missing. Leave the players searching around saying, "Huh? Where's the boss?"
lol my favorite one is giving the boss a reactive ability that causes an attacker to recoil the damage dealt that resets with a legendary action. Now they gotta regroup and figure out how to bait the reaction to deal their damage, all while managing the boss's attacks as well. Watching a paladin go first and pop a crit smite into the reflect shield and obliterate themselves? Priceless.