What's the most epic boss fight you've ever had?
- Thread starter Gort
- Start date
Here are some big final fights I've run, and what they had in common that made them cool.
1) The players have discovered that the one god of the setting is, in fact, a pretender - who stole power from elsewhere in the cosmos and used it to rewrite the past. Now they have gone back to the moment he stole the power and faced the god himself, and struck him down - only to have their closest allies turn on them, who wish to use the power to rewrite the world to suit themselves. The PCs decide this can't happen - they need to ensure that history returns to what it was 'supposed' to be, even if that means that they themselves will no longer be the same - or even exist at all.
The fight takes place as the past is written around them, and the environment changing through different periods of the history of the setting. Once they win, they see the rest of time play out, and each reenters the time stream in a new life that shows what their path would be without the past having been altered by the false god.
Things that made the fight Epic:
-Being a two-fold battle (first, against the god who had been the primary antagonist of the campaign, and then against those who had been their strongest allies.)
-Involving powerful decisions and choices to be made (do we let the past unfold naturally, or try to use the power ourselves for 'the greater good'?)
-Involving cool terrain (as they move through different periods of history.)
-Calling back to other things from throughout the campaign, as they witness familiar things changing to the new reality, and having new lives for their characters to look forward to.
2) The players, part of an Empire that has lasted thousands of years in peaceful stability, with mankind ruling with the blessing of the heavenly spirits, has discovered that the last year of catastrophe and mayhem was by the design of one of the great spirits of the heavens - it was, in fact, the Spirit of Order and Law itself. They then discovered that it was not the current Spirit of Law, but rather a future version - one that wanted the stagnation of the Empire to end so that mankind would return to progress and the development of technology, which would eventually lead to a steam-punk future in which this spirit, alone, ruled over everything.
In order to stop him, they traveled to the future and battled across the strange world that was descended from their own. They face familiar friends and enemies, all of them now old or weakened, and either serving their enemy or being tortured by him.
Eventually they reach him. Part of the premise of this setting was that there were no true gods, and that the former Celestial Emperor of the Heavens was simply a Solar - powerful, but not so far beyond mankind as to be godlike. In this case, their enemy took the form of a Titan encased in powerful bronze armor.
As they fought, and damaged his armor, they saw his true form was living energy encased within the armor. Once they defeat him, however, that only unleashes his true form, and he begins hopping from one PC to the next and trying to control their actions, as they try to fight him off. In order to completely defeat him, they need to draw him to the right location where his energy will be drawn into the great mechanism that powers his Empire. During the fight, the palace around them is constantly being damaged, walls breaking, floors collapsing, etc.
Once they defeat him, they face the final challenge - trying to return home while this world falls apart, which they manage to do. Doing so involves focusing on those elements that most define each character, and remembering those things that are most important to them.
Things that made the fight Epic:
-Being a two-fold battle (first fighting the physically imposing Titan, and then the challenge of finding a way to contain a being of living energy.)
-Not just being a straightforward battle (as one of the enemy's forms they couldn't just smash away at until it died.)
-Involving cool terrain (the palace collapsing around them as they fight.)
-Calling back to to other things from throughout the campaign (as they define their characters and focus on their most important memories to survive the return to their own time.)
3) Finally, a Planescape game leading up to 4E. The PCs have discovered that reality is being rewritten, apparently a grand event that occasionally occurs, as all existence is remade in a new but familiar form. They have discovered that someone - an incarnation of all the past 'editions' of reality - is attempting to hijack the change and weave the new reality to suit their own purposes.
The party has waged war through Sigil itself to try and stop this, uncovered the true purpose of the Lady of Pain, and watched nearly all the other planes already vanish into the "RetCon Wave". In the heart of Sigil, somewhere outside of space and time itself, they make their way through a dungeon filled with classically brutal traps, and finally come face to face with their foe, who stands in the midst of a whirligig of planar apparatus.
In order to stop them, he surrounds himself with a Prismatic Sphere and summons loyal versions of some of the most famous and infamous figures from the time-stream to oppose the PCs: Elminster, Drizzt, Mordenkainen, Raistlin, Lord Soth, Gord the Rogue.
The party has to defeat this iconic figures, while taking down the Prismatic Sphere - and then, afterwards, battle the enigmatic figure himself, surrounded by protective walls of force and walls of stone and other protections, while he attacks with mechanical lobster claws and other strange devices attached to his mega-apparatus.
Once they succeed... they group is again faced with the choice of trying to influence the new 'edition' of reality or let it take its natural course. Some of them try to make small changes to ensure a place for themselves, and then they witness a new 'big bang' restarting all the multiverse...
Things that made the final fight Epic:
-Being a two-fold battle (first, against various iconic figures of the game, and then against their enemy and his strange machine itself.)
-Not just being a straightforward battle (as they had to figure out how to get past the various protections of their enemy).
-Involving powerful decisions and choices to be made (do we try and influence what is to come?)
