I got all nostalgic from reading the latest Dr. McNinja, and I decided I wanted to build a boss rush for my party. 8 boss monsters they've previously defeated, that must be conquered back to back without replenishing spells and with very limited healing.
--I'm thinking the party gets 3 potions of Cure Critical Wounds, and whatever they can provide from their class features. No wands, no long rests.
-- They will be granted a reprive between each fight, so they can buff, prepare counter measures, or barrel into the next fight before their previous buffs expire.
--The Party will probably be either level 9 or 10 by the time they do this. The bosses will range in CR from things they beat at level 4 to things they squeeked by at level 8. Adjustments to the lower level enemies, such as secondary transformations, may be in the works.
8 bosses of drastically different CR levels is tricky. Especially because each one is in danger of being easily dispatched due to action economy.
I can think of a couple ways to deal with this.
1) Apply a template that allows each boss multiple initiative clicks and HP pools. Depleting one pool kills that initiative click. This seems like it could get really dangerous fast though, and I want them to be able to get through with limited healing.
2) Give each boss a secondary form, that they transform into when they kill the first. I had already been planning one of these for the weakest boss on the list.
3) Use aberration minions to balance the action economy. A universal enemy to show up in each fight as back up. Could be 5e style, where they literally die in one hit.
4) Try and make each fight roughly even in difficulty by adding more varied monsters. I would use the combined XP of all the enemies in a round, and try and get each roughly even. This might be overkill? I don't actually think each fight needs to be equally difficult .
5) Just say f~%+ it, and let them fight each critter as it originally appeared, even it means they stomp through. Let them feel like bad asses. 8 back to back encounters could take a really long time anyway, why try and make it take longer?
What do you guys think? Party composition is a Warlord, a Stalker, a Bomber Alchemist, a Summoner, and a Blaster Sorceror. All very well optimized.
This reminds me of the final boss of Chrono Trigger. You basically fight every game boss over again. They aren't buffed, so you fight them as they originally appeared, back to back without possibility of resting. The trick is that you have to remember how each boss worked as they had strengths and weaknesses that you could exploit. I think it's a fun idea.
In this case, I would say keep the bosses stats as they originally were, but max out HP, and give them slightly better gear to add a bit more difficulty without changing the base enemy. With the weaker bosses, group a couple of them together to increase the CR of that particular fight. This way, they get the feeling of fighting everyone over again, but the teaming up the monsters mean they won't be as quickly killed because of action economy. It could also lead to interesting synergies between enemies that you couldn't previously use.
Just a thought.
I think this could be a really fun encounter. Have you designed the reason behind why this happening? The story could make this really fun. The final BBEG is a Necromancer or Summoner that is bringing back all their worst enemies? Someone has an artifact of time manipulation and all these BBEGs are being stolen from their time and brought to now for a final showdown? Lots of cool concepts.
And, my opinion is that if you are making the fights all in a row with limited resources and little to no rest do not add anything because they should feel a little like Big Bad@$$s at this point. Throwing out quotes like "Didn't I already kill you this week?" Give them the chance to enjoy that feeling because 8 fights is going already be difficult.
Might I suggest a nightmare type situation?
Start with the boss in the center of a fairly standard gladiatorial pit. Each time the boss is defeated, the players are transported to another room automatically, and they face a new environmental challenge each time in theme with their opponent.
Ex:
1. That Ogre in the Breastplate with the Club from that one Bridge? It's in the center of a brightly lit arena.
2. The Ogre's slain, the lights go dark. They are now underground, surrounded by darkness, and facing off against the Drider that they fought before.
3. They find themselves outside throne room door of the Fire Giant, and the door swings open.
4. They are aboard a plummeting airship, and the Dragon does passes at them as they fall through the air (until they start flying, of course.)
etc.
8. Big dramatic final boss, preferably on the outer wall of a tower of a floating castle during a thunderstorm.
Point being, make them progress quickly, force them to adapt as they progress, and ensure that each combat has 1 round before the first attack is made (except perhaps the first) by making sure it's not just a monster in a room.
Glad to hear people dig the idea. The premise: party has been suffering from communal dreaming for a long time now. It started off as merely a shared "cut scene," which turned out to be memories of different party members, but eventually became full out encounters in the dream state with different awful things from their individual and collective past. It has been a fun way to test the limits of the party with a lower risk of death, bring their backstories to the forefront, and pull trippy stunts like making it hard for them to tell if they are awake or dreaming.
They've found themselves caught in a parallel dimension where I handed the DM reins over to another player, and thus had to leave his PC behind. Upon returning to my original dimension, they will discover that the PC they left behind has become trapped in a sort of mental prison. Luckily, they have been armed with a mirrored McGuffin called a Rod of Self Expression Externalization, which allows them to consciously project into his dreamscape with a risk of actual death.
Upon doing so they find themselves in a hallway with 8 doors, and the PC chained up in a circle in the middle. Freeing him is easy enough, so that he can start playing, but to escape they need to destroy a nightmare behind each door. There will probably be a symbol over each door, so they have some clue as to what they will be fighting on the other side and can take appropriate precautions. They also won't be able to sleep, as they already are. An explanation for rules of the setting, as well as the 3 Cure Critical Wounds potions which will effectively be their only healing, will be provided by a conceptual god being that some of the party has started worshipping. Wands of Cure Wounds won't function here.
As for the doors, each will lead to an area where the party originally fought the creature. Some of them will have minions or summons. The weaker bosses will get upgrades or secondary forms. Most will have some environmental factor as well. The shark eating crab will be trying to sink a ship the party is on while it is swarmed by mooks. The dead lover of the Stalker will run rather than fight this time, and they will have to do an urban chase scene, complete with horrible abominations lying in wait to surprise them and require dispatching. The Blood Reaver Devil will be fought in a low gravity area, where blows send people flying. One encounter will involve a replay of one of the "cut scenes" where a PC's father learned to use his family's bloodline powers to kill animals on a farm. After the dead parents tell the PC to go kill a chicken so they can feed all this company, the party goes to kill a chicken... which turns out to have 12 levels of Unchained Monk. XD
I'm thinking once the 8 bosses have been dispatched, their might be a big bad waiting at the end. Probably a new enemy here, and I haven't decided what form that should take. Might not even be an encounter-- may just have some trippy challenge to beat. Oh, I was also playing with the idea that they would have to answer a riddle every now and then to avoid taking damage. It's a conceptual plane after all, there should be some cerebral challenges. Not sure if I should do a riddle for each of the 8 doors, or have that be part of the final challenge to escape.