Empyrean!

[Voltage89]

In the campaign I am running right now, there is a large island that is basically avoided by everyone. The reason for this is that the island is completely unpredictable. The weather may change from drastically hot to freezing cold in an instant. There may be snow one moment and then acid rain the next. The reason for this is that hundreds of years ago, empyreans walked the material plane. In an effort to destroy them, several powerful wizards wished them off to eternal burial upon this island. This worked perfectly for the time being, but they were never truly killed.

At this point, the only people that live on the island are people that practically worship these empyreans. Now, the players are very low level and have no business fighting empyreans. However, I want to set this as possibly an end of campaign thing. The Empyreans are going to rise again by some means. I am going to hint this as there will be a good old town crier screaming that the Titans will walk again. I do not have exactly how yet, but it will most likely be an evil occultist.

My main question is does anyone have any ideas for how to make the empyreans different from eachother? I do not want the players to fight 5 separate empyreans that all have the exact same abilities and do the same things. That just seems boring to me. Thanks for any help you can give!

[JNAProductions]

Work soon, will work on Empyreans later.

[Goaty14]

Perhaps have each one with different elemental* abilities and a different build focus? I.e earth is really defense, air is really mobile, etc.

Boss creatures tend to be really nice if they have different stages or special abilities as they start losing hp, or special environmental hazards that the players can utilize to make the encounter easier than normal (i.e if they destroy all four pillars in the great hall, the middle of the roof falls down on the boss, temporarily stunning it).

*That is, the 'traditional' four elements and then something else, such as void, aether, positive/negative energy, etc.

Some ideas...
-Positive Energy Empyrean that heals the PCs, but once they get x2 their original HP, they explode! PCs have to damage themselves or risk death.
-Elemental Empyrean that's an amorphous mass of elements (like D&D plane of limbo). The boss has x2 hp, and every time it's hp drops by 1/4, it switches tactics and primary element.
-Negative Energy Empyrean that animates undead out of dead creatures to fight the PCs of varying difficulty.
-"Portal" Empyrean that constantly sucks PCs into various disappearing and reappearing portals on the map. Once a PC gets sucked in, they are trapped for a round before popping back out. If all of the PCs become trapped, then they are teleported away.
-Building Empyrean that topples buildings on top of and around PCs. Toppled buildings have a chance of restructuring themselves every round, and the boss may target equipment.

[Voltage89]

Perhaps have each one with different elemental* abilities and a different build focus? I.e earth is really defense, air is really mobile, etc.

Boss creatures tend to be really nice if they have different stages or special abilities as they start losing hp, or special environmental hazards that the players can utilize to make the encounter easier than normal (i.e if they destroy all four pillars in the great hall, the middle of the roof falls down on the boss, temporarily stunning it).

*That is, the 'traditional' four elements and then something else, such as void, aether, positive/negative energy, etc.

That was actually my idea. I don't know how many i want to have yet though. I agree with you that having different stages make fights really fun and interesting. You feel like you are destroying him until he gets to a point where he goes completely Rambo in you.

[Princess]

That was actually my idea. I don't know how many i want to have yet though. I agree with you that having different stages make fights really fun and interesting. You feel like you are destroying him until he gets to a point where he goes completely Rambo in you.

Fire-themed Empyrean (write up some simplified versions of fire spells for them to use, possibly as legendary actions) who they have to fight in a volcano (falling and fire damage everywhere!) would stand out, and there could similarly be a plant/vine themed one with entangling abilities and forest minions (swarms of angry birds?) to mix things up.

And since you've already established the weather changing at random, two reversed versions of these, ice storm and avalanche empyrean and negative energy/necromantic empyrean that leaches out pc life forces would make for a nice contrast.

This sets up #5 to be a harder to predict and you can make them as simple or complicated as you like - maybe they mix and match powers, maybe they use illusions and mind control, or maybe they go old fashion wrath of god with lightning bolts and curses?

I'd definitely take advantage of the variety of real world island environments to make each encounter set in dramatically different, gorgeous locations. Google Hawaii, Iceland, and Madagascar to get started on some visual inspiration if you haven't already :D

[Voltage89]

Fire-themed Empyrean (write up some simplified versions of fire spells for them to use, possibly as legendary actions) who they have to fight in a volcano (falling and fire damage everywhere!) would stand out, and there could similarly be a plant/vine themed one with entangling abilities and forest minions (swarms of angry birds?) to mix things up.

And since you've already established the weather changing at random, two reversed versions of these, ice storm and avalanche empyrean and negative energy/necromantic empyrean that leaches out pc life forces would make for a nice contrast.

This sets up #5 to be a harder to predict and you can make them as simple or complicated as you like - maybe they mix and match powers, maybe they use illusions and mind control, or maybe they go old fashion wrath of god with lightning bolts and curses?

I'd definitely take advantage of the variety of real world island environments to make each encounter set in dramatically different, gorgeous locations. Google Hawaii, Iceland, and Madagascar to get started on some visual inspiration if you haven't already :D
Those are some pretty cool ideas to be honest! Will definitely use some of them. The 5th and final one will most likely be a combo of all of them and will he the leader.

[Voltage89]

Work soon, will work on Empyreans later.
Hey man! Just wondering if you ever worked on those empyreans? Would love to see them if you did. If not thats fine as well!