What do you do to spice up a BBEG encounter?

[Oryan77]

I'm just trying to mine for ideas and I was wondering about different techniques that DMs use to make an important encounter that much better. My insipiration has been lacking due to being so busy with real life, and I have an encounter coming up that I would like to make memorable. As it is now, all I have is the BBEG and his minions standing in a room waiting for the PCs to show up. :smallconfused:

I'm not looking for build ideas or tactical combat ideas. More like roleplaying scenarios or environmental obstacles to help spice up an otherwise bland throne room.

[LokeyITP]

Trap door to the Dire Shark tank :)

Narratively, if there's any bait you dangled and the pcs didn't pick up it could be worked in somehow (like wrapping up a plot thread, doesn't matter if it wasn't your original intention). Character, thing, piece of info true or not, doesn't matter. Try to make them fire off at least one of their MacGuffins too.

Environment, trap, tricky use of spells and abilities...hard to say what without knowing what's available for your game and power levels.

[erok0809]

It really depends on your campaign. I find that the BBEG being introduced early as someone trying to be a friend to the party is kind of fun, so that when it turns out that he's actually the final boss, the party might have some thinking to do, or at least a good RP situation. It's even better if they were inadvertently actively furthering his goals at one point, so that some of the situation that they or their world is in is directly the party's fault. It might not make the actual combat any more exciting, but it does make the pre- and post-combat talking fun.

Also, having a dragon as a BBEG "minion" makes for a worrying fight, since they have the BBEG, the dragon, and all the other minions to deal with as well. Dragons are kind of hard to beat if built well.

[marphod]

As it is now, all I have is the BBEG and his minions standing in a room waiting for the PCs to show up. :smallconfused:

I'm not looking for build ideas or tactical combat ideas. More like roleplaying scenarios or environmental obstacles to help spice up an otherwise bland throne room.

Why on earth are they waiting?

Pre-greased floors. Rugs that are traps (entanglement, holes under the floor, slippery, rugs that are just rugs). Tapestries that actual monsters step out of. Hunting dogs.

Have someone/something else beat them to the punch. Start new BBEG.

[GreatDane]

I love when threads like this pop up. They almost always turn into a goldmine for DMs.

Here's some stuff I've done:

A battle with a "mob boss"-type BBEG took place on the second floor of a wooden building. Things started mysteriously heating up partway through the battle, with the walls beginning to catch fire. Toward the end of the combat, the floor collapsed, dumping the combatants into the room below, where the (previously muzzled) pyrohydra the boss had been illegally transporting had gotten loose.

Volcanoes and lava caves are always fun. A recent encounter pitted my PCs against a few young red dragons in an underground chamber dotted with lava pools. The PCs were in constant fear of being dragged into the lava, while the dragons could retreat into the pools when they needed a breather.


For almost any melee encounter, you can add some ranged support with distance and elevation. This can be archers on scaffolding, flying spellcasters, or giants with rocks on a distant hill. It splits the PCs' attention and gives them incentive to have either a ranged response or a way to close the distance, and generally shifts combat slightly away from the combatants just rushing each other and slugging it out.

In general: to spice up an otherwise plain encounter, give the PCs something to worry about other than the main BBEG.

[Oryan77]

Why on earth are they waiting?

Because they are waiting for you to give them some ideas so they don't have to be waiting. :smallbiggrin:

[Extra Anchovies]

You can have much more interesting and memorable encounters if you have a BBEG and a few powerful underlings instead of a BBEG and a lot of mooks. One CR [party level]+2 BBEG and two CR [party level]-1 lieutenants is ECL +4, which makes for a nice tough boss fight.

[3drinks]

Mine for a final finale involved (this was a 1-20 game) the PCs at lv20 getting to settle the score with the BBEG at lv25 - taking advantage of the BBEG being out-powered by action economy, I gave him several more levels, including Epic status, for the fight. In addition, while the PCs are standard multiclass builds, the BBEG I made was a Gestalt Duskblade/Cleric of Hextor. And since any good BBEG worth his weight in salt isn't going to fight alone unless cornered, he had a pair of lv21 colleagues with him. Together the three of them could use a special "combo attack" once/turn, similar to the LeBlanc/Ormi/Logos "No Love Lost" combo from FF X-2. This combo, if it successfully hits (which is a formality with Epic level full BAB progressions) would force two saves - a Will save or be dazed for a full next turn (in utter confusion of what you just witnessed) and a Fort save (if you fail, you take five negative levels until the end of the fight). In both cases, the DC = damage dealt, but the "combo attack" is broadcasted a turn ahead of time - they have to be standing within five feet of each other for a whole turn, and then the next turn their actions can be replaced by the combo.

Then I gave the BBEG the relic sword the PCs have been chasing to return to it's proper resting place. There are other relic swords too, and they have multiple power levels - an "up to +5 power" for character level 20 and below, and it's full power version, online if the wielder is lv21+. So the BBEG gets to use the sword at full power, but if the PCs found any (assuming they followed any side quests for them) then they would only have the powered down versions.

I do this because I expect the PCs to not pull any punches - so I run high powered fights to compensate.

[Nibbens]

I second the volcano. Mine was a 1000 foot drop into a volcano for a fight with a dragon.

First, I picked a musical score that I played before they descended, just for theme-ing. (i turned it off after 1 minute) At 1000 feet away they were taking damage from the flame aura - their decent along sheer walls of the volcano. They all had flying mounts - and then I gave the dragon a 1000 foot cone breath weapon - pelting them the entire way down into the pit.

The dragon was standing on lava because 'screw physics', and it was healing him because 'yeah why not'. And he could spam-summon fire elementals re-skinned and re-fluffed as "Blobs of magma that vaguely resemble dragons" because Action Economy rules everything.

So, always remember, forcing your PCs to sit through 1 minute of epic music before their epic boss battle is going to depend on how receptive your group will be to this. And for the love of everything, don't play it during game play - it's distracting.

Also, the "long hallway to your doom" is always an interesting mechanic. It's really cool to create this room where they do nothing but move through empty space - use description here, as the players go further into the hallway, things should change. Walls hotter, shadows more ominous, thunder cracks and booms outside for cliche's sake! The sky is the limit here.

Monologue-ing villains is overrated, but once again, know your PCs. Mine hate the monologue thing - so I open the "monologue" with a 1000 foot breath weapon in their faces because that's how they roll, so they get what they deserve! So depending on your group - discussion - full on narrative on the enemies turn could be an interesting change of pace and interaction.

Flat rooms are boring for a reason. At least have some obstacles, and some varying terrain. A 50 foot pillar of flame in the center of the room is awesome for a boss even with just a simple bullrush attack. It doesn't have to be fire, it can be a log splitter on the third floor of a lumbermill (my shout out to RotRL, you know I love you).

Last but not least - death. Your PC's may die, your villains may die, but regardless who dies - describe that, son! Don't leave it to the imagination. This is the last bit of control the DM has is how his BBEG dies, and how the PCs die. ... except the dying monologue. Curses to whoever uses the dying monologue! And double curses to the "It was all just a dream" guy. That stuff's just wrong and bad form!

[atemu1234]

Trap door to the Dire Shark tank :)

Narratively, if there's any bait you dangled and the pcs didn't pick up it could be worked in somehow (like wrapping up a plot thread, doesn't matter if it wasn't your original intention). Character, thing, piece of info true or not, doesn't matter. Try to make them fire off at least one of their MacGuffins too.

Environment, trap, tricky use of spells and abilities...hard to say what without knowing what's available for your game and power levels.

Lava-Breathing Half-White Dragon Dire Sharks, if you please.