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Post by Chickadee (DM Trish) on Jun 29, 2017 19:08:09 GMT
I wanted to make my big baddie much scarier and harder because my group has been a combination of lucky/strategically smart when it comes to many of their fights (so they've swept a few of the mini-bosses away really easily)....however, I may have gone too far the other way in my planning and now I need a bit of help reining things in. (my group is 4 x lvl 4)
Basically, I'm using a black dragon trapped in a drow body by Tiamet as punishment for a mistake he made when he was younger. Because he didn't choose the body, I've made it so that his 'dragon-ness' is slowly eating away at the form - he has horrible acid burns all over his body and he can use a form of acid touch (if anyone hits him or he grabs someone, etc... - it does damage to both parties). He also has a few other abilities to do with his draconic physical strength. Anyhow, my plan is for him to escape halfway though the battle and transform back into a dragon but I want to do something stronger than a young dragon but weaker than an adult dragon. At this point, I'm basically making up 'adolescent dragon' stats but I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not. Have any of you done that?
I've considered a few things:
1) Nerfing his stats a bit by allowing injuries sustained in his drow form to weaken his draconic form. 2) Having him transform in a space that limits his abilities (aka...can only use acid breath and bite...which are still super nasty) 3) Having him escape so the group can fight him later.
Help!? Any ideas so I don't create a broken or op'ed boss would be amazing.
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Post by dmsam on Jun 29, 2017 20:03:14 GMT
From my experience, young blacks are relatively challenging for a lvl4 party due to their acid breath. Adjusting health and damage output of the monster on the fly may be all you need to do!
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Post by Chickadee (DM Trish) on Jun 29, 2017 21:38:26 GMT
Thanks - we're playing tonight so I think I'll do that. We're mid-battle (in humanoid form) and they've already taken a decent chunk of his health so that might be all it needs.
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Post by dmsam on Jun 30, 2017 22:20:25 GMT
If you want to make the right more challenging, consider the following:
1. Adds - having additional creatures that do different things from the boss monster often help to diversify the fight and lead to more interesting decisions.
2. Traps or Hazards - like the suggestion above,except more static and conditional. Maybe your dragon bathes in sulfuric acid for his pastime. . .
Hope it helps!
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