How to have boss battles?

[heavyfuel]

So I'm currently DMing a group of 5 players, and while I've managed to make most encounters balanced, I'll admit that DMing 2 players more than my previous experiences has taken a toll on me. Or to put it better, on my boss battles.

It seems I just can't find a balance between "boss dies in 2 turn because everyone focus fires him" and "boss is strong enough to survive onslaught of 5v1 for a few rounds, but that also means he takes 80% of PC's HP in single blow"

I've played around with things like an incorporeal creature and a warlock that focused on defense. These turned out quite well, but I still miss my "old" bosses. Champions from the opposing faction that could take the players solo and give them a fair fight. This just doesn't happen anymore. It's either the boss or at least one of the PCs down by round 2.

My initial though after seeing them demolish the 3rd boss in a row was to have "Call of Duty-boss fights". Instead of one powerful guy, lots of not THAT powerful guys. Like 10 or so. It also worked, but I didn't think it was as harrowing on the players. Not only that,they just don't make for cool story arcs hahaha.

So, any tips on running actual boss battles when the action economy is skewed 5 to 1 in favor of the PCs?

[Kennisiou]

There are some quick solutions:

First, max the hitdie rolls of your "boss encounters." This means they always have as much HD as possible, making them go down easier. Second, make their defensive stats higher, maybe by granting them bonus feats that help, maybe by just adjusting their con/dex up. These kinds of things can make encounters stop going quite so fast.

You also seem to have grasped part of the concept behind the other method: bosses don't fight alone. It also makes sense. In the D&D world it's really easy to get back-up. Summons, gated/planar bound creatures, leadership -- the list goes on. The big bad having some lesser bads there to back him up should be a foregone conclusion at higher levels of play - after all, the summoned creatures are part of what makes a druid or wizard so tough. The back-up can do things like grapple or trip to keep players off the big bad or even do something as simple as stand in the way of the archers/casters to provide cover (you know, assuming they don't have precise shot).

[Talothorn]

Solution 1:
custom magic items. First a belt of damage reduction 5/- and second, a ring that grants an extra standard action 3/day. Neither will overpower a character if/when it falls into their hands, and makes your boss much more viable against better numbers.

Solution 2:
cheat. You know your characters hit points, armor class, and saving throws. "He attacks you, redgar. Does a (characters armor class +2) hit? Okay. He does (1/3 redgar's hp) damage. After 4 or 5 rounds, "he is really bloody, and seems like he is having trouble standing. Yep, that hits. Roll damage. Wow, just enough. With a cry of anguish, the mighty villain finally slumps over, dead. The hapless villagers cheer your names in happiness! "

[Malroth]

Psion boss Using Share Pain/Vigor shared with psicrystal and abusing Linked powered Synchronicity so he's the one getting 5 actions to every one the party gets.

Wizards with Craft Contigent spell Celerity , Greater Mirror Image, Fire and Acid Immunity Heart of fire/water/air/earth polymorphed into a troll are also good boss material but such a wizard would be very unlikely not to have called and animated minions as well.

[JusticeZero]

Boss, minibosses set up to support the boss, minions. Then start looking for all the best tricks to cheese out the boss's survivability. Does the boss know the party is on the way? Chug potions, use wands, use dorjes, pop tattoos. Get the miniboss to use some sort of Share Pain and slink off into the shadows with healing items after giving them both a bunch of temp HP and some sort of DR. Use Mirror Image. Use Displacement. Use cover. Use flunkies wearing your clothes. There are a lot of ways to turn a character into a veritable ocean of HP using low level effects and items that are available cheaply. And honestly these are things that any boss evil of that caliber needs to have sorted out anyways.

[Loxagn]

Well, unfortunately it's extraordinarily difficult to have a 'boss battle' in D&D.

But, if you must have one, it's a good idea to keep in mind:

