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Oslecamo
2009-09-28, 07:56 AM
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg138/oslecamo/Extras/Sanger.jpg
"Tch, adversity only invigorates me more."-Sanger Zonvolt, Grungust O golem rider, temporary BOSS


At the end of every campaign there should be a Big Bad Evil Genius, but untill the party reaches him, there will be lesser commanders, antiheros, corrupted allies and elite minions on their path.

Sometimes, those individuals will dare to face the party by themselves, and instead of being crushed by numbers, their superior devotion to their cause will lend them a massive but temporary burst of power, and allow them to give the party a challenge.


Temporary boss(template)
Recquirements:The TB must fight completely alone. Besides that, any creature can be a TB. From the BBEG's dog to his pet dragon to his evil general, any and all creatures can have their moment of awesome.

Bonuses:
I'll face you all at once!

Many of the temporary boss abilities are based on the number of elements of the party. This includes cohortos, summons and NPC allies who join the fight. We'll refer ourselves to that number by X, where X is the number of creatures the TB is fighting.


The TB doesn't need to be aware of his enemies. Invisible, ethereal, long range scriers, snipers in waiting, ect, all count for X.

If the TB neutralizes enemies(either by killing them or rendering them helpless somehow), he gets weaker as he feels the pressure over him lessen. If the party gets reinforcments, the TB surges forward with his devotion and fights harder than ever on the face of overwhelming defeat

From now on, party member will refer to any independent creature fighting against the TB, including the PCs themselves, summons, cohorts, familiars, ect, ect.

The DM is expected to don't be a jerk and consider anything and everything an enemy to fuel this ability. Swarms count as a single creature each.



At your service!

The TB knows the party is a mighty oponent, and doesn't understimat them for a split second.

Nobody threatened by the TB may do anything defensively. All movement under his threatened area provoke Aoos. Even 5-feet steps and tumble.

In adition, the TB has no limit to the number of Aoos he may do per turn with his normal reach, and he gains a "bonus" reach of +25 feet per each 5 party members(minimum +25 feets) that only works for aoos. The TB can only do X/2 Aoos per round, rounded up, against targets inside his "bonus" reach.




Is this the best you can do?

As the party tries to swarm him/her/it, a TB closes his defences, his senses sharpen to the limit and he attacks whitout holding back anything.

The TB gets a bonus to all his iniative, saves, AC, skills, ability checks and attack bonus of X.

I'll take you all to hell with me!
Version A(more complicated)

Time seems to slow down for the TB, allowing him to counter all of his oponent's movements.

Whenever a party member takes a fullround or standard, he and the TB roll iniative against each other. If the TB rolls more or equal, he can do a partial action himself after the player takes his own action that trigered this. This ability consumes no actual action from the TB.

The TB may choose to take a swift action instead of a partial action.

If a party member takes an immediate action of any kind, the TB may perform an extra move action, in adition to the normal ones from the turn of the player.

This ability doesn't work against a party member who only took move actions or full defense, but it works against readied actions when they are trigered. This ability may only be used X/2, rounded up, times per round.


Version B(more simple)

Time seems to slow down for the TB, allowing him to counter all of his oponent's movements.

At the begining of battle the TB rolls iniative X/2 times, rounded up, and acts on all those iniatives.
pick just one of the above.

There are no second chances!

The TB pushes behind his limits. And of his oponents. Few things are impossible for a cornered warrior.

X times per battle, the TB may ignore any spell, class feature, item, enviroment obstacle or effect for 1 round. This can be activated anytime, but no more than once per round.

For example, the TB could pass trough lava as it was nothing, breack out of a forcecage, or try to dominate monster a player protected by mindblanck. If he has a way to cast dominate monster of course



Not yet! If I can land just one more blow...

Even death will have an hard time geting ahold of a TB. He'll fight with tooth and claw trough the most grievous wounds and the strongest curses.

Upon receiving this template, the TB receives X/2 fate points, rounded down, wich cannot be recovered/changed by any means. If the TB would die, or any other time of his choice, the TB may expend a fate point to remove all harmfull effects from himself, plus restore his HP, negative levels and heal any ability damage/drain by X*10%, rounding up, and then teleport whitout error as the spell(CL=TB CR) to any place in line of sight of at least one party member. The TB can do this even if completely helpless. No dimensional anchor or any other effect, not even the gods themselves, can stop this.


Damn...
Eventually, a TB will be defeated, or forced to retreat. In this case the party should be well rewarded.

Use the base monster's normal CR, but assume that each player defeated it alone, aka multiply the exp each player receives by X.

If the party actually managed to kill the TB, then they'll soon be contacted by either neutral familiars/friends or even some divine agent who'll offer to buy the bodily remains of the TB for a price of X times the standard treasure a creature of his CR should drop.

They'll then take the remains and properly bury/enshrine them as a relic in honor of the TB's bravery to the end.

If the DM doesn't feel ok with that, he may reward monetarily the part in any other way he feels it's more adequated.


CR:base creature+4(basically a very hard but winable batle for all the party)

So, what do you think? I created this template for anyone who wishes to throw a single monster at the party and make it challenging.

