Combat advice for a DM - single foes, attacks of opportunity and combat mobility


Advice


Hi,

I'm having this issue whenever my party faces off against a single target. They'll gang up on him, as they should, and then the combat loses a lot of interesting movement possibilities, since the creature they're up against faces too many disadvantages if he disengages because of the multiple attacks of opportunities (I have a 5-6 players party).

How do you keep combat interesting in that situation? It seems to me that to be more interesting, a fight should imply a lot of movement. Or else it quickly becomes a series of roll for attacks and that's it.


JackLuminous wrote:

Hi,

I'm having this issue whenever my party faces off against a single target.
...

Well there's your problem.

Pathfinder just doesn't handle single creature encounters well. Make it more interesting by throwing in a few mooks.


As Snowblind said, Pathfinder handles single-target encounters very poorly. If you want to do them you'll need houserules to make them possible; I had a GM a while back who took a page from the MMO rulebook and gave his "boss" enemies multiple health bars to allow for several phases in a combat. He also gave these enemies the ability to shrug off Save-or-Die effects and take lesser Save-or-Suck penalties instead.

This is a massive alteration to the base assumptions of the game so don't do it without telling your players first, but it definitely worked for our group. I don't think I'll ever have a more memorable "single orc with cleave" encounter than the first time he tried out those houserules.


I agree with the above, but if you don't want to homebrew and want the BBEG, start throwing out bosses with reach and unusual modes of movement, as well as creatures with high acrobatics to avoid AoO.


Just throw in more minions. Bosses send in minions first, then take advantage of the PCs reactions. PCs always curb stomp one lone villain when they can.


You are running up against the law of action economy. Simply put: if the good guys collectively take more actions than the bad guy, such is the case when it's four on one, the bad guy is doomed. It really is as simple as throwing in a few minions to balance out the actions on both sides.

If you want to throw one dude against four, you will have to choose a threat at least four CR over the APL, or more, and that is fine. Think back to the first Ninja Turtles movie. None of them could defeat Shredder one on one, but as a team, and with Master Splinter's rat-fu, they took him down.


Thank you all for your suggestions. It had occured to me that minions would help, though I have to say I'm amazed at how little this seems to be an issue in the adventure paths. The one I'm running often have single targets.


JackLuminous wrote:
Thank you all for your suggestions. It had occured to me that minions would help, though I have to say I'm amazed at how little this seems to be an issue in the adventure paths. The one I'm running often have single targets.

Yeah this is the #1 issue people have with Paizo's encounter design. We've known how easy it is for a party of four to spank one villain since day one but Paizo is still obsessed with giving their big bads zero minions, especially if said Big Bad is martial.

Liberty's Edge

The Goat Lord wrote:
Think back to the first Ninja Turtles movie. None of them could defeat Shredder one on one, but as a team, and with Master Splinter's rat-fu, they took him down.

I think what you mean to say is that the turtles couldn't take on the shredder, and had to wait for the high level NPC to show up to take care of him.

But you're right about needing a significantly higher CR than APL for a single enemy to be challenging. Though APL+4 isn't a hard and fast rule. a CR 5 will murder lvl 1 characters, where a CR 14 is a pretty good challenge for lvl 10 characters.

If you're looking for a good way to boost the enemies combat prowess, consider having monsters with class levels. They tend to be a fairly good challenge for their CR.


Arachnofiend wrote:
JackLuminous wrote:
Thank you all for your suggestions. It had occured to me that minions would help, though I have to say I'm amazed at how little this seems to be an issue in the adventure paths. The one I'm running often have single targets.
Yeah this is the #1 issue people have with Paizo's encounter design. We've known how easy it is for a party of four to spank one villain since day one but Paizo is still obsessed with giving their big bads zero minions, especially if said Big Bad is martial.

What changed from DnD 3.5 to pathfinder, in terms of this issue? I don't remember it being such a big deal then but I haven't played a lot with the 3rd edition.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

BBEGs with fly and area of effect attacks can remedy this problem. Which really boils down to better movement and the ability to engage multiple foes simultaneously, as noted above.


