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So I'm making a campaign that feature the biggest, baddest creatures in the world. I'm talking mountain size. I was thinking about putting the boss into the map, like tentacles coming off the side of the map and stuff, or the bosses head on the map and the players are ontop a tower or a bridge. I wanted to know if this has been done before, and how you would go about doing it.
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Another potential way to handle it would be to make multiple 'parts' of the boss (head, body, tentacles, etc) each their own creature stat-wise. That would keep the PCs from having tons more actions per round than the boss, and it'd let them defeat / chop off different parts of the creature to weaken it.
Shadow of Colossus could provide some inspiration here. At that size, the boss is probably less like a 'boss' and more his own adventure/dungeon.
I remember hearing a story on these forums about someone who made a creature of that size (I remember the feet were 25' on a side or so) and it was moving towards a city. The PCs had to defend against it by targeting critical areas to weaken it. My point is, some kind of time element like that would be pretty neat.
Shadow of Colossus could provide some inspiration here. At that size, the boss is probably less like a 'boss' and more his own adventure/dungeon.
I remember hearing a story on these forums about someone who made a creature of that size (I remember the feet were 25' on a side or so) and it was moving towards a city. The PCs had to defend against it by targeting critical areas to weaken it. My point is, some kind of time element like that would be pretty neat.
For Shadow of the Colossus, they would be in the gargantuan and colossal range.
I don't know the CR range of your game, but you could start off with higher CR animals with the giant template to make them colossal and work from there (if it's a lower CR encounter).
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I haven't decided yet, but I know it's gonna be a long fight.Am i the only one who read Hugo boss?
Now seriously what CR are you handling? is this monster epic?
It's less about the stats, and more about how you fit this thing into a map. These are LITERALLY the size of mountains. You're fighting a mountain.
It's less about the stats, and more about how you fit this thing into a map. These are LITERALLY the size of mountains. You're fighting a mountain.I haven't decided yet, but I know it's gonna be a long fight.Am i the only one who read Hugo boss?
Now seriously what CR are you handling? is this monster epic?
Maybe you could make it cost twice or more of their speed to move a square (10'-15' to move one square) while the boss moves at normal speed.
Colossal monsters generally fit into a 30' square, even though they are much larger than that. That is because it was meant to make it easier to use and play with on the map and is not meant to be an accurate representation of the monster. So you don't need to necessarily make the creature occupy the exact same size of squares that the monster is.
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Maybe you could make it cost twice or more of their speed to move a square (10'-15' to move one square) while the boss moves at normal speed.
Colossal monsters generally fit into a 30' square, even though they are much larger than that. That is because it was meant to make it easier to use and play with on the map and is not meant to be an accurate representation of the monster. So you don't need to necessarily make the creature occupy the exact same size of squares that the monster is.
The boss dosen't move. It is just there. Image you're on a bridge over a canyon, and a dragon attack you, but it's such a big dragon, you only fight its head. That's what it's like.
The boss dosen't move. It is just there. Image you're on a bridge over a canyon, and a dragon attack you, but it's such a big dragon, you only fight its head. That's what it's like.Maybe you could make it cost twice or more of their speed to move a square (10'-15' to move one square) while the boss moves at normal speed.
Colossal monsters generally fit into a 30' square, even though they are much larger than that. That is because it was meant to make it easier to use and play with on the map and is not meant to be an accurate representation of the monster. So you don't need to necessarily make the creature occupy the exact same size of squares that the monster is.
I guess for starters, you could shrink the map and make the boss occupy a bunch of squares with a giant reach. Players could move at 1/2 speed to represent how far they are from the boss.
I can probably think of more ideas that I'll post later.
I would suggest taking a gander at this.
I've always imagined what it would be like to re-create fights with a large scale boss. Mainly the elder dragon fights from Monster Hunter.
In one of them your on a sandship fighting Jhen Morhan, a leviathan with huge tusks. In that fight you keep the beast from attacking your ship by shooting harpoons and cannons at it. You actually climb on the creature's body multiple times in the fight to attack it while it hurls rocks at you. It doesn't move much so I imagine you could do attack rolls for the cannons and harpoons and make it flat footed for the entire encounter (massive nat armor, zero dex or dodge bonus to AC)
In fact if you wanted a good idea on a fight with a massive beast, just look up any of the elder dragon battles from the Monster Hunter series. All of them can provide good inspiration for a large boss fight.
That's exactly what I'm going for :)the boss is probably less like a 'boss' and more his own adventure/dungeon.
Would it be good to have monsters on the monster then?
The immediate image that comes to mind would be the parasites on the cloverfield monster.
Of course, having the monster occasionally taking direct action as well would be great. Shaking, scratching limbs, and crashes against other mountains could work.
Of course, if you take the scale even larger, then it becomes even more of a 'dungeon' and it would be hard to have it actually attack the players directly without threatening either instant TPK or make it seem underwhelming ("A mountain fell on me and it only did 4d6?"). But if that seems interesting to you, then maybe check out the Spirit Turtle arc in The Rising of the Shield Hero (around chapter 117-126).
That had a set up where a godzilla sized boss showed up and crushed cities while it sent hordes of minions to take out the fleeing victims. There was a vague goal of turning the bodies into undead, but it did not seem to go anywhere with that possibility. Anyway, the goal of supressing the spirit turtle was to get on its back, enter into a cave that connected into its body while fighting off hordes, and then try to attack its heart (which was a boss with huge laser beams in its own right).