Drawing out combat.

[lumberofdabeast]

Heya, I'm wondering how to make combat last longer without guaranteeing a TPK, for a boss battle of epic proportions. I really have no idea how to go about it. Any ideas?

[Ponce]

Try summon-and-run tactics. Give the BBEG the ability to port small distances. Have him summon or call upon some minions at different stages of the battle, trying to wear down the heroes so he doesn't have to face them head on.

Have him move around to areas that work increasingly in his favor as the battle goes on, don't keep him in one place.

Give him a few potions to heal himself between intervals. He doesn't have to have many HPs or powerful attacks, but he should probably be smart enough to down a potion or two when he gets the chance.

[Falrin]

Make survival BBEG.

High AC, Lots of HP and good Saves combined with good mobility (tumble, speed, ...) and at least 2 escape tactics (Dimension Door, Mislead, ...)

Damage output is not important. You'll have minions to bash the PC's.

[SpiderBrigade]

My first thought is, drop the power of his attacks a bit, and then double or triple his HP

Of course, that doesn't help with save-or-dies, particularly. So maybe he needs his save bonuses doubled as well.

The point being, make him less deadly, so the party can survive a fight for a really long time...but also make him tougher, so he just won't go down.

There's probably a better way to do it though.

[Ikkitosen]

Waves of enemies. Summoned or arriving.

[Lemur]

Or, if you only want the PCs to be fighting one person the whole time, have him work in "stages". The PCs kill him, and he resurrects in a matter of rounds, perhaps stronger or weaker than before, depending on how tough he was the first time through. After the PCs kill him twice, or three times, or whatever, they can finish him off.

This method means that the PCs expend a lot of their resources, but don't end up wasting any of them. For example, if you gave the guy high spell resistance, magic using PCs would have trouble being effective in the battle, but this way if they can hurt him, even with a save or die spell, and the battle will continue. It's essentially like waves of enemies, only with the same enemy making up each wave.

[the_tick_rules]

terrain, make obstacles hills and whatnot, it'd also make manuvers and tactics more important.

[SpiderBrigade]

Or, if you only want the PCs to be fighting one person the whole time, have him work in "stages". The PCs kill him, and he resurrects in a matter of rounds, perhaps stronger or weaker than before, depending on how tough he was the first time through. After the PCs kill him twice, or three times, or whatever, they can finish him off.

This method means that the PCs expend a lot of their resources, but don't end up wasting any of them. For example, if you gave the guy high spell resistance, magic using PCs would have trouble being effective in the battle, but this way if they can hurt him, even with a save or die spell, and the battle will continue. It's essentially like waves of enemies, only with the same enemy making up each wave.

He also needs to have a different set of abilities at each "stage," possibly with one of them being just a giant head, or similar.

[Mr the Geoff]

2 things.

Waves of minions to wade through (something as simple as an alarm spell on the door linked to the hidden guardroom 5-10 rounds movement away)

Battlefield control BBEGs (he's not damaging you mugh but the fear/silence/wall of ice etc are taking a couple of rounds to sort out)

Last game my group came up against a mini-boss wizard who was quite well dug in, and had greater invis up and a few mates.

THe melee charged in to take out the 2 mid level fighters in the room, then suddenly a wall of ice dropped behind us and the rogue we all missed started going to work on the casters on the other side of the wall of ice while the wizard dropped lightning bolt/cloudkill/disintegrate.

Unfortunately for him our big hitters all made their saves and the druid wildshaped into a bird, flew over the wall, changed back and got nasty with a wand of silence, but it was still a nice ambush plan, splitting the party nicely in 2 to prolong the fight

[F.L.]

I've heard that Monks and Warlocks can last for a very long time, but cannot do offense effectively. That should, if done right, give a long battle with a very low risk of TPK.

[Diggorian]

I like to layer epic battles with tension.

