Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="J.Quondam" data-source="post: 9089634" data-attributes="member: 7030100">An approach I've used is to draw a timeline for each bbeg (or faction leaders in my uses) that tracks what it does and how it improves itself by each &quot;milestone&quot; (where a milestone is just some significant event by the PCs, in your case probably measured as the defeat of another bbeg). Such a timeline includes stuff like &quot;Orc Chief acquires the Artifact Axe and conscripts the goblin tribe&quot; and &quot;Young Red dragon advances to adult red dragon&quot; or whatever. Effectively, it's just a schedule of each bbeg's personal/statblock advancement, acquisitions, intel, and so forth. And when a bbeg is defeated, advancement along its timeline just ends; and in your case of &quot;connected&quot; bbegs, that ending would also be accompanied by some sort of power up to the surviving bbegs.Powering up those surving bbegs could depend on their respective natures. Since I gather they're supernaturally connected, maybe give each a list of features that it grants to the remaining bbegs when it's defeated?&nbsp; For example, consider 5 &quot;sibling&quot; bbegs each based on one of the elements wood, fire, water, earth, metal. When one brother is defeated, then all remaining siblings gain a few HD and +1 attack bonus; AND a feature specific to their fallen brother's nature. For example, when the fire brother is defeated, the remaining brothers might each gain a permanent fire shield effect and some flying fire-snake minions. When the Wood brother dies, the surviving ones get the HD and atk boost, plus an at will entangle and loyal shambling mound. And so forthIn this way the bbegs get stronger both in their basic stats and through special traits, but exactly how that progresses depends on what order the bbegs are defeated. This means subsequent encounters could play out quite differently depending on which are tackled first. That in turn might even leave open the possibility for PCs to guess/research an optimal order to take them on.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="J.Quondam, post: 9089634, member: 7030100"] An approach I've used is to draw a timeline for each bbeg (or faction leaders in my uses) that tracks what it does and how it improves itself by each "milestone" (where a milestone is just some significant event by the PCs, in your case probably measured as the defeat of another bbeg). Such a timeline includes stuff like "Orc Chief acquires the Artifact Axe and conscripts the goblin tribe" and "Young Red dragon advances to adult red dragon" or whatever. Effectively, it's just a schedule of each bbeg's personal/statblock advancement, acquisitions, intel, and so forth. And when a bbeg is defeated, advancement along its timeline just ends; and in your case of "connected" bbegs, that ending would also be accompanied by some sort of power up to the surviving bbegs. Powering up those surving bbegs could depend on their respective natures. Since I gather they're supernaturally connected, maybe give each a list of features that it grants to the remaining bbegs when it's defeated? For example, consider 5 "sibling" bbegs each based on one of the elements wood, fire, water, earth, metal. When one brother is defeated, then all remaining siblings gain a few HD and +1 attack bonus; AND a feature specific to their fallen brother's nature. For example, when the fire brother is defeated, the remaining brothers might each gain a permanent fire shield effect and some flying fire-snake minions. When the Wood brother dies, the surviving ones get the HD and atk boost, plus an at will entangle and loyal shambling mound. And so forth In this way the bbegs get stronger both in their basic stats and through special traits, but exactly how that progresses depends on what order the bbegs are defeated. This means subsequent encounters could play out quite differently depending on which are tackled first. That in turn might even leave open the possibility for PCs to guess/research an optimal order to take them on. [/QUOTE]

Verification