*Defenses! Use Damage Reduction, Boost saves, Energy resistances, spell resistance. All of these things keep you alive longer. Boost AC and invest in %miss chance. Artificially boost his HP if you must.
*Actions! The Action Economy is king. Giving a boss multiple actions per round is an excellent way to increase his threat level. Do this by giving him friends, or the ability to duplicate himself a la Fission, or something similar.
*Initiative! The boss needs to be able to win initiative. A slow fighter is a dead fighter.
*Rocket-Tag Countermeasures! If you're facing an UberCharger and his party of 'end the combat in one round' friends, your boss needs to have something to survive. You can do this via defenses like the Warblade's Wall of Blades, or perhaps giving him some sort of 'Fate Point' mechanic, where he can draw upon a limited pool of resources to survive or evade attacks that would otherwise slay him. Giving the boss multiple 'forms' accomplishes this as well. Remember, though: The boss should be able to take Rocket Tag tactics, but not necessarily be able to utilize them himself. He should be able to survive a few rounds with the PC's, but the ability to retaliate with UberDamage tactics will result in a TPK.
*Choices! Don't be afraid to Gestalt or even Tristalt (or ad-hoc abilities on the fly) if it would fit the character. Wizard type that can cast in full-plate? Drop in some Easy Metamagic'd Still Spell.
*Environment! Make the battle happen in advantageous locations. Facing chargers? Use difficult terrain. Enemy spellcasters? Control Weather makes a great distraction, and a dramatic backdrop! Fighting the BBEG? Badass. Fighting the BBEG while a hurricane rages in the background? Super badass.
*Fun! Most important part. This is the big leagues. The climactic final battle. You want to challenge the heroes, not decimate them or go down like a chump. Make them feel like they've won, but only by the skin of their teeth. If you do it well, they'll remember it for a long time.

[JBarca]

cheat. You know your characters hit points, armor class, and saving throws. "He attacks you, redgar. Does a (characters armor class +2) hit? Okay. He does (1/3 redgar's hp) damage. After 4 or 5 rounds, "he is really bloody, and seems like he is having trouble standing. Yep, that hits. Roll damage. Wow, just enough. With a cry of anguish, the mighty villain finally slumps over, dead. The hapless villagers cheer your names in happiness! "

While that works alright at low levels, parties with a lot of experience will not be able to use this.

For instance, in my current campaign (Party at 16th/17th level), I have an Ubercharger (who, in one round last session, was able to throw out 1700+ damage), a Mineral Warrior Dwarf built towards survivability (capable of taking hundreds of damage per round), and two squishy casters (Cerebremancer and Virtuoso). What can hurt the Dwarf will beat everyone else's AC by 20+. What can do 1/3 of his HP will kill anyone else. If something can take 4 full rounds of the charger's attacks, no one else will even be able to scratch it.

I rely on two main things: Casters with Celerity/etc and many minions.

The BBEG in the campaign is

A Malconvoker who is aware of basically everything going on near him. When they show up, he'll have dozens of Summons and a few Callings up, of some pretty though creatures. Plus he's a Sorc 18 on top of it, so, you know, Celerity, Disintegrate (the great equalizer in this campaign. Two hits will still kill the tough guys (unless they pass their saves, which they do))

Bad terrain doesn't even work, because the Charger has Perfect Maneuverability Ex Flight.

Challenges are usually based off the party, yes. But I find they require multiple enemies (each tailored to certain weaknesses of the party as a whole, or of individuals), rather than one with arbitrary stats.

Just my thoughts.

[Afgncaap5]

A boss is also a good chance to have entities that, for one reason or another, have homemade/customized rules. This is similar to the "cheat" option above. Case in point, can this militant warlord somehow dispell magic spells aimed at him by holding an action and performing exactly the correct sword-waving stance? Or maybe this monster has legendary speed: not only does the Haste spell follow 3.0 rules for it, but it also rolls initiative twice and goes at each of those spots.

If you want to play more fair, I recommend boosting the minions. Your players might want to focus all their attention on the "obvious" boss; make it clear that any one of these minions has the ability to defeat or incapacitate a player if the minions are ignored. Basically, make the boss minions be things that one or two levels ago might've been bosses rather than true minion-level entities.

[fishyfishyfishy]

A neat idea I snagged off of these very forums is to give important boss types multiple initiative rounds to counter the action economy. I decided on a system that works like this: +1 to initiative per PC and +1 per two Helpful NPCs/Animal Companions/Cohorts. I then roll the bosses initiative with that modifier and subtract 10 from the total, record that number and subtract 10 again until I get below 0. The boss goes on all of those checks. If the boss in question has an incredibly high initiative, it's likely because the odds are stacked against them, and they are likely to get three turns every one round. An example would be a climatic battle with a Hobgoblin Crusader 11, there were 4 player characters and 2 NPCs and 2 animal companions. The Crusader ended up with a +6 to initiative on top of his own +1 for a total of +7. I rolled a natural 20 for a 27 so he went on initiative count 27, 17 and 7. Combined with his self healing abilities, delayed damage pool, and plenty of use of the Stone Power feat, he was able to tank hundreds of damage from the PCs and be a serious threat despite how badly outnumbered he was. This type of thing is easy to give explanation in character. They could be imbued with special powers from their deity, or multiple possessing entities could be all taking control of their body and taking actions rapidly, or a strange ritual they have completed has given them some kind of unholy power. If used sparingly, this can be a really effective method of keeping a boss around for several rounds for a challenging and engaging battle. Next time I use this I plan of giving the players a way of attempting to interrupt this multi-action ability for a limited time.

