The Dresden Files > DFRPG

Building a big bad

(1/2) > >>

Ownagepants:
Ok so my characters are about to possibly fight a rather powerful character it's a lord of outer night but due to him having been trapped for decades he's severely weakened . So I need help building him that he would be a challenging fight for 4 characters at chest deep without also being so strong that nothing short of magic Dm powers could save them .

Sanctaphrax:
An appropriate challenge for your players depends on what your characters can do. Not all Chest Deep characters are created equal. What are their stats?

That being said, one principle holds true for all boss monsters. You've got to account for the massive action advantage the players have. The ability to attack zones or otherwise harm multiple characters is a must; if the monster has a chance of winning with single-target attacks, it probably hits too hard.

Mr. Death:
For balancing, yeah, the effective stats are much more important than refresh spent. A character with one refresh spent and an attack roll of 6 is going to be more dangerous than a character with 8 refresh spent, but an attack roll of only 2.

Look at your PCs effective combat rolls ("effective" here meaning factor in any applicable stunts and powers). If you want this to be a real disadvantage for them, put the villain's stats at 2 higher than that.

Does the Big Bad know about the PCs? If so, have him be prepared. If there's a huge magic blaster on the team, give the Big Bad an item that protects against magic.

Maybe he has some power that they haven't accounted for. They're prepared for a brawl with a Red Court, but maybe not for a Red Court with illusion powers, for instance.

Another way to mitigate the action advantage Sanctaphrax mentioned is to give him some goons. Or create another concurrent situation the PCs have to deal with so they're not all just focused on mass damaging him.

Ownagepants:
maybe I could say he was sealed away with some of his more loyal followers or perhaps
Have the building start to collapse but give them ways to keep it up so not all of them can
Attack at once .

narphoenix:

--- Quote from: Ownagepants on September 28, 2017, 02:49:54 PM ---maybe I could say he was sealed away with some of his more loyal followers or perhaps
Have the building start to collapse but give them ways to keep it up so not all of them can
Attack at once .

--- End quote ---

I can't say that I strongly recommend that last bit. Players have enough ingenuity, generally speaking, that if you're counting on that they're gonna fuck it up for you.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page