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I need some help building a decent boss encounter for my APL 6 party. The combat encounters I've been throwing at them have either been over in a couple of rounds or near TPK's. I don't mind giving the party difficult encounters but I'm new at GMing and I'm still struggling to get the balance right.
The party includes:
-Human Mounted Fighter on a wooly rhino
-Human Luring Cavalier archer on horse
-Elven summoner
-Teifling Bard
-Elan Psionic
-Dhampir (variant) Time theif
All players are level 6 but the fighters charge (with lance and rhino) deals an ammount of damage that no other member of the party can hope to match. Anythings he can't deal with, the rest of the party also struggles with. I know there are ways of balancing this but I'm struggling to do it myself.
The boss encounter I want to build will have the party fighting against a mercenary king and his bodyguard. I would like the mercenary king to be a fighter type but I want the fight to last more than a few rounds. I am thinking of giving the mercenary guards a cleric for healing perhaps? I need a bit of help with this, any suggestions?
First off, congratulations on having bodyguards. "Big boss" battles don't work in Pathfinder since party action economy annihilates single foes (unless they're tough enough to one-shot party members, a bad idea.)
Bodyguards with reach weapons with the brace property, perhaps phalanx fighter archetype. Watch players cry as they realize that to get to the king they have to charge into people who can brace their weapons for double damage to receive a charge... as an immediate action.
Even a low-level bard and some teamwork feats can make level 2 or 3 fighters memorable foes for higher-level characters. (A low-level bard and a low-level cleric are very effective in combination!)
Give the king some trip feats to pull people off their horses. A good 7th or 8th level fighter with Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Improved Trip, Greater Trip, and Lunge can very easily control the battlefield around him (unless the players are flying, which it doesn't sound like they are.)
What's the situation? Is the mercenary king in a place where he can be charged? Castles and moats exist for a reason, you know. Major terrain advantage is one way to slow this down a lot -- even first level characters can be a problem if they're behind arrow slits firing from cover on guys trying to swim across a moat. Even an ornate throneroom might have a balcony, or a secret pit trap in front of the throne (controlled by a lever the king can pull, or a minion.)
Have a court wizard around to do battlefield control stuff. Even at low level, fog clouds and wind walls can mess up player characters, and an illusion or two might be fun. Ready an action to cast grease under a charging character... For bonus evil DM points, make the low-level court wizard actually the high level mastermind controlling the mercenary king, who doesn't reveal it till the battle's over and it's time to teleport away.
I need some help building a decent boss encounter for my APL 6 party. The combat encounters I've been throwing at them have either been over in a couple of rounds or near TPK's. I don't mind giving the party difficult encounters but I'm new at GMing and I'm still struggling to get the balance right.
The party includes:
-Human Mounted Fighter on a wooly rhino
-Human Luring Cavalier archer on horse
-Elven summoner
-Teifling Bard
-Elan Psionic
-Dhampir (variant) Time theifAll players are level 6 but the fighters charge (with lance and rhino) deals an ammount of damage that no other member of the party can hope to match. Anythings he can't deal with, the rest of the party also struggles with. I know there are ways of balancing this but I'm struggling to do it myself.
The boss encounter I want to build will have the party fighting against a mercenary king and his bodyguard. I would like the mercenary king to be a fighter type but I want the fight to last more than a few rounds. I am thinking of giving the mercenary guards a cleric for healing perhaps? I need a bit of help with this, any suggestions?
If you have 6 players that are level 6 and APL 6 is not a boss fight. It is not even an average fight An APL 7 is more like average to them.
Depending on how good they are as plays you would need something in the range of a APL 9 to an 11, but don't build it using one monster. Since there are 6 or them use several monsters. It seems they are allowed 3rd party material. I would go with an APL of 10. The toughest enemy would be a CR 8, and the support would add up to a CR of 8.
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First off, thanks for the advice so far, especially tonyz.
