Nice video, I'll drop some timestamps here Step 1 Have a good boss 0:18 Step 2 Determine the stakes 0:41 Step 3 Design the environment 1:15 Step 4 Design the phases 3:25 Step 5 Engagement and Inclusivity 5:38 Step 6 Make the boss feel real 6:13 Step 7 The aftermath 6:55
Great video, but you skipped all the mechanics. I usually build a fight to avoid a surround and pound which is boring I think for all. I try to get my players to think creatively. Look at the PC abilities and gear know what they do, and start building from there.
Yeah I'm more about the "story" than the mechanics. I agree though! Looking at their weaknesses and strengths is a GREAT way to build a battle. I'll have to do a followup video on that
think another good idea to use (one I've been trying to implement as well) is to try and figure out HOW a boss attacks. although it may sound a bit stupid to say, but I honestly think it helps not having every monster and/or enemy fight the exact same way or spam the same attacks. One time I remember watching a very old video from MrRhexx, who mentioned that, in lore, despite red dragons being known for breathing fire, they actually rarely use it in their lairs, as that would damage their, primarily metallic, horde. Think implementing that to most monsters (not just boss enemies, you could also do it with almost every enemy), would add a bit more life into a ton of bosses. I mean, I can probably list a ton of examples: Making the Tarrasque not directly attack the party, rather just wanting to destroy anything it see's as food (buildings, forests, maybe another large monster that it could actually eat, etc.) A Vampire using Magic or the environment to counteract its natural weaknesses, requiring the party to find more unique ways to expose his weaknesses, like Burning away cover or using Illusions A Noble preferring to run away from fights, having his guards do the dirty work for him/her A Necromancer Pulling some incredible feat of Necromancy and bodysnatching a powerful creature (Elven king, Important NPC, a dragon, a god/goddess, etc.) an Iron Golem preferring to use certain attacks, as to not damage something/ after death, actually destroys an entrance purposefully to prevent it from being looted. etc.
Great advice! And thinking about bosses like this is a great way to homebrew something. When you can envision how they act and attack, you can come up with type of damage, whether its a save or a roll...etc
1:45 I feel kinda sorry for Tobias, his cousin at the top of that shaft is much meaner. I honestly really like the boss fight concept. I've planned out several before, but I've never really truly had a "Boss Fight" it's been hard to actually reach a point in the story where that would happen. Would love to change that someday, but that may take a while... I notice you have a lot of clips from *Arrival*, which just so happens to be one of my favorite movies. We watched it in my high school Anthropology class when we were studying linguistics. Really mind-bending, but hands down a really cool movie with a really neat story. Maybe you could build on the whole trying to understand our visitors sort of thing, I feel like that might make for a really cool campaign idea.
My advice for setting up a boss fight is to give the party conflict that involves the boss. I’ve had bosses kidnap party members, kill family members of the party, and kidnap npcs who are friends with the party. If you give the party a reason to want to fight, then they will want to face that boss. I start with a personal reason then add smaller things to make my party dislike planned bosses. They really enjoy this format so your players may enjoy it as well
for a giant or gargantuan boss, try to make it so that: A: try to implement unique mechanics like climbing the foe. get creative, do something like SOTC did and allow an opponent to be climbed on. B: make it immune to legendary or OP spells like banish. it'll be boring if someone can just kill it instantly that way. C give it unique weaknesses/weakpoints, like a fire golem is weakened or can't use an attack after getting damaged by a frost or water based attack. D: use certain dice depending on the size
A giant walking trough a small ravine going toward à kingdom And having the pc's fight it like a Lao shan lung hunt could be a good setting too. The pc's could investigate weird happenings snd learn that a mad giant bigger than normal is heading toward the current area the pc's are at. In result they could set a plan in advance to trap and gain a avantage, or be forced to face it head on if not prepared. It could also have a npc facter, if the pc's have been nice to the npc's they may get supplies or explosives. If they were murder hobboes... well bad luck i guess
