Tougher Final Battles - Boss Monster Armor?

[Farwatcher]

I've been toying with an idea to make it harder for lucky heroes to one-shot boss monsters: What if a named enemy (or maybe only a major named enemy) only takes a maximum of 1 Body Point of damage per attack, regardless of how many hits the hero scores?

Has anyone tried a mechanic like this? Do you think it would ramp up the challenge too much if the bosses were pretty much guaranteed to stay alive for multiple Zargon turns?

[Kurgan]

I use the Evil Wizard deck, and Chaos Combat cards... hopefully I can get enough cards in the course of the quest that I have a few to save a few buffs for the boss monster, if they really are getting that lucky/high level.

But sometimes the bad guy goes down easy... those are the breaks!

[SirRick]

I used to make specific bosses immune to Tempest as a feature of their armor or whatever. Not every boss, just ones you might fight a couple times. I felt that was reasonable to make a fight more dramatic, and still give the Wizard more options during a fight.

I do like the 1 body point of damage per hit idea. It makes the fight last longer without giving the character crazy stats. Warriors with more attack dice still have a better chance of hitting compared to the Wizard, even if they both do only 1 damage. A being infused with Chaos (or Dread) power or some rock monster might be exceptionally tough for example.

The game does have precedent for this kind of thing. The two I can think of off hand are, the Witch Lord being immune to everything except the Spirit Blade, and the Guardian of Grin’s Crag being immune to all spells.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I get the need to make Tougher Final Battles as due to either a lucky roll or Heroes holding back a few key items for the final battle; Tempest, Courage, Genie, or a potent potion combo the Big Boss tends to die too quick, leading to something of an anti-climax, so here are some alternative ideas…

Draw Out Key Spells Early

Force or at least encourage the use of these key spells prior to the final battle – for example, a door that needs the Genie to open it early in the Quest, Fireburst Traps or similar that need Tempest to disable them or equip a caster Boss with a Dispel Spell or Scroll

Double Trouble

Instead of having a Quest with one Big Boss have two, a Big Boss and a Sidekick, that compliment each other and that the Heroes face together in the final room

• Orc Chieftain (Warlord) + Shaman
• Lich* + Doomguard Champion
• Dread Sorcerer + Dread Champion* or Gargoyle

*I have genericised some of the special monster types in the base game and expansions for use in my own Quests (so Witch Lord is a Lich, the Doomguard Champion, Skulmar I think, from ROTWL is an Undead version of a Dread Champion and so on)

Pair of Bodyguards

Particularly for spell caster Bosses a pair of monsters whose only function is to act as bodyguards / blockers to delay Heroes reaching the Boss by literally standing either side of the Boss

• Orc/Goblin Shaman with a pair of ‘pet’ Trolls (Fimir/Abomination)
• Necromancer with a pair of Mummies
• Lich with a pair of Doomguard
• Dread Sorcerer with a pair of Dread Warriors

Also consider furniture placement to enhance this effect, a Boss caster behind an altar, channelling attacking Heroes through narrow gaps easily blocked by a Bodyguard.

Upgraded Protection

Make the ‘standard’ monsters in the final room, into an elite version of the standard, with upgraded profiles reflecting the Boss surrounding itself with the pick of the elite / veteran troops, “all the Orcs in this room are Henchmen with the following profile…”

• Orcs -> Orc Henchmen
• Skeletons -> Soul Skeletons

Again contrast here, if you have a hard hitting Orc Chieftain(Warlord) then a couple of monsters armed with ranged weapons that can hang back and chip at the Heroes, and force the Wizard into hiding, whilst the Heroes are tackling the fighters can make a difference.

One-Two

A two-strike approach for the Boss (or the sidekick if you combine with Double Trouble) to allow them to appear earlier in the Quest and get in a few strikes before escaping to the final room.

This tactic is used in a few official quests but generally with spellcasters which, as they have a limited number of spells, often weakens them more than the Heroes, so this may work better with the Big Boss or Sidekick that is the warrior rather than spell caster being equipped with an Escape scroll or a secret door through which it makes its escape (any BP lost can be replaced for the final battle – maybe it has a healing potion secreted somewhere on its escape route), although sometimes even their presence early on can trigger a premature cast from a Wizard, even if they escape without even fighting.

