D&D 5E Crowd Control and an Anti-Climactic Boss Fight

[Imaculata]

Just to put it out there, the example above was an example and not something that happened at the table...yet. Trying to prevent a bad design for when it does come up. ~_^

In that case, I also advise having multiple objectives in a big boss battle.

For example, I had a big battle with a big bad evil wizard in my campaign, which took place in a huge treasure vault. The players had to not only deal with the wizard and his minions (who could also cast spells), but also with a giant golden serpent who guarded the treasure. The guardian would attack anyone that touched the treasure, including the bad guys.

Multiple objectives force your players to divide their attention.

In another battle, I had a huge construct that guarded a forge. Four singing statues strengthened the forge guardian, and made it nearly impossible to harm him. So the players had to divide their efforts. On top of that, the forge guardian could pour molten steel into the room, thus shrinking the safe area in which the players could fight him.

 

[nswanson27]

Maybe one suggestion would be to step back. You feel (as the DM) feel the fight was anti-climatic. Did you ask if the players felt that way? Did this take away from the fun by being able to win this way?
If not, you may not actually have a problem.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Any other thoughts on this?

It's neither a new nor a surprising problem. In classic D&D, monsters often weren't really all that incredibly tough. They got pretty good saves, but not like high-level fighters and magic-item-festooned PCs did, often didn't get much of a bonus to their HD, and tended to lean on magic resistance, immunities, and outright gotchyas to stick around. In 3e, it was full-on rocket tag with imminently cheesable save DCs on save-or-else spells. Even in relatively-balanced (for D&D) 4e, there were problems, early on, with 'lockdown' combos - harder to pull off and not leading to as rapid an anticlimactic victory as what you experienced, but basically the same problem in kind.

What you ran into is inevitable given 5e's general design - lone opponents are just going to be at a big disadvantage that way, thanks to the action economy, BA, and tuning for fast combat - but 5e provides monster protection factors like magic resistance and legendary resistance (and, yes, you can always just decide in the moment that the BBEG was immune all along, thankyouverymuch) to guard against such eventualities. Just make full use of them, and your BBEG might see a second or even third round of combat in spite of being outnumbered 5 or more to one.

But, yeah, you have to work at making D&D deliver on fantasy tropes like the climactic battle with the lone, terrible foe.

 

[Thateous]

Have an idea for a single boss battle using. Shapechanger impersonating the BBEG that the PCs blow their loads on before the real guy who would come out almost immediately after the changers defeat.

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[WarpedAcorn]

Have an idea for a single boss battle using. Shapechanger impersonating the BBEG that the PCs blow their loads on before the real guy who would come out almost immediately after the changers defeat.

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That's a good idea. It won't fit specifically with the biggest baddest, but it will for his top Lieutenant. I'm going to steal that. =)

 

[aco175]

There is always the bigger bad guy behind him. Sort of like what TV does when the heroes kill the BBEG at the end of season 1. Season 2 starts off finding that the fight is not over. It may cheapen the victory for the group though.

 

[Thateous]

Illusions could work for the bigger bad guys. Have the boss seem to show up mid fight so they focus on the illusion some. Maybe blow a few spells they had lined up. I mean if the bbeg knows the PCs are coming, which they usually always do, it would make sense to throw in a few misdirections.

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[Gadget]

Some good advice here. I just thought I'd point out that spells like Hold Person are among those rare breed of spells that actually increase in potency when the caster rises in level, without having to use a higher level spell slot. What I mean by that is, usually spells (especially offensive spells) tend to follow the sleep model, useful or powerful when first acquired, but dwindling in potency as the levels rise and opponents become tougher and more resistant, forcing the caster to either use a higher level slot (not usually ideal), or use it on the minions if one is so inclined. Hold Person remains just as useful at higher levels as lower, in fact more so, as the save DC of the caster will increase a good bit as the levels rise, while many potential targets' saves will not scale as quickly. This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that, in Hold Person's case, the caster is likely to run into more and more opponents that don't meet the 'humanoid' requirement of the spell or have high wisdom saves.

All this is not to be critical, but points DM's need to be aware of and take into account when planning encounters/adventures over the course of a campaign.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Contingencies on top of contingencies. When your Big Bad is defeated (which it will be), it polymorphs into a gargantuan dragon. When it's defeated again (which it will be), it polymorphs into some nonsense monster with too many tentacles.

Anything worthy of being a final boss should have at least three forms.

 

[Uchawi]

Always have backup, that is why the big bad guy has survived for so long against so many odds. It is my opinion that you should steer away from legendary anything, as they are a contrived game mechanic, in case you want to risk the single opponent. I find it more interesting to beef up the big bad guy with some class levels or features.