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Tell me about your Bossfights! What went right, what went wrong?
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<blockquote data-quote="FitzTheRuke" data-source="post: 9242417" data-attributes="member: 59816"><p>Here's a disaster of a boss fight followed up by epic-ness:</p><p></p><p>During 4e days, WotC published a 4e version of Tomb of Horrors. I think they gave it to us FLGSes as a Game Day thing? At any rate, my friend and employee ran it for us by-the-book. The Demilich Acererak, as statted there, was an absolute CHORE to fight. 1) It took 20 or so rounds to beat him; 2) During which time he did a LOT of STUN attacks; 3) BUT, he didn't do much damage, so we never actually felt threatened by him; AND 4) I rolled below a 10 the entire 20 rounds, except on one non-consequential check. I don't remember what it was, but it made no difference either way to the fight.</p><p></p><p>I spent most of that fight wishing I would die. Or at least my character would. It was terrible.</p><p></p><p>SO... when I went to run it myself for my group, I rebuilt his statblock from the ground-up. 4e monster design was really good, but unfortunately, WotC themselves weren't very good at it until near the end of the edition. One of the first things you needed to do, to make the game fun, was to HALF all monsters HP, and TRIPLE their damage output.</p><p></p><p>At any rate, to make a long story shorter, I had even built in a whole back-story for Acererak where the PCs playing had time-travelled back to when he was alive, and had actually been tricked into dealing a death-blow to him that turned him from a living Wizard into a Lich. As a living wizard, I made him the "fasted wand-slinger in the Conclave". That fight itself was epic, with him built as a "solo monster" with a massive action economy (5e players think Legendary Actions). That was his <em>living</em> statblock.</p><p></p><p>In his Demilich form, the gems that had been on the hilts of his wands were now the ones in his eyes, and the skull floated around, spinning in a blast attack (Imagine like a deadly disco-ball shooting lazers, but more badass and evil!) Among other cool things that he was able to do.</p><p></p><p>The general lesson is: Make monsters die faster, but do more while they are alive. A LOT more. The goal is to have the monster die right at the point that the players no longer think that they're going to win. "We're screwed; Oh wait, we won!" is infinitely better than, "We're gonna win eventually - but it sure is a slog."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FitzTheRuke, post: 9242417, member: 59816"] Here's a disaster of a boss fight followed up by epic-ness: During 4e days, WotC published a 4e version of Tomb of Horrors. I think they gave it to us FLGSes as a Game Day thing? At any rate, my friend and employee ran it for us by-the-book. The Demilich Acererak, as statted there, was an absolute CHORE to fight. 1) It took 20 or so rounds to beat him; 2) During which time he did a LOT of STUN attacks; 3) BUT, he didn't do much damage, so we never actually felt threatened by him; AND 4) I rolled below a 10 the entire 20 rounds, except on one non-consequential check. I don't remember what it was, but it made no difference either way to the fight. I spent most of that fight wishing I would die. Or at least my character would. It was terrible. SO... when I went to run it myself for my group, I rebuilt his statblock from the ground-up. 4e monster design was really good, but unfortunately, WotC themselves weren't very good at it until near the end of the edition. One of the first things you needed to do, to make the game fun, was to HALF all monsters HP, and TRIPLE their damage output. At any rate, to make a long story shorter, I had even built in a whole back-story for Acererak where the PCs playing had time-travelled back to when he was alive, and had actually been tricked into dealing a death-blow to him that turned him from a living Wizard into a Lich. As a living wizard, I made him the "fasted wand-slinger in the Conclave". That fight itself was epic, with him built as a "solo monster" with a massive action economy (5e players think Legendary Actions). That was his [I]living[/I] statblock. In his Demilich form, the gems that had been on the hilts of his wands were now the ones in his eyes, and the skull floated around, spinning in a blast attack (Imagine like a deadly disco-ball shooting lazers, but more badass and evil!) Among other cool things that he was able to do. The general lesson is: Make monsters die faster, but do more while they are alive. A LOT more. The goal is to have the monster die right at the point that the players no longer think that they're going to win. "We're screwed; Oh wait, we won!" is infinitely better than, "We're gonna win eventually - but it sure is a slog." [/QUOTE]
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