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Thread: Complicated Final Boss Fight
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2018-08-12, 08:22 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2013
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Complicated Final Boss Fight
I'm running the final session of this summer's 4e campaign on August 15th (that's three days away, for those counting), and I've got to get together some stats for the final boss battle. Since this subforum helped me out in the past with some vampire bosses in 2015, I thought I'd field some questions to anyone looking for some 4e boss-building to occupy their time.
The final opponents in this campaign are two casters, a demon-blooded wild mage and an alien warlock who serves Tharizdun. I have a few character-based goals with this fight: I want the wild mage to be a dangerous and unrelenting powerhouse, but the PCs have been working towards redeeming and/or allying with her against the warlock. The warlock is the real BBEG of the campaign, and I want him to survive long enough (whether through misdirection/deflection or sheer survivability) to make redeeming the wild mage an appealing option for the PCs.
As for the party, they're Level 17 and have five PCs (wizard, warlord, thief, and two swarm druids - one focused on tanking hits, one on exploiting combat advantage). There also some other conditions, which is why I called the fight complicated. As part of the ongoing storyline, I gave the PCs buffs from (almost) all of the default good and neutral 4e deities, and before the final boss fight, they'll have the option to each get a buff from one of the evil deities as well (spoilered below).
Spoiler: Blessings from the Good/Neutral DeitiesEach of the PCs has access to these blessings, which last until this battle is completed:
- Kord - Once per day as a minor action, each PC can invoke Kord to regain one expended encounter or daily power.
- Bahamut - Each PC deals +2 damage with each instance of damage against evil-aligned creatures. (This has proven to be one of the most powerful boons, but it still struggles to dent solo monsters.)
- Raven Queen - Once per day, the wizard can cast Raise Dead as a standard action on a PC that died within the past minute. (Hasn't been used yet because I've failed to kill them.)
- Pelor - Once per day, the PCs (as a group) can make all of their damage radiant for one round.
- Ioun - Grants the PCs knowledge of their enemies' statblocks. Hasn't been used to great effect.
- The rest - Provided aid not relevant to battle.
Spoiler: Blessings from the Evil DeitiesThe evil deities will offer one boon to each PC (with some exceptions) before the final battle, which last until this battle is completed:
- Bane - Offers to grant all PCs a selection of tactical feats: Distant Advantage, Vicious Advantage, Coordinated Explosion, and Teamwork Defense.
- Tiamat - Offers the (blue dragonborn) warlord wings with fly speed 6, his Dragon Breath dice go up from d10s to d12s, and while he's bloodied, he deals +1d10 lightning damage.
- Zehir - Offers the thief the ability to, when he hits a target while hidden from them, automatically score a critical hit. (This is one of the scariest boons, but the thief's player is so devoutly atheist and Chaotic Good that I doubt he'll accept it.)
- Vecna - Offers the tanky swarm druid a benefit. (I was expecting a different PC, so I haven't thought of a boon for him yet.)
- Gruumsh - Offers the combat advantage swarm druid a benefit. (Again, I was expecting a different PC from this player, so I haven't thought of a boon for him yet.)
- Asmodeus - Offers the wizard a soul splice with the Lawful Evil wizard they killed in the first session, which grants him free uses of his Orb of Crimson Commitment (burn a surge to reroll an attack) and all of that wizard's spells (doubling his spell list).
My original plan was to make the wild mage and warlock two Level 20-21 solo monsters, which is a hefty encounter, but one the party could probably tackle with these buffs. However, I've just put them through a gauntlet of other boss fights, and found that while the damage output of solos (such as the elder black dragon) is about what I want for the wild mage, the sheer amount of HP solo monsters get at higher levels makes these combats drag on until the players get tired. I've since thought about making the BBEGs elite monsters with minions, or even splitting the warlock into 4-5 separate monsters (he's a weirdo and I could get away with him fracturing his essence like this in the story). However, I haven't come to a conclusion.
That's a wall of text, so to sum it up: I'm trying to build a boss battle for 5 Level 17 PCs (with buffs from deities) against a wild mage and warlock, such that the wild mage's damage output is nearly overwhelming, and the warlock outlasts her, while keeping the combat dynamic and interesting. And I have three days to do it. If you have any suggestions for how I could rig this, please share them below! Thanks for reading.