Before you throw minions into the area consider the terrain you are using.

Any opponent who has to face multiple opponents will limit the number of people coming at them at once. That means traps, terrain, spacing.

Minions only work thematically if it makes sense for the boss to have them. For example the commander of an army or a cult leader will doubtless have archers in a high place or acolytes willing to die for them.

However for those big climactic dragon battles and face offs with monsters you need two thigns to make them memorable.

1. Always try to make the fight on their home turf that way the monster has both the knowledge and capability to evade all the traps and go through it freely.

2. Ensure your boss's defenses are rock solid. If the fire giant king has a +2 will save as a CR18 encounter that's entirely your fault for his death to a hold person.

During the fight the boss needs to play conservatively and opportunistically. Don't take risks on a charge when a withdraw action into a more favorable position will net you attacks of opportunities. Let the pc's come to you and eat your full attacks before you withdraw to a safe positon once they get near you.


TarkXT wrote:
During the fight the boss needs to play conservatively and opportunistically. Don't take risks on a charge when a withdraw action into a more favorable position will net you attacks of opportunities. Let the pc's come to you and eat your full attacks before you withdraw to a safe positon once they get near you.

Naturally, you should give your boss the Combat Reflexes feat (or something similar) if you plan to use this piece of advice.

Sovereign Court

Combat Reflexes does a lot to counter PC swarm tactics like "let the tank provoke so that everyone else can just walk past him". It's a very good feat to give to NPCs now and then to keep players on their toes. Though of course, don't do it every time.

---

We recently faced off against an especially nasty monster in a certain S4 scenario. This monster came out of a magazine and was in many ways unbalanced; it was definitely stronger than its CR indicated. We managed to beat it however due to prodigious pre-buffing because we had a general idea of what sort of beasties to expect, but also because of good teamwork and an action advantage.

Part of what made the scenario more fair was that this "CR 12" monster with +25 to hit preferred to distribute its attacks amongst multiple PCs. If he'd continued to focus-fire, he would've been able to drop some of us, particularly the gunslinger that was murdering it. But, written tactics. It gave us the chance to dictate who'd be taking most of the hits.

---

As I understood, the problems are no different than in 3.5; in fact, other games like Shadowrun have the same problem. If a boss has only 1/4th or 1/5th the actions of the PCs, and those actions aren't 4x or 5x more effective, then he starts at a disadvantage.

BUT, the solo boss fight is an iconic thing, and we basically want to have it, even though the rules aren't cooperating. It's a time-honored trope and we want to make it work for us.

The "obvious" fix is to indeed make the boss 5x more powerful, but then you run into the problem that he tends to one-shot PCs, or that you get a frustrating fight where you're basically waiting to finally roll a 20 to hit the boss, or he's got so much HP that it becomes a grindfest.

The issue then is fixing his action disadvantage. There are quite a few ways to do this.