I’ve been putting in a lot of work for my next boss fight, I want to give the players their most challenging fight yet. They are facing off against a pirate King blessed by a god who also has the power to fuse his body with his castle. The fight will start small scale in his throne room while roleplaying of course. The second phase starts with the King fusing his body with his castle, making the fight large scale and the collateral damage will hurt the townspeople. I have it setup for a bunch of npcs to help the townspeople while the party takes down the king for good
@@TheFantasyForgeDefinitely! I hear ya! Hell, I'm kind of embarrassed when I can't get a name right, because, given my name, I have no excuse! 😆😆 Now, my parents, being parents, and being the ones who emigrated to the US from Iran, had they heard this, might point out "Well, yes, very well done. The way English speakers say it." Me: 🙄 For Farsi speakers (of which I don't even know enough to ask where the restroom is), or people whose native languages are in and around the Middle East, there's a subtle shift in the vowels, and, slightly different emphasis on syllables - almost like all (or none) of the syllables are emphasized, rather than just the second syllable. It's kind of hard to verbally describe it, and I know how to do it because of hearing family and friends of family saying it (and people I've worked with from India, Pakistan, as well as Arabic speaking countries) by default say it correctly. I think the A in the second and third syllables shifts a little bit to being like a short-o sound. I didn't even realize that the "Anglicized" pronunciation was wrong until, well probably about my college years. And, why am I saying all this? This is way more info than anyone EVER needed!
That was fascinating to read! I have a love for history (I think everyone can tell from my content) and I especially love languages. My parents are immigrants as well so I totally understand that haha. @@josephvahabzadeh1289
@@TheFantasyForge - super cool. Mind if I ask where your parents came from? I actually had to make myself step away from this conversation because I almost began a novella about how I did a 180 on languages. But, the super-TL;DR version is that, while I enjoyed history, I never got into it a huge amount. As to languages, in my youth, I was afraid of them, as I found the idea of learning another language overwhelming/intimidating. It's only been later in life, and, likely, thanks in part to RPGs, that I started becoming fascinated by accents, which led me to thinking more on how the originating language's rules affects how one's accent sounds when they speak English, etc. Then learning how to do the accents passably enough to sound convincing in a game. And now, I also pay a little too much attention to that kind of thing in movies and TV shows as well, up to just the other night watching a show and thinking "This guy's British. He is doing a pretty good American accent, but these tiny slips come out. I'm pretty sure he's a British actor." Yes, that's the *short* version.
@@josephvahabzadeh1289 LOL yeah my parents are from Central America (Costa Rica) but I was born in California which gives me this weird mix of cultures as a first gen. I totally hear you on that, languages and how the develop is fascinating to me.
@7:14 "monsters aren't real". Untrue. They're called billionaires. Hoarding wealth and subjugating 'lesser beings' while completely disregarding loss of life and the destruction they cause... Sounds alot like a dragon to me.
@@smart456 Lol I've googled them after people started mentioning it. I didn't realize there were different skins! Any way to look it up? I'm curious lmao
I'll try Edit: at the dead cells wiki, there is a list of head skins and the one I'm talking about is called black hole And it might not look similar at first glance, but the animation is really similar Edit edit: I think it's one of the variations of that black hole skin
Nice video, I'll drop some timestamps here
Step 1 Have a good boss 0:18
Step 2 Determine the stakes 0:41
Step 3 Design the environment 1:15
Step 4 Design the phases 3:25
Step 5 Engagement and Inclusivity 5:38
Step 6 Make the boss feel real 6:13
Step 7 The aftermath 6:55
hey I appreciate that!
@1:46 Tobias is the happiest little displacer beast. Live your best life, Tobias!
Great video, but you skipped all the mechanics. I usually build a fight to avoid a surround and pound which is boring I think for all. I try to get my players to think creatively. Look at the PC abilities and gear know what they do, and start building from there.
