ergh....

[kierthos]

You know, it's actually extremely difficult to stat out the 'epic boss' in a D&D game, when said boss is a magic-user.

On one hand, I have to buff his AC and HPs up so the fighter and/or the backstabbing thief can't gank him in one round. But higher levels spells (especially 6th level on up) are so damned effective that he could manage a TPK with one spell.

Comments

[deuce2]

So, just as a thought, have him conducting some sort of 'ritual' - has to concentrate most of his power on said ritual, so no max/empowered meteor swarm/cloud kill spells style spells - just standard spells. At the same time, the 'power' from the ritual makes him much harder to damage physically - think a max/empowered stoneskin/barkskin combo sorta thing. Also, a fun thing to do is have a specialized blink spell running at the same time - you hit/damage him, he blinks to other side of room, sighs, and does monster summoning 7 or some such - the minions can battle the heroes, while he continues to chant...

or, ya know, something like that. Not that I know anything about D&D. I...ummm...looked that up on Google or something...

[kierthos]

As a matter of fact, he is doing ritual prep work to destroy a material linchpin of a curse set against him thousands of years ago.

And I figure I'm going to start with a mass dispel to turn off the PCs active haste effect, and then just use 'spell-like effects' to simulate ancient magics. If he starts throwing standard spells at the PCs, he's going to be doing so much damage that a good chunk of the party, even if they saved, would be at single-digit HPs or dead.

[dreamshade]

I take it we're talking about 3.x or Pathfinder, not 4th? I understand that a lot of people are turned off by the MMORPG-ish nature of 4th edition's combat, but the situation you describe is part of why I like 4th so much more. Every battle is a battle instead of the occasional game of who can get the game-ending one-shot in first.

Having said that, you could always go with summoned monsters, undead minions, or other "magical" physical forces to provide danger other than the saving throws. Or you could set it in a heavily furnished room and give people bonuses to reflex for ducking behind objects for cover as they advance on the guy (think Powerball from American Gladiators).

[kierthos]

Actually, we're talking Rules Cyclopedia. OLD SKOOL. (Where the classes are Fighter, Magic-User, Thief, Priest, Elf, Dwarf and Halfling.)

The PCs (un)fortunately already have a pretty good idea where the boss fight is going to take place... a stone platform over an active volcano. Not a lot of furniture to duck behind. :P

I've thought up a few ideas since I posted, and I think I have a decent idea of what I'm going to throw at them. I can always tweak it based on the lead-in encounters.

[egearman]

Stone/lava elementals (elemental-like) that aid him? Not spells per se, but something that would allow for a bit more of a speed bump on the way to slaughter said mage.

[kierthos]

Oh there's going to be things in the way. But previous experience with this group has taught me that they damn well might try running past the blockade to get to him. And they are a creative bunch of bastards when it comes to finding holes in my plans.

For example, I've lost two bosses (both unrelated to the overall story arc) to polymorph. One one a heavily modified stone drake that the magic-user still has as a turtle. (The turtle hates the magic-user.) And the other was a sahaugin priest that got turned into a cow. About 300 feet underwater. And was eaten later that night.

Besides polymorph, the magic-user's favorite spell is "Summon Fighter". (Cast Invisibility on Fighter, wait a round or two for the Fighter to get into position and....)

So I've got a surprises in store for them along certain lines, but I'm slightly dreading the boss fight. Still, I'll figure something out.

[deuce2]

The mage still has the turtle?

heh

So, "I'm going to start with a mass dispel to turn off the PCs active haste effect" - what happens to the polymorph on the turtle, when the dispel hits?

[kierthos]

HO HO HO.

Maybe. There's a chance based on the difference between the caster levels that it will stay polymorphed. If it does turn off, it will damn well teach him to stop carrying his polymorphed critters with him.

[deuce2]

The geek in me is interested in how this turns out - let me know...