  • D&D 4th edition dropped the older notion that the same rules apply to NPCs and PCs. A 4th edition boss monster might have multiple initiative counts. Pathfinder's since adopted this idea here and there, particularly in the Mythic rules. This can be part of your solution, but you should have a halfway plausible explanation of why the boss is so much faster than the PCs. Don't worry if they see through it (they will!), it just has to be sufficiently plausible that it doesn't break immersion too hard. Your players will understand that you sometimes need stuff like this to make things more interesting, so they'll learn to overlook flaws in the explanation/coverup.
  • The fight doesn't have to be totally solo. The boss can have minions, as long as they're not trying to out-awesome the boss. Giving them relatively banal but meaningful tasks can work here. An archer on the balcony trying to interrupt casters for example. A cleric that's mostly buffing the boss or removing debuffs.
  • Particularly problematic in boss fights are Save or Suck spells. If the first thing your PCs do is blind or daze the boss, that's game over. He's a boss, he should invest in defences against the "standard" tactics.
  • Make it like your boss actually planned this confrontation. Based on what he knows about the PCs, he picked this place to fight in and prepared it. He should have an actual plan on how to defeat the PCs, that when you say it out loud, sounds like it could work. So that means he needs to have a plan how to get through the tank, how to kill the wizard who's so fond of dimensional stepping away, and so forth. All too often when running a fight from a written scenario, if you take a step back and look at it, you realize the bad guys have no actual plan to win; "try to get around the tank you can't hit and hit someone else" isn't winning, it's merely about doing some damage before you lose.
  • Now that the boss actually chose a specific place to fight in, make it work to his advantage. Put traps in it that he can trigger as a swift/move action. And by traps I don't mean something boring like damage. I mean traps that hinder the PCs' strategies. Are they trying to flank him? Open a trapdoor under one of the flankers. They'll need to reposition before they can flank again. Is your boss good at bull rushing? Let him make his stand on unsafe walkways over lava. The walkways will stop the PCs from surrounding him and keep your players worried.
  • Don't let PCs take down your melee boss at range. You should at least have some smoke/fog thing to break line of sight, or have cover to hide behind. If the PC wizard wants to cast spells at him, make him come uncomfortably close.


Deighton Thrane wrote:
The Goat Lord wrote:
Think back to the first Ninja Turtles movie. None of them could defeat Shredder one on one, but as a team, and with Master Splinter's rat-fu, they took him down.

I think what you mean to say is that the turtles couldn't take on the shredder, and had to wait for the high level NPC to show up to take care of him.

But you're right about needing a significantly higher CR than APL for a single enemy to be challenging. Though APL+4 isn't a hard and fast rule. a CR 5 will murder lvl 1 characters, where a CR 14 is a pretty good challenge for lvl 10 characters.

If you're looking for a good way to boost the enemies combat prowess, consider having monsters with class levels. They tend to be a fairly good challenge for their CR.

Best use of the Fighter class ever.

Especially with Dragons. Slap Toughness on them and have them pick Natural Weapons for their weapon training... ooh yeah. :D


JackLuminous wrote:

Hi,

I'm having this issue whenever my party faces off against a single target. They'll gang up on him, as they should, and then the combat loses a lot of interesting movement possibilities, since the creature they're up against faces too many disadvantages if he disengages because of the multiple attacks of opportunities (I have a 5-6 players party).

How do you keep combat interesting in that situation? It seems to me that to be more interesting, a fight should imply a lot of movement. Or else it quickly becomes a series of roll for attacks and that's it.

As others have stated before, More minions might make it effective. Not only will they have to spend resources to take them down, or be paper cutted to death, but it will give the BBEG time to cast spells, set up traps, or even attack from range, or buff up.

Or even consider having the BBEG have a trusty lieutenant. Much like Megatron and Skycream.
Just have them be buddies, or close to each other. The second guy doesnt have to be as strong as the BBEG, but maybe half his strength or so.

For example:
1 Goblin Warchief BBEG(maybe lv3-5) flanked by 2 goblin Commandos (lv2-3) with maybe 4 goblin grunts (lv1) around the field.

1 Evil Necromancer (lv4-5) with his trusty Skeleton Champion(lv2-3) with a bunch of shambling zombies(lv1)

1 Giant(4-5) with 1 giant (lv4-5). Two large creatures have a longer reach, and thus are a challange on their own when PC's try to get into better combat positions.

These are by no means SOLID examples, but if you want a nice memorable fight this is a good way to go. Remember, if the lv1 grunt enemies are attacking the party, those behind them will have a -4 range penalty for shooting into melee. Likewise, if your PC's want to blast the BBEG instead of focusing on the smaller guys, soft bodies grant a +4 AC to enemies if you are shooting through them. Not to mention range attacks usually provoke AOO's.