-Giving a chance to see/fight classic figures of the game. After all, who hasn't wanted to fireball Drizzt?
4) My 4E campaign is reaching its conclusion. This is the first one actually to go Epic (the first game was at level 20, the second at level 15, the third at level 17; this will wrap up at 30). This is also likely to be the most straightforward fight - the PCs have been chasing after a Primordial throughout the Epic tier. As they have foiled his plans, he has grown more and more desperate, and now is invading the Abyss itself to claim the Shard of Evil and the power of Tharizdun.
The party is chasing after him, and will no doubt confront him directly before the Shard itself. I haven't yet worked out the details of the fight, but here is what I expect it will involve:
-Fighting the Primordial himself, and then likely facing his true 'demonic' form that results from his corruption by the Shard;
-Not just facing them in battle, but figuring out a way to seal him away and ensure the Shard's power remains contained, which will involve clever choices and heroic sacrifices;
-A shifting environment, as the Abyss changes around them, and the PCs themselves feel themselves being corrupted and driven mad by the presence of the Shard.
Conclusion
Ok, so what does all this say? Aside from that I have some strange obsession with games involving reality being rewritten? (Though, it should be noted, it was played entirely seriously in the first game above, and entirely for laughs in the third.)
But that aside, there are a few elements that are entirely seperate from the actual content of the games, and that's where I think the most useful advice can be found.
1) Make it more than a single fight. Either make the party deal with some other event before they can have the fight itself, or have the boss change forms partway through the fight, or do something to prevent it from seeming like they just run into a room and hit a guy until he drops.
2) Make the terrain interesting. Obsidian portal in front of a lake of blood has plenty of opportunities - for the blood to be animating and attacking PCs, or draining their blood away, or for them to get thrown through the portal, etc.
3) Have elements that go beyond simply fighting. Needing to also be working on a ritual to stop him, or interacting with the portal to shut down his evil plans, or any number of things that, again, make it more memorable than just beating up a bad guy until the PCs win.
So: Cool terrain, multi-stage fight, non-combat obstacles. Those are what I would recommend. It already sounds like a cool set-up in terms of content and flavor, so now you just need to make sure it remains memorable for the battle itself as well.
1) The players have discovered that the one god of the setting is, in fact, a pretender - who stole power from elsewhere in the cosmos and used it to rewrite the past. Now they have gone back to the moment he stole the power and faced the god himself, and struck him down - only to have their closest allies turn on them, who wish to use the power to rewrite the world to suit themselves. The PCs decide this can't happen - they need to ensure that history returns to what it was 'supposed' to be, even if that means that they themselves will no longer be the same - or even exist at all.
The fight takes place as the past is written around them, and the environment changing through different periods of the history of the setting. Once they win, they see the rest of time play out, and each reenters the time stream in a new life that shows what their path would be without the past having been altered by the false god.
Things that made the fight Epic:
-Being a two-fold battle (first, against the god who had been the primary antagonist of the campaign, and then against those who had been their strongest allies.)
-Involving powerful decisions and choices to be made (do we let the past unfold naturally, or try to use the power ourselves for 'the greater good'?)
-Involving cool terrain (as they move through different periods of history.)
-Calling back to other things from throughout the campaign, as they witness familiar things changing to the new reality, and having new lives for their characters to look forward to.
2) The players, part of an Empire that has lasted thousands of years in peaceful stability, with mankind ruling with the blessing of the heavenly spirits, has discovered that the last year of catastrophe and mayhem was by the design of one of the great spirits of the heavens - it was, in fact, the Spirit of Order and Law itself. They then discovered that it was not the current Spirit of Law, but rather a future version - one that wanted the stagnation of the Empire to end so that mankind would return to progress and the development of technology, which would eventually lead to a steam-punk future in which this spirit, alone, ruled over everything.
In order to stop him, they traveled to the future and battled across the strange world that was descended from their own. They face familiar friends and enemies, all of them now old or weakened, and either serving their enemy or being tortured by him.
Eventually they reach him. Part of the premise of this setting was that there were no true gods, and that the former Celestial Emperor of the Heavens was simply a Solar - powerful, but not so far beyond mankind as to be godlike. In this case, their enemy took the form of a Titan encased in powerful bronze armor.
As they fought, and damaged his armor, they saw his true form was living energy encased within the armor. Once they defeat him, however, that only unleashes his true form, and he begins hopping from one PC to the next and trying to control their actions, as they try to fight him off. In order to completely defeat him, they need to draw him to the right location where his energy will be drawn into the great mechanism that powers his Empire. During the fight, the palace around them is constantly being damaged, walls breaking, floors collapsing, etc.
Once they defeat him, they face the final challenge - trying to return home while this world falls apart, which they manage to do. Doing so involves focusing on those elements that most define each character, and remembering those things that are most important to them.
Things that made the fight Epic:
-Being a two-fold battle (first fighting the physically imposing Titan, and then the challenge of finding a way to contain a being of living energy.)
