Boss Battle Help

[MakChavez8]

Hello! I'm currently writing a one-shot that is sort of a murder-mystery-circus theme. Basically the owner of the circus got murked and I'm pulling a "Murder on the Orient Express" and making all the main carnies the culprits behind it. As such, the players are going to fight them all at once in a final boss battle. I could use some help making the characters more interesting, so the battle isn't too easy or too difficult. Here are the characters I've been working with, but race and class are flexible for each of them.

Theobert - A dragonborn paladin, and ringmaster of the circus
Luna - A half-elf thief-acrobat type
Basco the bear - Luna's companion, however the bear is secretly a gnome druid that can take animal form
Madam Calypso - Halfling sorcerer? Maybe arcane trickster? Haven't decided yet.

If anyone has suggestions for better or more interesting classes, and some tips for making this final battle really awesome please let me know!

[Ketiara]

Hello! I'm currently writing a one-shot that is sort of a murder-mystery-circus theme. Basically the owner of the circus got murked and I'm pulling a "Murder on the Orient Express" and making all the main carnies the culprits behind it. As such, the players are going to fight them all at once in a final boss battle. I could use some help making the characters more interesting, so the battle isn't too easy or too difficult. Here are the characters I've been working with, but race and class are flexible for each of them.

Theobert - A dragonborn paladin, and ringmaster of the circus
Luna - A half-elf thief-acrobat type
Basco the bear - Luna's companion, however the bear is secretly a gnome druid that can take animal form
Madam Calypso - Halfling sorcerer? Maybe arcane trickster? Haven't decided yet.

If anyone has suggestions for better or more interesting classes, and some tips for making this final battle really awesome please let me know!

let the carnies have their tricks being ACTUAL magic... let them have a suitcase/chest/pads/ that actually make them disappear either making them invisible or teleport them around. Im thinking that some magic sign, action, symbol decide where they turn up. And have the PC's discover this with a proper arcana/perception check...

More magic... Let the carnies wear invisible harnesses allowing them to make incredible jumps, or act as safety harnesses if they fall... have a number of gnomes controlling those harnesses back stage using their action to "move" the carnies giving them extra movement etc... again perception/insight to discover this...

Fake floors/trapdoors... once again special arcane signs activate a deadly trap, and others makes for safe passage... Give the arena lair actions... activate smoke, pyrotechnics, lightshow etc... play with it... uh uh... murderous clowns! tiny creepy clown with huge knives!

hope I make sense, english isnt my native language.

[Specter]

If you want a hard battle, you can simply make these four bosses the same level as the PCs and see who comes out alive.

If you want to make it very hard, think of how you can combine their abilities. For example, the sorcerer can cast Greater Invisibility on the paladin who will crit like hell, and the druid can cast Spike Growth to prevent the melees from reaching him and the sorceress. Etc.

[Unoriginal]

My advice: don't build NPCs like PCs, ESPECIALLY not for a boss fight.

What level are your PCs?

[MakChavez8]

My advice: don't build NPCs like PCs, ESPECIALLY not for a boss fight.

What level are your PCs?

They are level 5, currently. I'm not trying to build them like PC's, but I do want them to have similar qualities if that makes sense. They won't know right away that these guys are the enemies. I'm trying to make the carnie battle equally interesting as it is hard.

[MrStabby]

I had a similar encounter with a fiendish circus in a campaign I ran. I used:

Illusionist
Fire breather
Knife throwing act
Band (low level bard spells)
Acrobats/dancers
Stagehands as muscle
Lion tamer

I gave most of the spell themed adversaries one higher level spell, it puts the fear into PCs, but then the focus was on the interaction between the magical and the physical with the overall plan being to generally keep the PCs divided and out of the fight.