Making a good boss encounter

[Brendanicus]

Every adventure path has its close, and my party is approaching theirs. They will be fighting a Level 7 Half-Fiend Sorcerer, and the fight is all set up and will be awesome, but I want to ensure that this will be the best encounter of the campaign.

So, what advice do you guys have for making a boss fight?

As to the specifics:The fight in question is located in a massive underground chapel, home to an extradimensional prison to a ton of fiendish monsters and a series of electricity-generating pillars. The pillars generated an electric field above the action, allowing for badass imagery and a way to limit the boss's flight ability.

The fight will take place in three stages:

STAGE I:

The party will arrive the chamber. While the Sorcerer will not be in the chamber quite yet, his Imp familiar will be. Upon seeing the PC's, the Imp will go invisible, fly over to the prison, and summon monsters from it to harass the players for a few rounds. While all this is going on, the Imp will be calling for his master loudly. The Sorcerer will be casting buff spells (Eagle's Splendor, Shield, and Invisibility) before taking to the field. Killing the Imp will weaken the boss via level loss.

STAGE II:

The boss arrives to the party! While flying in Invisibly, he will use his Darkness SLA to create a cloud of darkness. That next round, he will de-cloak, hit a party member with a Suggestion to betray her fellows, then retreat into the darkness. While concealed, the boss will go in invisible again. Then, he will go for another Suggestion against a different player, and use another Darkness to hide himself above the players.

Once he his hidden above the players, that next rounds he will fly to the round and presumably hit the entire party with his Unholy Blight SLA.

Stage III:

At this point, both the party and the boss will be done with all of this complicated hit-and-run stuff. The boss will take to the air, and hit the party with Suggestions until the Half-Fiend either runs out of spells or HP. Then the cool part happens, detailed n one of my comments.

[daremetoidareyo]

What happens if the PCs try to interact with the pillars? Do they conduct electricity (damage?)? Can the BBEG be bullrushed into the electric field? What is keeping the beasts imprisoned? Can they be un-imprisoned? If so, are any of them likely to have beef with the sorcerer? (will they be combat allies, or just flee the scene?)


What if the PCs don't engage in combat here, but decide on different tactics? Taking pot shots from the hallway, or invisibly backstabbing that mofo.


In any Big cinematic scene, expect to have the environment be entertained by the PCs (and NPCs) as possible points of leverage. Are there areas of of cover for the Badguy/goodguys to exploit? Are there reinforcements that the NPC can rely on to show up at some point? Will this BBEG fight to the death? Why? Can he dispel magic a way through the electric field and escape through the roof/ceiling? How soon into the battle would he contemplate his own survival, when hp drops? I know if I were an evil half fiend sorcerer, if I hadn't killed/disabled half of my opponents by the time I reached 1/3 my hp, I would start scrambling to get away to see another day.

[(Un)Inspired]

What is your party's make up and how to you want to define good in this context?

I would avoid reflex save blasting against the party. Is you're desperate to use lightning bolt I recommend mark of the dauntless morning of three stormsing it.

Don't forget to give the imp some wands to aid the sorcerer. Give him a wand of dispel magic and have him spam it at whoever in the party tries to fly.

[daremetoidareyo]

What is your party's make up and how to you want to define good in this context?

I would avoid reflex save blasting against the party. Is you're desperate to use lightning bolt I recommend mark of the dauntless morning of three stormsing it.

Don't forget to give the imp some wands to aid the sorcerer. Give him a wand of dispel magic and have him spam it at whoever in the party tries to fly.

wands of baleful transposition. Keep those PCs uncoordinated.

[Shin]

Maybe give your sorcerer some more BC spells, like fog or wall spells - this way, the PCs have to manage a spontaneous parcour session on top of everything else :smallwink: not deadly yet entertaining

[Lerondiel]

Yes, would be handy to know how many and what type of PCs and any standout equipment. Dispelling that darkness in the first round would put a dent in your plans for a hard fought win :)

[Brendanicus]

Yes, would be handy to know how many and what type of PCs and any standout equipment. Dispelling that darkness in the first round would put a dent in your plans for a hard fought win :)
The level 4 party consists of:

A Warlock
A Duskblade
A Druid
A Cleric
A Fighter
And a Ranger-archer

None of them have any methods of flight or dispelling magic. The closest method they have to flight is Potions of Enlarge Person. This would work because the boss is limited to flying 15 feet high due to electricity.

Also, I forget who posted it but I like the idea of him surrendering when at low health. Since the party's main goal will be to gain a key from him, if the boss surrenders, the party will gain just the key, but will need to use Diplomacy/Intimidate/stealth to get anything else. Likewise, if they just kill him, they get all of the loot up front.