The scene looks simple with only half the minions you want to use up front. When half of them are gone, in comes the BBEG with the other half, maybe he's been buffing up to this point? It's more dramatic I find when these new minions are of a different nature than the first. Halfway through the battle some kind of continous environment hazard occurs that hampers both sides. Actually, the side with the lowest level members will be hurt worse, so this could actually prevent TPK if the going is tough.

Example Level 8 Encounter:

• You heave and batter in the large pair of metal double doors to reveal an evil temple. Praying around a grotesque idol topped alter are a dozen goblins (warriors, CR 1/3). At your intrusion, they scream the infernal name of their god and ready weapons to honor It. Roll Init.
  
• Finding your not easy game, the goblins remain fierce with devotion. Then, the large doors creak with the entrance of newcomers. You see four well muscled and seething orcs (Barbarian lvl 1's) enter the temple, followed casually by Kamadus, the hobgoblin priest (Cleric lvl 6) you've sought for so long.
  
  "I commend your determination, sincerely. Your blood will be a fitting sacrifice for the Dark Lord. KILL THE DEFILERS!!!!" The roaring orcs grow with rage and battlelust as they charge in to obey.
  
• The fight is going hard and long, Kamadus' eyes betrayed doubt and fear, now horror. "Dark Lord give me more power! DO NOT FAIL ME!!"
  
  The statues dark jewel orbs begin to glow as a tremor passes through the air. Angered by his priest's fear, the deity begins to shake the very foundations of the temple itself. Rocks and debris begin to fall as portions of the wall burst with large fissures forming. (Reflex save DC 12 every round to avoid 1d6 bludgeoning damage, CR 3-4)

Hope this helps.

[dyslexicfaser]

When I think of a drawn-out battle, my mind drifts to the World of Warcraft MMO.

Take Onyxia, a raid-boss:

She starts out the battle melee-style. Bite and claw attacks, the occasional wing buffet or tail swipe or breath weapon.

After she's down to about 65% of her health, she goes airborn and starts spitting fireballs, and sends in a small number of her hatchlings from two openings in the walls that house her eggs. Fireballs and hatchlings flying around gives the whole thing have a certain frantic feel to it.

At 35% of her HP total, she drops back down, and does the melee thing again - this time interspersed with wide-area fears and damage.

That's the sort of thing that, to me, makes a good boss.

[....]

I've always liked splitting the party up for big boss fights. Have the BBEG find a way to cleverly force the PCs apart and fight his underlings.

Can be pretty dramatic if you're switching between the fights fluidly and keeping things moving along.

Or, if you don't want to split the party, remember that there's no rule saying the BBEG has to be in a twenty by thirty foot room standing at one end surrounded by goblins. Think of Strahd from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, he hardly ever stands and fights, instead he uses hit and run tactics to wear down the party as they travel through the castle (Fell Lightning bolts really scare/piss off a party who's cleric is out of spells and resting for new ones)

Make the BBEG fight dirty, don't try to make him fight all the PCs at once.

[Cauchy]

Have your boss be a psion/wilder with Timeless Body + Schism (XPH)

Basically, the boss's main mind casts Timeless Body each round, "rendering her invulnerable to all attacks and powers" while his Schismed mind casts offensive powers. Until she runs out of power points, she can blast the party at will. Perfect for emulating those action movie scenes where the villain is behind an unbreakable wall while the hero fights her henchmen.

For more fun, make your boss a Thrallherd. Free henchmen!

[Person_Man]

Lots of hit points.

High AC.

High Grapple Check.

Throw Anything feat.

Pick up PC. Throw PC A into PC B. Repeat.

[Stevenson]

That'd be more under fling enemy, which requires you to have rock hurling. Yeah.

Anyway, is this the kind of BBEG fight that ends with the demise, or will he get away? I think one of the longer fights my party ever had was against a warlock and a dwarven defender. Dwarven defender tried to tie melee people down while warlock did some battlefield control and blasting. 'Twas nice. And my monk got to bust some tentacles.

