A few weekends ago my friends held an all day game event. Two different games, Star Trek in Savage Worlds and DnD 5e (followed by some Rock Band). Both games were awesome, but the GMs both seemed to feel that the Boss Battles at the end didn’t have enough “punch” (again, totally disagree – they were awesome).

It did start me thinking, how do you make a great Boss Battle? What actually makes it a great Boss Battle?

Based on the games from last weekend, it was two things, saving the actual boss for the end, and adding supplemental foes to balance the battle.

It seems easy, but keeping the final boss away from players can be tricky. You want them to feel motivated to “take down” (whatever that means in your game) the big boss, and one of the best ways is to taunt them at times during the adventure. But every GM has experienced the tenacity of a group that spies their objective early and wont let go. In my experience, a couple of things can happen. First, the PCs win and leave you with a gaping hole where the plot used to be. Easy solution here is to bring out the “real” big boss later, after you spend a few minutes making them up on the back of a 3×5 card. Easy enough in a long running campaign while a Con game is trickier. Or second, you can fudge the outcome of an encounter, letting the bass get away. I hate this option because the players are likely to feel cheated. An uncommon third option, more likely in long running campaigns is that the PCs aren’t ready to encounter the boss, and get “taken down” themselves. If you can do this without killing the PCs (or at least not all of them), it makes for more motivation you can use later on

Adding supplemental foes (flunkies or minions), depends on the system. Savage Worlds extras are easier. They go down fast, and the system makes management of stats fairly easy. However, the exploding dice mechanic can make them deadly at unexpected times. DnD 5e minions are a little trickier and require more bookkeeping. Personally, I prefer to give the big bad some legendary powers (instant saves for example), or some lair actions that let it act between the PCs turns. Another option with DnD is to have the minion battle before the boss battle and count on resource management (I know – not exciting) to introduce some of the suspense for the encounter.

The  forgotten element for any boss battle is the environment (speaking for myself). I have really enjoyed a lot of the battles in the Tyranny of Dragons, because of the locations and environments of the battles. Putting a dragon where it doesn’t have to land to engage the PCs is like giving it extra actions. Putting a spellcaster behind cover or in a hard to access spot lets them last longer and could prevent foes from ganging up. Making the PCs navigate difficult terrain before they get to the bad guys, could use up the PCs resources or give the bad guys extra attacks.

Whatever option(s) you choose, it’s all about ratcheting up the tension. Give each boss a unique challenge and your players will always come back for more.