[Pathfinder] Making a boss

[FantasyTropes]

Greetings, denizens of the playground. I come before you on this fine eve bearing a question. Well, more of a dilemma, really.

You see, I have been, of late, starting to gm a campaign (my first, actually) and so far it seems to be going well. But I seem to run into a neat little problem; the problem being:

How do I make a memorable boss?

The problem being specifically how do I make a boss that won't get swarmed, bowled over, stun locked, and tossed out like yesterdays leftovers without having to resort to enemy reinforcements? Should I just bump up stats, or... well, I've hit the proverbial brick wall here.

The party in this case are a monk, a rogue, a fighter, a ranger, and a barbarian, so no spellcasters or healers inherently in the group or even any healers. I've found that just makes things ever so awkward, because, well, they have no healers or spellcasters.

Any help at all would be very much appreciated. Thank you kindly for your time. :smallsmile:

[Zanthy1]

Firstly, I would recommend making this baddy some form of spellcaster. Wizards are really good at being the BBEG, because of their versatility in spells. Have this guy focus on illusions and enchantments. This will make the fight more memorable because they will spend a fair amount of time trying to overcome these various, and hopefully imaginative, spells.

While doing that I would kill off some of their NPCs. Not every party has NPCs, but I would suggest giving them at least 1 NPC. This guy does not have to be super powerful, but make him cool. Have him be funny and work hard to get the PCs to like him. Then have this BBEG kill him, and while they are dealing with the illusions and enchantments, one could animate this fallen NPC buddy of theirs and have him fight them.

This accomplishes a couple things. Firstly, as a wizard, your BBEG will not be very melee heavy, whereas this NPC could be. Secondly, it brings about the chance for some cool roleplay scenes.

Also littering the BBEG's lair with bones and stuffs would always be cool

[Malroth]

A pool of acid in the middle of the room and a sign above it with a Heightened Illusionary Script cast on it that says "The artifact that is the Evil wizard's weakness is at the bottom I better jump in and grab it" I guarantee your Party will remember this encounter when they roll up their new characters.

[TopCheese]

The DM usually doesn't make a memorable boss but the players usually do.

Not saying a DM can't but... I've seen mere NPCs become megabosses and BBEGs be forgotten all due to how the PCs interact with the world.

This is your first time so just relax and go with the flow.

[Karoht]

Try to make the fight a bit of a puzzle. I find challenging players in this manner can be more memorable and fun. Illusions can work wonders here, or they can endlessly frustrate your players.

Example: Steve the Aboleth. Google it.


Another point too, is big bad attacks. If you want a badguy to have a pretty big awesome attack, but you don't want to actually stat up a level 20 wizard in order to have it, consider scrolls. They're cheap so they work with the NPC wealth, usually quite well I might add. Plus, it can give the enemy some interesting tactics that would not normally be open.
Example:
Phase 1: You have a Sorcerer. The party is only going to be able to fight a caster with 4th level spells, 6th and 7th level would just be too much. But you want to add in an X factor.
Give the sorcerer two scrolls and some UMD ranks. Meld with Stone, and Project Image.
Now it's a puzzle to find out where exactly the Sorcerer really is, yet there is an illusion (easily detected, easily countered) and if the party is clever and figures out the tactic (Knowledge Arcana and Spellcraft go a long way) they can even use the illusion to triangulate which stone surface the Sorcerer is hiding in. Illusion can focus on throwing out the battlefield control spells and summons which will likely become crucial for Phase 2
Phase 2: While in the block of stone, the Sorcerer was self-buffing in addition to any buffs that were up when the fight started. Sorcerer emerges from the stone, buffed up and ready to kick some but against a party that has already spent resources and hit points and rounds of their buffs just trying to track him down, and battlefield control is still most likely active. Sorcerer starts trying to finish off the party while keeping an eye on the door. Hides in battlefield control areas and summons some more, throws out save or sucks, or blasts. May even attempt to use another pair of scrolls to Meld with Stone and Project Image.
Phase 3: Sorcerer is now in full retreat mode. Time to leave. Throws out resources designed to slow the party down. Resorces such as the Symbol of ... are perfect for this point of the fight, all prepared in advance or purchased.