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@ Fernn...

tee hee, you said 'Skycream'

:D


alexd1976 wrote:

@ Fernn...

tee hee, you said 'Skycream'

:D

*facepalm*

*clear throat*

Starscream


In addition to all the good previous advice (especially Ascalaphus', who beat me to posting most of what I was going to post and said it better than I could), it's important to remember that you can give the PCs a secondary win/loss condition orthogonal to the boss' survival. That way, you divide the party's attention and give your players a reason to have a better plan than "hit until dead."

The classic example is the rescue of an NPC before they're executed by the boss or the boss' minions. The obvious plausibility hump here is the question of why the baddies wouldn't just kill the NPC immediately and unceremoniously, but there are common fantasy scenarios you can use to your advantage here, like "[name of Big Bad] tells us that [name of NPC] must be sacrificed at the precise moment the heavenly spheres align," or perhaps that trusty standby, "The prophecy foretells..." Or you could just straight-up tell the players they have a time limit (five rounds, say). Really depends on how game-y you want your game to be.

Another possibility is to create a "puzzle boss" by making the Big Bad immune to everything except, you know, a beam of sunlight (or whatever) as refracted through the Gem of Plot Contrivance. Again, pretty game-y, but there's a precedent for it in enough fantasy fiction (and mythology, for that matter) that it's easy to buy. You run the risk of a TPK if you don't give them any hints, of course, but that's why you follow the Three Clue Rule.

Finally, unless it's one of those immobile tentacled jerks Paizo loves so much, you can always have the Big Bad attempt to fall back to a fortified position, or simply have them try to escape. Or you could make it so that simply thwacking the Big Bad triggers PC-injuring/condition-inflicting badness. Or you could have the Big Bad ask to parley before the fight even starts, then offer the PCs some swank-ass stuff if they agree to leave said Big Bad alone. There are plenty of ways to make a single-foe fight memorable while keeping it between the PCs and the Big Bad.

One thing I think it's wise to reiterate is that an interesting and memorable encounter doesn't need to be artificially elongated by giving the boss squillions of HP or whatever. An interesting encounter is interesting even if it's only three rounds. In some cases, the level of player interest is actually inversely proportional to the time the encounter takes. I think it's wise to avoid creating damage-sponge baddies in most cases; combat in Pathfinder takes long enough without the GM's help. Unless the PCs are fighting a gargantuan creature of legend (e.g. a dragon), damage-sponge encounter design tends to frustrate and exhaust players, not challenge them.

IMHO, YMMV, etc. etc.


Brother Fen wrote:
Just throw in more minions. Bosses send in minions first, then take advantage of the PCs reactions. PCs always curb stomp one lone villain when they can.

Not all solo monsters are bosses or villains.

The game is designed so that a party of level X should be able to face ONE monster or NPC of CR X. Perhaps it's not designed well, but that is the design idea. Level X faces CR X, so if X IS the monster's CR, then you fight one of those monsters.

Sure, that usually leads to a weak encounter due to action economy. We all know that.

But to simply say "bosses use minions" assumes that all solo encounters are bosses when they clearly ate not - most solo encounters are just that, a basic encounter that happens to be with a solo enemy who is not a "boss" or a "villain" but rather, just an encounter.

Also, using minions doesn't solve the OP's problem. The majority of the PCs will still look to get near the "boss", mostly ignoring the minions, and till get AoOs if his "boss" tries to be too mobile. And even if they can't do that, MOST solo monsters have multiple attacks that they can't use if they move more than 5', so using mobility with these "bosses" reduces their own combat effectiveness way too much to be practical.

Sadly, for all these solo creatures with multiple attacks, their best tactic is to stand in place and lay down serious hurt on the PCs. Even though that's ineffective, it's often their best tactic because everything else is more ineffective.

For a GM not afraid to get his hands dirty, replace those solo monsters with something a little weaker then add one or two more so they're not solo anymore. Or keep the same monster and add another one (raising the CR, or apply a "young" template to reduce their CR to balance it out). Try not to give extra XP because of the increased CR or the PCs may level too fast for the AP.


