DM Help Please! Changing Boss Battle!

[Dousedinoil]

Hey all,

So I wanted to incorporate the Academy of Secrets into the game that I'm running and have pretty much everyone figured out. Their is an end boss called Chyvvom that is already pretty tough but I wanted to incorporate a mechanic into the fight. I thought he could have towers of contracts (from all the souls he's collected as he's a contract devil) and that the aura of theses scrolls would give him a +10 bonus to AC. However if the PCs target the towers, he would lose the AC buff. How do i adjust the monsters CR for the fight? Would he keep the same CR 15? Would the towers be considered its own monster with its own CR? Has anyone ever done this?

Help!

[Tiri]

At level 15, I doubt a mere +10 to AC would appreciably increase a creature's CR, provided that the party fighting it is decently optimized.

[weckar]

At level 15, I doubt a mere +10 to AC would appreciably increase a creature's CR, provided that the party fighting it is decently optimized. That's quite the provision in most games. If that AC buff extends to Touch AC, it is surely going to hamper their chances of success.

[ExLibrisMortis]

If there are, say, three stacks of contracts, each providing a stacking +4 profane bonus AC, and they die to one attack each (adjust exact hit point total to the damage output of your party), then it's around +1 CR, depending on the party. You're buying the boss about a round of extra time, on a total of 3-5 rounds.

If the party is all save-or-suck spellcasters, it's more like +0, and if the party uses a lot of low-attack summons or TWF monks, it's maybe +2, but the latter is unlikely.

[weckar]

A scaling SR may be more appropriate, or a scaling Fast Healing... Either way, there are more ways to be annoying than a high AC.

[Val666]

Uhm An idea could be that instead of the towers giving 10 AC to the boss, why don't these towers...uh..like..place 4 towers around the boss room. after a few rounds of the fight one tower turns on, giving the boss invulnerability. While the boss is invulnerable, his attack routine would change, something like only 1 ranged homing attack per round which deals moderate damage. This tower will summon X number of minions and the players must kill them to shut down the tower. Rounds later two towers turn on instead, then 3 and then the 4. After that you could have some choices like:

-The boss absorbed power from the towers turning him into "Insert Boss Phase 2"
-The great amount of energy overloads the boss and kills him
-Afer the 4 towers are shut down the mechanic no longer works for the encounter, making it an easier phase after so much work.
-blablabla

Another thing could be the towers active one by one (one first, then 2, 3, 4 at the same time). While active they meake the boss invulnerable and the towers attack with aoe spells instead of summoning monsters. :V

[weckar]

That sounds awfully video gamey....

[Tiri]

That's quite the provision in most games. If that AC buff extends to Touch AC, it is surely going to hamper their chances of success.

Not really, unless the party is soley made up of unoptimzed fighters or something similar. After all, by that level spellcasters have many other things they can target besides AC and can easily buff team members past or close to a +10 attack bonus, if their companions can't reliably make the attack roll without enhancements. There are also the various debuffs that can reduce AC as well.

[Dousedinoil]

That sounds awfully video gamey....

I definitely don't want to turn this into some crazy video game boss. I just like to add things that factor into tatics and strategy to give the group a bit of change from the hack and slash. All I want is a "Oh a 30 doesn't hit his AC, maybe we should try attacking these towers/lanterns/etc."

The reason why I'm asking about CR is because I modified the terrain for the last boss battle I had and the players kind of complained about how it made the encounter harder and how they should get more xp (it was a room where everyone could teleport). They thought it made it harder to flank and maneuver. It took them a while to realize they could just ready an action to flank the boss. Anyways, this is more of a one sided buff, like healing pools that enemies get when they are in their room, making them harder to kill.
I also want to increase AC in particular because they are still too focused on it. I like rewarding players for being creative, paying attention and trying new things.

I think I'll just make a CR+1.

[dascarletm]

Always include minions in your boss battle.

For a level 15 party, I would send them

One CR 17 big boss
(1.5x number of party members) CR 12 lieutenants
lots* of CR 4 or 5 minions

*Lots means pretty much infinite. I would just keep sending them (within reason) in waves to help pad the fight with bodies. If you have trouble running lots of little guys at once, maybe don't do this.

[Dousedinoil]

Always include minions in your boss battle.

For a level 15 party, I would send them

One CR 17 big boss
(1.5x number of party members) CR 12 lieutenants
lots* of CR 4 or 5 minions

*Lots means pretty much infinite. I would just keep sending them (within reason) in waves to help pad the fight with bodies. If you have trouble running lots of little guys at once, maybe don't do this.

Yeah he will have minions for sure. It's all in the adventure module. Really though I just couldn't find anything in the DMs guide about adding things like this to an encounter.

[noob]

Being in an advantageous situation(for the monsters) can add +1 or +2 to the CR of an encounter.
Many Gms ignore this rule and decide a cryo hydra(which by the way deals 147d6 damage due to rudisplorking by the part of the gm) in an tiny room in which adventurers are teleported counts as a regular encounter while it should be considered as having +1 to the CR.


*Lots means pretty much infinite. I would just keep sending them (within reason) in waves to help pad the fight with bodies. If you have trouble running lots of little guys at once, maybe don't do this.
When the players killed 50000 of them they will start thinking the BBEG was probably more important than what they thought.

[Rangô]

My advice in this case, where the battlefield and other conditions unbalance the odds against players is rewarding them with and x% XP of the CR. Make your own scale, it could be partial but is easy and fast.
For example, say the PCs must face a water elemental gang, and they are fighting on a tiny boat in the middle of a lake...that's a pretty disadvantaged situation, 20% XP extra. In your case I'll go further, for example if you releash a hint of the towers and one of the PCs catch it, individual prize, 500 XP for him.
I suggest you to imporvise that reward depending on how tough was that challenge, maybe a +10 profane AC wasn't working as you thought, if they still manage to hit with a 25 or perhaps they haven't resources to face it.