Need help with homebrew bosses: 5 Terrors

[Arctic Wolf]

Hello all, hope everyone is having a good day. I am getting close to my campaign starting and figured I would start with a bang.

The PCs are basically an elite force that has finally completed their training and is now ready for the real thing. Their first mission is to investigate why a recently established village isn't making contact the main city. All the PCs know is that a group called the 5 Terrors has been in the area and that this is a scouting mission/take them out if they can.

I am sort of having trouble with coming up with ideas for the phases to have for these people and what to do during them, so I will give you a bit of info to help you help me if you can .

1st Terror: Innocence- a psychic boy, around 8-10
phase 1: some sort of hide and seek game skill challenge
phase 2: illusion skill challenge, finding way outta the cornfield
phase 3: actual fight with him

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

3rd Terror: Insanity- a star pact warlock who is, well, going insane.
phase 1: star pact warlock
phase 2: midway transformed into a far realm creature
phase 3: fully transformed into far realm creature

4th Terror: Justice- a paladin after the assassin in our group since he betrayed and left the guild.
phase 1: ???
phase 2: ???
phase 3: one v one against the assassin

5th Terror: Destruction- named Kikin, a nihilist who wants to destroy everything and bring about nothingness. He also represents Famine, out of the four horsemen.
phase 1: Normal fight
phase 2: All his attacks gain the blast and burst keywords
phase 3: he turns into a pure fire creature

 

[Grimmjow]

4th Terror: Justice- a paladin after the assassin in our group since he betrayed and left the guild.
phase 1: ???
phase 2: ???
phase 3: one v one against the assassin

You may not wanna use WoW but there was a boss in there that was somthing of an assassin. She used a poison that brought the group intothe nightmares of the other bosses in the dungeons. MAybe you could have each character in your party define theirworst fear, and then have each player have to fight throuh their fear in that fight, each facing their fear alone

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=6686199]Arctic Wolf[/MENTION]
Interesting...this is for 11th level right? Dont confine yourself to the phased boss fight model - it's certainly a cool way of running a fight but it's far from the only way. Maybe some of the difficulty you've encountered is that your trying to fit circular pegs in a square hole.

Are these terrors intended to be encountered in the order you've listed them? So Innocence would be first? Or do the PCs get to choose which to take on and when?

I've noticed you tend to go for the Big Idea

 

[Arctic Wolf]

@Arctic Wolf
Interesting...this is for 11th level right? Dont confine yourself to the phased boss fight model - it's certainly a cool way of running a fight but it's far from the only way. Maybe some of the difficulty you've encountered is that your trying to fit circular pegs in a square hole.

Are these terrors intended to be encountered in the order you've listed them? So Innocence would be first? Or do the PCs get to choose which to take on and when?

I've noticed you tend to go for the Big Idea

I am actually starting at level 12 but 11 is close. And true, I should prolly use a 1 or 2 phase plan instead of doing 3 phases for all of em.

Yeah that is the order they will meet them in, not nessacary kill them in but we shall see, my group is really gung-ho about killing lol.

What is the Big Idea?

 

[Quickleaf]

Yeah that is the order they will meet them in, not nessacary kill them in but we shall see, my group is really gung-ho about killing lol.

A universal truth among gaming groups.

What is the Big Idea?

Heh. Good one.

1st Terror: Innocence- a psychic boy, around 8-10
phase 1: some sort of hide and seek game skill challenge
phase 2: illusion skill challenge, finding way outta the cornfield
phase 3: actual fight with him

I'll start with Innocence. Your "Terrors" are supposed to be manifestations of the worst ways to die that mortals are terrified of, correct? So how does Innocence fit into that? When I think of Innocence I think of something positive... Unless you mean amorality, the inability to distinguish between right and wrong?

You mention a cornfield...what's the setting for this adventure? Why a cornfield?

What sorts of evil servants will Innocence have?

 

[Arctic Wolf]

A universal truth among gaming groups.

Well it is true we all like to kill stuff but they like it even more and plus I am meh at skill challenges xD. With this campaign, I hope to fix that

Heh. Good one.

No, what did you mean I tend to go for big ideas? xD I didn't mean that as a joke lol

I'll start with Innocence. Your "Terrors" are supposed to be manifestations of the worst ways to die that mortals are terrified of, correct? So how does Innocence fit into that? When I think of Innocence I think of something positive... Unless you mean amorality, the inability to distinguish between right and wrong?

Yes, that was what I was aiming for with Innocence. That is what is terrifying about innocence and I wanted to show that in this character.

You mention a cornfield...what's the setting for this adventure? Why a cornfield?

