what are your average boss stats?

[DullandRusty]

for those that create their own difficult monsters and bosses, what kind of stats are you using for a baseline? related, do you prefer long lasting battles where the boss has high BP (much greater than the heroes) and high defense so the heroes have to whittle away at the boss till ultimate victory, or do you prefer BP equal to or less than heroes but high damage and defense stats? i tend to like having a long difficult battle for bosses (nothing worse than a suped up barbarian coming in and with some lucky dice one shoting the boss you were so excited to unleash against the party)

[Anderas]

I prefer higher BP.
They protect reliably in the beginning, but later they disappear reliably, too.
Walrus dice are not very helpful for this task so I stop with four or five maximum, then I raise the BP instead.
I tend to give the important bosses also 3 or more MP as save against sleep.

On the attack side I go between 3 and 6. If it shall be more then I change rules, add spells or use other dice than normal.

Additional "stats" are in a pre-boss-room, to drain some potions and spells from the group. Otherwise the real boss dies to fast.

Sigh. I have to play again. Ts been too long.

[Patroclus]

You can start from 8 Body if your group have not great equipment. On the other hand if you want the battle to last longer, you can try 12, 15, or maybe 20+. Have in mind though, a boss with very high Body should have a normal attack of 3 dices or else you will wipe your group for sure. Bosses with 5 attack should have about 8-12 body, don’t try anything greater than this. But some people uses the American rule for potions, so they could handle that kind of enemy if they have enough with them.

[Goblin-King]

A boss depends on how difficult the quest has been up until that point...
But an average boss in my homebrew quests would be something like:

4 or 5 Attack
6 Defense
4 MP
10-12 BP
6 Movement

[whitebeard]

I tend to have weaker bosses BP-wise for my quests with maxed out "Champion" heroes. When you see the objective as lasting multiple turns and killing a player or two, then BP is just one way... but explaining why an evil mage has more BP than the Barbarian needs to be part of the story. What you need is an attack first capability, a healing potion, a magic shield on the first turn, a vampiric blade, surrounded by monsters AND furniture AND traps. Letting only one player attack per turn or nullifying the buffed first attack / Tempest spell will make a weaker boss more dangerous. Draw the heroes into the room, hit them with an area spell, then escape spell to 12 steps down a hallway and use lightning as they charge you. Superior strategy = strength. My bosses are usually strong this way, not the other.

[DullandRusty]

great examples and ideas. thank you all. that gives me some good starting point ideas. Thanks again!

[mitchiemasha]

I'd prefer to give them traits. Something to spice the game up rather than simply increasing stats. Things that make the minions stronger in their presence!

The curse on this tomb is strong, the undead are easily reanimated and must be finished off. Move onto a downed monsters square and spend your attack action. At the start of the EW's turn roll 1Cd6 for each downed.
Skull: Reanimated
BShield: Explodes
WShield: Nothing Happens
Explodes represents the reanimation energy failing and each adjacent hero gets to roll 1Cd6, losing 1BP if not rolling a WShield.
Now the boss room can turn into one crazy fight scene. Heroes choosing between getting a wound in on the boss, downing a monster or finishing one off.

Waaagh! in the presence of a chieftain any skulls an Orc rolls in defence are hits against the attacker, even if killed. The Orc lustful for blood sinks himself on your blade, foregoing defence to scar your skin.

Ancient magic enchants the Chaos Warriors armour through it's Orb. A BShield rolled in attack against them negate a skull. Destroy the source of power to remove the effect.

Tail Bash! A Fimir champion gets a free counter attack if not killed when attacked. I give this to Fimirs by default

[DullandRusty]

i like to do things like that as well mitchiemasha... I have even done boss phases. (heroes get the boss down to x bp and then something about the fight changes, such as minions are called in, or the boss changes attack styles, say he now puts a lifesucker mob on a hero that will widdle down the hero's bp each player turn. so everyone has to choose attack the lifesucker or the boss depending on how close to finishing off the boss they are) things like that make it fun in my opinion to add variety, however i find if the boss is not high enough in stats of bp, the fun phases never occur bc they get finished off too fast. sometimes I also like to have a few skills for the boss such as general attack or a spell or 2 or other action, and each is attached to a number on a dice. roll the dice and a random boss action occurs on its turn so you and the heroes have no idea how the fight will unfold. the same fight can play out completely different in another run of it by this method. i dont like to always do that, but sometimes it does offer a little randomness and variety just to break up the style of combat here and there.

[mitchiemasha]

however i find if the boss is not high enough in stats of bp, the fun phases never occur bc they get finished off too fast.

Easiest way to do that is for him to either 'magically' disappear or escape through a trap door into another room. Which is what happens with the sorcerer in the room i used the reanimated undead.

[benvoliothefirst]

Some GREAT ideas in this thread so far folks! Keep 'em coming!