Hi, guys!
I want to change my boss fights something like dark souls/devil may cry series. I want to change how battle works. And I'm sorry for my poor grammar!
For example, let's take large monster with 10 reach with spear I will use in Reign of Winter. Moss troll
I write for him 5 different attack animation and almost all of them are AoE. I make the boss fighter with AoE attacks hitting everyone's AC.
Here comes my thought how to balance and how to dodge those attack.
I will always give almost obvious hint what next attack my boss will use. No attacks of opportunity made by the boss. I will force my PCs move around him who are in melee.
So I tell to my group that moss troll is about to hit in left direction in the end of his turn. So moss troll waves with spear 10ft cone hitting anyone's AC on his next turn.
I tell my players the troll realeses left hand and threathnes area to the left of him. Moss troll hitting 15ft cone with claw and then bites target he managed to hit 10ft attack.
I can make not that obvious full-round attack by saying that the troll is about to bite PC, but he also attacks 10ft line on right after bit attack.
Moss troll can surprise my ranged PCs with semi-charge attack that will cause attack of opportunity from PCs but the troll will hit everyone in line while he runs.
5th attack is placed if critical score is made with spear of Manhunting. I just full-round with available attacks.
And please remember that all AoE attacks are claimed by me round before. So this is really debatable kind of topic. And I really need your opinion and help. And I really hope non of my players uses reddit.
Maybe PCs will get all troll's moves and will avoid them easily. So there is distraction placed by paizo in encounter. Atomie oracle and difficult terrain - 1 squares cost 4 squares of movement.
And again please excuse my language skills,
Misha
I gave to the troll warpriest one level. I think he might survive couple of rounds. Moss troll will be hiding in campaign as a tree, so he could actually ambush my party.
My party is 5 players, level 3. I make encounter as APL+4
Since I run Reign of Winter there is remade atomie oracle who will summon hawks and small ice elemental and thunderstone. Some feys 1/2 CR. There is one simple non-magic trap.
But difficult terrain where 75% of movement speed reduced should be pain in a ass.
Do you think I should stick with regular rules especially for this encounter, so I can make some attacks of opportunity with moss troll?
Thank you for you thought.
But I'm still want to breathe some life into this idea where big boss with powerful swings are avoidable with proper movement. Maybe not this encounter, but still.
I don't know if this whole "animation" idea is feasible in Pathfinder or any d20 System game.
The game has a preset degree of abstraction during combat, which is that every character involved is actively moving, attacking, parrying, dodging etc. all the time during a round and in all possible directions, so that's impossible to tell where a character is facing in a given moment of the round (basically, you can't say the troll will attack on his left, because you cant say where his left is in the first place).
Every character which is not flat-footed or somewhat incapacitated automatically sees and tries to dodge or deflect all incoming attacks, even if you do not tell them that they are about to occur.
Also, AoOs represent one kind of reaction to unexpected or unpredictable situations in combat, others being immediate actions and readied actions.
All that matters at mechanical level is to define how an attack or special attack happens, and this usually take one of three forms:
- An attack roll vs. AC
- A combat maneuver check against CMD
- A Saving throw of some kind vs a DC
Every defense, AC, CMD and saving throws bonuses, already incorporate the dodge attempt on part of the defender, so how and when the attack occurs and whether the defender foresees and actively avoids it or not is left to description and roleplay of the results of the actual die roll.
What you can do, is design some special attack to give to your boss with the right kind of mechanic to represent what you have in mind, trying not to be redundant.
For example, a multi-attack against AC is not that different from a Cleave or Great Cleave feat effect, so maybe it doesn't require a different kind of special attack, but a fierce swing which sweeps every character in a cone or in the threat range of the creature requiring a ST vs Reflexes with a DC of 10+ 1/2 HD or BAB of the creature + his Str modifier would be something different enough to be defined "special".
In this last case, the ST represent the attempt to dodge the incoming attack and every character who fail the roll either was too slow to react or didn't see it coming, something left to free interpretation and narration.
To enforce the kind of complex mechanic you described, you'll have to change the whole combat system from the very base, the abstraction level, reworking everything up from that point. So, is it worth to do such a massive rework to achieve what you want?
Dotting for later response.