Making Encounters... like a Boss

Whether it be in video games, movies, or RPGs, the boss fights are typically the highlight of the game play. These battles are the climax of the story arc, and in the case of a Final Boss, the climax of the whole story. These fights can make, or break, the experience of the campaign. And yet, too often a group will end their campaign with just another mindless slugfest against a big sack of uninspired HP.

What a shame!

But how can a GM improve the quality of their boss fights? Making the fights more challenging and unique doesn’t necessarily mean making them longer; instead, the

battles should be smarter, deadlier, and more memorable.

The first way you can do this is by using multiple phases.

The hydra effect – after the characters have gone through the anticipated slugfest and think that they have defeated the boss, its soul splits into three or four new enemies (a la Voldemort and the Horcruxes).

The power-up effect – the boss is able to gain power or even level up thanks to the events of the battle. An example of this would be a necromancer who is working on summoning the dead when the players interrupt him and engage him in battle; in the middle of the battle, his ritual is completely disturbed and the consequence is that he is transformed into a cursed lich-hybrid with even greater powers.

The doppelganger – the enemy starts off seemingly normal, but as the fight continues, the players begin to realize that their enemy is starting to mimic them and is actually changing to become like them – taking on their AC, speed, weapon damage, and even weapon classes. It’s like fighting against yourself!

There are different ways to approach this to make it even more challenging and impactful. You could use the environment (Check out our video on this topic!) to create darkness so that the players have a hard time telling who is who. Or you could even incorporate the doppelganger as a long-term play in the story by having the doppelganger replace a friendly NPC earlier in the campaign, and then have them slowly creating chaos and sabotaging

the players before being revealed in a boss fight.

A good fight can also go beyond just killing the boss in a straightforward manner. You want to add drama, creativity, and stress to the battle. Here are a few suggestions for giving the players a puzzle to solve in order to defeat the boss.

A count down – they have 5 rounds to destroy a portal gate or dismantle a bomb before a catastrophic event is going to happen regardless if they kill the boss or not.

An invincible enemy – the boss is impervious to damage unless the party destroys the soul anchors that are feeding him.

The coward – this type of boss doesn’t like to fight directly against the characters. Instead, they like to use illusions, traps, evasiveness, having allies to hide behind, retreating behind doors, etc. Everything that they do is designed to make the players chase them, and even when they are finally caught, the players realize that they are actually in the exact spot that the boss wants them to be.

Another vital thing to remember about bosses is that...THEY DON’T NEED TO

FOLLOW THE RULES!!! You don’t need to have them standing stationary and taking the hits passively while waiting to die. Here are a few ways to flip the typical enemy script on its head.

Surprising speed – you can make the boss faster than the players anticipated,

and this will impact their initial strategy; it’s even better if you hold off on

revealing this speed until after the players are comfortable with their strategy

in the battle.

Lockdowns and limits – this is where you can have the boss lock down and limit certain characters and/or abilities. This can throw the group’s usual fighting strategy out the window and make them adjust and adapt on the fly.

You should use this sparingly because the point of this should be to challenge the players, and not discourage and overwhelm them completely.

To make the battle truly epic, don’t be afraid to change the villain’s form during the duration of the fight! This goes beyond just a power-up effect: think more like a mutation or adaptation through course of the battle. This could be through a natural progression, a wound threshold, or maybe even as the result of a ritual/spell.

Think – the Resident Evil and Final Fantasy series.

If you want to take this path for your boss, it’s a good idea to build up the idea of these transformations by dropping hints throughout the game play to tease the players and foreshadow the battle.

Boss fights are the place in stories to push the players to their limit and show all the growth that they have gone through in the story arc. It’s the pinnacle of the arc, so don’t be afraid to treat these battles differently than the other combat through the game. Pull out all the stops and make it a battle worth remembering and reminiscing about. Make it more cinematic, emotional, and exciting.

What boss fights were the most memorable for you? Was it from a video game or from a campaign? What about that fight made it so memorable for you? We’d love to hear from you! So don’t be shy, and send us a message in the comments of this post, our Youtube video or on our Discord channel!

Credit: Written by Meraki Forest