-Not just being a straightforward battle (as one of the enemy's forms they couldn't just smash away at until it died.)
-Involving cool terrain (the palace collapsing around them as they fight.)
-Calling back to to other things from throughout the campaign (as they define their characters and focus on their most important memories to survive the return to their own time.)
3) Finally, a Planescape game leading up to 4E. The PCs have discovered that reality is being rewritten, apparently a grand event that occasionally occurs, as all existence is remade in a new but familiar form. They have discovered that someone - an incarnation of all the past 'editions' of reality - is attempting to hijack the change and weave the new reality to suit their own purposes.
The party has waged war through Sigil itself to try and stop this, uncovered the true purpose of the Lady of Pain, and watched nearly all the other planes already vanish into the "RetCon Wave". In the heart of Sigil, somewhere outside of space and time itself, they make their way through a dungeon filled with classically brutal traps, and finally come face to face with their foe, who stands in the midst of a whirligig of planar apparatus.
In order to stop them, he surrounds himself with a Prismatic Sphere and summons loyal versions of some of the most famous and infamous figures from the time-stream to oppose the PCs: Elminster, Drizzt, Mordenkainen, Raistlin, Lord Soth, Gord the Rogue.
The party has to defeat this iconic figures, while taking down the Prismatic Sphere - and then, afterwards, battle the enigmatic figure himself, surrounded by protective walls of force and walls of stone and other protections, while he attacks with mechanical lobster claws and other strange devices attached to his mega-apparatus.
Once they succeed... they group is again faced with the choice of trying to influence the new 'edition' of reality or let it take its natural course. Some of them try to make small changes to ensure a place for themselves, and then they witness a new 'big bang' restarting all the multiverse...
Things that made the final fight Epic:
-Being a two-fold battle (first, against various iconic figures of the game, and then against their enemy and his strange machine itself.)
-Not just being a straightforward battle (as they had to figure out how to get past the various protections of their enemy).
-Involving powerful decisions and choices to be made (do we try and influence what is to come?)
-Giving a chance to see/fight classic figures of the game. After all, who hasn't wanted to fireball Drizzt?
4) My 4E campaign is reaching its conclusion. This is the first one actually to go Epic (the first game was at level 20, the second at level 15, the third at level 17; this will wrap up at 30). This is also likely to be the most straightforward fight - the PCs have been chasing after a Primordial throughout the Epic tier. As they have foiled his plans, he has grown more and more desperate, and now is invading the Abyss itself to claim the Shard of Evil and the power of Tharizdun.
The party is chasing after him, and will no doubt confront him directly before the Shard itself. I haven't yet worked out the details of the fight, but here is what I expect it will involve:
-Fighting the Primordial himself, and then likely facing his true 'demonic' form that results from his corruption by the Shard;
-Not just facing them in battle, but figuring out a way to seal him away and ensure the Shard's power remains contained, which will involve clever choices and heroic sacrifices;
-A shifting environment, as the Abyss changes around them, and the PCs themselves feel themselves being corrupted and driven mad by the presence of the Shard.
Conclusion
Ok, so what does all this say? Aside from that I have some strange obsession with games involving reality being rewritten? (Though, it should be noted, it was played entirely seriously in the first game above, and entirely for laughs in the third.)
But that aside, there are a few elements that are entirely seperate from the actual content of the games, and that's where I think the most useful advice can be found.
1) Make it more than a single fight. Either make the party deal with some other event before they can have the fight itself, or have the boss change forms partway through the fight, or do something to prevent it from seeming like they just run into a room and hit a guy until he drops.
2) Make the terrain interesting. Obsidian portal in front of a lake of blood has plenty of opportunities - for the blood to be animating and attacking PCs, or draining their blood away, or for them to get thrown through the portal, etc.
3) Have elements that go beyond simply fighting. Needing to also be working on a ritual to stop him, or interacting with the portal to shut down his evil plans, or any number of things that, again, make it more memorable than just beating up a bad guy until the PCs win.
So: Cool terrain, multi-stage fight, non-combat obstacles. Those are what I would recommend. It already sounds like a cool set-up in terms of content and flavor, so now you just need to make sure it remains memorable for the battle itself as well.
ScorpiusRisk
First Post
I ended third edition, with a campaign the posed the party from our first campaign, in a divine war against the party from the 2nd campaign.
The final fight was the original party (with some changes obviously) fighting Asmodeous, in the 5th layer of hell, on the ice drift Levistus is stuck in. The party had with them the avatars of two of their patron gods and Asmodeus had with him the avatar of an intermediate god, the full version of another intermediate god, and the last surviving member of the 2nd party.
The final fight was the original party (with some changes obviously) fighting Asmodeous, in the 5th layer of hell, on the ice drift Levistus is stuck in. The party had with them the avatars of two of their patron gods and Asmodeus had with him the avatar of an intermediate god, the full version of another intermediate god, and the last surviving member of the 2nd party.
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