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2018-08-14, 01:03 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2013
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- Shield Lands (GMT -5)
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Re: Complicated Final Boss Fight
I'd say make give both the wild mage and warlock the defenses/HP level 18 or 19 Elites (because the boons make your party more powerful than standard level 17 characters) but build them like solos in all other ways: add off-turn and minor-action attacks, let them shake off debilitating status conditions more easily, give their standard-action attacks the ability to hit a bunch of PCs at once, etc. That way, you get shorter combats where the party isn't just plinking away at a giant wall of HP, but the enemies still pose a serious threat. If you're worried that the warlock might go down too fast under this system, make him a two-stage monster where once his first form is reduced to 0 HP, replace it with a second level 18 or 19 elite with different (nastier!) abilities. That does teeechnically make him a solo, HP-wise, but if his tactics shift when his form does, the fight will feel more dynamic than one against a standard Solo.
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2018-08-14, 06:50 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
Re: Complicated Final Boss Fight
The Wild Mage should be built as a high-damage solo. Lots of AOE. Level 20.
The Warlock should be built as a 2.0x HP solo (so double the HP of a standard solo) but with standard solo damage. Level 20.
Throw in 5 level 16 normal monsters as servants to the Warlock.
Yes this is insane.
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Next some flow control:
* The Wild Mage flees if bloodied. The Wild Mage can alternatively be turned. The Wild Mage can be stopped from fleeing, but it is hard.
* The Warlock transforms every healing surge value. When the Warlock transforms, so does one of the Warlock's still-alive servants into some alien form: this doubles the damage output of the servant but makes it no harder to kill.
* At bloodied, the Warlock flees; if the Wild Mage has been turned, the Wild Mage stops the Warlock from fleeing with an interrupt of some kind. PCs can also prevent the fleeing, but it isn't easy.
* If the Warlock flees, the servants follow.
* If the Warlock dies, the servants go crazy.
So there are a number of ways the encounter can end.
They can turn the Wild Mage, then team up against the Warlock. This requires 8 level 20 monsters worth of damage plus 5 level 16, but they have a high damage level 20 solo helping them.
They can force both the Wild Mage and Warlock to flee. Sucks to be them. This requires 6 level 20 monsters worth of damage.
Double check that the damage of the Wild Mage (solo x2) is enough to make the fight against the Warlock short enough.
Then there is the insane one, where they shut down the fleeing of both the Warlock and Wild Mage. This one ends in a grind.Last edited by Yakk; 2018-08-14 at 06:51 PM.
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2018-08-15, 11:49 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2013
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Re: Complicated Final Boss Fight
Thanks for the input! I'm applying this advice to the statblocks now in preparation for the session. I'll update later with the results of the combat and how this played out.
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2018-08-23, 01:24 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2013
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Re: Complicated Final Boss Fight
Ah, it's a while behind schedule, but I did promise an update. Introducing four low-level schmucks was a great idea; they added some oomph to the encounter, but the PCs took them out quickly and effectively, and felt very good about themselves doing it.
The wild mage's damage output was very frightening (in a freak damage-and-healing arms race incident, she reduced the wizard to 0 HP three times in one round), which incentivized a high-Cha PC to eventually talk her down (although he had to outmaneuver the party rogue, who was insistent on killing her). She didn't end up getting to attack the warlock, because he was dealt with otherwise. Instead, she stood down while bloodied and we transitioned into roleplaying/wrap-up.
The warlock didn't do much of note before the swarm druids yanked him into a separate area and lathered him up with impressive application of control (props to Wall of Stone), damage-over-time conditions, and swarm druid grapple cheese (one of them found the most broken combination of feats; I'm very proud). At that point, with the wild mage defused and the warlock imprisoned and slowly dying, rolling the whole thing out would have been no fun, so I ruled he was eventually eaten alive by insects.
In short - it was a good encounter that ended with a pretty rewarding victory for the PCs. Adding the followers was a keen idea that I never would have thought of myself. Thanks for the input!