DMs! Have you ever had a “boss encounter” turn into a cakewalk? What happened?

[Fauchard1520]

DMs! Have you ever had a “boss encounter” turn into a cakewalk? What happened?

I've got my story of the world's least impressive lich fight over here. What about the rest of you guys though? Have you ever put a load of time an effort into making a scary encounter, only to have your big bad go down like a chump? How did you deal with the crushing disappointment? (Or were you secretly rooting for the PCs all along?)

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Polymorph + Divination Wizard = sad trombone for DM

But if the players end up laughing and cheering, everyone has won.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My secret is that I’m always rooting for the PCs. Sometimes, bad luck for me and good luck for them happens. Sometimes, they come up with a really clever plan or solution that takes me completely off-guard. I honestly love it when my players out-think and surprise me.

Buuuuut…the next boss fight will be that much harder. Especially if they try to just re-use the same exact trick as last time.

 

[Mistwell]

The Cavelier one-hit took out a Lich?

Wow. I want to hear how that happened with more detail!

 

[generic]

Three words for you to consider:

Eleven. Player. Party.

I was not prepared.

 

[ccs]

That would be our Sunday night PF campaign that wrapped up back in Nov.

I ran Reign of Winter from Jan.8th '17 - Nov.11th of '18.
All 6 books, lvs.1-17, many modifications/twists/turns/etc based upon the characters & RP. Nearly two years of great stuff. To date it's the only PF AP that we've ever actually finished.
We almost wrapped it up on the 4th, but it was getting late & everyone had Monday morning to look forward to.... So rather than start THE final fight & then have to pause it, we chose to call it for the night & finish the campaign the next week. Everyone expected this to be a fairly lengthy encounter. And I was well prepared.
So the next week comes & one of the players decides to open with essentially a hail mary, hard casting a Trap The Soul on the villain as they entered the room (provided they survived the entry - they knew the villain was well prepped & had the initiative on them).
ALOT of damage/effects were suffered upon entry, but the party did survive.... The spell was cast, bypassing SR.
All I have to do is roll a 2+ to save. And I have a re-roll.

So of course I roll a 1.
And then a second 1 for the re-roll!

Everyone sat there in silence for a moment. Nearly two years of play had pretty much just ended in snake-eyes.

Of course the rest of the fight, even though a mop-up action at this point, was still a really tough battle. The Witch Queens minions weren't about to just concede....
But really the campaign ended with that botched save.

 

[Ratskinner]

Too many to count over the decades, but then I also have the occasional "fluff" or wandering monster encounter that goes sideways in a hurry for a TPK or close to it.

 

[5ekyu]

I've got my story of the world's least impressive lich fight over here. What about the rest of you guys though? Have you ever put a load of time an effort into making a scary encounter, only to have your big bad go down like a chump? How did you deal with the crushing disappointment? (Or were you secretly rooting for the PCs all along?)

I always root for the PCs so if the players enjoyed it - good.

When they blew away the bbg it was plans and choices - so no problem.

 

[Rhenny]

I've almost gotten to the point were I expect it to be a short battle so when it isn't I'm pleasantly surprised. I've also found that parties of 3 or 4 are much more vulnerable than 5 or more. I kind of feel that with an experienced group, 3 is actually the magic number for the power curve I enjoy, but 4 is better for the social aspect of the game.

Oh, yeah...and for creatures without Legendary Resistance to saves, that polymorph into a chicken can take down some pretty powerful foes at least for a little while.

 

[Shiroiken]

I try to make impressive epic battles with the BBEG, but I generally assume that most of my tricks won't work, and the players will come up with something I overlooked. My assumptions come true far more often than they don't...