Remorhaz (boss) encounter

[Terdarius]

Hey guys. I’m hoping you can give me some inspiration on an upcoming encounter I am planning form my group.

I am currently running the Revenge of the giants module but am modifying it quite a bit. Currently the players are on a frozen island roaming around trying to figure out what is going on there.

The next encounter I am planning involves a Remorhaz (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Remorhaz) (big ice worm with centipede legs and internal heat source). I really want to make this a cool “boss-like” encounter as I’ve done in the past with great success.
This means I’m using the AndgryDM (http://angrydm.com/2010/04/the-dd-boss-fight-part-1/) approach and making it a Multi staged fight where the Remorhaz switches up tactics and abilities to make an interesting encounter.
I’m also thinking about using the environment as something that can potentially help or hinder the players (something like dropping large icicles from a ceiling or causing a mini avalanche or something)

So what I’m hoping for is inspiration on designing a cool multi stage encounter.
Any ideas/suggestions about what can happen during this encounter would be highly appreciated.

Thanks!

[MwaO]

I'd look at the Remorhaz heat ability. What if it started off normal for the first part of combat and then supercharged the aura for the 2nd half.

And then what if that aura started melting the ice of the environment - so things turned slippery, maybe some small pits opened up as chasms hidden by the ice started to appear. The aura might give it concealment due to the heatwaves coming off of it. Maybe its claws now have attacks due to fire damage, but the chance of grabbing gets reduced because it isn't used to fire coming out of its mouth.

I think that gets you where you want to be - a natural reason for the environment to start out one way, then switch. And an organic idea for monster #2 as opposed to monster #1...

[ThePurple]

I think a lot of it depends upon the scenario that you're having the boss fight occur within.

Is the remorhaz some ancient guardian that has been lying in wait for centuries? If so, I'd probably go with a first stage where the remorhaz is covered in thick ice and is waiting for its inner fire to warm up; probably go with a soldier stage without anything really special going on. Stage 2 would then be described as either the inner heat melting off or the PCs themselves breaking off the centuries of ice that built up on the remorhaz; I would probably have the ice that sloughs off create difficult terrain, the heat would start actually making an appearance in the mechanics, and you'd probably go with skirmisher or controller stats. Stage 3 would then involve the PCs having stoked the remorhaz's inner fire to extreme levels by nearly killing it, such that it's actually injuring (and will probably actually kill) the remorhaz (I wouldn't have it take any additional damage, but I would make the PCs aware that the remorhaz is basically killing itself to kill the players); mechanically, the fire aura, if it's not already present, is there and in overdrive (like everything else fire based), everything icy in the entire room is now either melted or boiling (including the difficult terrain that was created during stage 2), and the remorhaz is a straight up brute, ignoring its defenses as it tries everything possible to kill the players.

If it's more of a rampaging monster, the question is then *why* is the beasty rampaging (and where). If it's rampaging because it's about to spawn, you'd probably have the latter stages involve the constant production of minions. If the fight occurs over a frozen lake, stage 1 would be on the top of the lake; stage 2 could then be players fighting on the broken ice sheet and stage 3 actually in the glacial water (e.g. cold damage every turn from being in the water; the remorhaz is heated though, so maybe the previous fire damage aura actually prevents this constant cold damage); another option for the lake battle, if you want to go straight up over the top epic, might be to just start off with the broken ice sheets as stage 1, stage 2 underwater with cold water, and stage 3 underwater with the water boiling from the Remorhaz's heat.

If you give the context of the remorhaz fight, I could probably come up with a bit more.

[Terdarius]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think there are already some things that I can work with.

As for context, according to the campaign the Remorhaz is simply a hunting monster (actually accompanied by some wolfs that try to get some scraps). It tunnels under the ice in its territory and when it senses potential prey it will surface and attack.
It also has a lair where there is some treasure if the players backtrack through the tunnels after defeating it.
The environment is more of a very large iceberg, so no frozen lakes or anything.

But of course all of that is up for change if it makes the encounter cooler ;)

[ThePurple]

As for context, according to the campaign the Remorhaz is simply a hunting monster (actually accompanied by some wolfs that try to get some scraps). It tunnels under the ice in its territory and when it senses potential prey it will surface and attack.
It also has a lair where there is some treasure if the players backtrack through the tunnels after defeating it.

Well, with this, I would probably make it so that the fight actually gets the party into the lair rather than making the lair simply an option for loot.

2 possibilities come to mind.

The first possibility is an ambush stage, a fleeing stage, and a lair fight stage. In this, the first stage would be a normal remorhaz fight, the fleeing stage would be a skill challenge (with the remorhaz getting in free attacks each round for damage against the players instead of players losing HSs on failure), and the lair fight involving the remorhaz either abusing the terrain (causing icicles to fall by slamming the floor/ground or melting pools into freezing slush for the players to get caught in) and/or summoning loads of little baby remorhaz minions.

The second possibility is an ambush stage, a collapse/avalanche event that gets the players in the remorhaz's lair followed by a lair fight stage, and a more advanced lair fight stage. The ambush stage is a normal fight, as before. The collapse/avalanche is basically a global (affects everything regardless of range) transition attack (like bloodied breath) that takes the party to another map (you could even use the previous model and replace the fleeing stage with a skill challenge to survive the avalanche) followed by a pair of lair fights. The lair fights could either be one with manipulated terrain and another with minions (the recommendations for the previous possibility's third stage simply placed in different stages) or both with manipulated terrain/heat intensification (e.g. second stage is icicles falling and third stage is slush melted/boiled by remorhaz going heat crazy).

[Beoric]

Well, if the creature is a hunter, remember that hunters try to minimize life-threatening risks, and the goal is to get food, not t battle a group of adventurers.

Also remember that the remorhaz has a burrowing speed, with tunnelling, and that it moves its regular speed when it goes through its own 2-square-wide tunnels. Note it is not actually burrowing when it is moving through a tunnel it made earlier, it won't have the restrictions on shifting and charging.

So to riff on what ThePurple said, remorhaz attacks from beneath the snow pack, tries to use its swallow power to swallow an adventurer, and then bolts for its existing tunnel with the adventurer in its gut (using its trample power if possible). This has the advantage of minimizing the availability of flanking, since any character that wants to flank it needs to move through 3 enemy squares.

If you want to make the encounter a bit tougher, make a terrain power for the tunnels created by the remorhaz ie. the remorhaz can use a standard action to collapse the tunnel for a given area behind it, immobilizing pursuers (who are up to their waist in snow); on a miss, the area is difficult terrain.

If it encounters stiff opposition it will flee. But it may stalk the party after it nurses its wounds for a while (remember, it has 3 healing surges). It could make the next extended rest on the ice a little more interesting.

EDIT: Ooh! It comes up underneath them through a 2x2 tunnel. When it bursts through, everyone in that 2x2 area is slid to a square outside the area and knocked prone (move action), which is difficult terrain in a burst 1. It tries to grab one PC (standard) and swallow it (minor); when it succeeds, it goes back into the tunnel at a run, using an action point to get more distance if possible. Maybe fill the tunnels with chock frost and make the remorhaz immune, or make them difficult terrain and give the remorhaz ice walk (which it really should have as a cold-weather creature with a gajillion legs). Or give it a climb speed when it is in its own tunnels, and have some of its tunnel complex be vertical. So the real challenge is catching the thing before it gets away with whoever it swallowed.