False Front

Several different techniques covered here but they all aim to give the Heroes the impression that they are facing the final battle, can assess what is in front of them, and blow their saved stuff accordingly to take down the Boss, however all is not what it seems…as a new threat emerges…

• Reinforcements - At a suitably inconvenient moment (for the Heroes) a side door in the Quest room is opened by Zargon and reinforcements emerge, swamping the Heroes and buying an extra turn of two for the Boss caster
• Fall Back - The Boss escapes (escape spell, escape spell scroll, secret door or similar) at the point of his otherwise imminent defeat into a back-up room with a fresh set of defenders (and if you use a corridor to separate the two rooms then the loss of sight between the two will cause some spell and potion effects to fizzle out)
• Healing Boss -The Boss is equipped with a Healing Potion and/or the ability to Regenerate BPs (my Lich has a particularly nasty ability to drain MPs from his victim and use them to restore lost BPs)
• Delaying Trap - A trap in the final room, a large 2x2 pit trap or secret trapdoors that can be activated by Zargon plunging any Heroes stood in those squares into another room, perhaps with a couple of Trolls (Fimirs/Abominations) or a Mummy or “Pets” – Giant Rats and so on that they must defeat before they can climb back out and re-join the main battle.
• Bigger Boss - The Boss that we all know and love (or at least hate) turns out to have a worst Boss pulling the strings – killing the Boss and clearing the room (so spell effects and potions cease) gives Heroes the opportunity to search for treasure or loot a chest or grab the artefact, which triggers a trap revealing the real boss (or resurrecting the defeated boss or animates a Gargoyle 'statue') like the Shattered Amulet (AHQ Quest)

[Count Mohawk]

Bareheaded Warrior and Co have basically already covered everything, but there is one interesting strategy you can do to keep your bosses alive: make em really, really beefy!
Just for fun, one time I wrote a Quest storyline in which the final boss has 23 Body Points. Nobody gonna be oneshotting that!
(Of course, that's not the whole story - the Heroes can do some stuff pre-fight to drop him as low as 8, which is much more reasonable.)

Now, if you do go that route, you should try to avoid making the boss too lethal on the attack side of things. It's one thing to take a few hits from a burly boss rolling 3 or 4 dice a turn; it's a whole 'nother kettle of fish if he's throwing 6+ dice! Unless your party can handle that sort of thing, of course.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Or you could follow the literal wording in your title 'Boss Monster Armor' and consider White Shield Defence for Monsters

[cynthialee]

My answer to making end bosses tough is very simple
in the quest notes..."This monster and his entourage are Elite Monsters and thus defend on all shields"

That simple change alone will make bosses extremely difficult targets.

[Kurgan]

It starts to feel like a video game boss after awhile that just takes your quarters until it's finally time to okay just let you move on...

I guess when you know your gaming group and read the table you can decide when it's best to try to make it a bit more dramatic or just admit defeat. I find that people tend to complain about the game system quests being too easy while the later expansions usually don't need any extra buffing to make them a challenge. We all seek that perfect balance between frustration and boredom.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

"This monster and his entourage are Elite Monsters and thus defend on all shields"

That simple change alone will make bosses extremely difficult targets.

To be honest I'm less keen on that suggestion for a couple of reasons. Firstly I think, having run the numbers, I agree it would make them extremely difficult, in fact it makes some bosses & entourages too persistent, even a Boss, say Gargoyle with a couple of Chaos/Dread Warriors, using all shields for defence and you'll be hacking away all day (using up your quarters, like it!)

The other reason is the 'simple' bit.

I proposed the following on a different thread

= "White Skull" lose a BP unless blocked by a shield
= "Black Skull" lose a BP unless blocked by a shield plus pushback opponent
= "Shield" blocks a skull

I think that is simpler than

= "Skull" lose a BP unless blocked by a shield
= "Black Shield" used by many monster as a shield that blocks a skull, but not all as some monsters use White Shields only for defence and some use both Black and White Shields
= "White Shield" blocks a skull for Heroes and some monsters (and some other monsters that also defend on Black and White Shields)

As a GM I do have a crib sheet, but I force myself to keep it to a single A4, so any modifications that I introduce that I think may be a candidate for inclusion on my crib sheet (like the Combat Dice modification above) have to earn their slot, and I could see myself having to pause and look up which monsters/entourage/bosses defend on which shields in a given situation so I would resist that mod personally.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Or just give the odd Boss a Potion of Healing and try not to look smug when he uses it.

"Oh I'm sorry did you think Healing Potions were just for Heroes?"