It also works well if the party sudenly corners an important NPC and you didn't have time to properly pimp it up.

PEACH? Please?

Changelog: v1.1, nerfed I'll take you all to hell with me!, diferent explanation for "Damn..."

v1.3, nerfed all the strongest abilities to just X/2.

The Mentalist
2009-09-28, 09:29 AM
"In adition, the TB has no limit to the number of Aoos he may do per turn, and his melee reach increases by 5*X feets."

Umm... a bit much maybe.

I saw that and thought to myself that this is the template to make a chain lockdown opponent.

------

"Time seems to slow down for the TB, allowing him to counter all of his oponent's movements.

The TB may take a partial action after each party member takes his own actions for the turn. If a party member delays or readies, the TB may choose to take his extra partial action in that moment or when the party member actually acts.

The TB may choose to take a swift action instead of a partial action.

If a party member takes an immediate action of any kind, the TB may perform an extra move action, in adition to the normal ones from the turn of the player."

This is mostly good. Helps the solo monster action economy. But I think you shifted too far the other way. It just gets too many actions.

----

"The TB can do this even if completely helpless. No dimensional anchor or any other effect, not even the gods themselves, can stop this."

Too much again... Not only is this creature tougher than your party but now you have to kill it at least twice. The whole "Gods can't stop it, a bit much as well.

----

If the party actually managed to kill the TB, then the standard treasure is multiplied by X, as the TB's equipment is forever infused with a fraction of his/her owner's awesomess

Why does the loot go up? Does money fall from the sky when you kill him? Is he made of gold?

readsaboutd&d
2009-09-28, 10:18 AM
I agree that he seems a bit overpowered. Assuming he is the same level as the AVP, it gets a bit haywire if he has good reach with all those aoo's and the party is punished a lot for bringing out familiars and stuff. He also has to be fought alot and gets to teleport next to the wizard or whatnot everytime. And it seems mandatory that he incapacitates a few people in the group to beat him. My last point is subjective but I got the impression that you are to make the temporary boss cooler than the BBEG.

Oslecamo
2009-09-28, 11:00 AM
Umm... a bit much maybe.

I saw that and thought to myself that this is the template to make a chain lockdown opponent.

Yeah, that's part of the idea, to make a melee boss kinda viable. Normal reach sucks when the party is flying and teleporting around all the time.



This is mostly good. Helps the solo monster action economy. But I think you shifted too far the other way. It just gets too many actions.


Yes, but notice the actions are after the player acts. So players can set themselves up to minimize this extra actions. Will the TB move after the caster when the big dumb fighter is by his side readying his full attack of DOOM?

Hmm, one thing I think it would work would be to don't make this ability to work if the player took only move actions.

Perhaps a check of any kind? An iniative check every time a player makes a move, and if the TB wins he can do the counter? Hmm, sounds good to me, I'll change it.



Too much again... Not only is this creature tougher than your party but now you have to kill it at least twice. The whole "Gods can't stop it, a bit much as well.

Well, I guess this template is for more optimized games, where the party will be raining huge amounts of damage and all kind of save or dies. Most monsters are just one roll away from geting killed. This makes sure the TB lasts more than one round. Melees can dish out impressive amounts of damage even to high ACs, and the TB doesn't have more HP than normal.

The "Gods can't stop it" it's to prevent players from trying to come up with crazy plans to stop it. Give the poor evil general a chance of glory before death damnit!:smalltongue:



Why does the loot go up? Does money fall from the sky when you kill him? Is he made of gold?

Well yeah that's kinda harder explaining. But the party is expected to burn trough several resources fighting the TB.

I guess that one reasonable explanation would be that altough the body doesn't turn into gold, the familiars/friends/comrades of the TB will be willing to pay good money for their remains. I guess I'll also change that.

readsaboutd&d:Well, I guess there's no problem you aplying this template to the boss himself, but in my opinion true BBEGs always walk around with half a dozen powerfull minions to back him up, so the final battle will be the BBEG mounted on a dragon with his draconic knight retinue or something equally awesome.:smallsmile:

Oslecamo
2009-10-05, 04:18 AM
Bumpy. No more reviews?

Mulletmanalive
2009-10-05, 07:23 AM
What do I think?

Weeeelll...I think you haven't put on a CR modifier; this appears to be a CR +4 template, give or take, as it seems to turn the basic creature into something around 4 times more effective.

I'll judge it based on that; if the reply comes back that its a CR +0 template, expect laughter.

The +X thing makes some sense; i can get behind that.

I'm not really clear as to how the increased Threat range works. I know you've intended it for some kind of 'balance' reason but it would probably be better if he could make unlimited close AoOs and X ranged [30ft] AoOs.

You could probably make his melee potential grater [and avoid flanking easier] if you gave him the ability to move the target 5ft rather than damageing them on AoOs, as this would actually resolve some of the whole 'flanked and ganked' problem with solo monsters.

