Help with a boss battle

[JadePhoenix]

I want to make a real kickass boss battle for six level 7 characters.
My plan is for them to meet a (dark) knight plus companions, fight him for a while, then as he is defeated he transforms into his second,more poweful, demon form.
I'll call him Garland (hope someone gets the reference!).

Now... I have absolutely no idea how to do it within the rules. Can you guys help me here?

[Flickerdart]

Make sure to give Garland the Knockdown feat.

[Aegis013]

I'll call him Garland (hope someone gets the reference!).

I may be way off... but are you referencing Garl Vinland from Demon's Souls?

Anywho, I find a great way to increase the difficulty of an encounter is give him a good shadowy helper. I think a buffificer (support based Artificer) with Reach Spell, healing and buffing wands, and possibly some battlefield control would do the trick.

Keep him in the back, keep him hidden, and have him charge up the boss man as they fight him. It also will help tremendously, considering the size of the group, to give your antagonist access to additional actions. Action economy manipulation is very powerful, after all. The easiest way is probably in the form of belts of battle, made to fit other slots by the buffificer minion.

[Averis Vol]

you could have him be a polymorphed (insert badass creature here), and when he gets to a certain amount of health he tosses aside his disguise to show them his true form, which should be significantly more hardcore. you could make him a green slaad for instance, who just uses the form of a human dark knight while on the material plane. so once he see's he cant win in his puny body, he goes back to looking like a dire kermit the frog who summons other dire kermit the frogs from the ever changing chaos of limbo.

[eggs]

Contingent Spells of Revivify and Planar Exchange would basically do it, if triggered on character death.
(Contingent Spell as in the "item" from Complete Arcane, not the spell effect).


Make sure to give Garland the Knockdown feat.
I laughed.

[JadePhoenix]

I may be way off... but are you referencing Garl Vinland from Demon's Souls?
Nope :smallsmile:


Anywho, I find a great way to increase the difficulty of an encounter is give him a good shadowy helper. I think a buffificer (support based Artificer) with Reach Spell, healing and buffing wands, and possibly some battlefield control would do the trick.
Well, he will have minions on human form.


you could have him be a polymorphed (insert badass creature here), and when he gets to a certain amount of health he tosses aside his disguise to show them his true form, which should be significantly more hardcore. you could make him a green slaad for instance, who just uses the form of a human dark knight while on the material plane. so once he see's he cant win in his puny body, he goes back to looking like a dire kermit the frog who summons other dire kermit the frogs from the ever changing chaos of limbo.
But that would make his 'standard' form not really impressive, with no class features and stuff.
I want his One-Winged Angel form to be demonic/devilish, as well.



Contingent Spells of Revivify and Planar Exchange would basically do it.
(Contingent Spell "items," not spell effects).

That would work (I did it for my last final boss), but it's very expensive for this guy's level and it would feel like he went into Ye Old Magic Shope and said 'dude, I really want to became a demon after they kick my ass, you know'?

[Averis Vol]

But that would make his 'standard' form not really impressive, with no class features and stuff.
I want his One-Winged Angel form to be demonic/devilish, as well.


well thats the thing, there isn't much of this you could do at level seven. the epic sephiroth wanna-be's come in a bit later game. i guess you could go with maybe a half fiend hexblade. you'de get your perfect BaB and a bunch of cool special abilities to make the fight very diverse. as for changing from one form to another, have him start out as a tiefling at the beginning of the fight and if it starts to go sour have the sky dim and have him call upon some demon of the eighth realm to grant him power, then have the earth shake and lightning crack as he transforms into a half fiend. from here you could put in wind effects and find that nifty little chart for a random chance lightning strike. this is about as creative as i can get for level seven. hope it helps in some way.

