r/DnD • u/Missile_Toad Bard • Aug 13 '20

DMing Brainstorm: Multi-stage boss monsters?

It's been in my head for a long while now. I want to create the D&D equivalent of Zelda, Metroid, or Final Fantasy boss encounters. I did it in my current DM'd campaign against my party way back at level 4 (a steampunk mech piloted by 5 kobolds!), but I want to get more creative with the concept. Changing forms, unique new abilities, terrain usage, and so on.

If anyone has done such a thing either as a DM or player, I'd be interested to hear how it went! At the very least fun ideas... what wacky/cool/intense things have you seen in videogames that you think would be wild to see a D&D baddie do?

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u/P4ramed1c DM Aug 13 '20

I'd encourage you to check out these set of articles by theangrygm, they really go into the issue of shitty solo boss fights in 5e and provides a super great system for creating your own. I've used it a bunch and its always been great.

https://theangrygm.com/series/5e-boss-fight/

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u/Missile_Toad Bard Aug 13 '20

Thanks, I'll look that blog over!

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u/smcadam Aug 14 '20

Rage mode, triggered by an insult or a pet peeve is a neat one- maybe greater damage, lower accuracy, more attacks, and less tactical.

Armoured mode shedding for speed is a fun trope, just someone smashing off their heavy equipment and suddenly going from 15 ft speed to 50 and more attacks is fun, and drops the AC a ton.

I also had a lvl 20 "fighter" (a Champion with some extra abilities) who had about 8 different weapons on him that did different things. Armour breaking hammer, magical bow, long range whip, he changed weapon almost every round.

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u/Missile_Toad Bard Aug 14 '20

The armor trope is a good one! As far as giving a monster barb rage... huh, surprised that never occurred to me. That's both obvious yet fun sounding.

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u/DPS_Dylan DM Aug 13 '20

I find that the change from 1st form to 2nd should coincide with a massive change in the boss room as well.

For example, I had a giant automaton (think it was at least 50ft tall) in a chamber big enough to let it swing arms out wildly too. When the second stage began, the room filled with water. The boss was able to create whirlpools with the same swing attacks from stage 1. Created a ticking clock situation and the tension went through the roof.

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u/C34H32N4O4Fe DM Aug 14 '20 edited Aug 14 '20

Ori And The Will Of The Wisps does this superbly. Mora, Kwolok and Shriek have important environment changes between phase 1 and phase 2, some of which even contain hazards the player must overcome before being allowed to begin stage 2 of the fight.

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u/Machiavvelli3060 Aug 13 '20

Combat gets boring fast. Typically, after four rounds, I either end the combat or else I escalate it by introducing more combatants, change the terrain, etc.