Feedback on a boss fight?

[Whyareall]

So I'm currently designing a boss fight to end the current story arc for my players, and was wondering if I could have feedback on it. I really want it to be something my players will remember, hence coming here and asking you guys for feedback

Firstly, a bit of context
The group is in the northern Frostfell, looking for the Water Heart (the ultimate goal of this story arc), to combine with the other three elemental hearts to create the Philosopher's Stone. They intend to use the Stone to help take down the evil undead empire ruled by an evil group of adventurers known as The Inner Circle (from the previous Evil campaign). They have determined that it is located at the north pole, which is surrounded on all sides by impassible mountains too tall to scale. They found a legendary group of half-dragons called Silphenadil, who were frozen in towers/lighthouses on each corner of the frostfell. Silphenadil's eternal task is to fight the Ancient Evil when it awakes every Arbitrarily Long Period of Time and what do you know that just so happens to be now. On the journey when they were freeing them, it was discovered that one of them had died, and that the group's half-dragon would have to replace him. After freeing the last member of the group, he (the NPC one) grabbed them so they wouldn't die from the lighthouse crumbling, flew them above the mountains to get to the north pole, the group started preparing to instate the PC as a member of Silphenadil, and then the session ended.

What I am planning is having Sil (including the PC) each get into one of four giant eggs, one on each cardinal direction of the cavern, in which they will power up in preparation for the Ancient Evil's awakening. This is represented in game terms by the PC half-dragon going straight from level 12 to 20. While they are powering up, a hole opens in the middle of the cavern floor and out start pouring small dragons/dragon skeletons (haven't decided which, and which age group), slowly at first but increasing as the hole widens, which try to attack the eggs, doing greatly increased damage to the characters inside the eggs while the rest of the party tries to defend them. When the hole has expanded such that there is only a tiny ledge between the wall and the hole, the eggs hatch, and Sil flies straight up out of them. And so does the extremely large dragon that serves as the platform for Sil's next phase of the fight. Meanwhile, the rest of the party falls down to a lower area, which I haven't figured out what exactly will happen in their next phase of the fight.

On the dragon's back stands one of the members of The Inner Circle (call this TIC), now a death knight (undecided). She will attack Sil with ranged attacks, and cannot be attacked unless the attacker is also standing on the dragon's back. The dragon isn't going to be represented by a mini but by marker on a battle map. Basically the dragon is a very dangerous piece of scenery for most (if not all) of the fight.
If anyone is standing on the dragon's back, it will attack them once with each free limb for large damage and force them off. Sil has breath weapons that can be used to freeze its limbs for (1d4?) rounds each, and take 1d4 rounds to recharge. The head can't be frozen, and anyone in front of it is going to take massive bite damage. There are 4 limbs to freeze (2 claws, 2 wings, it flies with magic), and 4 members of Sil. The NPC Sil won't aggress TIC, instead flying around the dragon to keep it occupied while its limbs are frozen. As TIC has levels in ranger, they may have an animal companion, or that may be the dragon. Also, TIC has Divine Rank 0.

Meanwhile at the bottom of the crater, I have no idea what the rest of the party does.

[Trasilor]

So I'm currently designing a boss fight to end the current story arc for my players, and was wondering if I could have feedback on it. I really want it to be something my players will remember, hence coming here and asking you guys for feedback

Firstly, a bit of context
The group is in the northern Frostfell, looking for the Water Heart (the ultimate goal of this story arc), to combine with the other three elemental hearts to create the Philosopher's Stone. They intend to use the Stone to help take down the evil undead empire ruled by an evil group of adventurers known as The Inner Circle (from the previous Evil campaign). They have determined that it is located at the north pole, which is surrounded on all sides by impassible mountains too tall to scale. They found a legendary group of half-dragons called Silphenadil, who were frozen in towers/lighthouses on each corner of the frostfell. Silphenadil's eternal task is to fight the Ancient Evil when it awakes every Arbitrarily Long Period of Time and what do you know that just so happens to be now. On the journey when they were freeing them, it was discovered that one of them had died, and that the group's half-dragon would have to replace him. After freeing the last member of the group, he (the NPC one) grabbed them so they wouldn't die from the lighthouse crumbling, flew them above the mountains to get to the north pole, the group started preparing to instate the PC as a member of Silphenadil, and then the session ended.

