The Perils of Build Up

[siegfriedliner]

So say you have made the mistake of having your party prepair for an epic boss battle for months of real time. That you had been determined to try and make a pathfinder 2e game as much like a final fantasy as possible.

They have collected all the relics to make the boss beatable and bypass its plot Armor and each relic had a custom boss battle arena (lazily elementally themed) which were increasingly difficult and the last one was a really near tpk (lava was a mistake).

The party are now level 15, is there any way at this point to avoid your big bad God Eater from being a total anticlimax ?

[Alyran]

Well if you're going for the Final Fantasy vibe, give the BBEG multiple prepared (maybe increasingly difficult) forms. Then when one of those fights seems suitably epic as an endcap, just end the boss fight there even if you haven't hit the "final form" you planned because the players have no idea. It also wears the party down over time, making the fight harder naturally anyway.

[Ascalaphus]

Imagine I'm that one person who's never played Final Fantasy. But I do know a thing or two about second edition Pathfinder.

What kind of effect are you looking to get?

What problems are you running into?

[Claxon]

I would honestly go with what Alyran said. Every time they beat a "form" just have it unlock the next one, until you feel it was suitably challenging for the players and that they've earned it.

[Gargs454]

To piggyback on what Claxon and Alyran are saying, you can think of the final boss battle as occurring over multiple stages. He doesn't need to simply change forms (though that's certainly a good way to go from one stage to another). As an example:

Stage 1: Relatively straight forward encounter in the "throne room". Boss is there with a number of minions, maybe some traps or other "turret like" effects helping him out. As the Stage 1 boss is about to go down . . .

Stage 2: Boss teleports/flies/whatever out of the area, leading the party on a chase. This can be a bit difficult at higher levels since the party may well have access to abilities to limit this type of thing (I'm pretty new to PF2, though fairly familiar with PF1). The chase has them running through the castle/fortress/lava caverns/whathaveyou all the while the boss and/or his minions are peppering the party. Its unlikely to kill the party at this point, but the idea is to weaken them, consume some of their resources, etc.

Stage 3: The Boss gets to inner sanctum/secret spawning pool/etc. Stepping onto the magical platform heals and transforms the boss to its new form, giving him new attacks, resistances, and bonuses, etc. But maybe this time he's alone, etc.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat as necessary but be careful about doing it too much or it may feel as though you are simply making the players wait for their victory (i.e. "Yeah, we're going to win, but not until the GM 'lets' us")