Reasonable bosses

[Adamaro]

I may have a bit of a hard time explaining this, but I guess Playgorund will understand. Lets' just start with an example: Great wyrm is not really a challenge for an optimized classic lvl 20 party (wiz, clr, rog, fig). Similar anomalies appear at much lower levels and if one goes by MM1 or similar books, you get a boss fight, where boss just falls in first round.

So, I'd ask playground for some reasonable generic "bosses" for me to use in my campaign. I think, this being 3.5, most should be casters, but at lower lvls lvl 3 ogre barbarian with goblin advisor could be a decent "boss": Meaning, that he can intimidate and lead his small raiding party of goblins, while it is reasonable to see him as someone who survived all these years as tribe boss.
A lvl 20 reasonable boss might be old dragon with 20 levels of wizard and Leadership feat (lvl 18 wizard). I am saying MIGHT be, because I am prone to overkill, thatswhy I am thinking of such monster chart that will help me place a believable boss, not just some sack of HD and good BAB that just falls to first dominate monster or Pun Pun.

I was thinking of separating these "bosses" on every third PC lvl starting with first.
something like this:

a reasonable boss for party lvl 3
a reasonable boss for party lvl 6
a reasonable boss for party lvl 9
a reasonable boss for party lvl 12
a reasonable boss for party lvl 15
a reasonable boss for party lvl 20

and with a few monsters (modified with caster PC classes) named next to these categories, that could make fine bosses. Including things monsters can buy with their loot AND possible allies. I can not imagine a single balor going against a party with no minions. I can not imagine a single balor bent on killing a party going against it without some unfair advantages!

Level division may be wrong here and I guess idea should be worked on, but I really do not want that underpowered, unbelievable boss, to face my PCs again.

tnx

[Runestar]

For lv3, a dire wolf seems like a decent challenge. You can tack on the fiendish template at +1cr, since at this stage, magic weapons may not yet be a given. Alternatively, a juvenile white dragon (Cr4) also seems like a fair challenge.

However, as you go higher in lv, you may need to start moving away from solo boss fights. The key reason why they tend to get raped by any party with a rudimentary grasp of tactics is because they are outclassed in the action economy department, and the ways of working around this are far from elegant (eg: disabling everyone). Either run multiple slightly weaker bosses, or give them mooks to soak up firepower and distract the PCs.

For lv15-20, the garngrath (MM5) seems quite suitable (use 2 for the lv20 option). I like it in that unlike the tarrasque, it has several multi-targeting abilities (sonic scream, prismatic spray, charge+bite everyone+possible swallow) which engage the entire party, rather than focus-firing on one PC at a time (and likely 1-shotting him) while ignoring the other players.

[Adamaro]

Tnx Runestar :)

What sort of lvl divisions would be in your opinion reasonable? Like, should I pick first bosses at lvl 3, next at lvl 6, etc ? I do not think it is reasonable to pick them for each level.

[Polarity Shift]

However, as you go higher in lv, you may need to start moving away from solo boss fights. The key reason why they tend to get raped by any party with a rudimentary grasp of tactics is because they are outclassed in the action economy department, and the ways of working around this are far from elegant (eg: disabling everyone). Either run multiple slightly weaker bosses, or give them mooks to soak up firepower and distract the PCs.

I'd just like to point out there is one way of making boss battles workable. It involves optimizing creatures to the point where they are immune or near immune to everything the party can do to them, and that also have multiple means of shutting people down, such that even though the party gets 4 or more actions to his one, the impact of those actions is a lot more even.

Of course that turns the fight into hope for a 20 or 1, depending on if you're attacking with sword or spell but even creatures near immune to attack still die quickly in D&D so it's not too annoying.