Frostburn. All the attacks of the Cage apply a stack of Frost or Burn, causing different effects. Frost decreases the targets movement speed by 10 ft per stack, up to a maximum of three stacks. Burn deals 2 points of Fire damage at the start of the targets turn, and damage increases to 3 points when at maximum stacks, and can stack up to three times.
When hit by a Frost attack, if a player has any number of stacks of Burn, they take increased damage. Burn stacks are removed and players cannot be burned until their next turn. Additionally, the damage is both Cold and Fire damage, and to do this, the damage should be rolled, then cut in half rounded up. The higher number is the Cold damage, and the lower number is the Fire damage.
1 stack of Burn - 1d6+1 Cold and Fire damage.
2 stacks of Burn - 1d8+2 Cold and Fire damage.
3 stacks of Burn - 1d10+5 Cold and Fire damage.
Core Overhaul. When the Cage hits 20 hit points, it activates it's Self-Destruction Protocols, giving the players 2 turns to destroy it before it blows up. If the Cage blows up, they lose the Heart of The Cage. The Cage explodes and deals 4d10+Str Fire Damage to all creatures inside it's lair.
Unique Boss. This enemy has 2 actions, 1 bonus action, and 1 reaction per turn.
Flame-thrower. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 60ft line. Hit: 6 (1d8+3) Fire damage. / Shoots out a line of fire. Applies the Burn debuff. (Reference - Frostburn Trait)
Frost-thrower. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 30 ft cone. Hit: 6 (1d8+3) Ice damage. / Shoots out a burst of liquid nitrogen in a cone. Applies the Frost Debuff. (Reference - Frostburn Trait)
Rain of Flame. Ranged Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, range 15 ft circle/120ft targeting range. Hit: 3 (1d6+3) Fire damage. / Using both of it's cannons, the Cage fires upwards six times from both cannons, firing a total of 12 firey projectiles. On the start of its next turn, expending its reaction for that round, the projectiles fall back down, dealing damage to all targets in the area. Area markers can be placed down on the battle mat to show where the projectiles will fall, if you want to add in more fun boss mechnic things. Applies Burn debuff. (Reference - Frostburn Trait)
Slice of Ice. Ranged Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, range 180° degree arc/60ft directional range. Hit: 10 (1d10+3) Ice damage. / The Cage transforms one of its arms into a giant blade, charging it with frost energy. At the start of it's next turn, expending it's reaction for that round, the Cage slashes forward in the direction it is facing, dealing Ice damage to all targets in the range. Applies the Frost Debuff. (Reference - Frostburn Trait)
Oppurtunity Attack. Makes an attack with either Frost-thrower or Flame-thrower.
Description
A gigantic, stationary, warforged factory unit. It wields Frost and Flame magic in order to maintain the factory's cooling and heating needs for its machinery. It wields a Cooling unit and a Heating unit (Cannons) on both it's arms, and can change one of its arms to a blade if there is a defense needed.
For a more helpful physical description of what it looks like, it is inspired by the boss, The Fourth Chorus, from Hollow Knight: Silksong.
In it's lair, an abandoned warforged factory ideally, it cannot move physically but can rotate a full 360°, and clarification for that is needed due to some its attacks.
The Cage automatically attacks any target not identified as a Warforged, or someone who can convince it to calm down beforehand.
This boss is made for ideally ~level 4 parties, but feel free to make changes to the bosses stats for higher level parties.
Recommended, increase the damage of each of the Cage's attacks and traits for every one or two levels of the party higher than level 4.
For example, a level 12 party facing it would have these modifications:
Flame/Frost-thrower would deal 5d8+2 Fire/Cold damage.
Burn would deal 10 at the start of the targets turn.
Of course, feel free to make any and all modifications to the stats and damage of the Cage depending on the level and strength of your party.
Lair and Lair Actions
The Cage defends an abandoned Warforged Factory, preventing and eliminating all that trespass on the property. Abandoned to time, the Cage is rusted along with the pipes and cogs and building of it's home. The factory section in which the Cage is housed is circular, surrounding the construct in a full 360° circle expanding up to 120ft in all directions. The factory has a base floor and upper floors the players can climb on to, and which are correlated with the constructs Lair Action.
Lair Actions
On the Cage's turn, it can spend it's Bonus Action to activate it's Lair Trait.
Lair Trait - Factory Smith. Should the players be fighting the Cage in it's lair, and abandoned warforaged factory, at the start of each of the Cage's turn, roll 1d4. On 1's and 2's, the floor of the arena is frozen over, dealing 1d4 Ice damage and applying the Frost debuff to any players on the floor. On 3's and 4's, the upper floors of the arena burst out in flames, dealing 1d4 Fire damage and applying the Burn debuff to any players on the upper floor.
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Posted Oct 18, 2025Author Note: This is one of many ideas I've had for Homebrew Boss Type enemies with their own unique mechanics that help make combat more interactive and enjoyable. Please let me know any suggestions of making it feel better for players (with justification of course).
:)