EDIT: Only the tops of the pillars emit electricity; PC's on the ground will be fine. The only way they could harm the boss with it would be to somehow use Enlarge Person then Bullrush the boss from below. This seems like an unlikely occurrence. That being said, I did stat it out, and if it works, the boss is doomed to the tune of 7d6 shock damage and being stunned for 1d3 rounds.

EDIT 2: Also, this is an inexperienced party, so using Darkness, Invisibility, flight, and Suggestion is all new stuff to them. In fact, this will be their first time fighting an arcane spellcaster for an extended period of time. Luckily, they know ahead of time that they are dealing with a flying Sorcerer of ambiguously fiendish origins. However, I do want to avoid using more BC spells for fear of giving them too much new stuff to work with. Suggestion will keep them busy as-is :P

EDIT 3: The Imp's role is to keep the players distracted in the early stages of the fight, as well as give them a different way to deal with the boss. He will make a very low UMD check each round to summon monsters from the gate, but each round the DC to do so increases by 5. Failure means that nothing is summoned, as well as the gate firing a Greater Dispel Magic pulse at all nearby, making the Imp visible. If the boss eventually starts using it to summon and fails, he's screwed thanks to a loss of buffs. Also, the imp's UMD is trash, so he can't keep summoning up for very long. He could very easily just run away mid-fight after he ceases to be useful.

[MrSinister]

If you want to get buck wild with this encounter and make it really memorable, have the Imp pull a lever or blow up a wall and flood the chamber halfway. And then have him start working on one of the electrical things. The Imp, if left alone, will attempt to knock it into the water.

Now the PCs have a ticking clock. Do they kill the hit and run sorcerer and risk electrocution when the Imp knocks that thing back? Or do they stop hitting the sorcerer and take on the Imp and then get kited to death?

Give them a lot of places to stand on higher ground and then then can use skills to jump around the battlefield and not auto-die if the thing makes a splash into the water. Hell, tactical players would welcome the electricity water and bull rush the jerk into it. Who knows?

In situations like this, I usually get really loose with how I use action economy to interact with weird stuff. Like, maybe lessen the action to a swift if they are using a skill to or strength check to knock down something to cross to a safe zone, stuff like that.

[Lerondiel]

The level 4 party consists of:

A Warlock
A Duskblade
A Druid
A Cleric
A Fighter
And a Ranger-archer

None of them have any methods of flight or dispelling magic. The closest method they have to flight is Potions of Enlarge Person. This would work because the boss is limited to flying 15 feet high due to electricity.

Also, I forget who posted it but I like the idea of him surrendering when at low health. Since the party's main goal will be to gain a key from him, if the boss surrenders, the party will gain just the key, but will need to use Diplomacy/Intimidate/stealth to get anything else. Likewise, if they just kill him, they get all of the loot up front.

EDIT: Only the tops of the pillars emit electricity; PC's on the ground will be fine. The only way they could harm the boss with it would be to somehow use Enlarge Person then Bullrush the boss from below. This seems like an unlikely occurrence. That being said, I did stat it out, and if it works, the boss is doomed to the tune of 7d6 shock damage and being stunned for 1d3 rounds.

EDIT 2: Also, this is an inexperienced party, so using Darkness, Invisibility, flight, and Suggestion is all new stuff to them. In fact, this will be their first time fighting an arcane spellcaster for an extended period of time. Luckily, they know ahead of time that they are dealing with a flying Sorcerer of ambiguously fiendish origins. However, I do want to avoid using more BC spells for fear of giving them too much new stuff to work with. Suggestion will keep them busy as-is :P

EDIT 3: The Imp's role is to keep the players distracted in the early stages of the fight, as well as give them a different way to deal with the boss. He will make a very low UMD check each round to summon monsters from the gate, but each round the DC to do so increases by 5. Failure means that nothing is summoned, as well as the gate firing a Greater Dispel Magic pulse at all nearby, making the Imp visible. If the boss eventually starts using it to summon and fails, he's screwed thanks to a loss of buffs. Also, the imp's UMD is trash, so he can't keep summoning up for very long. He could very easily just run away mid-fight after he ceases to be useful.

Just a couple of quick comments:
Suggestion isnt really supposed to work like that. It's a low level charm suggesting something that ordinarily would sound reasonable to a character, ie suggesting one of the characters run off and find another healer quickly because his/her allies are likely to get seriously hurt - that would be more the sort of thing. It's not supposed to overturn allegiances etc but hey its your game.
The Sorcerer dropping a level due to familiar death lowers him to only knowing one 3rd level spell, ie he loses suggestion or lightning bolt.