When I say "bosses", that was exactly what I meant. Distinct from solo encounters. Bosses with minions helps avoid overrun. That was the extent of my comment.


DM_Blake wrote:
Brother Fen wrote:
Just throw in more minions. Bosses send in minions first, then take advantage of the PCs reactions. PCs always curb stomp one lone villain when they can.

Not all solo monsters are bosses or villains.

The game is designed so that a party of level X should be able to face ONE monster or NPC of CR X. Perhaps it's not designed well, but that is the design idea. Level X faces CR X, so if X IS the monster's CR, then you fight one of those monsters.

The game is also designed so that one monster of CR X is supposed to get ROFLstomped. As are two monsters of CR X-2.

Sovereign Court

MINIONS!

...are important! ...so are traps! (now you know why; it's not a challenge until it's a challenge! :) )


If facing a 'solo' creature in my games, the party can safely expect to go up against something with about double their total hitpoints, multiple attacks, huge AC and likely some kind of spellcasting/SLA/Supernatural abilities.

I tend more often to lean towards 'mini bosses' or 'minions' as it helps balance out action economy, and seems more believable...

Most BBEG have minions.

Igor, for example. Terrible combat stats, but can at least fetch things, help with flanking, throw switches to power up the Tesla coils and so on. :D


DM_Blake wrote:

MOST solo monsters have multiple attacks that they can't use if they move more than 5', so using mobility with these "bosses" reduces their own combat effectiveness way too much to be practical.

Sadly, for all these solo creatures with multiple attacks, their best tactic is to stand in place and lay down serious hurt on the PCs. Even though that's ineffective, it's often their best tactic because everything else is more ineffective.

For a GM not afraid to get his hands dirty, replace those solo monsters with something a little weaker then add one or two more so they're not solo anymore. Or keep the same monster and add another one (raising the CR, or apply a "young" template to reduce their CR to balance it out). Try not to give extra XP because of the increased CR or the PCs may level too fast for the AP.

You're exactly right.

I'm a little disappointed, since the purpose for me to use adventure paths is not having to create my own encounters because of my own lack of time and the fact that my players will never make it easy for me by knowing the rules of the game, which I have to explain every session. I know they won't change, but meh... friends are friends and they're good fun.

There doesn't seem to be an easy way around it, beside redesigning most encounters.


JackLuminous wrote:
DM_Blake wrote:

MOST solo monsters have multiple attacks that they can't use if they move more than 5', so using mobility with these "bosses" reduces their own combat effectiveness way too much to be practical.

Sadly, for all these solo creatures with multiple attacks, their best tactic is to stand in place and lay down serious hurt on the PCs. Even though that's ineffective, it's often their best tactic because everything else is more ineffective.

For a GM not afraid to get his hands dirty, replace those solo monsters with something a little weaker then add one or two more so they're not solo anymore. Or keep the same monster and add another one (raising the CR, or apply a "young" template to reduce their CR to balance it out). Try not to give extra XP because of the increased CR or the PCs may level too fast for the AP.

You're exactly right.

I'm a little disappointed, since the purpose for me to use adventure paths is not having to create my own encounters because of my own lack of time and the fact that my players will never make it easy for me by knowing the rules of the game, which I have to explain every session. I know they won't change, but meh... friends are friends and they're good fun.

There doesn't seem to be an easy way around it, beside redesigning most encounters.

Yep.

Note that when I said "afraid to get his hands dirty", that's just an idiom. I don't have much time for writing encounters either, so I use published adventures and try really hard not to sink too much of my limited free time into altering the published material too much.

Still, I try to find the time to look ahead and see what they'll fight this session and imagine that fight in my mind. How is it likely to go? Is it supposed to be an epic encounter or just a speed bump for a little XP/cash on the way to the more interesting encounters?