Yeah I'm more about the "story" than the mechanics. I agree though! Looking at their weaknesses and strengths is a GREAT way to build a battle. I'll have to do a followup video on that
Great video! 😊
thanks for the love!
think another good idea to use (one I've been trying to implement as well) is to try and figure out HOW a boss attacks. although it may sound a bit stupid to say, but I honestly think it helps not having every monster and/or enemy fight the exact same way or spam the same attacks. One time I remember watching a very old video from MrRhexx, who mentioned that, in lore, despite red dragons being known for breathing fire, they actually rarely use it in their lairs, as that would damage their, primarily metallic, horde. Think implementing that to most monsters (not just boss enemies, you could also do it with almost every enemy), would add a bit more life into a ton of bosses. I mean, I can probably list a ton of examples:
Making the Tarrasque not directly attack the party, rather just wanting to destroy anything it see's as food (buildings, forests, maybe another large monster that it could actually eat, etc.)
A Vampire using Magic or the environment to counteract its natural weaknesses, requiring the party to find more unique ways to expose his weaknesses, like Burning away cover or using Illusions
A Noble preferring to run away from fights, having his guards do the dirty work for him/her
A Necromancer Pulling some incredible feat of Necromancy and bodysnatching a powerful creature (Elven king, Important NPC, a dragon, a god/goddess, etc.)
an Iron Golem preferring to use certain attacks, as to not damage something/ after death, actually destroys an entrance purposefully to prevent it from being looted.
etc.
Great advice! And thinking about bosses like this is a great way to homebrew something. When you can envision how they act and attack, you can come up with type of damage, whether its a save or a roll...etc
Love your videos man
thanks for the love! :D
thank you for inspiring not only me, but it will resonate with the players and give them the game they deserve to have❤❤❤
Great videos keep em coming! Oh and tobias at 1.45 looks like he stared in the dnd movie 😉
Thanks for the love! :D
1:45 I feel kinda sorry for Tobias, his cousin at the top of that shaft is much meaner.
I honestly really like the boss fight concept. I've planned out several before, but I've never really truly had a "Boss Fight" it's been hard to actually reach a point in the story where that would happen. Would love to change that someday, but that may take a while...
I notice you have a lot of clips from *Arrival*, which just so happens to be one of my favorite movies. We watched it in my high school Anthropology class when we were studying linguistics. Really mind-bending, but hands down a really cool movie with a really neat story. Maybe you could build on the whole trying to understand our visitors sort of thing, I feel like that might make for a really cool campaign idea.
My advice for setting up a boss fight is to give the party conflict that involves the boss. I’ve had bosses kidnap party members, kill family members of the party, and kidnap npcs who are friends with the party. If you give the party a reason to want to fight, then they will want to face that boss. I start with a personal reason then add smaller things to make my party dislike planned bosses. They really enjoy this format so your players may enjoy it as well
Super useful, definitely using this for the BBEG in my current campaign! Thanks so much!
for a giant or gargantuan boss, try to make it so that:
A: try to implement unique mechanics like climbing the foe. get creative, do something like SOTC did and allow an opponent to be climbed on.
B: make it immune to legendary or OP spells like banish. it'll be boring if someone can just kill it instantly that way.
C give it unique weaknesses/weakpoints, like a fire golem is weakened or can't use an attack after getting damaged by a frost or water based attack.
D: use certain dice depending on the size
climbing a colossus is all I've ever wanted in a boss fight haha
A giant walking trough a small ravine going toward à kingdom
And having the pc's fight it like a Lao shan lung hunt could be a good setting too. The pc's could investigate weird happenings snd learn that a mad giant bigger than normal is heading toward the current area the pc's are at. In result they could set a plan in advance to trap and gain a avantage, or be forced to face it head on if not prepared.
It could also have a npc facter, if the pc's have been nice to the npc's they may get supplies or explosives.
If they were murder hobboes... well bad luck i guess
1:46 baby displacer in the same scene with a big displacer
1:45 hey, isn't displacer beasts are enemies in this scene?
he's undercover 😎
I’ve been putting in a lot of work for my next boss fight, I want to give the players their most challenging fight yet. They are facing off against a pirate King blessed by a god who also has the power to fuse his body with his castle. The fight will start small scale in his throne room while roleplaying of course. The second phase starts with the King fusing his body with his castle, making the fight large scale and the collateral damage will hurt the townspeople. I have it setup for a bunch of npcs to help the townspeople while the party takes down the king for good
this sounds epic and horrifying
Whoa. Uh, gotta say, you got my name darn near perfect.