The setting isn't a cornfield, its sorta like city-states but the PCs will be going north to a new village/town that they have lost contact with. The cornfield is a reference to a twilight zone ep where there was a psychic boy who teleported people to a cornfield if they made him mad. It was scary when I saw it when I was younger xD.

What sorts of evil servants will Innocence have?

I am thinking of doing a skill challenge for the first part of the fight with the cornfield and then fighting him. With this fight I wanna touch the players emotionally because I plan on having it scripted that he is just an innocent kid whose parents have been killed by Kikin and he gives up his soul to help them stay alive and avenge him and his parents. I want the PCs to hate Kikin as much as possible and already have the idea for the building they will fight him in.

 

[chaoshead87]

hello,

for justice why not use angels or devils? justice archons? maruts? a primordial?

in a court type setting where the pcs have to defend themselves as the skill challenge?

followed by them being found guilty, rightly or wrongly, and their sentence being to face the angels or devils to prove one way or the other?

is this railroading, maybe but the players never have to know...

chaoshead

 

[treex]

Just an idea I'll throw out. For Beauty, perhaps you can have some innocent civilians charmed by her. The first phase could be to break the McGuffin to free them, then enemy minions will try to capture them as they run from Beauty, then final fight.

The minions could have some kind of grapple that drags them back (have the civilians slowed, as their minds are still weary of Beauty's abuse or something) and once they reach a certain area...*shrug* I dunno, whatever fits your story...

I can see them being her "pets" and naturally, she'd (I'm being presumptuous that it's a woman but...) be very distressed when they start fleeing.

"No, come back! My pretties!" she'd cry. "Bring them back to me! Hiss~"

Hehe...oh crud, now I think she's a lamia...

 

[Trit One-Ear]

My impulses off of your descriptions (I'll try to keep them in line with the ideas you have... no promises though )

Innocence: I like some of the classic horror ideas you have. The hide-and-seek idea is exciting and could be a fun/new skill challenge. Perhaps linking some skill challenge into the final conflict to make him see the error of his amoral ways? Often the omni-powerful child figure needs a wake up call to defeat him.

Beauty: I like [MENTION=84680]treex[/MENTION] 's idea of having innocents beguiled by her; mind control is always a good way to throw player's off their game. What do you mean we can't just kill it? We have to subdue it without hurting it? This falls in line with a super villain I designed for a game ages ago based off Lust, one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Insanity: Obviously a lot of Will attacks here, perhaps some illusions based off the PC's fears etc. That might be a good way to start the encounter rather than making it simply a three-stage fight against the same boss. Or you could use something from Beauty's book and use innocents/townsfolk driven mad by his influence...

Justice: My first impulse was similar to [MENTION=6688806]chaoshead87[/MENTION] . Pick out details of the heroes' pasts, their darker deeds, and make them face them. Did you accidentally kill an innocent? Betray a loved one? Fail to prevent a great evil? Good time to face the music over all their short-comings. Perhaps make this a skill challenge individual to each character (a little time-consuming I know but would be really exciting as a player), then stage two could be fighting against their judges (angels/demons). This would make the final stage (Justice himself) that more rewarding.

Destruction: With a concept as "simple" as destruction, just having his attacks becoming more destructive makes sense. Perhaps mix this up a bit by making some of his attacks summon or empower some adds, his agents to help him is the annihilation of the world.

I hope these ideas help spark something for you!

Trit

 

[Quickleaf]

No, what did you mean I tend to go for big ideas? xD I didn't mean that as a joke lol

Oo. Just that from what I've noticed you come up with rather complex overarching ideas and design in a top-down way. For example, not many DMs would start campaign planning by statting up the BBEG. Not a criticism, an observation.

Yes, that was what I was aiming for with Innocence. That is what is terrifying about innocence and I wanted to show that in this character.

Ok so what would be an example of that? With "Innocence" (I'm reading that amorality btw), I'd come up with a scenario that challenges the PCs' ability to distinguish right from wrong, something that really gives them pause.

I am thinking of doing a skill challenge for the first part of the fight with the cornfield and then fighting him. With this fight I wanna touch the players emotionally because I plan on having it scripted that he is just an innocent kid whose parents have been killed by Kikin and he gives up his soul to help them stay alive and avenge him and his parents. I want the PCs to hate Kikin as much as possible and already have the idea for the building they will fight him in.

Who or what is Kikin? Is that the BBEG?

Also I think if you want an emotionally poignant encounter, I would not run it as a combat at all. Or at least have combat as just one (subpar) option. As [MENTION=6678017]Trit One-Ear[/MENTION] points out the "Omnipotent Child" archetype usually is bested by being shown the err of their ways, not by violence which tends to reinforce whatever distorted worldview they have. At least that seems to be the archetype you're going for.

Are you open to designing it as something besides a combat?