Need help with homebrew bosses: 5 Terrors

[Radiating Gnome]

On the idea of the corn field ------

You could create a really interesting, messy fight in the corn with the rows.

So, describe the field and give the rows a direction -- N/S or E/W.

Targets that are not in your row are totally obscured (link for reference)
Targets in your row are lightly obscured (link for reference)

Moving or shifting from one row to the next costs an extra point of movement

Okay. That means that each PC can only see targets that are adjacent to them or in their row -- and the targets that they can see will still have concealment (-2 to hit)

That's the basics of the scene. Then you start throwing in wrinkles:

1. The kid needs a couple of things to help him out. For one thing, he needs the rogue abilities fleeting ghost and chameleon so he can move fast while he's hidden and he can remain hidden if the PCs step into his row.

Think about some other options -- he's used magic to bring them into this corn field, what if, as an immediate reaction, he could switch the direction of the rows when he's attacked? Make it a recharge power, something like.

Warp Row Escape (immediate reaction * recharge [5][6])
The Little Dude flips the direction of the rows in the cornfield, shifts 3 spaces, and can make a hide check.

edit: he's also going to need to be able to see clearly in the cornfield. Call it "Cornsense" or something. His vision is not impeded by the cornfield he has conjured up.

Anyway, this creates a very different sort of battlefield where the PCs are like destroyers hunting a submarine. They'll have to do things like spread out, etc.

You could create some sort of countermeasures for the cornfield -- like if the PCs us a power that creates an sustained area that does damage (maybe only specific types of damage, like fire or cold) will destroy the corn rows in that area.

It could be a cool scene, but you probably don't want to do it for the entire fight, so it's good that you're doing it in phases. It's going to frustrate the snot out of your players for a couple of rounds.

I'm personally going to have to use this cornfield setting at some point. I'm very interested in the potential there ....

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I'm finding Beauty as a Terror a little problematic. The Charm stuff is all right, but it seems like hitting beauty with axes is a lousy way to deal with the terror that beauty represents. Of course, hitting things with axes is what we do in D&D most of the time, but I think that if you really want to run with the big idea here, you could break out of that mold to some good effect.

The trick is settling on which effect you want to have. What is really the terror represented by beauty? I think, in the end, what's terrible about extreme beauty is the way it makes people around it feel inferior -- the way it bleeds away self esteem and will. That's the terror of beauty as a weapon, IMO.

So how do you represent that in game terms? Beauty feeds off the self esteem of others -- draining it away. So, rather than thralls, she's surrounded by supplicants -- mortals who have lose their will to do anything faced with the way the feel about themselves after seeing how beautiful she is.

For the PCs, the danger of her beauty is complex. The PCs in her aura (which is big) are subject to some variable effects.

So..... Some powers for Beauty.

Come Hither Aura
(Aura 10)
-Any PC who can see Beauty and who starts his/her turn within the aura must make a save or spend his or her move action moving closer to beauty (follow charge rules -- each space must bring the character closer to Beauty)
-Any PC who can see Beauty and who starts within the aura or enters it is weakened
-Any PC who can see Beauty and who ends his/her turn within the aura and weakened becomes dazed (SE)
-Any PC who can see Beauty and who ends his turn adjacent to beauty falls prone


Triggered Actions
Elusive Beauty (Free; at-will: when a PC moves into a space adjacent to Beauty)
Beauty shifts 1.

Beauty's Protectors (Free; At will: when Beauty is targeted by a ranged or melee attack)
Attack: +XX vs. Will
Hit: The attack instead targets another target of Beauty's choice.

Special
PCs may voluntarily avert their eyes -- effectively blinding themselves (-5 to hit with melee and ranged attacks).

This will end up being REALLY FRICKING ANNOYING for the PCs. She's going to be junebugging away from them every time they try to step closer, and if they shoot at her then end up shooting each other. They can splash her with area attacks, hit her with reach weapons, or close their eyes and try to fight her blind. That's why this only lasts until she's bloodied.

Make sure her attacks are relatively weak at this stage -- the PCs will be hurting each other a bit, until they figure things out, and she'll slap them sill for a little while if you don't keep her ratcheted waaaay down. Use roughly 50% of the normal damage a monster her level would do.

Then, finally, they bloody her....

Once she's bloodied, she goes into a much more typical mode -- the aura goes away, her attacks are much more juiced up, and it's a big slugfest until the end. Boost her damage now by the 50% you took away before she was bloodied.

Hmmm..... might be a little over the top. Not sure. What do you guys think?

-rg

 

[treex]

Won't a pyromancer just send that idea up in smoke? I'm sure that their magic user would have some fire powers he could throw around.

(you see what I did there?)

And I don't seem to be getting any feedback or replies from Arctic. Iz rather discouraging D:

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Sure, the controllers will have a lot of ways to deal with her, but the rest of the party will be frustrated. She's a solo, she doesn't need to be immune to attacks, but we do want the scene to have some flavor -- and all those big dumb fighter types falling at the feat of beauty, unable to hurt her, will be pretty flavorful.

-rg

 

[Grimmjow]

2nd Terror: Beauty- the most beautiful woman you have ever seen.
phase 1: fight her devil minions
phase 2: fight against empowered minions
phase 3: fight her after she kills off the rest of her minions

Sucabis? (spelling)

 

[Arctic Wolf]

Won't a pyromancer just send that idea up in smoke? I'm sure that their magic user would have some fire powers he could throw around.

(you see what I did there?)

And I don't seem to be getting any feedback or replies from Arctic. Iz rather discouraging D:

sorry xD, was kinda busy and did't have a lot of time to respond. Your idea for Innocence is interesting and I might use part of it, at least for when they meet him . And I think all my magic users would use something like that but it would be interesting. And I agree with Radiating Gnome about the solo stuff and will look at using those moves for Beauty.

[MENTION=92704]Grimmjow[/MENTION] : Not going for a succubus this time at least, just your normal woman who is obsessed with being Beautiful and all that jazz. I can say she might have some succubus tendicies though

 

[Grimmjow]

Not going for a succubus this time at least, just your normal woman who is obsessed with being Beautiful and all that jazz. I can say she might have some succubus tendicies though

Mmk just a suggestion. MAybe than if you want her to be all beautiful and such, you could give her some powers over the mind. I saw someone had suggested mind control, what about daze/weakening effects?

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

For beauty, even though she isn't actually a succubus, it might be worth looking at the succubus (or the passion devil) for powers that you can poach, as thematically they are similar.

 

[treex]

Sure, the controllers will have a lot of ways to deal with her, but the rest of the party will be frustrated. She's a solo, she doesn't need to be immune to attacks, but we do want the scene to have some flavor -- and all those big dumb fighter types falling at the feat of beauty, unable to hurt her, will be pretty flavorful.

-rg

Oh, I was referring to the cornfields, btw. What does fire have to do with Beauty

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Oh, I was referring to the cornfields, btw. What does fire have to do with Beauty

Ah, well, yeah, in that case, sure, sections of the cornfield could be burned, but you could handle that in a couple of ways:

- Restore burned sections when the kid flips the direction of the rows (they're a product of the kid's imagination, after all).

- Let 'em burn -- just because it's an easy solution doesn't mean it isn't an appropriate one. The kid should be able to avoid the cleared patches. There could also be dunes of popcorn if the PCs go overboard.

- Maybe the corn is green, not dry, and not super flammable yet. It might require sustained burning to dry out and torch an area of corn.

-rg