What I am planning is having Sil (including the PC) each get into one of four giant eggs, one on each cardinal direction of the cavern, in which they will power up in preparation for the Ancient Evil's awakening. This is represented in game terms by the PC half-dragon going straight from level 12 to 20. While they are powering up, a hole opens in the middle of the cavern floor and out start pouring small dragons/dragon skeletons (haven't decided which, and which age group), slowly at first but increasing as the hole widens, which try to attack the eggs, doing greatly increased damage to the characters inside the eggs while the rest of the party tries to defend them. When the hole has expanded such that there is only a tiny ledge between the wall and the hole, the eggs hatch, and Sil flies straight up out of them. And so does the extremely large dragon that serves as the platform for Sil's next phase of the fight. Meanwhile, the rest of the party falls down to a lower area, which I haven't figured out what exactly will happen in their next phase of the fight.

On the dragon's back stands one of the members of The Inner Circle (call this TIC), now a death knight (undecided). She will attack Sil with ranged attacks, and cannot be attacked unless the attacker is also standing on the dragon's back. The dragon isn't going to be represented by a mini but by marker on a battle map. Basically the dragon is a very dangerous piece of scenery for most (if not all) of the fight.
If anyone is standing on the dragon's back, it will attack them once with each free limb for large damage and force them off. Sil has breath weapons that can be used to freeze its limbs for (1d4?) rounds each, and take 1d4 rounds to recharge. The head can't be frozen, and anyone in front of it is going to take massive bite damage. There are 4 limbs to freeze (2 claws, 2 wings, it flies with magic), and 4 members of Sil. The NPC Sil won't aggress TIC, instead flying around the dragon to keep it occupied while its limbs are frozen. As TIC has levels in ranger, they may have an animal companion, or that may be the dragon. Also, TIC has Divine Rank 0.

Meanwhile at the bottom of the crater, I have no idea what the rest of the party does.

You got a lot going on here...can you break this down into bullet points?

If I am reading this correctly:


A group of PCs rescued a group of NPCs.


This is fine. Quite common adventure type.



NPC Group are the saviors of the world.


Um...normally PCs like to be the center of attention, otherwise why have them along.



One of the NPCs has died and thus one of the PCs must replace them...


Will this PC become an NPC? Or will he split from the group? Sacrificing yourself for the greater good - yeah I could see PCs doing this.



The NPC and 1 PC will be 'transforming' from level 12 to 20. While the rest of the party defends them.


Um..what? So will one Player just sit out for the entire session? Going from level 12 to 20 is also not a good idea.



End of transformation the Transformed NPC's and one PC have a massive fight on the back of a dragon.

Did the PC's action really matter then or were they just background? So one PC gets to fight on the dragon while the rest...do what exactly? Anything important?



Epic fight on back of Dragon

If the transformed combatants can fly, why do they need to "stand on the dragon's back"? Why not simply fly much higher than the dragon and then dive and impale the Death Knight with large pointy thing? Remember, flight is in 3 dimensions. If you are uncomfortable with this, change the boss to Demon/Devil thing.



Ancient Evil


I am confused...is this the dragon? Or something else. The name implies a very powerful creature, like a Great Wyrm Dragon. If not, why would the SIL care? Their purpose is to fight the Ancient Evil, not some Evil Empire.



Unless I missed something, this has bad written all over it...

First, you are removing most of the PCs from the story. And possibly removing one from the game. This BBEG is just one of several BBEGs. As such, this is not the last game with these characters rather the last session in the current story.

Transforming one PC from level 12 to level 20 is very, very, difficult. Unless the Player knows of this ahead of time, it could take quite a while to figure out the adjusted character. Also, a level 20 character without level 20 equipment is not very powerful at all. Even a freshly hatched wizard is not going to be at fighting capacity without the requisite time to memorize all their new spells.