[JadePhoenix]

well thats the thing, there isn't much of this you could do at level seven.
Good thing he's not going to be level 7, then ^^
It's a boss fight.



i guess you could go with maybe a half fiend hexblade. you'de get your perfect BaB and a bunch of cool special abilities to make the fight very diverse. as for changing from one form to another, have him start out as a tiefling at the beginning of the fight and if it starts to go sour have the sky dim and have him call upon some demon of the eighth realm to grant him power, then have the earth shake and lightning crack as he transforms into a half fiend. from here you could put in wind effects and find that nifty little chart for a random chance lightning strike. this is about as creative as i can get for level seven. hope it helps in some way.
Well, that would be purely in the realm of DM manipulation, I wanted a transformation by RAW. Guess I'll have to use contingent spells again.

[Dairuga]

Dear lord, has no one heard of the Original Final fantasy game?

I am -almost- sure you are talking about Garland, First boss, as well as a few things else in that game. :D

[JadePhoenix]

Dear lord, has no one heard of the Original Final fantasy game?

I am -almost- sure you are talking about Garland, First boss, as well as a few things else in that game. :D

YES!! I knew someone would get it! :smallsmile:

[Averis Vol]

i'v never played any of the FF franchise, so yea i didn't have a clue.

[Gan The Grey]

Write yourself a custom incantation using this rules in Unearthed Arcana. You could use one of the polymorph spells, or I think there are some 'form of the deity' type spells out there in Spell Compendium.

Have some mooks in a mildly inaccessible area performing the incantation. As he gets low on HP, have him activate some magic item with Dimension Door capability that warps him right in the middle of the incantation. Incantation goes off, and BAM! Big bad.

Make things more interesting by having the mooks doing the incantation being mind-controlled innocents so the party won't want to stop them by killing them.

Why is he trying to shapechange himself? That's for you to decide. I like the whole half-fiend into whole fiend idea or whatever. Maybe he's just trying to awaken his true potential.

[Rhaegar14]

The Mage-King (member of this forum) has a homebrewed prestige class called "One-Winged Angel" that does precisely this. It's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it'd probably work.

[Kurgan]

Well, would kind of help if you gave at least a few basics on party, namely: classes and optimization level. Without that sort of knowledge, any advice we give might net you a pushover boss or a steamroller who devours the souls of your players.

That said, I would say something like this:

Round 1: Garland is a level 6 Crusader - slightly lower powered than players, but backed up by minions. Main reason I say lower level in first form is that, without any sort of break whatsoever, two overly tough boss fights might be a bit much. Anyways, give him a decent set of maneuvers and stances, and say a 28 point buy.

Round 2: When Garland drops to 0hp [or less], he transforms into a Vrock [Monster Manual, page 48]. Make it a custom job though: racial ability modifiers for Vrock is +12 str, +4 dex, +14 con, +4 int, +6 wis, and +6 cha. Give him the mental abilities in both forms, but the physical abilities change with transformation. So Garlands 16 str now becomes a 28, but his 14 int stays the same.

Now then, play this guy as a standard Vrock, except he still has access to his Crusader maneuvers and equipment. Just handwave it as his armor twists and meshes into his flesh, fusing them together. Take advantage of his fun spell likes, such as Mirror Image and Teleport at will.

Minions:
You need some minions now, depending on if you want waves of lessor minions or a small squad of elites, you'll want to do different things. I'd say give him at least one caster and a meat mook or two. Say two level 4 fighters and a level 5 wizard? Wizard casts haste on the group, then does a mix of blasting and battlefield control to bottleneck the players.

Just some ramblings, take it or leave it as you like.

[eggs]

Dear lord, has no one heard of the Original Final fantasy game?
Um, first reply.
http://www.ffrepublic.com/images/ff1/walkthrough/walk05.jpg

[JadePhoenix]

Um, first reply.
http://www.ffrepublic.com/images/ff1/walkthrough/walk05.jpg

Gee, can't believe I missed that :smalltongue:

I was thinking I should use one of those new PH2 polymorph school spells for his 'second form', since they even give temporary hp. It could be on a gem, like Magic of Faerun's gem magic... which further referenced Final Fantasy Stactics :smallamused:

[chaotician375]

You could just make it happen. While getting your fluff to fit mechanics is a huge deal to some DMs (Myself included) you always have the option to simply have him transform into a demon at the end of the first form because he can, and if players question it, its D&D there's magic, and stranger things have happened.