I am still working out the environment that the party will face off against the marcenary king and his cronies. The party's mission is to assasinate the General of a military force which has veered from it's original purpose and is now freelancing as a mercenaries. The general is not actually the king and the barracks and HQ of the mercenaries is located in the capital city of the region.
The party will have to deal with meddling from the real king and the local politics before they can get to the military compound as there are a couple of external forces which want to use the party to further their own agenda.
I'm thinking that the party will have to fight their way through the military compound to get to the General but the mercenaries (which they have fought a few times before) will hardly pose a challenge and are unlikely to drain the party's resources much.
I am liking the idea of the General as a trip expert with a couple of fighters as anti-charge experts, a bard and a cleric as well as a whole mess of low level goons.
One way to set it up is to challenge the players a bit -- if they can sneak in without alerting the guards, then the general and his bodyguard are caught without armor and buff spells and will be a much easier fight (say APL +2 or +3). If they bull their way in and raise the alarm, then it will be a much tougher encounter (maybe APL +5) as the general and guards are fully buffed (potions drunk, spells cast, actions readied), more guards are awake and armed, AND there are many mercenaries running towards them from all over the camp.
Sentries probably have watchdogs or some similar animals. There MAY not be an aerial watch, but there could well be someone with darkvision (a dwarf or half-orc mercenary?) in the camp if the PCs attack at night.
If the party has fought the mercenaries a few times before, then the mercenaries should probably know something of what they can do and be prepared for it (with a few potions if nothing else -- resist (insert energy type) if the PCs used it a lot, maybe a few scrolls or a wand, at the very least improved tactics). And you can certainly justify having some slightly tougher mercenaries. "Yes, you beat up Private Putz and Corporal Cannonfodder. But now you must face... Sergeant Savvy!" Other possible tactics include smokesticks and tanglefoot bags, someone throwing nets or using lassos to capture. Someone on the watchtower at the edge of camp might be able to use the ballista on top to shoot the PCs with.
Bonus points for having someone the PCs defeated earlier and left alive either running away in pants-wetting terror at the sight of them, or else have added a level or two from tough training and be out for revenge.
If your PCs slaughtered all previous mercenaries and there have not been any survivors, then expect the mercenaries to be very nasty and out for revenge, maybe even to the extent of having specially poisoned arrows for the PCs if any of them would run that way. Bonus points for a couple of arrows of PC-race-bane being thrown around.
Maybe there's a rogue in camp whose hiring as an assassin is being discussed -- someone who can sneak up on the PCs while they're distracted and kidney-stab them with a poisoned dagger. Always nice to have a few foes of unexpected type in the midst of a straightforward adventure.
Along those lines, one of the mercenaries could have a pet animal or three of some unusual type (a CR4 or CR5 monster) that gets loose in the confusion, or is deliberately sicced on the PCs. Or just have a cageful of stirges get knocked over in the confusion -- a dozen or so of them can be really annoying even to mid-level PCs as they have a touch attack that does Con damage...
I just want to say that solo boss battles CAN work in Pathfinder. Not only that, but they work at high levels. GMs assuming that solo boss fights don't work in Pathfinder is a big misconception. Check out these guys.
The sub-boss and final boss of a Lovecraftian adventure I recently ran for an APL 16 group. To close the difference between the APL and the CR of the final boss, the party was assisted by an Alchemist NPC opperating a Steam Giant.
My point is, though it might seem a little ridiculous at first glance, the encounters were not 1-sided... they were EPIC BATTLES. That's what you're going for with big boss battles (well, that's what I go for anyway). If it means going a little over the top with some elements, that's fine, as long as the playing field is more-less leveled. The party was powerful for their level, so I knew they could handle it... could being the key word. The battles could have gone either way. But that is the beauty of it... if you're not afraid to give the PCs a real threat to their lives, that's when the magic happens and memories are made.
On a final note, these tough boss fights result in the encounter being very "swingy"... meaning if the boss rolls high, the party could very well be crushed. But at the same time, if the boss rolls low and the party rolls high, the boss can quickly get overwhelmed. Quite frankly, that's OK.