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Tell me about your Bossfights! What went right, what went wrong?
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<blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 9241011" data-attributes="member: 9254"><p>Boss fights have to be powerful enough to challenge the party. One side can be forcing a long attrition (aka a lot of hp), alternately the bbeg can be nearly unhittable (AC 90), you could have chaff (minions), some environmental constraint that limits the number of attackers, or some event that keeps some PCs out of the fight, like a Temple-of-Doom-esque cage of orphans being slowly lowered into lava.</p><p></p><p>There is one other option to make a boss fight more difficult: make it a series of battles. Have the bbeg run away. If the high priest has a Blur effect the whole fight and retreats, can the PCs recognize them in a mob of lesser priests if they ditch the giant pointy hat and turn off the blur? </p><p></p><p>If it takes 10 minutes to catch the bbeg, the party's buff spells are gone. Trap doors, secret passages, a rope & counterweight, a bodyguard that literally carry them out of combat (a giant bird maybe), a potion of water breathing and an underwater tunnel plus just enough minions to keep the party from resting and a few simple traps that keep them from blindly charging forward without arriving at the fight bloodied. </p><p></p><p>In the outdoors, never underestimate two or three sneaky npcs with longbows or heavy crossbows to slow a party down. They can snipe at long range from total concealment (which counters the long range disadvantage), blocking rest and irritating the PCs. Especially the unarmored wizard you keep shooting. Add a hunting horn to make the PCs paranoid.</p><p></p><p>Underground or indoors, be prepared to be irritating. Think filling hallways with smoke. Not magic smoke, just smoke. A couple bundles of grass thrown on a fire. You're buying time, not going for the kill.</p><p></p><p>You could give the NPC a small cache of expendables at each fight. They aren't carrying twelve potions of healing, but there are four in each cache (good for 84hp in total). This one has a potion of water breathing near a canal, that one has a potion of fire breathing in a cotton warehouse, the last one has a featherfall-token and a window to a sheer 60ft cliff and a river...assuming the water breathing potion is still working.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="kigmatzomat, post: 9241011, member: 9254"] Boss fights have to be powerful enough to challenge the party. One side can be forcing a long attrition (aka a lot of hp), alternately the bbeg can be nearly unhittable (AC 90), you could have chaff (minions), some environmental constraint that limits the number of attackers, or some event that keeps some PCs out of the fight, like a Temple-of-Doom-esque cage of orphans being slowly lowered into lava. There is one other option to make a boss fight more difficult: make it a series of battles. Have the bbeg run away. If the high priest has a Blur effect the whole fight and retreats, can the PCs recognize them in a mob of lesser priests if they ditch the giant pointy hat and turn off the blur? If it takes 10 minutes to catch the bbeg, the party's buff spells are gone. Trap doors, secret passages, a rope & counterweight, a bodyguard that literally carry them out of combat (a giant bird maybe), a potion of water breathing and an underwater tunnel plus just enough minions to keep the party from resting and a few simple traps that keep them from blindly charging forward without arriving at the fight bloodied. In the outdoors, never underestimate two or three sneaky npcs with longbows or heavy crossbows to slow a party down. They can snipe at long range from total concealment (which counters the long range disadvantage), blocking rest and irritating the PCs. Especially the unarmored wizard you keep shooting. Add a hunting horn to make the PCs paranoid. Underground or indoors, be prepared to be irritating. Think filling hallways with smoke. Not magic smoke, just smoke. A couple bundles of grass thrown on a fire. You're buying time, not going for the kill. You could give the NPC a small cache of expendables at each fight. They aren't carrying twelve potions of healing, but there are four in each cache (good for 84hp in total). This one has a potion of water breathing near a canal, that one has a potion of fire breathing in a cotton warehouse, the last one has a featherfall-token and a window to a sheer 60ft cliff and a river...assuming the water breathing potion is still working. [/QUOTE]
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