[CTrees]

Grab the Synthesist Summoner from Pathfinder. Start the fight without his eidolon, preferably mounted, with a nice spiked set of evilly decorated medium mithril armor. Use the Summon Monster SLA to bolster the ranks of his other minions (fiendish animal are nice and flavorful). After a certain point, use Summon Eidolon to instantly transform into the fused state, getting bigger, gaining huge armor, wings, energy attacks, etc. This has some immediate "healing" through temp-hp, but also opens up just flying high and using Rejuvenate Eidolon for more healing. Put a belt of +CON on the eidolon, so you get double duty out of the bonus hitpoints. Go to town with a nasty fiend. Then just, you know, fluff-away the body as burning/disintegrating or whatever, so the base-form isn't revealed at the end.

Seriously, easiest way I can think of effectively doing this at low-ish levels, especially picking a more interesting base race, and then tailoring EXACTLY how you want the fused-eidolon to look.

[JadePhoenix]

Seriously, easiest way I can think of effectively doing this at low-ish levels, especially picking a more interesting base race, and then tailoring EXACTLY how you want the fused-eidolon to look.

I might do just that. Thanks!

[Venser]

I want to make a real kickass boss battle for six level 7 characters.
My plan is for them to meet a (dark) knight plus companions, fight him for a while, then as he is defeated he transforms into his second,more poweful, demon form.
I'll call him Garland (hope someone gets the reference!).

Now... I have absolutely no idea how to do it within the rules. Can you guys help me here?

Here you go

Garland, the big bad boss
Something evil level idk
HP: 128
AC: 26 Flatfooted: 25 Touch: 11
Initiative: +5
Senses: Darkvision 60ft, true seeing
Speed: 60ft
Immunities: Poison, Polymorph, Negative levels, Ability drain, Energy drain, Mind effecting abilities, fear.
Resistance: Fire 10
Space/reach: 5ft/5ft
Attack: +4 unholy flaming frost bastardsword +16/+12 melee
Damage: 1d10+8 plus 1d6 flaming, plus 1d6 frost, plus 2d6 vs good
Special qualities: Damage reduction 10/cold iron and good, SR 23
Special actions: Summon baatezu
Spell like abilities:
At will-unholy blight, detect magic, suggestion
4/day-Greater dispel magic(CL 12th), one quickened
1/day-Fireball(CL 7)
Abilities: Str 26, Dex 12, Con 22, Int 18, Wis 17, Cha 18
Saves: Fort 16 Ref 7 Will 12
feats: Improved initiative, cleave, greater cleave, power attack

Strategy:
Garland never enters battles alone. He always has one cleric by his side to heal and buff him and two warriors to protect him. If Garland knows that he is about to be attacked, his cleric buffs him persistent mage armor, protection from energy(any) and shield of law.
Garland sends his two warriors to engage the closest enemies and, due to true seeing, casts quickened greater dispel magic on his biggest current threat. Unless he is forced to fight, Garland will stay behind and cast greater dispel magic and unholy blight on his opponents.
If Garland is forced to engage in combat, he first tries using suggestion to disable the biggest current threat, and then either attacks with his fearsome bastard sword or shoots a fireball at the second biggest threat.
If Garland believes that he is in serious danger, he will use his summon baatezu ability to summon 1d4 bearded devils to aid him.
Once Garland's HP reaches 0, he automaticaly transforms.

[JadePhoenix]

Here you go

Is this a scaled down Balor?
Also, I don't think I'll give my players an equivalent +6 weapon at level 7. :smallsmile:

[Venser]

Is this a scaled down Balor?
Also, I don't think I'll give my players an equivalent +6 weapon at level 7. :smallsmile:

Not actualy a Balor xD
It is a slighty more powerful dark knight with forces of evil backing him up.
The wepon can meld into his second form or just incinerate when his first form is defeated.

[JadePhoenix]

Not actualy a Balor xD
It is a slighty more powerful dark knight with forces of evil backing him up.
The wepon can meld into his second form or just incinerate when his first form is defeated.

Well, like I said, I prefer to do this by the rules instead of using DM fiat, but thanks nonetheless.