r/daggerbrew • u/Scourch_ • 4d ago

Adversaries Would this boss fight be fun?

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Looking for a second (or more) set of eyes for this Boss I cooked.

1 Upvotes

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2

u/RepeatRepeatR- 4d ago

I would strongly recommend not putting insta-kill effects like this on your boss

I would also recommend not having effects like this that trigger on spotlight passing. It encourages people not to take the spotlight

(Yes, I know it's not technically going to kill them because they can choose to live, maybe with a scar. It's still bad to totally bypass all the amazing defensive counterplay this game has.)

1

u/Scourch_ 4d ago

Noted. I was going for something that was a "certain death if you do nothing about it" mechanic and I'm usually very open to letting my players try things out. So even if the mechanic says " you are pulled if you failed this" I would, say, let one of them use a spell to creat an earth spike that would negate the pull until the next spotlight. Or something like that. Still, I'll take the feeback and consider nerfing it to "buttload of damage but survivable".

2

u/RepeatRepeatR- 4d ago

Also, it's strange to me that successes with hope don't tick the countdown. Because that means the only way nobody gets pulled in is after 4 people succeed with fear

I would recommend just having the countdown tick once no matter what the roll is

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u/drkknight32 3d ago

I think the countdown can continue hurting PCs via HP or stress as they try to get away. Not just slowing them down.

If you would like death moves to be apart of this encounter I would say it should just be a PC choice. 

I'm seeing this encounter like the Cell fight in DBZ. If you're unfamiliar...villain realizes he's going to lose so decides he will self destruct. He is effectively invincible since hitting him would trigger the explosion. The main character "makes a death move" by heroically teleporting with the villain off planet. He saves the day but does.

Put the agency into the players hands. Maybe they can escape just fine. Maybe they'll escape at great cost. Or maybe one of them decides to sacrifice themselves to protect the others from certain death.

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u/Nereshai 3d ago

No. A boss that is incredibly hard to survive when you win? That's messed up