GM: how to overcome the 1-shot boss enounter

[Bolcien]

we all know it's bound to happen that one person/character in a group that just always happens to get that elusive 20-20-kill at the start of the boss fight and what was suppose to be an epic battle turns into an anti-climatic loot fest on a boss that you probably created yourself and put your sweat and blood and the souls of your last group into to be at least a challenge to beat.

How do you as DMs/GMs overcome this anti-social behavior?

 

[jodyjohnson]

His evil twin walks in next round with the real items.

 

[Stormonu]

I congradulate the players on their luck/skill, and then accidentally kill them by overcompensating the next time around ("Well, they did X last time").

 

[darjr]

Eh, make the death epic and ham it up, then let a few tidbits fall, vague tidbits that only the living bad guy could fully explain, as their dying words.

also
From the player perspective it may indeed be VERY epic, especially if you, as DM somehow described what was in store had they not one-shotted the baddie.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

How do you as DMs/GMs overcome this anti-social behavior?

Don't use rulesets / house rules that create really swingy crits.

 

[Dausuul]

Don't use rulesets / house rules that create really swingy crits.

Yeah, this. If you must use such a ruleset, design your BBEG to be immune. (In D&D, this is a strong argument for using undead BBEGs, since undead are unaffected by most of the one-shot-kill effects out there. Besides, undead are awesome.)

 

[darjr]

Maybe, just maybe, I'd ignore his hit points. If it would otherwise ruin the night, maybe I'd ignore his hit points until he 'should' die and at least give the guy a chance to pull off some cool stunts and monologue. Not out of sympathy for the bad guy, oh no, and absolutely not out of some need to 'have my fun' but if I thought it would end up being more fun for everyone, I might do such a thing.

I don't like that as a general rule and would rather, at that point, be playing a game that supports such a thing.

Maybe there are some house rules that could support this?

Edit to add: then again, maybe not.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

His evil twin walks in next round with the real items.

Or they killed the kobold polymorphed into him.

But seriously, why would you use the multi 20s equals instant-death "rule"? That's never been a standard rule in D&D.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Don't use rulesets / house rules that create really swingy crits.

This... or run 4E.

 

[Sunseeker]

Rarely do I make a BBEG that can be one-shot. It's a design consideration, "What would happen if Bob my wizard crit with his super-ego-inflated fireball?" So I give BBEGs a "low health immortality", ie: comic-book style where you've beaten the bad-guy to an inch of his life....when he triggers his ultimate weapon you thought you destroyed only moments before and teleports away. Or more along the lines of "You can't beat me! *poof*" and vanishes.

Otherwise, BBEGs almost use henchmen, rarely does one charge into battle with no backup, and if they do, they're the tough, durable type who are unlikely to die to a single big hit. If the fireball would have killed them....lo and behold! A loyal henchman has jumped in the way and died to save his dead leader's life.

But since I run 4e, it's almost impossible to crit-kill a BBEG, they're just not designed to drop that easy.