If the players understand readied actions they'll quickly figure out after one reappear-cast-and-sink-back-into-the-darkness trick that they should ready missile weapons to fire next time he appears. Six of them led by the archer and warlock could well drop the thirty-something hit point sorcerer in one round.

After the first hit & run trick, it might be fun to fly out of the darkness with Mirror Image running...

[redzimmer]

Contingency Summon Monster III traps on all the pillars above a certain height.

[HolyCouncilMagi]

Contingency Summon Monster III traps on all the pillars above a certain height.

Where in the world are people getting 6th-level spells here?

[(Un)Inspired]

Where in the world are people getting 6th-level spells here?

Scrolls or power stones.

[Geddy2112]

If you want to get buck wild with this encounter and make it really memorable, have the Imp pull a lever or blow up a wall and flood the chamber halfway. .

+1 to this. Having the boss be the only enemy and threat is one dimensional. If the party gets off a save or lose or the boss derps and fumbles a few times the fight can end quick. Multiple threats make combat interesting and not the usual "gang up on BBEG" style of solo boss.

[Brendanicus]

Just a couple of quick comments:
Suggestion isn't really supposed to work like that.To be fair, this party has been rife with borderline PVP for a while. It's going to be fun to force a resolution to that mid-bossfight. Also, the spell description for Suggestion essentially makes suicide a viable use if you phrase it right, which I will.

I forgot who posted it, but I like the idea of the Imp ****ing up the fight. Maybe he will force the party into a Mexican standoff if he survives and the Sorcerer surrenders. Maybe threaten to blow up the gate, OOTS-style, if the party kills the master. The explosion would just summon a ton of monsters instead of just killing the PC's with damage.

[Lerondiel]

To be fair, this party has been rife with borderline PVP for a while. It's going to be fun to force a resolution to that mid-bossfight. Also, the spell description for Suggestion essentially makes suicide a viable use if you phrase it right, which I will.

I forgot who posted it, but I like the idea of the Imp ****ing up the fight. Maybe he will force the party into a Mexican standoff if he survives and the Sorcerer surrenders. Maybe threaten to blow up the gate, OOTS-style, if the party kills the master. The explosion would just summon a ton of monsters instead of just killing the PC's with damage.

Sounds good & as others have said it makes the encounter less one dimensional....better leave the lightning bolt at home though, it could make a real mess of 4th lvl PCs fighting other monsters and one of their own.

[atemu1234]

Have the boss carry plenty of magic items. Some will be useful to it during the fight, but if need be they make very interesting loot.

[Brendanicus]

Have the boss carry plenty of magic items. Some will be useful to it during the fight, but if need be they make very interesting loot.Don't worry on the loot front. This guy is loaded. Seeing as the campaign is a dungeon crawler with normally very little loot, the reward for the fight is equal to full WBL for a 5-th level party.

I think I'm going to re-tool the fight now into a distinctly 3-stage affair.:

1. Party fights the Imp and summoned monsters from the gate. Soon, the Imp goes invisible and waits it out once the real boss shows up.

2. They fight the Sorcerer, who uses the above tactics. This time, however, he surrenders after he gets to 1/3 health, which will probably be quickly. This party does know about readying actions and actually beat a mini-boss a couple weeks ago with it.

2.5. Once the Sorcerer surrenders, the Imp will have none of it. He will threaten to dismiss the controlling runes on the gate, which would cause it to explode. Party can either talk him out of it, risk killing him fast enough, or simply fight after the gate explodes.

3. If the gate explodes, the initial blast summons a lot of big monsters, and a massive, unstable rift in space-time appears. The rift sucks everybody within 45 feet towards it, 4 squares at a time, unless that person can make a Balance check each round. This will, ironically, take out most of the smaller monsters, the Imp most likely among them. Those within sucking range also lose 10 movement speed and take a -4 penalty to ranged attack rolls. Players can also take a full-round Balance check instead, granting a +5 bonus to the check.

If you get sucked into the rift, you can make a Strength check to force yourself back through. However, the rift itself will only last five rounds, and anybody caught inside at the end will die due to the demi-plane collapsing in on itself. The rift itself will also shrink each round, giving players a sense of urgency and decreasing the suck-range.

Boom. Dynamic.

EDIT: I'm replacing Lightning Bolt with Magic Circle Against Good. Besides, spamming Suggestion is much more fun than spamming Lightning Bolt.