[OldTrees1]

Step 1: Dungeonscape pg94-100 (basically "How to design a complex encounter")

By choosing your focus(the boss) and then adding support for the focus(mostly defending the focus) you should be able to have a less lethal boss that survives longer.

[gr8artist]

One of my most effective boss battles was a boss that healed himself with every attack. It was an immobile, possessed object trapped in a 15' diameter column of ice. It only had like 10 HP (party level 3-4), but the players had to deal at least 50 damage to a single cube of ice to break it. Meaning, they had to break one cube of the outer layer, as well as the innermost cube, before they even exposed the actual target. Of course, fire AoE's made this a lot easier, but everyone quickly realized they had to focus on one cube or they weren't going to ever break through. Because this guy's primary attack was a cone of cold energy that dealt damage in a 30' cone (radius of the room, he basically could nuke 1/6th of it at once) and healed all ice blocks in that cone for the same amount. (it was only like 2d4 damage/heal, but at our level it was a major annoyance.)
If you stood in front of him to chip away at the block, you got blasted with cold damage. If you moved away, you had to start all over. His other attacks included reanimating some nearby zombies, and casting dominate person on the party fighter.
Mind control is a major help in boss fights, because it changes the way the group has to play.

[Norfire]

Options for "boss battles" are as endless as your imagination.

One. Boss battles do not have to be single opponents.
Two. Set down the rules and let your imagination run wild.
Three. Try for more than just slashing an opponent to death.

Sometimes I try to think back to the video games I played as a kid. Bosses had formula shielded and open times. I try to use this.

For instance a necromancer has kidnapped children and when you fight them they are channeling the health of the children. Any damage you do to the necromancer just ends up hurting the kids (make them figure it out but be sure to give a clue, describe writhing children as they take damage. whatever works). Tons of options. Break the link with dispel magic etc. Kill the kids on your own, run the kids out of the area, Just keep bashing the necromancer, and you get the point.

My favorite encounters for boss battles are the tricky ones.

Opposing adventuring parties are always fun. I like to use them when parties are not working well together. (tends to inspire when they see a party using their feats together.)

Setting up optional camp raids is fun. Never have I seen such a confident party of five level six characters with 3 npc supports get so frustrated as a slew of level 1 and 2 knolls with a mini boss of level 4 overwhelm them. (actually killed a player there.)

Give the battles and bosses their own flavor and try not to aim at certain players when you build them. Nothing is more frustrating to a player than a boss who can counter all the player tactics or abilities because he has such and such item or spell active or uses such a combo of feats.

Try to make them fun and don't be afraid to bend the rules.

[jjcrpntr]

Heh I seem to be having the opposite problem. my PC's have only fought the "Boss" once and it was a good fight, they were heavily challenged but they won. Just about every other normal encounter has left them barely standing. I think I'm over tuning my encounters. But their winning and it's a challenge, biggest problem is it makes the fights take awhile.

[jjcrpntr]

Options for "boss battles" are as endless as your imagination.

One. Boss battles do not have to be single opponents.
Two. Set down the rules and let your imagination run wild.
Three. Try for more than just slashing an opponent to death.

Sometimes I try to think back to the video games I played as a kid. Bosses had formula shielded and open times. I try to use this.

For instance a necromancer has kidnapped children and when you fight them they are channeling the health of the children. Any damage you do to the necromancer just ends up hurting the kids (make them figure it out but be sure to give a clue, describe writhing children as they take damage. whatever works). Tons of options. Break the link with dispel magic etc. Kill the kids on your own, run the kids out of the area, Just keep bashing the necromancer, and you get the point.

My favorite encounters for boss battles are the tricky ones.

Opposing adventuring parties are always fun. I like to use them when parties are not working well together. (tends to inspire when they see a party using their feats together.)

Setting up optional camp raids is fun. Never have I seen such a confident party of five level six characters with 3 npc supports get so frustrated as a slew of level 1 and 2 knolls with a mini boss of level 4 overwhelm them. (actually killed a player there.)

Give the battles and bosses their own flavor and try not to aim at certain players when you build them. Nothing is more frustrating to a player than a boss who can counter all the player tactics or abilities because he has such and such item or spell active or uses such a combo of feats.

Try to make them fun and don't be afraid to bend the rules.

