In one of the games I am GMing online I have a planned final boss fight that is going to wreck my players. I know it is coming, but they evidently haven't the foggiest even though they have fought the members of the final boss fight. In Short there are four players, they form a sort of Five Man Band, just without the Chick. To oppose them I made a 5 chapter campaign, each chapter ended with a boss fight.
Mechanically Speaking:
We started this chapter at level 5
Chapter 1 was darkness, there deeper darkness was everywhere creating a gauntlet of traps and devils. The boss was a drow devil summoner who spammed deeper darkness.
We started this chapter at level 8.
Chapter 2 was all about ambushes and darkness, albeit not deeper darkness. Gun wielding rogues shot the players, then retreated. This continued until the PCs forced the fight, then they realized these guys all had ranks in Wizard and/or arcane trickster. The main crutch was that the PCs had a sigil they needed to use to open a door, and these thieves stole it. The boss was a tiefling with glowing red eyes (See in darkness monster ability) who was an arcane trickster.
We started this chapter at level 11.
Chapter 3 was about AoE traps and spells. The PCs descended a seemingly endless stair into the bowels of Golarion. Here they found themselves face to face with persistent haunts bound to locations, these haunts casting AoE spell-like abilities each round. The PCs had to find a way to overcome these obstacles, which really translated to hide from undead and invisibility. The boss was an evil wizard who had a formidable army of bloody burning skeletons.
We started this chapter at level 14.
Chapter 4 is about evil and fallen outsiders. The PCs fight a battalion of hell, one encounter had 6x Erinyes devils, 1x enslaved Shadow Demon (who spammed deeper darkness), 4x Barbazu devils, and 32x Lemure devils. The bigger issue here is that there are a lot of environmental hazards. This sometimes forces the heavy armor wearing PCs to take off their armor. My favorite was the long underwater tunnel of darkness filled with CR 1/3 skeletons that attempted to grapple and pin the PCs. The boss was an Eldrich Knight Lich.
We started this chapter at level 17.
Chapter 5 is the end. Each of the above bosses escaped the PCs before death. In short this chapter revolves around taking the most effective things in the previous chapters, and using them to build the chapter. For instance, there is going to be an underwater segment with a haunt that spams black tentacles. Another where the PCs square off against a small army of constructs while inside layered permanent anti-magic fields.
We end this chapter at level 20, but the PCs are 20 before fighting the final boss event.
The Final Boss consists of the bosses (All CR 19 now) from the previous chapters, they're back, they're leveled up, and they work pretty well with each other. Deeper darkness everywhere (All of the villains can see through it, be it with an innate ability or magic) summoned monsters everywhere, chiefly Erinyes, a small flanking army of bloody burning skeletons, and an arcane trickster that is able to sneak attack more or less every single round.
Will my PCs survive? I'm not sure, but we'll find out when they get there. There is a lot of deeper darkness, if they haven't figured out that they should have a method of countering it then they're hopeless.
What do you guys think? Is this final encounter going to be way to much, or spot on?
They've supposedly dealing with Darkness effects for 15 levels? Why aren't they prepped for that in the final boss battle?
If they aren't, they're going to get a stomping they rightly deserve. They should have worked out tactics and counters for this thing by now. Good luck to them.
They've supposedly dealing with Darkness effects for 15 levels? Why aren't they prepped for that in the final boss battle?
If they aren't, they're going to get a stomping they rightly deserve. They should have worked out tactics and counters for this thing by now. Good luck to them.
This guy. I like this guy.