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2013-08-21, 06:48 AM
So earlier this week I held the final session of a campaign I've had going on since December, which stretched twenty sessions into three distinct "arcs." One thing in particular which my gaming group looks forward to is the boss fights. So, to please them, I create extraordinarily extravagant boss fights and describe them on an epic scale. I thought I would share the Final Encounter that my group had in my campaign, The Devourer of Souls.

The Devourer of Souls is an ancient god that slumbered beneath the old-world city of Mehdova. Awakened once one thousand years ago, he was plugged into the mainframe of the country, where he took control of all of the robots on the planet and almost destroyed the entire world in The Seven Days of Fire. He was eventually cut off by a goddess who bound her soul to the mainframe to stop him, but not before he had killed billions of people, taken many of their souls for his own, and poisoned the planet.

Now he has awakened again, and the players have braved the terrors of the Toxic Jungle and Underground Tunnels to enter the ancient and abandoned city in order to do battle with him.


The Avatar of The Devourer of Souls
A gargantuan humanoid emerges in front of you, his body a transparent blue with brilliant stars burning brightly inside of him, making him appear like a living constellation. Your heart clenches tight inside your test, because you know that the final battle has come.

The Avatar of The Devourer of Souls CR 23-25(?)
NE Gargantuan Cosmic Being
Init +14; Senses Blindsight 300 ft, True Seeing; Perception +38
Enervating Aura 120 ft

Defenses

AC 42, Touch 29, flatfooted 32; (+13 Nat, +10 Dex, +13 Deflection, -4 Size)
hp 1200 (40d12+720) (The Devourer always adds maximum amount of health per hit dice)
Fort + 38, Ref +30, Will +35
DR 10/-; Immune Cold, Electricity, Death Effects, Negative Energy, Disease, Poison, Petrification,
Resist Fire 20, Acid 10; SR 29

Offenses

Speed 50 ft.
Melee +5 Phase Sword +65/60/55/50 (3d6+25, x2)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft.
Special Attacks Null Blast, Raise the Damned, Soul Siphon,
Spells Known (CL 19)

1st (8/day, DC 21): 5 More
2nd (8/day, DC 22): 5 More
3rd (8/day, DC 23): 4 More
4th (8/day, DC 24): Enervation, 3 More
5th (7/day, DC 25):4 More
6th (7/day, DC 26): Mass Suggestion, 2 More,
7th (7/day, DC 27): 3 More
8th (7/day, DC 28): Horrid Wilting, 2 More
9th (5/day, DC 29): Meteor Swarm, 1 More


Statistics

Str 50, Dex 30, Con 46, Int 40, Wis 30, Cha 30
Base Atk +40; CMB +69; CMD +89
Feats The Devourer has no need of your petty feats, he is a god. (but he does have combat reflexes)
Skills Perception +38, Really just about all of his skills have a bonus above 30 but Perception seems to be the only one that comes up.
Languages All, Telepathy 1000 ft.
Special Qualities Riftwalk, Enervating Aura

Special Abilities

Riftwalk: The Avatar of the Devourer does not move in normal space, instead shifting to wherever he wishes to be. Whenever the Avatar of the Devourer uses a move action, he does not provoke any attacks of opportunity.

Null Blast: The Avatar of the Devourer releases a pulse of null energy, disrupting any spells currently in effect around him. This functions as a Greater Dispel Magic targeted dispel on each character or active spell effect within 100 ft. For every spell effect on a character that is dispelled, the character takes 1d6 negative energy damage.

Raise the Damned: The Avatar of the Devourer reaches deep into his soul well and pulls out the strongest souls he has to fight for him. 1d4+1 Spirit Slaves appear anywhere within 100 ft. The Spirit Slaves share the Avatar of the Devourer's initiative starting in the next round.

Soul Siphon: Soul Siphon functions like the spell Energy Drain, except that for every negative level caused by Soul Siphon the Avatar of the Devourer heals for 5 HP. This ability can be used once every 1d4 rounds.

Enervating Aura: The Devourer gives off a constant aura of enervation, that can be felt anywhere within the demiplane where the characters fight off against his Avatar. At the beginning of the Devourer's turn every round, all characters must make a fortitude save (DC 14) or gain a negative level. The DC increases by 2 for every round a character spends in the aura. A Restoration or Greater Restoration cast on a character resets this DC back to 14.

Ecology

The Devourer's true physical form is actually a large sphere several miles wide, with a large spire rising out of the bottom to the center. He is buried several miles beneath the earth, with an elevator having been made to lower people to him. A pathway has been made through his exterior, allowing people access inside the sphere. Once inside, there is only a walkway that leads to the spire; surrounded by a sheer drop to the bottom of the sphere.

However, once inside the sphere, you have entered the Devourer's true domain...

When the players come down the elevator and enter the sphere, they find themselves in a tranquil grassland, with blue skies and the relaxing fragrance of flowers. A hundred feet away or so an altar set before an obelisk sticks out of the landscape. This is not an illusion, per say. The Devour has actually altered the inside of the sphere into a demiplane which reveals whatever he desires.

As soon as the players are fully inside the grasslands, The Devourer casts a Mass Suggestion to capture as many players as possible. He tells them to lay down and relax (DC 26, 28 if you argue that relaxing is a reasonable suggestion). The exit also disappears when the Mass Suggestion is cast, leaving the players trapped within the demiplane. The Devourer's Enervating Aura activates at this time, and any player that fails one of their fortitude saves against the Aura gets to remake their will save against the Suggestion (if they failed the first save) with a +2 bonus against the DC. If the players interact with the Altar or Obelisk in any way, the true battle begins.