Second, most of the party seems to be pointless at this point. What you want is an epic battle on the back of a dragon. Ok that sounds pretty cool, but most won't experience that. Instead they will be regulated to "I am not sure yet".


A few suggestions:


Instead of 1 PC becoming transformed - make all the PCs become transformed. Have the NPCs explain that mediclorians (or some other mystical energy) has been disrupted by the Inner Circle (they know the purpose of the Sil) and they are not long for this world. The PCs must take up the mantle of Defenders and undergo a transformation.

Transformation does not increase level. Have it be a bonus that improves with levels that is used X times per day. Each can be tailored to each individual character (talk to your players about this). I suggest doing it privately for each players so they can explain their own transformation to the group.

The first phase of the fight can just be descriptive: "Inside the egg you feel freezing cold and darkness envelop you followed by intense heat. Explosive sounds and muffled screams can be heard midst flashes of light and dark. Every now and then a heavy thud is felt against the hard shell. Then calmness occurs. Your senses are overwhelmed with joy and exuberance and you feel yourself exploding, bursting forth from your chrysalis. Before, where once was the immense room you were all in, is a hole. You quickly spot the SIL, lying lifeless on the ground near your eggs. Before flies an immense Dragon, upon her back stands BBEG1...."

Unless you want this to be a curb-stomp. Decrease the power of the BBEG. At level 15 an undead Cleric (Read Death Knight) can be extremely powerful - especially with Divine Meta Magic. I would consider this guy to be the weakest of the Inner Circle (hence why she is out fighting adventurers)

[Whyareall]

"NPC Group are the saviors of the world.

Um...normally PCs like to be the center of attention, otherwise why have them along."
Not so much saviours as guardians, and only of this one particular thing, but in the dragon section of the boss fight they will be mostly supporting the PC in the spotlight

"One of the NPCs has died and thus one of the PCs must replace them...

Will this PC become an NPC? Or will he split from the group? Sacrificing yourself for the greater good - yeah I could see PCs doing this."
This is the end of this PC's character arc, he is being retired afterwards. Hence him being in the spotlight

"Epic fight on back of Dragon

If the transformed combatants can fly, why do they need to "stand on the dragon's back"? Why not simply fly much higher than the dragon and then dive and impale the Death Knight with large pointy thing? Remember, flight is in 3 dimensions. If you are uncomfortable with this, change the boss to Demon/Devil thing."
Real reason: So the boss fight isn't 'stand still and whack this guy til he dies'
In-universe reason: I don't know

"Ancient Evil

I am confused...is this the dragon? Or something else. The name implies a very powerful creature, like a Great Wyrm Dragon. If not, why would the SIL care? Their purpose is to fight the Ancient Evil, not some Evil Empire."
It's the dragon. The dragon has been repurposed by TIC this time around, and stopping the dragon first requires stopping TIC

"Transforming one PC from level 12 to level 20 is very, very, difficult. Unless the Player knows of this ahead of time, it could take quite a while to figure out the adjusted character. Also, a level 20 character without level 20 equipment is not very powerful at all. Even a freshly hatched wizard is not going to be at fighting capacity without the requisite time to memorize all their new spells."
He knows, and has done the required levelling and has basically been given equipment equal to the difference in WBL (in-universe it's due to the power he has gained)

"Unless you want this to be a curb-stomp. Decrease the power of the BBEG. At level 15 an undead Cleric (Read Death Knight) can be extremely powerful - especially with Divine Meta Magic. I would consider this guy to be the weakest of the Inner Circle (hence why she is out fighting adventurers)"
It's a ranger, not a cleric. I didn't want to just have them be a straight up PC, hence Death Knight. If you have any suggestions for alternative templates, I am open.

As for what the rest of the party does while dragon fight is ongoing, that is the thing I am having the most trouble with coming up with the answer to. Ideally it would contribute to the dragon fight in some way, maybe the source of the dragon's power is down there, guarded by Empire cultists or something, that they can attack and weaken. I really don't know, hence me asking for feedback (and I guess help)