101 Big Boss Fights for the Big City

[Fable Wright]

I'm planning to run a campaign in Sharn soon, and while my players have expressed interest in it, they also have a preference for larger-than-life boss fights against spectacle monsters to round out a campaign. So, Playground, tell me: How can I make the two mix? I'll start.

1. Insane Beholder crime lord in the undercity.
2. The enormous statue in the park? Turns out, it was an Iron Golem, and the BBEG just found the activation key. Roll for initiative.
3. The big bad's bodyguard is an insane Master Transmogrifist with Infinite Variety—in other words, you're fighting the imagination of The Wizard That Did It.
4. The necromancer haunting the graveyard? He decided to build some meat dragons as a hobby.
5. A rift to the Abyss has opened up in the ocean, and aquatic Kaiju are beginning to assault the city.
6. A Khyber Dragonmark (or an immense sorcerous talent, depending on setting) has appeared—and its only power is summoning unbound demons.

[LibraryOgre]

A dragon who lives in a warehouse near the river; he slips into the warehouse or out to the river as he needs.

[Ninja_Prawn]

8. Someone dumped magical waste in the sewer, and now a giant mutant carrion crawler is terrorising the city.

9. A local Lord is a vampire - but he's actually quite popular due to his sound fiscal policy and flair for PR. A renowned vampire hunter comes to town, and the party must stop her before she destabilises the entire political structure!

10. A devil-worshipping cult has summoned a dread horror from the depths of hell. More fool them...

[Storm_Of_Snow]

11. Necromancer + cities graveyards = Skeleton/Zombie horde.

Thinking about it, I'm kind of surprised they didn't do something like that in Skyrim, given there's a couple of quests that involve undead in cities.

12. BBEG's got half the city watch under his control, and enough agitators in the populace to get a full scale popular riot going as a distraction, allowing him to take over the city/steal the important and very heavily guarded artefact/complete whatever ritual. The PCs have to make their way through the uprising to stop him.

[3SecondCultist]

13. All of Sharn gathers for the prophecy of the great sphinx Firewind, but on the morning of the proclamation, she is assassinated by a cabal of assassins working for the Lords of Dust. And the PCs - the subject of her last prophecy - are next...

14. A prisoner convoy headed to the city via airship has been hijacked by the Emerald Claw, threatening Sharn's airways unless somebody takes the fight to them.

15. A gala is being held in the honor of a warforged hero, but a wizard who is against the Thronehold Accords decides to commit a False Flag Operation and use an army of golems to crash the party.

[the_david]

16. After solving the mystery of the recent killing spree, the heroes find the murderers: A bard who has just become the new crimelord by killing the competition and his loyal Gray Render enforcer.

[Mutazoia]

17. Three words: Release. The. Kraken. Or in this case a Gigantic, Dire Tarrasque with an extreme mad on.

[Hunter Noventa]

18. A giant mechanical monstrosity rises from the river and begins to lay waste to everything around it. (We did this in a supers campaign...it was a giant mechanical Abraham Lincoln, and we had to stop it with an equally giant mechanical John Wilkes Boothe)

[Mutazoia]

18. A giant mechanical monstrosity rises from the river and begins to lay waste to everything around it. (We did this in a supers campaign...it was a giant mechanical Abraham Lincoln, and we had to stop it with an equally giant mechanical John Wilkes Boothe)

Jesus: Come in, Moses!
Moses: What?
Jesus: We need to know how to kill a giant stone Abraham Lincoln.
Moses: [pause] Um...
[mumbles]
Moses: ... a giant stone John Wilkes Booth?
Jesus: [Long pause] You heard him, Super Best Friends! We've got to make a giant stone John Wilkes Booth!

[Bohandas]

19.) Necromancer operating out of the meatpacking district or Sharn's nearest equivalent of one. Lots of zombie bulls and steers. etc etc etc. (seriously, why don't they all do this, it's extremely obvious in retrospect)

[Bohandas]

20.) A gigantic manifestation of a deity is summoned like at the end of the original Ghostbusters (heck, Gozer even had the epithet "the Traveler")

[Rakoa]

21.) A high level Druid that dwells in the sewer, has a network of small animal spies and guardians, and uses spells like Fire Seeds and Call Lightning, maybe even Earthquake or Control Weather, to unleash destruction on key targets from afar or even buildings, all while completely inconspicuous. After all, dropping seeds is easy, waiting for a nobleman's carriage to pass over them is even easier, and who pays attention to the sparrow when lightning is destroying everything you've ever known?

Suicide bombers are even possible by controlling squirrels and sending them in with holly berry bombs strapped to their fur, though a casting of Resist Energy will make the critter immune if you don't want a blatantly evil bad guy. You've got a guerrilla fighting terrorist, hidden in a labyrinthine sewer that only he knows the layout to. If you bring the fight to him, be prepared to navigate a true dungeon, complete with environmental factors and altered animal monsters.