When the Obelisk or Altar is interacted with, the entire plane changes. The ground changes from soft grass to a semitransparent screen, below which can be seen billions of anguished souls that the Devourer has acquired over the millennium. The sky overhead changes from blue to a vision of the infinite cosmos. The sudden change of scenery breaks the Suggestion, although the players are still prone when the battle starts. And finally, the Obelisk and Altar disappear to be replaced by The Avatar of The Devourer floating above the ground, looking down at the players. Roll Initiative.

1st Round: The Avatar of The Devourer proclaims that "You too will become nothing, and join the soul well." He proceeds to Riftwalk towards the nearest player and attack them.

2nd Round: The Avatar of The Devourer summons a Meteor Swarm to fall from the starry sky above, saying "The stars themselves bow down before me! I will ascend and retake my place among the Heavens!" He likes to spread the four meteors out fairly equally among the players, preferring to hit the back group of players that are most likely still clumped together after the Suggestion. He'll also drop one or two on player(s) close to him; he's not really worried about hurting himself.

3rd Round: The Avatar of The Devourer will Riftwalk to somewhere in the center of the players in such a way that his Null Blast will affect as many players as possible. He shouts, "Feel your magic tremble and vanish beneath my power! Hear the call of my song which beckons you to Oblivion!"

4th Round: The Avatar of The Devourer will Riftwalk 50 ft up into the air and Raise the Damned, calling forth strong souls from the Soul Well to fight for him. He proclaims, "Those that have fallen in battle will now rise up against you!" For bonus points, have the Souls called by Raise the Damned be Antagonists or important Characters that have died over the course of the campaign. I used the BBE Guys from my campaign's Arc 1 and 2, as well as a main Antagonist that had just died earlier in the session.

5th Round: With the souls from Raise the Damned now fighting for him, The Avatar of The Devourer sees no reason to return to the floor of the battle. He uses Soul Siphon on the character that has dealt him the most damage so far, and will use it whenever it comes up again on any player that looks like they're having a lucky streak.

Further Combat: After the 5th Round, what the Avatar of The Devourer does next depends on the situation. He'll most likely stay up in the air casting spells and Soul Siphon until all of the spirits called by Raise the Damned are destroyed. At that point, he'll most likely Riftwalk to the ground again, and attack the closest person. If instead the players come up to him he'll be more than happy to lay into them with a full attack action. If three or more living players fly up to him by magical means, he'll cast Null Blast to remove their flight and make them fall to the ground.

Death Is Not the End: A fun option for the fight. Have any of your players been forced to move to a new character because the previous one died? Well, dust off those old character sheets and surprise your players by passing them out again at the end of the second round. All characters of sessions past begin their turn at Initiative 0 on the second round, inside of the Soul Well. This is what has happened to them, described behind the spoiler.
"[PC's], this is what you have endured since your deaths. The entirety of your existence in this hellish afterlife has been one of torment. You spend your time floating around the bottom of the sphere with the billions of others trapped here; the Devourer from his Spire that rises up from the center of the sphere will zap you with lightning whenever he gets bored.

The Devourer of Souls draws power from you, and soon he will have enough souls to break free of the earth and return to the cosmos above, where he will continue to devour the souls of gods and mortals alike on all the worlds until nothing is left.

But now... now he is distracted. Far up above, the Devourer has all of his attention and power focused on a battle that has been brought to him. For the first time in ages, you no longer feel his oppressive power controlling you, and you begin to realize just how much power a spirit truly has..."

The Gist: All of the souls are floating around a Spire in the center of the sphere, and up above you see the barrier of the Devourer's demiplane where he is fighting the party.

What will the deceased do? Well, that is for them to decide, but you might throw out a few options for them since they'll most likely be a bit confused. Perhaps they'll attack the spire that has constrained them for so long? Maybe they'll try and break through the planar barrier in order to see their friends again and help them? Maybe they'll rouse the other spirits around them to launch one single, unified attack?

This isn't just for old characters either. If someone in the fight up above kicks the bucket they'll end up down here, but maybe they're just not ready to give up just yet.

To break through the Planar Barrier requires a check of DC 40, where the DC gets subtracted by 1 for every 50 HP the Avatar of The Devourer is missing. What kind of check is it? That depends on the player's wording. Do they want to break through it? Sounds like a strength check. Do they want to unlock it? Sounds like a disable device check (probably using wisdom or intelligence instead of dexterity as a modifier.) The possibilities as a spirit are nigh-limitless (especially once they get through to the demiplane where thought becomes reality for spirits), so I felt quite free to make everything up as we went along. (Spirits start at full health, but are unable to continue fighting when they reach 0 hp and are 'knocked unconscious' in a way, although they can't be destroyed)

One of my player's had a character who died way back at the finale of Arc 1 (murdered by another PC, no less). When it was his turn (much to the surprise of his player) he decided to pick the lock on the planar barrier and came through, joining the fight against the Avatar of The Devourer, and freeing all of the other souls in the process. It was him who delivered the final blow, gathering up all of his strength and charging the Devourer with a mighty punch powered by the combined courage of a billion souls.

Anyways, this has been the Devourer of Souls, an eyeballed final encounter for a 6-man party of level 15-16 characters that involved plenty of number BS'ing. I certainly wouldn't mind hearing feedback about it.

And if anyone out there needs a monster or boss encounter statted, feel free to hit me up and tell me what you're looking for and maybe I can help you out.