Shadow of the Colossus Style Boss fight

[havocfett]

So, one of my players (Who missed a session and didn't know this already) was told that the boss for the current arc was going to be a 40 foot tall warforged with some sort of regenerate analogue.

He immediately asked where the glowing rune was in a one off shadow of the colossus reference.

I realized that warforged have that symbol on their foreheads that vaguely fit the theme.

I am now turning the bossfight into a shadow of the colossus style battle. How should I do this, using the rules of 3.X?

[cagemarrow]

There is a fighting style in Dungeonscape you can use for reference. Hammer and Piton Style, I think, that you can use for a base. There's also the Climb Aboard feat, from Races of the Wild (maybe?), for another example but I would just set some Climb, Balance, and possibly Jump DCs that change based on where they're climbing on the monster.

You might want to draw out a profile with a scale so you can keep track of where they are on it and what it's likely ability to reach them is. The Colossi in the Game were very slow and unweildy and most didn't even notice the character once he started climbing on them. Maybe give it penalties to spot/perception if they can use it's body as cover against it.

[Yora]

A clolossus battle is done best by treating it as a dungeon instead of a creature.

[Gullintanni]

A clolossus battle is done best by treating it as a dungeon instead of a creature.

Seconding this. Design platforms that players can move to either by walking, climbing, balancing etc. Maybe create a few nodes in a few rooms that can be damaged. Once all the nodes are destroyed, creature/dungeon dies.

Maybe adapt/use parts of the Earthquake spell to simulate the effects of the colossus' movement. That sort of thing.

[Fax Celestis]

I wrote some rules for such a fight here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121426).

[havocfett]

Thank you for the advice, and the link Fax.

[Tokuhara]

I love this idea. I may steal it for a campaign. An entire campaign of boss fights? Sweet.

[Aemoh87]

A clolossus battle is done best by treating it as a dungeon instead of a creature.

The key is to create a spot on the creature that needs to be meleed and let the party go at it. Oh and the monster wants to stop them so they need to distract him as well. So now maybe your rogue is helping your fighter climb this beast while the ranger and the mage distract or some similar picture (or your druid picks the beast up and smashes him over it's wildshaped knee).

What level are your PCs because that changes it a ton. I did a massive Zeitgheist monster from Cityscape where the party was actually running through the city it was made up of trying to reach it's macguffin. Worked amazing because this created lots of interesting challenges and I even found a way to make flight more dangerous than just doing the skills (swarms of crows).

In the end if done well this type of boss battle is a HUGE hit.

[Rubik]

It might be best for anything but extremely high-level characters to go at this as an internal fight. They're inside a massive construct, rather than outside.

They're less likely to get screwed on a failed skill check.

[Aemoh87]

It might be best for anything but extremely high-level characters to go at this as an internal fight. They're inside a massive construct, rather than outside.

They're less likely to get screwed on a failed skill check.

My group had access of ways of saving characters who fell but the punishment was attraction of swarms which attacked them if they were in the open or airborn for too long.