What's the most epic boss fight you've ever had?

[Gort]

I'm ending a campaign arc (end of heroic tier) with a battle with the big-evil (which is a monster taking the form of a human adversary of theirs) in front of a huge obsidian portal in a knee-deep lake of blood.

I need to make it epic and awesome, so what's the best end-boss fight you've experienced? What was the opposition, and what was the terrain like? I can have pretty much anything come through the portal, so gimme some ideas

 

[NMcCoy]

My thought: Orbs of raw magical energy move across the battlefield (marked by tokens), drifting towards the portal. Starting your turn next to or in one deals damage. Attacking while next to one adds a die of damage to the attack. They can be moved around with a minor action skill check. Whenever a burst of energy reaches the portal, a monster gets summoned. Perhaps something interesting might happen if two orbs get shoved into the same square...?

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, if you're up for a bit of a read, I posted the details of my greatest climax ever in two posts here and then here.

I think it really helped that, going in, I wanted to destroy the party, which I never do otherwise. It made the tension high and the victory all the more unexpected.

 

[BobTheNob]

I had a bit of fun with the end of heroic campaign arc. It was tough, but the players were fully rested and just had to do the fight.

The boss (a priest) had 4 elemental nodes. He could teleport to any as a move action. He could also as a minor action draw buffs from one that he was close enough to (with the buffs lasting till end next turn). So part of the fight was to destroy the nodes meaning players were not just "concentrating fire" on the boss, cause that was useless till the nodes were neturalised.

He had a "storm" (i.e. a map area) he could move as a free action and change element damage type on his turn. Players had to be kept on their feet and couldnt just stand in one place. He forced movement and chaos with this mechanism. He could also move this storm on top of himself (and he was immune to) if he got crowded in.

That was before his attacks, things like an implosion which sucked players into one spot (which he then followed by putting the storm on them) and thunderwave like attack as an at-will to keep players off him.

At the same time their was a magic barrier with Ogre Mages on the other side, pushing their way through. Every turn, this barrier weakend and more and more minions poored through in increasing numbers.

Very controllerish type of monster, it was a boss fight really designed to challenge a group. Lots of fun.

 

[AngryMojo]

I wound up running a heroic-tier fight that was a nail biter the entire way through. There was a Necromancer (Wizard with the Death Master template) completing a ritual in knee-deep bones while channelling dark energy from four orbs in the room. Each orb granted a different bonus, one increased all defenses by 4 (Dark shield), One granted him flight (Shadowy Wings), One gave Regeneration 10, and one allowed him to use his making minions power every round, instead of once per encounter. The orbs couldn't be shut down, but they could be blocked by PC's, who could gain minor bonuses (and take ongoing necrotic damage) if they were blocking the energy. I gave him some push abilities, and between the ongoing damage and the flood of minions that popped up, it was a really good fight. I think my PC's wound up killing about 30 skeletons by the end of the fight, and there were still about 20 in the room when the necromancer finally dropped.

 

[Stalker0]

My most epic boss fight was actually my last session.

My players have the ability to alter destiny, which is a major plot point in the campaign. So does the big villain.

The battle took place on a cliff face with the elemental chaos on one side, held back by a barrier that was quickly cracking. It was them vs the big solo, mano a groupo.


As both sides clashed, their destiny altering powers began to cause havoc on the area. 3 main things occurred:

1) Every round, I allowed both sides to alter an existing game rule. However, the villain ability in this was stronger than the party (he had the destiny power longer). We got rules like +5 to acid damage, +2 to saving throws vs ongoing damage, bloodied targets gain regen 10, vulnerability 5, and a hit against a bloodied target lets you slide them 1 square etc.

The biggest rule change was that all ongoing damage became escalating damage. In my game escalating damage works like ongoing damage except its immediate. You instantly take the damage, roll a save, and keep taking damage until you pass the save. The boss had a ongoing damage 15 attack, so suddenly his damage became a lot more threatening!

2) Every round a surge from the chaos caused a massive blast of elemental energy, doing 40 damage to everyone in a line (rolled randomly).

