Had a fun idea the other day as I was designing a playtest encounter. I wanted to plug in a big bad, but I wanted to avoid that initiative order anomaly that causes non dynamic battles. I had just encountered it in a Tuesday game I play in, the entire party attacks, then the boss guy attacks.
Due to the flow of combat, the solo boss did not feel very dynamic to me and it was even a hydra. Sure the boss could perform multiple attacks, but they all happen at initiative X. Sure he had reactionary attacks, but we took care not to trigger them. So the fight had a certain lopsidedness to it.
Then I had a nostalgic moment, I remembered the final battle from the old SNES side-scroller "King of Dragons". The boss was a giant red dragon that would attack with his head from one side of the screen and his hand would attempt to grab you from the other side. I would fight the head of the red dragon and my little brother would keep the hand off me. A simple tactic, but if my brother died it sucked for me.
That got me thinking, a head on one initiative, a tail on another, then maybe hands could create that dynamic feel from a single boss monster I was looking for. If a dynamic fight isn't enough, there is the glorious moment when you cut the dragon's tail off and turn it into an epic sword like you were playing Dark Souls .... lol
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