RangerWickett
Legend
I have an example of a great BBEG fight from one of my campaigns.
The BBEG, Leska, had hidden the source of her immortality in the bottom of a massive cavern, guarded by all sorts of monsters and traps and deceptions. The PCs had convinced a general to turn to their side in order to assault the cave, and Leska sent her armies to stop them. The PCs realized they needed to get in their quickly because Leska would probably be coming soon, so they headed into the cave without back-up.
Leska had made sure to set up the cave so that the surrounding several miles was completely inaccessible by teleportation and divination, which normally was good, but in this case meant that the PCs had a clear head start, and Leska would have to fight her way through an army to get to them.
Along the way through the cave, one PC (Kathor, a fatalist paladin-esque character whose mount had been nearly killed in the fight to get to the cave) was separated from the group, lost in a side tunnel. The rest of the party went on ahead, not wanting to risk Leska beating them to the end of the cave. They pressed on ahead and fought challenges, while Kathor struggled to make his way back to the main path. When he did get back to the main path, he saw sign that Leska and her bodyguards had just passed by, and were catching up to the main party.
The final chamber was a deep, steep pit, filled with a vast pool of blood at the bottom. The PCs in the lead found the chamber and were trying to figure out how to get past the blood and various magical wards to the source of immortality, when Leska arrived. From the position of the top of the pit, she rained down all manner of sorcerous doom, and though the party fought back, they were just in a terrible position and no real match for her. She managed to blast away all of their magical defenses, then trap them with a mass hold so she could taunt them. Her bodyguards stood at the ready to kill anyone who interrupted their empress's monologue.
Leska uses magic to read each of their minds, find what they cherish, and promise to destroy it. During this, a few of the PCs break out of the hold, but they choose to wait until the rest of the group is free so they have a better chance of surviving from this untenable position. They know that even if they kill Leska, she's immortal, and has some sort of contingent effect that kills anyone close to her and uses their life force to regenerate her. They don't know how they can win.
That's when Kathor makes his appearance.
He has conjured his mount just around the corner of the tunnel, and when he thinks Leska has dropped her guard, he mounts up, casts true strike, and charges, aiming his lance for Leska's heart. Hearing the charge, the PCs in the pit all take their readied actions, and in response all of Leska's mage bodyguards take theirs, and in a flurry of spells and attacks, one PC manages to dispel Leska's strongest magical ward, another hurls his magical greatsword and disrupts the spell she was trying to cast at Kathor, and a third PC jumps in the path of the bodyguard's spells to save another PC.
Overhead, at the top of the pit, Kathor rides in on his dying mount, trampling the bodyguards and driving his lance into Leska's heart. Power attacking for full on a spirited charge, with the critical hit he deals something like 150 damage. He strikes Leska in the heart, pierces her chest, and leaps his mount across the chasm, getting as high and as far from his allies below as possible. They strike the far wall, Kathor's lance driving deep into the stone, and though Leska's retributive spell slays Kathor and his mount (and her own bodyguards), Leska is pinned. Even in death, Kathor does not release his lance, and so Leska is trapped, the weapon impaled through her so she can never heal the wound.
Best of all, the impact is so powerful, it sends cracks through the stone of the cavern, and the entire cave begins to shake, threatening to collapse. The surviving PCs struggle out of the pit (taking the source of Leska's immortality with them), and cast a final look at Kathor and Leska as the stones begin to rain down, burying the knight and the witch forever.
That is probably the greatest climax I've ever had in a game. Even better than vampire King Arthur.
The BBEG, Leska, had hidden the source of her immortality in the bottom of a massive cavern, guarded by all sorts of monsters and traps and deceptions. The PCs had convinced a general to turn to their side in order to assault the cave, and Leska sent her armies to stop them. The PCs realized they needed to get in their quickly because Leska would probably be coming soon, so they headed into the cave without back-up.
Leska had made sure to set up the cave so that the surrounding several miles was completely inaccessible by teleportation and divination, which normally was good, but in this case meant that the PCs had a clear head start, and Leska would have to fight her way through an army to get to them.
Along the way through the cave, one PC (Kathor, a fatalist paladin-esque character whose mount had been nearly killed in the fight to get to the cave) was separated from the group, lost in a side tunnel. The rest of the party went on ahead, not wanting to risk Leska beating them to the end of the cave. They pressed on ahead and fought challenges, while Kathor struggled to make his way back to the main path. When he did get back to the main path, he saw sign that Leska and her bodyguards had just passed by, and were catching up to the main party.
The final chamber was a deep, steep pit, filled with a vast pool of blood at the bottom. The PCs in the lead found the chamber and were trying to figure out how to get past the blood and various magical wards to the source of immortality, when Leska arrived. From the position of the top of the pit, she rained down all manner of sorcerous doom, and though the party fought back, they were just in a terrible position and no real match for her. She managed to blast away all of their magical defenses, then trap them with a mass hold so she could taunt them. Her bodyguards stood at the ready to kill anyone who interrupted their empress's monologue.
Leska uses magic to read each of their minds, find what they cherish, and promise to destroy it. During this, a few of the PCs break out of the hold, but they choose to wait until the rest of the group is free so they have a better chance of surviving from this untenable position. They know that even if they kill Leska, she's immortal, and has some sort of contingent effect that kills anyone close to her and uses their life force to regenerate her. They don't know how they can win.
That's when Kathor makes his appearance.
He has conjured his mount just around the corner of the tunnel, and when he thinks Leska has dropped her guard, he mounts up, casts true strike, and charges, aiming his lance for Leska's heart. Hearing the charge, the PCs in the pit all take their readied actions, and in response all of Leska's mage bodyguards take theirs, and in a flurry of spells and attacks, one PC manages to dispel Leska's strongest magical ward, another hurls his magical greatsword and disrupts the spell she was trying to cast at Kathor, and a third PC jumps in the path of the bodyguard's spells to save another PC.
Overhead, at the top of the pit, Kathor rides in on his dying mount, trampling the bodyguards and driving his lance into Leska's heart. Power attacking for full on a spirited charge, with the critical hit he deals something like 150 damage. He strikes Leska in the heart, pierces her chest, and leaps his mount across the chasm, getting as high and as far from his allies below as possible. They strike the far wall, Kathor's lance driving deep into the stone, and though Leska's retributive spell slays Kathor and his mount (and her own bodyguards), Leska is pinned. Even in death, Kathor does not release his lance, and so Leska is trapped, the weapon impaled through her so she can never heal the wound.
Best of all, the impact is so powerful, it sends cracks through the stone of the cavern, and the entire cave begins to shake, threatening to collapse. The surviving PCs struggle out of the pit (taking the source of Leska's immortality with them), and cast a final look at Kathor and Leska as the stones begin to rain down, burying the knight and the witch forever.
That is probably the greatest climax I've ever had in a game. Even better than vampire King Arthur.