[dyslexicfaser]

And my monk got to bust some tentacles.

Is that a euphemism for something?

[Amphimir Míriel]

Or, if you only want the PCs to be fighting one person the whole time, have him work in "stages". The PCs kill him, and he resurrects in a matter of rounds, perhaps stronger or weaker than before, depending on how tough he was the first time through. After the PCs kill him twice, or three times, or whatever, they can finish him off.

This, and several other replies in this thread, have an indeleble whiff of videogame...

People! This is Roleplaying! its supposed to be more flexible and dynamic...

Why on earth would we want to introduce predictable videogamy scenarios:

Clear stage 1-1 of easy mindless monsters.
Clear stage 1-2 of easy mindless monsters with a different scenario.
Clear stage 1-3 of easy mindless monsters with a different scenario (perhaps with some slightly difficult terrain)
Clear stage 1-4 of easy mindless monsters with a different scenario (now maybe some lava pools, or maybe some collapsing roofs)
After this: Defeat Miniboss... Congratulations you have raised a level!

Clear stage 2-1 of slightly more difficult mindless monsters.
Clear stage 2-2 of slightly more difficult mindless monsters with a different scenario.
Clear stage 2-3 of slightly more difficult mindless monsters with a different scenario (perhaps with some slightly difficult terrain)
Clear stage 2-4 of slightly more difficult mindless monsters with a different scenario (now maybe some lava pools, or maybe some collapsing roofs)
After this: Defeat Miniboss... Congratulations you have raised a level!

[apply, rinse, repeat]

Clear stage 8-4 of even harder (yet similar and still mindless) monsters, dodge a few fireballs, jump over some spiked pits, swing on a vine or two...

Defeat the BBEG...

Oh no, he's not dead yet!; Defeat second (and sometimes third) BBEG form.

Rescue princess? No! Sorry, but the princess is in another dungeon!

Well, at least you raised another level

[Cobra]

The key for most exciting battles is interesting terrain. If the BBEG is simply in a big room, the PC's will charge in and mop him up in a round or 2.

Any number of environments fix this. Perhaps he's at the top of a cliff with a narrow pathway, raining arrows down upon the party s they try to scale the cliff and forcing climb checks when he hits. (This only works if the party doesn't have powerful ranged attacks, but thats usually teh case.)

Basically, just stack it so that the PC's can't get at the BBEG easily. Most critters can't stand up to full attacks very long. Forcing the PC's to spend several rounds moving into position/fighting mooks enables the BBEG to show off some of his powers and make the classic villian speech. Nothing less dramatic than a villian who starts his monologue only to be cut down by a leaping power attacking frenzied berzerker on the first round.

[deadseashoals]

Don't let the party face him with full resources. If they're fresh for the day, don't expose the BBEG to attack until they've dealt with several groups of minions.

Make it difficult for the party to deal with him in the same way that they deal with most combat encounters. For example, if their tactics involve doing tons of melee damage, have him start behind difficult terrain, on a raised ledge, flying, etc.

Give him freedom of movement. This may be most important of all

Use illusions and misdirection to wear the party down and put them off balance psychologically.

Give him some sort of tactical retreat option, like teleportation magic or invisibility. Presumably, he'd have the defensive advantage, so give him some space to fall back into and take a breather, preferably with some minions and traps to cover his retreat.

Give him a bodyguard henchman. Reach weapon, combat reflexes, improved trip, standstill, and shield other.

Give him plenty of defensive abilities, so that once he his finally forced to mix it up and get his hands dirty, he can at least last a few rounds. AC, saving throws, hit points (oh god the hit points), resistances, spell resistance, etc.

[LotharBot]

Mooks + Terrain + improved invis.

Read what I wrote in the "help me kill my party" thread about the dungeon my wife recently ran. Made for a very surviveable boss -- most bossfights end in 1-2 rounds for us, and this one took maybe 5 or 6.