If it's supposed to be interesting but it has a solo beastie, that's when I think about altering the encounter as I mentioned. Adding minions is OK (sometimes "minions" means young versions of the main monster - it seems to have children) but usually, for me, it means "cloning" (not literally) the monster so the PCs fight two copies instead of only one - this solution takes ZERO extra effort since I already have the stat block.

The cloning idea is a little harder if it's an NPC. If it's an NPC martial, I usually just clone him and change his weapon/armor but use the same stat block. If it's a caster, I usually clone him and change just a couple spells. If the NPC has magic items, I might swap out some of them, but by the time I get this far the work is piling up a bit (swapping a Cloak of Resistance for a Ring of Protection also means editing the stat block of the clone). But even that only takes a few minutes, so it's not too bad (or I don't change the stat block at all - the players never know either way).

Finally, I don't use XP at all. My PCs level when I say they do, when it's good for their sense of progress and a good point for the story we're telling. Which means it doesn't matter if THIS encounter is 1 troll or 6 trolls, they get the same XP out of it (zero) and they still level at the same moment in the story, so I'm free to alter encounters (cloning extra copies of the solo baddie) without worrying about the ramifications of adding extra XP to the characters' progression.


If they don't know the rules, they won't notice you fudging them for more interesting play. ;)

EDIT: And yes, not keeping track of XP and simply leveling the PCs when you think they're ready is a wiser course of action than per-kill XP. Keeps things moving and it's one less fiddly bit to worry about.


Ffordesoon wrote:
If they don't know the rules, they won't notice you fudging them for more interesting play. ;)

And if they ever notice anyway, they won't trust you for a long, long time.


Is there a mention anywhere yet about using acrobatics to move without provoking? I feel like most of the advice here is *amazing* encounter advice, but somewhat fails to address what happens if a monster is surrounded and needs a way out of the crowd.

It's a perfectly plausible situation even with all this advice in play, and I try really hard to remember that skills do matter in combat.


Acrobatics is a big "maybe".

Not all, but most "solo" monsters are behemoths. They tend to be big and they usually are terrible at Acrobatics (low DEX and usually no skill ranks). Trying to make an Acrobatics check with crummy, often negative, modifiers against DC = BAB +2 for each PC threatening it will very often mean a move that provokes multiple AoOs (but the monster successfully moves to the square it wanted) or a wasted move action that still provokes.

Furthermore, even if it works, the monster gets ONE attack and moves without provoking, and then each PC gets to move and make ONE attack too, so the PCs are still getting more attacks than the monster.


Snowblind wrote:
Ffordesoon wrote:
If they don't know the rules, they won't notice you fudging them for more interesting play. ;)
And if they ever notice anyway, they won't trust you for a long, long time.

True, true. Best to be upfront about what you're doing and why. I retract my previous statement.


Shiroi wrote:

Is there a mention anywhere yet about using acrobatics to move without provoking? I feel like most of the advice here is *amazing* encounter advice, but somewhat fails to address what happens if a monster is surrounded and needs a way out of the crowd.

It's a perfectly plausible situation even with all this advice in play, and I try really hard to remember that skills do matter in combat.

Acrobatics is highly unreliable unless the creature you are using has a very high score. The sort of classes and creatures that are likely to have a high acrobatics score (skulkers and jack-of-all-trades types) are also terrible in a 4 on 1 beatdown.

Seriously, at level 6 a typical martial is going to be rocking roughly a CMD of 24. For a 50/50 chance of getting away unscathed, a creature needs a modifier of +14. If the creature has 20 dex, 6 ranks and it's a class skill, then they barely reach that number. It only goes downhill from there, since avoiding AoOs from more than 1 creature per turn adds +2 to the DC per previous creature avoided. The sort of creatures who are going to be able to get good use out of acrobatics are probably the sort of creatures who should have ran away in the first place, so it isn't going to be much help if the OP wants to make solo encounters where the solo creature actually tries to *fight* the PCs.