3) The destiny collision caused pockets of reality to rupture, doing 20 irresistible damage to everyone in the area (area rolled randomly). Every round, each existing pocket expanded in size.


The battle started with the big bad showing his powers of destiny alteration. He used his reformation ability which allowed him to teleport everyone in a burst 12 area into anywhere else in the area (players had a fort attack to resist). The fighter was cast away and the big bad was left right next to the bard and wizard.

The bard would have none of that, releasing his teleport zone power, basically allowing his team to teleport anywhere in the combat as a move action.


A brutal fight began. The big bad had another power, alter ego, that allowed him to create a reality duplicate of himself. Not only did the duplicate have a whole suite of attacks, but at the end of the duration, the big bad could choose either the original or the duplicate to keep around. So if one had taken massive damage and conditions, that one would be dropped, completely erasing all of the pain it had just taken. However, the wizard kept pounding both villians with power, stunning and dazing several times.


The battle continued over many rounds. All of the chaos bubbles formed in the middle, causing a zone of complete death to anyone who entered. The battlefield was constricted every round as the bubbles got larger. The elemental chaos erupted several times hitting players and villain alike.

The fighter even used tide of iron to knock the big bad into the wall of chaos, and he rolled such a high strength check that I let him crack the barrier and release some of the chaos right into the villains face.

The battle went down to the wire. All 3 of my players were near 0, but so was the big bad. His alter ego was out, and the players had to take them both down to win.

The villain got a crit and several powerful attacks on the bard....killing him! But it was not so, for the bard has a word of life daily that lets him come back from 0....the first time in 6 months he had gotten to use that power. The bard came back, and the 3 delivered the final blow.


At the end as the dust settled, and the chaos that had erupted begun to die down, I allowed the group to choose one of the altered rules to become permanent. For all time, including any other games I run in that world, the change would be permanent. They chose the rule that states if a bloodied target is hit, you can slide them 1 square.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

Orcus at the end of my first campaign.

The group are invading his fortress in the real world, fight their way through and drop into the final chamber. They find themselves surrounded by a barrier that blocks their powers and movement. Orcus sics his minions on them who can pass/zap through the barrier. Things look bad.

Then the Warlord pulls out an hourglass shatters it and scatters sand on herself and the ranger (who has thievery) and they rush through the barrier to break the pillars that power it. The Paladin yells indignantly. (The warlords player spent about five minutes deciding whether she or the paladin should go through to protect the ranger, and decided on herself as she suspected the Paladin would ignore the ranger and charge orcus).

Cue several rounds desperate fighting in the barrier and the Ranger and Warlord running around disabling pillars, with the warlord blowing powers to keep them both alive and mobile. Eventually the barrier is weakend and the warlock destroys the last pillar party surge out and flatten Orcus (thanks to several now errataed Warlord powers and a LOT of crits chaining).

Orcus explodes killing the Paladin, who promptly stands up due to being an Undying warrior. The Finish of Orcus with the Artifact axe they have (the plan is Paladin uses godslaying axe to kill Orcus and absorb his power, then the Paladin hits himself in the face with the axe killing himself and creating a feedback loop that destroys the axe). The Paladin doesn't get to complete the plan, the power and maddness of a Demon Lord overwhelm him and he attacks the party, who don't fight back, which brings him back to his senses, so he can finish the plan, which he does.

The Wizard and Cleric then get on with trying to rescue his soul. I tell them after a few rolls that they realise it can't suceed.

I then descride an epilogue set about 16 years later which ends with the Cleric walking into her house to hugg the (alive) Paladin, I'd done a reasonable job of hiding his survival and one player was close to tears.

I flashed back to the game time and described the Paladin wandering up to the res ritual and asking "What are you guys doing?"

Awesome end to a great game I felt.

 

[jcayer]

My suggestion is don't copy anything here, sure, use it for inspiration, but look at how your players fight.

Mine love to pull things into melee as the fighter, rogue, and warlord have minimal range. They love walls of fire to control the field and a lot of burst/blast powers, that kind of stuff.