My son: "Pretty impressive."
Elevator-displacer-kitten at 1:45!
LOL yessss 😎 I pride myself on getting people's names right.
@@TheFantasyForgeDefinitely!
I hear ya! Hell, I'm kind of embarrassed when I can't get a name right, because, given my name, I have no excuse! 😆😆
Now, my parents, being parents, and being the ones who emigrated to the US from Iran, had they heard this, might point out "Well, yes, very well done. The way English speakers say it."
Me: 🙄
For Farsi speakers (of which I don't even know enough to ask where the restroom is), or people whose native languages are in and around the Middle East, there's a subtle shift in the vowels, and, slightly different emphasis on syllables - almost like all (or none) of the syllables are emphasized, rather than just the second syllable.
It's kind of hard to verbally describe it, and I know how to do it because of hearing family and friends of family saying it (and people I've worked with from India, Pakistan, as well as Arabic speaking countries) by default say it correctly. I think the A in the second and third syllables shifts a little bit to being like a short-o sound.
I didn't even realize that the "Anglicized" pronunciation was wrong until, well probably about my college years.
And, why am I saying all this? This is way more info than anyone EVER needed!
That was fascinating to read! I have a love for history (I think everyone can tell from my content) and I especially love languages. My parents are immigrants as well so I totally understand that haha. @@josephvahabzadeh1289
@@TheFantasyForge - super cool. Mind if I ask where your parents came from?
I actually had to make myself step away from this conversation because I almost began a novella about how I did a 180 on languages. But, the super-TL;DR version is that, while I enjoyed history, I never got into it a huge amount. As to languages, in my youth, I was afraid of them, as I found the idea of learning another language overwhelming/intimidating. It's only been later in life, and, likely, thanks in part to RPGs, that I started becoming fascinated by accents, which led me to thinking more on how the originating language's rules affects how one's accent sounds when they speak English, etc.
Then learning how to do the accents passably enough to sound convincing in a game. And now, I also pay a little too much attention to that kind of thing in movies and TV shows as well, up to just the other night watching a show and thinking "This guy's British. He is doing a pretty good American accent, but these tiny slips come out. I'm pretty sure he's a British actor."
Yes, that's the *short* version.
@@josephvahabzadeh1289 LOL yeah my parents are from Central America (Costa Rica) but I was born in California which gives me this weird mix of cultures as a first gen.
I totally hear you on that, languages and how the develop is fascinating to me.
Great advice, loved the video!
thanks for the love!
1:45 Tobias was adorable.
@1:46 Tobias chilling with the party before an encounter
Thank you this really will help me create my Lord Soth encounter truly epic
1:45 Tobias would never pull the players out of the story!
Good stuff. Well thought out.
appreciate the love! :D
Good points and tips
Thank you! Always appreciate the love you leave
Nice
1:46 I'd be worried about him, but somehow I think maybe he had something to do with this.
...whaaat...Tobias???...nooooo..........😏
@7:14 "monsters aren't real". Untrue. They're called billionaires. Hoarding wealth and subjugating 'lesser beings' while completely disregarding loss of life and the destruction they cause... Sounds alot like a dragon to me.
I cant argue with that one lmao
Dead cells
Good video tho
still have no idea who that is lmao
Oh I thought that your avatar is from the game dead cells, one of the skins there is suspiciously similar
Really good video btw
@@smart456 Lol I've googled them after people started mentioning it. I didn't realize there were different skins! Any way to look it up? I'm curious lmao
I'll try
Edit: at the dead cells wiki, there is a list of head skins and the one I'm talking about is called black hole And it might not look similar at first glance, but the animation is really similar
Edit edit: I think it's one of the variations of that black hole skin
God i hate narrative gamers, go back to the theater classes
Nobody is making you play with them lmao. Sorry the video isn't for you! Have fun at your own type of games though. Thanks for the engagement!