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.
