Wise Turtle Publishing

Hello,
I am trying to figure it out how to make an boss battle go beyond : "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" or "lighting bruiser meatbag".
For now the more gimmicky boss I had were:
[*]A Nekomata that summon undead each turn. (a good reception from my players)
[*]An monster that hypnotize the character around to eat them. (The monster took out one player in one hit after a failled will save. This monster was not really appreciated)
[*]A monster that don't stop to flee and attack from the shadow. (It was quickly taken out when one of my player destroyed every building around)

One of the future gimmick that I will use (not really a gimmick as a ot of character will have this ability) is the ability "Arena Shaper", of basically the ability to create a Reallity Marble, a Witch's Labyrinth or whatever from altering the landscape to change the weather.

Well, thanks everyone.

Theoretically, you can skin a lot of Abilities to be a part of this scenery changing. Attacks could represent sudden and violent outcroppings of rock or bolts of lightning, Barrier can represent makeshift shields instantly formed from scenery, and so on.

It’s definitely a neat idea to keep a boss fight interesting!

Beware making the 'Boss' cute. I tried that once and the players tried to take her home as an adopted party member then fight her. She got so mad!

Is it just me, or does that “warning” actually sound like a great suggestion? ;D

Well, the cute factor is useful and funny.
My players have kept the nekomata and a valkyrie they fought.
Wait are you saying that we can make a character sheet for the sceneny?

I actually meant you could just stat up your villain with these powers and “describe them” as the environment.

THAT SAID, there’s no reason you can’t create an entirely separate “character” that IS the environment and have it take actions and the like. Could be interesting!

Clay wrote:THAT SAID, there’s no reason you can’t create an entirely separate “character” that IS the environment and have it take actions and the like. Could be interesting!

Wouldn't that be considered a "Companion" then?

I think Clay meant more like generating a location like a character to summarize up an encounter or dungeon.

For example, a temple could have cultist Minions or Attack (death traps) or various other Abilities and Weaknesses.

I kinda got that, but if such an "environment" is something that is definitive of the character in question, wouldn't it be better game balance if such a feature be an ability instead of just reference notes or similar?

My main issue for stating the environnement as a character is actually the rewording (well rewording for the like of a ship, a legendary weapon/armor, toothpick...).
But treating a dungeon like a character may be fun.

I actually had an adventure in a 'living' mansion. It could only take damage to it's 'heart' and would attack the party once per round with elaborate traps. It was for a different system, but could totally be converted to ova.