My most recent encounter took a lot of that away and it was HARD. 2nd floor of a ruined temple, with only partial remnants of a floor, they couldn't move easily, and neither could the creatures. I plopped 2 soldiers right in front of them to tie them up, and then put a couple artillery monsters, on opposite sides of the room, at 12 squares away. Most of their range spells are 10. Burst and blast was limited and the walls of fire were ineffective since the monsters were resistant to them.

Finally, I put the BBEG at the far side of the room on a balcony and he mocked them the whole time.

It took 2 hours to complete, my guys had to go WAY outside their comfort zone and throw most of their usual tactics out the window. Hell, the fighter had to use second wind since the cleric was too far away at one point...that never happens.

As an aside, when the BBEG was slain, he turned to dust and then swirled into a portal leading to his Master's domain. They took the bait and while not as creative as the encounter above, it was a massive slugfest with 2 of them going unconscious. They never expected a followup encounter.

So figure out what they do, and don't let them do it, or limit its effectiveness.

 

[Joshua Randall]

At the climax of a planes-spanning 3.5 campaign, the party squared off against Erebus, God of Darkness.

They had traveled backwards in space-time to The Beginning; only the PCs' force of personality and general badassitude allowed them even to exist, let alone face their enemy.

Erebus was attended by numerous servitors: 1 nightwalker, 2 devourers, 6 darkness pseudo-elementals, 1 effigy, and essentially a limitless number of frost giants, all given various darkness or shadow related templates and advanced in HD appropriate to the party's level. (All the PCs were 16th level at this point.)

Erebus himself, being a god, could not be fought directly. However, he could directly attack the PCs using various ridiculously high save DC spell-like abilities, that generally hit for 20d6 damage plus debilitation (slowed*, blinded, etc.).

* Remember that slowed was a lot nastier in 3e than it is in 4e.

In other words, a completely unfair fight.

The PCs' only way to win this fight was to hold off the monsters, survive whatever Erebus could throw at them, and enact a ritual that would re-speak the Words of Creation (which Erebus had gone to great lengths to undo).

This ritual consisted of 9 rounds of increasingly difficult skill checks, and had to be powered by the cumulative investment of life energy (represented in game by negative levels).

In other words, on round 1, some PC had to gain 1 negative level. On round 2, some PC had to gain 2 negative levels. ... On round 9, some poor PC was going to gain 9 negative levels.

I had carefully playtested this fight to ensure that it was theoretically possible for the PCs to win, but I honestly thought they would die in spectacular fashion.

But the players surprised me with their resilience (never understimate 16th level PCs!), tenacity, and cleverness: they won.

My only regret about that fight is not coming up with some more interesting terrain. But there was so much else going on that maybe that was for the best.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Come to think of it, the fight right before the battle against Erebus was pretty epic too.

The PCs realized they needed to travel back in space-time to The Beginning, so they sought out and entered the Plane of Time.

Physically, the Plane of Time took the form of a giant whirldwind of swirling sand -- yes, the sands of time, and no, I didn't specifically steal it from Prince of Persia. (Of course metaphysically the Plane of Time has neither matter nor dimension, but the PCs being limited mortals were only able to conceive of it as something physical.)

While being buffeted by the sands of time -- which the PCs were only able to survive thanks to their previous bargain with a goddess for whom they did a favor -- they were attacked by some old nemeses: a 20th level cleric of Erebus and a 20th level sorcerer, along with numerous lackeys / meatshields.

Yes, I pitted my 16th level PCs against two 20th level NPC spellcasters.

It was a brutal fight, especially when the sorcerer began spamming time stop. (Do you know how many 9th level spells a 20th level sorcerer with 30 Int gets? Answer: 7.)

However... the enemies were not protected from the ravages of the sands of time. As the battle raged, and the individuals PCs and NPCs were swept down towards the bottom of the hourglass (so to speak), they travelled backwards in time.

So after a round, the NPC enemies had turned from middle-aged men into twenty-somethings. After another round, teenagers. Until, eventually, the formerly fearsome NPC enemies were reduced to howling infants who were ultimately erased from existence.

(Which is a good thing because that fight was really unfair.)

So... two timed battles in a row might have been repetitive, but the players seemed to enjoy it.