Hello hello!
Alright, so I am currently writing a homebrew campaign for my players and I have a very plot-important boss fight in front of me. Now, this boss fight essentially begins with a long-time friend of the party (and genuinely good person) on the verge of performing a ritual and becoming a monster. This person has a lot of reasons to perform the ritual (the key reason being desperation), but they have also been subject to some mind-affecting magic that has pushed them to do it.
If the NPC completes the ritual, then there's no going back and the party will 100% have to fight them. However, because they're a good friend of the party, I want to give the players the ability to change the outcome. So I've been toying with a verbal duel of sorts, especially considering that the NPC's mind is not entirely their own and normally they would not actually perform the ritual.
The encounter would begin with an extremely high diplomacy DC (~40-50) to dissuade the boss from doing the ritual. The party will have enough time to start a dialogue with the boss, and I will have some vague pre-written guidelines on their current attitude. I am planning on having a general list of things the PCs can say to remind them of who they are; memories, things they have said in the past, what's important to the NPC, religious vows, etc. Each time a PC brings up a key point or statement that resonates with the NPC, the DC of the diplomacy check decreases. The party only has a short time to do all this, and then someone rolls the diplomacy check and we see which way it goes.
I'm worried that if the players succeed, then they miss out on the combat/resource/tactical challenge of a boss fight. So I'm wondering if I should have a backup boss fight that triggers upon a success, or if there are some things I can do to add to the intricacy of the diplomatic approach in order to make it just as challenging as a boss fight without depleting healing or doing much damage lest the actual fight occur.
What do you guys think? Any clever ideas on how to make a diplomacy check feel like a boss fight? lol
I personally don't find "social combat" to be interesting (not for the social aspect but for the dice rolling). I do know a published adventure (from Raging Swan) that have that kind of boss fight. If the Pc convince the BBEG to repent then the fight is over, and that seems the best outcome IMHO.
You could have both:
1) Let the boss talk to them, urging them to go.
2) If they don't, the boss attacks for one round, then retreats to a safe spot (as safe as possible, at least).
3) Let him talk again, this time slightly open to discussion. But combat for another round is pretty inevitable...
Repeat until it's settled either way, with the Diplomacy (or Bluff or Intimidate) DC dropping after each fight. The boss needs serious defenses to increase chances for a long conflict: Freedom of movement, flight, dimension door, mirror images, spell turning, healing etc.. Not necessary by his own powers, some abilities could stem from magic items.
When it comes to offensive, he should probably focus on a mix of disabling spells (Hold Person, Fear etc.) and blasting spells (Fireball etc.). Both categories are menacing - but actually are not that dangerous.
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I kind of like the idea that you have laid out as it is. I gives the players a chance at some fun roleplaying, and as a bonus rewards them for having actually paid attention to the story over the course of the campaign.
How satisfying the non-violent resolution is for the players depends largely on two factors that you would have a better feel than anyone here.
First, how attached are the players/PCs to this NPC? If they feel that they have genuinely formed a bond with him over the campaign, then saving him will be enough (especially if it's clear that the options are to either talk him down or be forced to kill him). However, if they just view him as window dressing, then they may miss the visceral payoff of combat.
Second, do your players enjoy those types of intense roleplaying moments; or are they more into the tactical combat? If they don't get in to the roleplaying, then the whole thing has a huge risk of falling flat.
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What level are they at?
You could put the NPC inside of a mystical circle or force-cage while they perform the ritual. If you go with the circle effect, make it clear that removing them from it will kill them. The force-cage can block PC direct access, while allowing conversation.
Then you have them perform the ritual in between Diplomacy checks. That's when you could go with SheepishEidolon's suggestion above, with a tweak--instead of the NPC attacking them, the ritual itself (or the power that wants to see the ritual performed) sends a wave of enemies (say, CR = APL to start with, going up by 1 for each of 3-4 iterations). Each successful Diplomacy check delays the ritual, and triggers a reprisal encounter. The final one makes the NPC step back from the brink of madness and stops the ritual. The circle/forcecage disappears, everyone celebrates.
