D6 That's Not Even the Worst Part!

D6 That’s Not Even the Worst Part!

By Applejaxc:
Next time your players complain about a fight being too easy, consider springing one of these unexpected threats on them. Your next boss fight should be accompanied by something like this….
1 - His jacket attacks me?
^{This is a
classic}
The bad guy is wearing a Cloaker, which appears for all intents and purposes as a regular cloak with eyes running down its spines. Not only do these eyes make it impossible to surprise the enemy (even with invisibility), as soon as a player gets close, the jacket flies off and attacks!
If a Cloaker isn’t a big enough threat, consider making it a Vampire Cloaker, or giving it a mummy’s Rotting Fist. Last time your player stands close to anyone in a coat.
2 - The sword is a what?
Your bad guy carries two weapons. One is a conventional sword, axe, staff, wand, or what have you. The second is a highly trained mimic shaped like a weapon. Instead of making an attack roll on the enemy’s turn, the mimic weapon attempts to grapple a target within melee range and restrain it before the enemy makes a real attack. Alternatively it can attempt to grapple a player’s weapon or shield instead.
3 - That’s not even fair!
The bad guy has an Astral Stalker for a body guard. If that’s too weak, make it two. If that’s too strong, use the stats of an appropriate monster, but make it invisible and an elemental.
4 - Bigger Fish
^{This is
my favorite game}
This is it. The final encounter. The players have prepared their spells, their contingencies. They’ve studied the enemy. They’ve cast Resistance to survive his favorite spells.
And then he’s eaten by a tyrannosaurus rex.
Or something even more terrifying bursts into the scene (teleported in, breaks through a wall, drops through the ceiling, escapes its cage, etc). It not only one-shots the bad guy to prove how powerful it is, it’s ready to kill the party, too.
5 - Those Aren’t Statues
The final encounter room (or even the whole adventure) is dotted with “statues” of men and monsters that are far too lifelike to be hand crafted. Naturally the party suspects a medusa. Instead, the bad guy is armed with a Wand of Flesh to Stone and Back.
When the party is in the midst of the most powerful petrified monsters, the bad guy reveals himself-and turns all of the “statues” back into fearsome enemies!
Conveniently the wand has just enough charges to turn any petrified party members back to flesh before becoming an expensive dud.
6 - You said this game wasn’t a competition
Roll twice. Your bad guy is sinister.