For higher level groups I like running wizards who use projected image and hide behind walls (either prismatic walls or actual walls with small murder holes). I haven't done this in a long while, though (since 3.0 at least).
There's always the "faux" bbeg. This has been used in some classic modules to good effect.
I've done the "dream combat" when the bbeg is too strong for the PC's to take on at the present time. They lose the fight but gain insight into the bbeg's strengths and tactics which help in the real fight when they are strong enough.
The b.a. melee bbeg with support casters (buffers and healers) is fun. Load up a powerful melee (watch out for archer bbeg's as they can wipe your party easily in the right circumstances) with buffs from invisible or disguised support casters and have a cleric use cure wounds spells at range via the reach spell feat to support the bbeg from hidden locations.
Just some thought starters for you. Good luck!
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Settings are as important as villains. Think of every good movie bad guy who bought it. It was in a place as interesting as the bad guy.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom saw the BBEG die off of a rope bridge after a long fight.
Emperor Palpatine dies down a long shaft in the final death star.
Fighting a dragon is cool. Fighting a wizard while moving along a the back of some colossal dragon/beast is cooler.
Fighting the lord of the dark obelisk in the hot desert sands is fun. Fighting him while said sands shift and move is amazing.
I gave my party an unexpected twist at the boss fight in a recent adventure.
The BBEG was suffering from multiple personality disorder, and had a very disjointed conversation with the party before the fight actually started. In the conversation, he revealed some plot hooks for what to do next.
After BBEG gave the party the info they needed to know to further the plot of the adventure, I had the Very Evil personality take over. He then grinned, and taunted the party for a bit. He then used Sleight of Hand to pull out a concealed oil of deeper darkness and pour it on the floor before the PCs could react, completely dousing the lights! BBEG had darkvision, the party did not, and a very scary fight ensued. In a scary dungeon. With pulsating fungal growths covering the walls. And ghouls. In total darkness.
Let's just say it was a memorable fight.
Setting up an interesting terrain, or rules regarding that terrain, can always be fun. One of my party's more memorable fights took place in a tunnel with objective gravity, where gravity pulled you towards the nearest surface, and there was a river of acid flowing through it. The boss was a black dragon swimming in said river, so the party could freely cling to the sides of the tunnel, attack from multiple directions, and falling (or being pulled) into the river resulted in a really bad day.
I also had a GM who was a fan of incorporeal creatures using Spring Attack to begin and end their turns within some type of solid material.
And that sounds fantastic, Martin. I've considered doing the same kind of thing with stealth, whether as a PC or as opponents, darting in and out of hiding and forcing their opponents to move through threatened squares to flush them out. Spring attack is a pretty potent tool. I've also got some incorporeal enemies hidden in a certain part of Varisia... So we'll see if I think I can get away with it at the time. :P
As for my own games, I've found that playing with light sources and terrain can make for some interesting fights, as have others in this thread. Maptools lets you give each player individual vision which can really force players to coordinate (though the program is fiddly and downright impractical for most games. My group's set it aside).
As a player, I've fenced on the mast of ships, on moving carriages, been put through gauntlets to save (as we later found out, illusions of) a fellow PCs family, fought a rhemoraz in midair flying down the avalanche it caused and a dragon in an empty spire (where it pinned us against the walls and made our lives hell.)
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Why, yes. Yes, it was from a particular Adventure Path-- one that's about to get an anniversary hardcover reissue, in fact.
The full scene is described in lurid detail at my campaign site.
I do use MapTool at the table, and it was pure glee to see the look on my players' faces when the map went black!
Happy reading!
Pick any of the Create demiplane spells. Get the PC's to chase the BBEG to one of those. They could be just about anything.
On a similar note,
Magnicficent mansion is similarily customizable, but to a lesser degree.
Reflections of the BBEG's mind are always fun
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Fun things I've done with bad guys:
Illusory half-dragon chases party into cave-in trap.
BBEG battle at the top of a bell tower--while the huge bell rings.
From video games: a BBEG that changes form once beaten down to a certain level.
Fight the BBEG in a clock tower, among giant gears: at the end of every round, the ground would shift in specific directions, moving everyone about.
Fight across a battleground covered in portals that teleport people around the field.
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned wind. A flying Stormborn-blooded sorceror villain in a sufficiently windy environment (and Alter Winds can ALWAYS help with that) leads to a horrific, yet still quite fun fight. Bonus points if your players can't fly yet and have to get really creative.
I did this with an awakened great-horned owl sorcerer in an open-roofed lair once. They had to get tricky, climbing into the rafters, jumping, moving around to get clear shots, figuring out ways to jam the roof shut, and actually using non-combat skills and spells in battle (a rare occurrence for those players). It was one of the toughest low-level fights they've had, and they had a blast.
