Hello, /tg/. I'm putting together a campaign for my first time DMing, and I have an idea for a boss fight that I wanted to bounce off some more seasoned DnD players before I put it in.
(DnD 5e)
The fight is against an Adult Red Dragon, using mainly the standard rules in the Monster Manual. However, the fight takes place in a metal refinery, and My idea what that the dragon would scoop up some of the molten metal in its mouth, and drop it onto the players. Players would make a dex save to move out of the way, and those who fail the dex save take 1d10 fire damage. After the metal is dropped, it pools in a 5x5 square on the battle grid. Any player standing in it during their turn takes an additional 1d4 fire damage, and the pool cools after three turns.
Thoughts?
Sounds neat, but the damage seems low if they're fighting an adult red dragon.
>>43909425
Interesting. How much damage would you reccomend? I was concerned about making the dragon too overpowered.
>>43909414
add a dex penalty to the molten metal.
I like it.
>>43909425
Maybe this. Check out page 249 of the DMG, "Improvising Damage". 1d10 is "burned by coals", 2d10 is "stumbling into a fire pit". I suppose it depends how much molten metal there is.
Are there other baddies around? It would be cool if there were some kobold mooks they could shove into the molten pools.
>>43909443
Well you can give the dragon his usual attacks. What level are the player characters?
The D&D Starter Set has a fight with an adult blue dragon, when the player characters are only level 3. But the PCs don't have to KILL the dragon, and depending on how you spin it, there can be a few restrictions (the dragon doesn't leave his tower, he doesn't want to risk damaging his hoard, etc.). You could do something like that here.
>>43909537
Well, considering the dragon doesn't really have those limitations, and yes, the players have to kill it, I was thinking around levels 7-10.
>>43909659
I suppose I could include a limitation with the dragon being very careful not to knock over the vats of molten metal. The concept behind it was that the dragon filled the vats with gold, and boasts of his hoard containing literal lakes of gold. These limitations would probably manifest as an aversion to using melee attacks when within range of the vats, and if one of the vats is knocked over, the dragon rushes to reset it, possibly slipping in his haste when charging over the massive pool of molten metal this would create.
>role playing game
>boss fight
Are you confusing d&d with a video game?
>>43909759
The idea of a boss fight is older than vidya m8. Try again.
>>43909759
Well, I guess I got my terminology confused. What do I call a fight with large monster serving as a penultimate enemy? No sarcasm, I'm seriously asking.
>>43909833
Not the guy you were responding to but a Climax? It helps to think of an RPG in terms of story structure rather than game structure sometimes.
>>43909833
Disregard the tryhard. It's a pretty bitchin' idea. Consider maybe a slowing effect as the metal solidifies and burns through musculature.
My first impression is that you've got a good idea for a mechanically interesting boss fight. That's fine for bottom-up design. The other side of it, the top-down approach, asks why is the dragon there? What is he trying to accomplish and how does he approach the PCs? Is he trying to keep himself hidden up above or is he making his presence known to try to scare them away with threats? Is he going to fight to the death or will he flee when things look bad? If he is the "penultimate" encounter then who or what is pulling his strings?
Also, touching back on the mechanical side of things, how high is the roof of this refinery? How are the players meant to approach him? is there a second floor or a scaffolding to allow access to the higher reaches of the building? Are their hooks and chains hanging around for hauling metal up into and out of the furnaces? Conveyor belts? A blast furnace? Pressing Molds crushing whatever passes into them? Do they have a way to deal with a flying wyrm crawling around in the rafters up above? Or is he going to become vulnerable only when he comes to scoop up more metal? But then why doesn't he use his fire breath and not make himself vulnerable to the melee PCs?
The more you keep in mind about your villains and your arena the better you'll be able to adjust to your players tactics to make a more dramatic scene.
>>43909759
The first video game to include bosses was actually a D&D-based game called "dnd". Just some trivia.
>>43909833
>>43909867
The "final fight" maybe? I guess that's what I'd call it in an action movie, although I don't know what I'd call the enemy. The antagonist? The villain? The baddie?
>>43910366
>role playing game
>final fight
Are you confusing d&d with an action movie?
>>43910741
Read the next clause, and the posts I'm replying to.
>>43909994
Thanks for the advice. I'm planning on putting more thought into the environment, (I like the hooks and conveyor belts idea) but when I posted this thread, I was focusing more on the molten gold mechanic.
