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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MoogleEmpMog" data-source="post: 3850676" data-attributes="member: 22882">You know, I'm not sure I've ever seen the word "verisimilitude" used in a gaming context without it referencing everything I dislike in an RPG.The trend continues here.If every boss fight plays out the same way because there's only one mechanic for removing participants from an encounter, that's the fault of the encounter design, not the game design.  Somehow, despite pretty much every major boss being immune to status effects, Final Fantasy Tactics managed to make each one a unique fight interesting unto itself, with a lot fewer variables to play around with than D&D.Again, if module writers and individual GMs need multiple mechanics for participant elimination, that's an encounter design issue, not a game design one.  The solution is better encounters in published modules (IH-like Zones go a LONG way toward this) and better advice and examples for GMs who want to design their own - not anticlimactic game mechanics.And the final fight between Neo and Agent Smith in the original Matrix is good because it's AWESOME.  The final fight between Vader and Luke in Return of the Jedi is good because it's AWESOME.  The final fight between Cloud and Sephiroth in Advent Children is good because it's AWESOME.  I'd rather bring the awesome every boss fight I can than every once in a while bring the surprise.Besides, I can bring the surprise without mechanical support - if I want a surprise, I can make a "boss" who, despite having an important role in the campaign, is an incompetent fighter.  When the PCs finally pierce his webs of deception and get to him, expecting a climactic encounter - they roll over him instead.  And it's cool, because they'll get the climaxes elsewhere and this is one where they can look back at the trail of destruction this boss allegedly wrought and see how he fooled them.Then when they DO encounter a climactic encounter, it can bring the awesome as needed.</blockquote>

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