You can further tailor the reprisal encounters to match with the various memories/religious sentiments/whatever that the PCs might use. For instance, if a PC reminds the BBEG of the old village priest back home, maybe a huecuva who looks like that priest, wearing desecrated robes of that god appears to battle the PCs. That kind of thing...
Essentially this NPC should be extremely significant to the party. He is effectively a sickly noble who has fought his whole life to help his subjects and do the right thing, and now he has turned to dark magic to extend his life after learning that he isn't long for the world. His entire reasoning behind it is that he cannot help his people if he is dead.
He is going to be a key story element from the get-go and even help the party a few times in combat with healing magic. The party will actually save him from an assassination attempt at one point (although I am prepared for them to fail and him to die then), and this time will be more interesting as they will be effectively saving him from himself.
The encounter will be decently high-level, about 12-14, and this would either be the Boss encounter or be very close to the Boss encounter for that chapter of the story.
But I really don't anticipate them trying to get violence going, at this point this NPC will be a close friend that they have worked with often and who has demonstrated his own value and altruism quite a bit. I love your idea Quibblemuch! I had a hard time thinking about having combat /while/ the dialogue occurs because the ritual he's performing will all-or-nothing destroy his sanity, and he 100% would NOT attack the party beforehand. Essentially, he think's he's just extending his life, but in reality he's making himself insane.
You said this is a "genuinely good person" who is apparently influential enough to count as a BBEG, but "under mind-affecting magic." So I have some questions I think you need answers to:
<> What will this NPC do after being saved that will be good for the locale/world? (Depending on how influential he is.)
<> Is there a way to sketch this good out as foreshadowing right at the moment of a social victory?
<> Will the PCs see it later?
(In short: I believe the key is to help the players feel great about NOT combating this guy, and contributing in this fashion to the good of their community/world.)
{<> Added: I was posting while you were, Palidian. Can you set up a big payoff for the subjects?}
<> Who affected his mind? Is this a BIGGER-BEG? Can you use the convo with the immediate BBEG to turn the PCs' attention to someone else?
I don't know your players, but mine would not feel cheated if they had to work hard to convince someone to turn from a path of evil -- and succeeded. Especially if they could then blame someone else for the path.
Of course, SheepishEidolon's solution is a classic one. I recall it from Knights of the Old Republic, but I'm sure there's other games out there that feature it. The key is to let the BBEG transport to & from a spot that permits conversation but not attacks in either direction. Since he's setting up a ritual, can you write such a place into his lair by fiat? Alternatively, the BBEG could periodically turn ethereal, but have the means to converse with the Material Plane. Then he'd periodically become enraged -- and have to turn material to make an attack.
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I like the basics of SheepishEidolon's idea. Here's a variation you might consider:
The transformation ritual isn't instantaneous - it's constantly going throughout the fight. The boss has two HP values - one for the party's friend, and one for the dark power growing inside him as a result of the ritual. Most normal methods of dealing damage hurt their friend, but they can use Diplomacy (or the social combat rules) to damage the dark entity. Give the dark entity some visual representation, so they can see that they're damaging it.
Every round, the dark entity gains a certain number of HP - if it crosses a particular threshold, the transformation is completed and killing him becomes the only solution.
If you want to give the damage dealers a bit more of a role, you could also have normal methods of dealing damage apply to both the friend and the dark entity (or the dark entity takes half of what he takes, etc.). Or maybe the boss has some kind of evil spirits swirling around him for them to fight - they could be minions, or maybe the ritual involves a bunch of spirits entering his body, and killing them before they merge with him prevents the darkness from gaining HP.
One nice thing with rituals is they can be as flexible as you want them to be. There's no rule that says he has to be doing it the whole time--he can take breaks to talk w/the PCs as they attempt to pull him back from the brink.
Another idea I have for the reprisal attacks is that, instead of using monsters, you could make several different versions of the NPC--or reskin existing monsters so that they look like him. Then you could flavor the attacks as bits of his soul/sanity that are being torn off by the ritual and attacking the PCs.