Also, the bolded part is really true . My PC's just had a big fight against some Pirates and one PC is built around tripping/ battle field control. Well he was able to trip a few archers but the main fighters CMD was to high and I could see he was getting frustrated. After the game I sat with him and explained that thematically pirates know if you get knocked over while on a ship bad things can happen very quickly. So the fighters had teamwork feats to help against trips, something that the PC's didn't figure out but as soon as they got the enemies distanced from each other they were able to do the trips. You don't want your PC to think you're game planning to take him out of the fight because then he/she just gets bored and pissed.

[Inevitability]

A 'boss battle' does not have to be a simple slugfest. You can also mess with the PC's.

Create a huge labyrinth, with many ways to split the PC's up. (Shifting walls, pit traps, teleportation traps)
Then, every time a PC disappears, the boss starts harrassing him. The boss doesn't try to engage the PC directly, just snipes from the shadows, summons minions, things like that.

For the best results, make the PC's discover the corpses of their fallen teammates after a while.


Alternatively, go Shadow of the Colossus and just make the boss fight take place on the boss itself while the PC's rush to its weak spots. You can also throw in a couple of minions, just for fun.

[Gemini476]

Making a boss fight is difficult. For one monster to take as long time to defeat as four lesser ones, it needs four times as much HP. The quick fix for that is giving it four times the hit dice... But then he gets four times the BAB, four times the saves, and four times the feats.
Giving him increased CON also works, but means that he might have a big fancy expensive item that you didn't want your PCs to get.
Alternatively, make him four times as hard to hit. Or twice as hard to hit with twice the HP.
So miss chance and/or AC, but with the latter you need to calibrate it for the PCs.

For him to be as dangerous, he needs to do four times as much damage. That's likely to kill PCs, though, so force him to spread it out - either through AoE attacks or needing to have a separate target for each attack or whatever.
Spread out the love. Make sure to give him ranged attacks to spread the love to the guys behind the BFS as well.

You also need him to not be beaten by a save-or-lose, so go the JRPG boss route and dump lots and lots of immunities on him. (When was the last time Death Spell worked on a boss, anyway? Other than Phoenix Down on that zombie in FFVI?)
Ability damage, mind-affecting, death, stun, daze, nausiate, paralysis, and so on and so forth. Customise for your particular party.

Figure out how long you want the battle to be and then crunch the numbers to see how your party would stand up against him. Fully healed or after a long dungeon, whatever.

[ericgrau]

It seems I just can't find a balance between "boss dies in 2 turn because everyone focus fires him" and "boss is strong enough to survive onslaught of 5v1 for a few rounds, but that also means he takes 80% of PC's HP in single blow"
3.5 doesn't handle this style of boss well. Even if you artificially give him good defenses and a poor offense, one lucky roll might still kill him. While uncommon, when it does happen it ends the fight in an anticlimactic way.

Instead I'd make one stronger foe with weaker minions for your boss fight. Have them work well together with the minions as pawns. There's a lot a person can do with minions, whether supporting a player or villain. Magical or mundane support, fodder, path interference, etc. Path interference/fodder can be good if you're worried about focus fire. A cleric with dispel magic and restorative scrolls (remove fear, remove blindness, remove paralysis, etc.) can be good if you're afraid of the boss rolling a 1 on a save. Plus the cleric provides a first aid kit in the fight treasure for any effects the boss wasn't tagged with. Which will save some sit-on-hands-with-no-fun/sleep/cleric-prepares-the-fix hassle later.

[whitemoth]

In my experience, the most interesting boss fights tend to do something new with familiar mechanics. Try a construct with a touch activated trap that infuses it with repair critical damage, a giant insect that walks on the ceiling, an aberration that grapples as if it were three sizes larger and drains constitution with a bite attack, healing itself.

Find some mechanic you tend to overlook and make it the basis for the encounter. Take layout, tactics, skills, feats, magic, traps, class features, and special attacks into consideration. If there's something the party tends to overlook, something they're capable of that they simply won't do, you can simply design a boss encounter around that mechanic. If you engage them in a fun and interesting way - and especially if they gain new insight into the game in the process - it should make for an exciting and memorable encounter.

It doesn't even necessarily have to be a fight in the conventional sense. Final Fantasy 6 features a memorable encounter with the villain of the first half - you never actually fight the emperor, but with the risks and rewards involved, the strategic use of diplomacy, the discussion in the course of the banquet is mechanically similar to and may as well be some of the most intense bosses in the game.

[Psyren]

Read section 10 and 11. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nx-o8VAjhUwh3nnfzDQT-JA5eFLnN_BZJiBitGjBMDg/) (The whole thing really but those two cover boss encounters specifically.)