Ill thought out campaign ending

[Omegaxicor]

I am coming to the end of a campaign and the final guy is immune to lots of types of damage and resistant to the others

His weakness was to be Starmetal (Complete Arcane Pg 141). I was going to say that any weapon made of it bypasses his DR but I was thinking of it working like Superman's Kryptonite and weakening him with it's presence

Mechanically how do I do that without weakening him too much that he isn't powerful?

 

[Duke Arioch]

1)Make a quest for attuning the "kryptonite" to one of his immunities, so that it temporarily removes said immunity. For example, if your group attunes it to fire, let it remove fire immunity (and maybe instill fire vulnerability) for a number of rounds.
2)Give him minions that hold one of his immunities. If they kill one (they don't know which one corresponds to which immunity), BBG becomes susceptible to that type of damage (which players have to guess or go by trial and error).

 

[Omegaxicor]

I like the first idea but the second one would leave him vulnerable to everything

unless you mean use both which does sound really good and leaves him susceptible to only one element but they still have to kill each of his "Summons"

Any other ideas are welcome

 

[Piratecat]

Well, there are a couple of ways to weaken someone, but they aren't equal.

1. Take away a particularly brutal attack. This would be like removing a dragon's breath weapon.

2. He takes more damage from every hit.

3. He has fewer hit points.

4. His attack bonus goes down (not recommended)

5. His damage bonus goes down (not recommended)

6. He loses actions.

7. He becomes easier to hit.

Personally, I'd make him easier to hit (lower defenses) and have his resistances fade. That seems like the most fun.

 

[Duke Arioch]

Make other port away after one is killed XD That way he will only get one vulnerability. Similar thing was done in Neverwinter Nights game (based on D&D 3.0) with the end boss of OC.
I just gave you a couple of ideas. Mix and match, add your own and have fun

 

[Duke Arioch]

Well, there are a couple of ways to weaken someone, but they aren't equal.

1. Take away a particularly brutal attack. This would be like removing a dragon's breath weapon.

2. He takes more damage from every hit.

3. He has fewer hit points.

4. His attack bonus goes down (not recommended)

5. His damage bonus goes down (not recommended)

6. He loses actions.

7. He becomes easier to hit.

Personally, I'd make him easier to hit (lower defenses) and have his resistances fade. That seems like the most fun.

Good ideas. I only have to add that breath weapon isn't the most dangerous thing a dragon can use on you It is a signature ability, yes, but far from main. I would be much more scared of his sorcerer/cleric spells, for instance XD

 

[Omegaxicor]

besides it is hard to regulate hit points and the like when he is near and then far and then near again, better to remove something static, like fire immunity or a signature ability

I had an idea for a Video game style boss fight, in anyone's experience, do they work well translated?

Like fighting him down to 80% Hp and then he retreats so you have to reattune a different element/property and fight him again

I don't have BBEGs retreat during an adventure they usually fight to the death or flee to another adventure entirely

 

[Water Bob]

...but I was thinking of it working like Superman's Kryptonite and weakening him with it's presence

Mechanically how do I do that without weakening him too much that he isn't powerful?

Mechanically, treat it like poison. You can control the dosage (and thus control how much your baddie is weakened). And, you have a fun random element in there in the way of his Saves vs. the poison/metal.

 

[Buugipopuu]

Video game style end bosses tend to last for the equivalent of dozens, if not hundreds of rounds. Doing similar mechanics in a game where twelve rounds is a very long combat is difficult.

Having him change attack patterns at a certain % of hp is unadvisable, as there's a good chance that an entire stage will be skipped, if players exceed your DPR estimates temporarily, or find that by the time he's ready to get serious, he's been hit with a ton of debuffs and had half his gear sundered, so isn't a threat any more. If you want a multistage fight, don't do it with a single creature. Give him an excuse to be multiple creatures, as they're impossible to ruin accidentally. I had a Demilich that masqueraded as a regular Lich by animating a headless corpse and sitting on top of it. When the players defeated the corpse the Demilich took flight for the second stage of the fight. And one fight which took place in flight over a pool of acidic goop. When the boss was slain it fell into the goop and immediately rose again as some kind of horrible slime skeleton thing due to a previous spell the PCs had failed to prevent. Sure, this shouldn't be a tactic you use every significant fight, but multi-stage fights should be rare anyway.

 

[Piratecat]

I've used multi-stage boss fights before; they can be really fun. I like a big physical transformation, such as the boss getting killed when at half hit points, rising immediately as undead, and gaining new abilities. I've occasionally (rarely!) used load-bearing bosses, where the boss dies and the dungeon suddenly starts to collapse. That's a lot harder to pull off without making it seem like you're just denying treasure.