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Message: <blockquote data-quote="touc" data-source="post: 8563204" data-attributes="member: 19270">Changing and dynamic events + long-lasting.Just standing and trading punches = boring. <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The boss should never be alone. The party needs low-level minions to mow through;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The environment should change such as an earthquake that causes rubble to fall from the ceiling upon combatants and a shifting slide as the floor buckles; </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the boss should ebb and flow, perhaps retreating as reinforcements come in and healing. They're a boss because they've learned how to survive longer than others;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the boss should have access to something that empowers them that can be removed by the players, such as cages with captives that the boss uses to restore his life; free the captives and take away this power, or a healing pool attuned to them that if drained or defiled takes away that option;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">a surprise should occur when the boss is "bloodied" (50% hp) or the like, such as a defensive ability triggers and a portal opens, dropping you all into the Astral Plane for a weightless fight where movement is based off Intelligence scores.</li> </ul>Obviously level of the boss affects what all you can do, but applying this to the Orc Chieftain in his lair:The Chief has 6 goblin slave soldiers and an overseer. Take out the overseer and the slaves will lose their will to fight. He also has two elite guards (max hp orcs) and a witch doctor. The terrain includes a large barrel of potent moonshine, his bed, and several torches on the walls (hiding 3 levers that trigger rockfalls on particular squares that the Orcs will try and use, PCs might notice). If the witch doctor dies, its spirit spawns a shadow that indiscriminately attacks the nearest living target, lasting 5 rounds or until destroyed.On round 3, one of the enemy accidentally hits the moonshine barrel. Its contents spill over the floor, making an area treacherous (difficult terrain). It is also highly flammable. If the boss goes to 50% hp, he sheds the extra damage and gets a save with advantage against any ongoing effects. Reinforcements, low level enemies, come in (reduced if the PCs were successful in an earlier mission). He tries to retreat to a secret door (a floor hatch like in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, hard to find the trigger) where he has a stash of healing supplies. If he can't move, his minions will try to carry or drag him at the cost of their lives. He will spend up to 3 rounds healing before climbing a ladder that leads to a hidden ledge above the battlefield and sniping with a heavy crossbow he has stashed up there. He ducks out of sight so he cannot be targeted. The middle rung of his ladder has concealed poison spikes that he knows to avoid.Anyhoo, just off the top of my head to make boss battles more dynamic.</blockquote>

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