Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Whisper_Swiftblade 03-30-07, 04:40 PM	the way I have always seen it, the fional battle in a campain is useuly party VS uber caster (and freinds) or party VS big monster (which in the cases like dragons may also be casters). My problem is with the latter of the two, I am bored of my big super monsters always being dragons (particularly when I want a good aligned monster) or terresque so I have been thinking what are some monsters that people should put to greater use, or ways to improve pre-existing monsters to make them more useful as mid-high lv final boss monsters? so DMs how do you improve monsters, and how should one try to intigrate said monsters? I will start things off by bringing up linnorms from the MMII, yes it is third ed. but I like them, and it is hard to say no to a creature with cr28 note: i did not post this in the monster baced area of the board because I need ideas on how to include the monsters into campains as well.
Loestalx 03-30-07, 04:47 PM	Well...we really can't help on to include in your campaign because we know nothing of it or your current plot. As for alternate "boss fights" 1. Giants. Giants are very tough, hit very hard. Put some levels on them and they are even worse 2. Evil Druid circle. Druids, if worked with the right PRCs and spells can be very tough. Tree stride with Druid Grove is cool. 3. Do an evil version of a good dragon or vice versa. A red dragon CAN be good, up to you to figure out how. It would be different. 4. There are alot of Aberations out there to look at, Illithids, Aboleths. I once had an Illithid spellfire channeler with 6 Illithid sorcerers whos soul purpose was to keep him charged with spells..it was cool.
PhaedrusXY 03-30-07, 05:38 PM	As an alternative, how about some things which greatly power up their allies. A greater barghest with Marshall and Bard class levels, for example. It isn't that scary by itself, but it greatly powers up all its goblin underlings, and with Invisibility Circle, it can set up a nasty ambush with them.
arch_sorcerer 03-30-07, 05:57 PM	my solution to your predicament would be to choose a diffrent type of boss. for example; the jumper , this guy refuses to sit stil... instead of sitting there and accepting damage and the dealing some back this boss teleports every chance he gets preventing the players from surronding him or using long casting time spells. this tactic of consatnt hit and run presents an intresting and new challange to players and also evenly dissturbutes dammage so noone feels singled out. a good monster forthis job is a demon because of their greater telport at will ability. the unseen one: many instanetly rule out invisbilty becuase of its tendancy to be easily dispelled. but as a dm there are many tools available to circumvent htis for a boss or two. 1. make it divine suchas the result of miracle 2. let him have a wand of greater invisiblty, there sin't a mage alive that can stop that many invisble spells. 3. make it part of the creature such as the invisble stalker. etc... th advantges of this boss is the players are forced to think of outside the box tacticsand that can make for a very intresting game. i think i have made my point.
PhaedrusXY 03-30-07, 06:34 PM	Monsters with fast healing and/or regeneration can make great hit and run attackers, along the lines of arch-sorcerer's "jumper". They can deplete the party's resources, and come back at full capacity every time, making them challenging but not (necessarily) overwhelmingly dangerous. They don't necessarily have to use magical teleportation to escape. A fast run speed, good hide check, and some cover or concealment is enough. Or some other method, like a vampire's gaseous form.