Beyond that, i'd say that a TB should heal something like Xd10hp, rather than full restore, and should move to just outside the melee reach of all characters. He can still make a break for it if need be then.

Overall, this does seem a little fiddly to implement, with the fluctuating value of X throughout the fight.

Oslecamo
2009-10-05, 12:01 PM
Weeeelll...I think you haven't put on a CR modifier; this appears to be a CR +4 template, give or take, as it seems to turn the basic creature into something around 4 times more effective.

I'll judge it based on that; if the reply comes back that its a CR +0 template, expect laughter.

Well, considering that the template can only be added to a monster fighting alone, and that it basically multiplies his rewards by 4 for a party of 4 players, I guess that's basically saying that it's CR was increased by 4. Except that this way it also works for smaller or bigger parties, since CR starts to get strange results when fighting parties of nonstandard size.




I'm not really clear as to how the increased Threat range works. I know you've intended it for some kind of 'balance' reason but it would probably be better if he could make unlimited close AoOs and X ranged [30ft] AoOs.

Hmm, this sounds like a good idea.



You could probably make his melee potential grater [and avoid flanking easier] if you gave him the ability to move the target 5ft rather than damageing them on AoOs, as this would actually resolve some of the whole 'flanked and ganked' problem with solo monsters.

Altough it would indeed help fight against melee types, with the extra AC, extra actions, and free ressurections, I think the TP last problem is to be ganked by melee dudes(or just give him improved trip and call it a day).



Beyond that, i'd say that a TB should heal something like Xd10hp, rather than full restore, and should move to just outside the melee reach of all characters. He can still make a break for it if need be then.

Hmm, also a very interesting idea. How about a percentage of the total HP?

But debuffs will need to go. It's kinda useless to regain your life if you're still paralyzed by magic.



Overall, this does seem a little fiddly to implement, with the fluctuating value of X throughout the fight.
It's to give the party a fair chance. If they start losing members, at least the TP also gets weaker, meaning the battle isn't over yet.

Mulletmanalive
2009-10-05, 03:06 PM
I've rechecked and i was correct first time; at no point does it say what CR this template applies. If it multiplies the rewards by the X value, i'd suggest saying so.

I mentioned the Knockback because your previous comment was about this template being able to defend itself against multiple melee attackers. Being able to prevent flanks, rather than deal damage in exchange for them was an effective, if not deadly response to that.

A standard thing for game bosses is that they dispell everything affecting them, good or ill, when they begin a new round of attacking. I'm torn, because it would be simpler to adjudicate a clean sweep, while a simple auto-dispel is fairer to the players; this template will really do a number on prepared spells [not that i consider that a bad thing personally, I wish it was easier to cause Wizards to juice...then again, i wish players would actually go with a plot rather than insisting on resting all the time]

Glimbur
2009-10-05, 03:13 PM
Too much reach added. Combine that with "no anything defensively" and it becomes untenable to be a caster.

Comes back to life too many times. I'd suggest one or two fate points instead of X.

Outside people buying the body is weird. I see that you're trying to increase treasure because the encounter is extra difficult, but leave that up to the DM.

"I'll take you all to hell with me!" is too good. Consider giving the TB two separate initiative rolls instead, and taking two rounds of action every turn.

Oslecamo
2009-10-05, 04:19 PM
I've rechecked and i was correct first time; at no point does it say what CR this template applies. If it multiplies the rewards by the X value, i'd suggest saying so.

Check out the last ability Damn..., where it says to multiply the exp and loot rewards to the party.



I mentioned the Knockback because your previous comment was about this template being able to defend itself against multiple melee attackers. Being able to prevent flanks, rather than deal damage in exchange for them was an effective, if not deadly response to that.

But if the TB has improved trip, he can use the aoos to try to trip people moving into flanking position.

Plus hey, I've got a sweet spot for melees! Let the melee dudes have their fun!.



A standard thing for game bosses is that they dispell everything affecting them, good or ill, when they begin a new round of attacking. I'm torn, because it would be simpler to adjudicate a clean sweep, while a simple auto-dispel is fairer to the players; this template will really do a number on prepared spells [not that i consider that a bad thing personally, I wish it was easier to cause Wizards to juice...then again, i wish players would actually go with a plot rather than insisting on resting all the time]

This is an interesting alternative(altough I would say that the standard thing for bosses is to be downright immune to status effects), but it kinda makes a spellcaster TB impossible.

Glimbur:

First, even if a caster provokes Aoo, he still will have a butload of defensive buffs, and probably a fat concentration bonus, so there's a good chance his spell will still work.

As for the number of fate points, yes, they're probably too much, but I won't make it a fixed number. X/2, rounded down, may be more reasonable don't you think?

In relation for the treasure, well, this is homebrew, people can feel free to change whatever they don't like if they use it in their campaigns, but it's just to point out that the party is not very fair to throw a TB against the party and don't reward them properly if they manage to defeat it.

Several iniative rolls it's a more simple possibility, but I kinda like mine. And indeed perhaps he's geting too many actions. Well I guess I'll put the two possibilites and let the DMs decide what to use, puting a cap of X/2 on my version.