For Single Enemy encounters, take a look at the Mythic templates. I find they do an amazing job of creating 'boss monsters'

The look on a PCs face when a Hydra takes a few extra standard actions a round, as if it was multiple creatures, is pretty awesome.


The short answer is action economy dooms single BBEG - but writers continue to create packaged modules with the single BBEG as the end Boss fight. This means you almost always have to do some adjustment of modules.

Take a look at the GM's Guide to Creating Challenging Encounters and the associated discussion thread. This gives a solid basis for adjusting encounter difficulty.

To make Boss encounters challenging, you need to consider several things:

  • 1 - Play the BBEG intelligently - if using a packaged module and the BBEG gets any warning, then have it use that time wisely. This can include:
    -- 1.1 Self buffing.
    -- 1.2 Moving to a different (better) location.
    -- 1.3 Giving orders to minions/supporters in nearby or far away areas, either to move them to its current location or position them for spoiler attacks from unexpected locations.
    -- 1.4 Take advantage of the existing terrain, and adjust the terrain, using spells, special abilities, mundane abilities (add leaves to a fire for smoke), or minion abilities.
    -- 1.5 Fight tactics: try to plan for how the BBEG will use it's abilities to keep the party from surrounding, pinning & eventually bludgeoning it to death. Rather than planning for how to move away without taking too many AoOs, plan for how to keep from being surrounded in the first place.
    -- 1.6 Prep an escape plan (recurring villain anyone?). The heroes don't always have to defeat the BBEG, just chase 'em off.
  • 2 - Minions, minions, minions - again, if using a packaged module, consider duplicating pre-stated creatures as support.
    -- 2.1 Take advantage of minion abilities - a good example is positioning an archer on a balcony overlooking the main floor.
    -- 2.2 Set a minion strategy: what are their orders? If the BBEG sent someone around by a side corridor, when should they arrive?
    -- 2.3 Don't forget to think about morale effects. Is there any point where survival will outweigh their orders? Players can appreciate a heroic win where defeating a champion causes some or all of the rest of the opposition to surrender or run.
  • 3 - Consider other self-centered participants. Sometimes you'll find there is a neutral NPC or two in a module that would be interested in achieving a goal that can interfere with the Boss fight. This can be direct, joining one side or the other, or indirect, like throwing up terrain effects, or snatching the body of a downed PC or BBEG NPC (think food, looting or ransom). If someone doesn't react, what are the PCs giving up?
  • 4 - Adding mythic capabilities to make the BBEG a more even (and epic fight) can also help - but even with multiple actions, the BBEG usually can only be in one spot on the map. So if you add those capabilities, take some time to think about how he/she will use them to maximum effectiveness.
  • 5 - Add a negative event with a time clock.
    -- 5.1 A "Doom Clock" item that, if left unchecked, will destroy the world requires the PCs to split resources - some to deal with the BBEG, others to deal with the item.
    -- 5.2 A "Doom Clock" which will destroy the world and where every 2 rounds, a different bad effect building on previous effects occurs, really ramps up the tension and gives some of the non-combat specialists a chance to shine.
    -- 5.3 As stated earlier, the time critical negative event could be a sacrifice, a ritual, a geologic event (volcanic eruption anyone?) - the list goes on and on.
  • 6 - You can also equip your BBEG with some 'get out of jail free' cards by judicious adjustment of their equipment. This is usually best done with consumables, so that the BBEG uses them & doesn't leave them as loot. Any spell effect that allows a BBEG to relocate or block access of the martials to the BBEG is useful - if you can find a way to add it. Just remember that if you show a BBEG using an item, it's fair for the players to look for or create a similar item.

Most modules assume a specific group size and power level. If you've got 6 players with characters using a 25 point buy, you're going to need to adjust upwards significantly. Also, as Alexander Augunas points out in his guide, the CR rating is really supposed to be a 50/50 break even point at CR +4. This means if you've got charactesr with 20 or 25 point buy, or higher than expected wealth by level, you should start thinking about +5 or +6 as being the target for a true Boss fight.

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