Homebrew bosses

[crabwizard77]

This is a thread for you to post your homebrew bosses. Please include a edition number
I don't have anything yet, but I am working on a candle golem.
So, yeah

[Buufreak]

Just curious. What are we calling bosses in this context? Organization leaders? High level combat encounters? Unwinnable combat encounters? Individuals that have the name or nickname of Boss?

[crabwizard77]

Just curious. What are we calling bosses in this context? Organization leaders? High level combat encounters? Unwinnable combat encounters? Individuals that have the name or nickname of Boss?

I was thinking stuff like strong, mabye complex enemies. Ones that you would put as the boss fight at the end of the adventure, so like strahd, but the CR doesn't have to be high.

[brian 333]

Recurring Nemesis

In 1st Ed AD&D, a simple non-optimized cleric was the level 3 boss of a starter adventure. She was intimidating the locals by animating dead villagers, ordering the corpse to go into the village, then showing up to "command" the undead to get back in its grave.
The party beat her henchmen and a few zombies, (Rasita the evil cleric,) ran away, and life went on.

At 3rd level a random encounter was NPC, so I went to my file and pulled out Rasita. I leveled her to 5th and ran the encounter between her and the party. Usually I'd have changed the name and description too, but I said, Why not? and used her. The party chased her off again.

Then I set about creating another encounter as a filler in the quest arc. Rasita's Revenge was a lure to an ambush, (abandoned temple in the forest,) because Rasita had it in her head that the party was hunting her! A devoted follower pretended her mother had been deceived into joining a cult and needed rescuing. Rasita had been building a cult, and they needed sacrifices.

Rasita got away, the party usually had better things to do, and until the next time they generally forgot about her.

Recurring villains don't have to be epic final bosses, but they can be, and when they make a last minute getaway they can come back later for revenge.

[JNAProductions]

Recurring Nemesis

In 1st Ed AD&D, a simple non-optimized cleric was the level 3 boss of a starter adventure. She was intimidating the locals by animating dead villagers, ordering the corpse to go into the village, then showing up to "command" the undead to get back in its grave.
The party beat her henchmen and a few zombies, (Rasita the evil cleric,) ran away, and life went on.

At 3rd level a random encounter was NPC, so I went to my file and pulled out Rasita. I leveled her to 5th and ran the encounter between her and the party. Usually I'd have changed the name and description too, but I said, Why not? and used her. The party chased her off again.

Then I set about creating another encounter as a filler in the quest arc. Rasita's Revenge was a lure to an ambush, (abandoned temple in the forest,) because Rasita had it in her head that the party was hunting her! A devoted follower pretended her mother had been deceived into joining a cult and needed rescuing. Rasita had been building a cult, and they needed sacrifices.

Rasita got away, the party usually had better things to do, and until the next time they generally forgot about her.

Recurring villains don't have to be epic final bosses, but they can be, and when they make a last minute getaway they can come back later for revenge.

I love that. Definitely gonna have to keep stuff like that in mind!