I have found that most memorable and highly enjoyable computer role-playing games can teach you valuable lessons about how to make interesting encounters and dungeons. The lesson we’re looking at today come from the SNES era of RPGs like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IV.
I like to call it—a boss in parts.
The boss in parts is one boss that is actually three or more components: either a group of individuals that work together or several parts that make up a whole creature. Each part of the encounter fills one of the following roles:
- Leader
- Controller
- Striker
- Fodder
The leader heals the other parts, the controller keeps the PCs from hitting the leader, and the striker wears away at the party. The fodder parts serve as barriers to the rest, getting in the PCs way, but dealing little damage.
When the controller and leader parts go down, the striker has a power to bring them back with reduced HP. Additionally, the parts can usually execute a massive group attack if they can get into a certain formation on the board or surround a PC.
It’s obvious that if the PCs don’t break the rhythm of the encounter, they’ll be facing a perpetual damage machine. How you break that pattern is entirely up to you. Maybe one part has a specific weakness that prevents it from fulfilling its role. Perhaps the parts need to be within a certain range of each other for the powers to work.
My personal favorite gimmick is to have the roulette weak point. Only one of the parts in the encounter takes damage when attacked, but it changes each turn. I usually drop some kind of hint in the encounter about how to identify the weak point, but doing so almost always requires a perception or insight check. Fail to hit the weak point before the end of the round and the monster heals itself for a significant amount.
Here are a few monsters in parts that I’ve run in the past and how they’ve been set-up.
Giant Squid
A large mini in the center. Two medium glass beads, minis, tokens, etc. act as the main tentacles and four others are used as the fodder tentacles. The center is the controller and spits ink while the two main tentacles fill the leader and striker roles. Each tentacle has reach 1, but must stay adjacent to the center.
Guardian Golem
A large mini in the center to represent the core and two medium tokens on either side for the golem’s arms. The center is part of a wall and remains stationary. It serves as the striker and blasts the PCs with beams of magical destruction. The hands fill the leader and controller roles and also remain stationary. When the core becomes bloodied, it launches its hands out in a double rocket fist attack. After that, the hands are independently mobile.
The Great Wyrm
A medium sized mini for the head, one for the tail, and one for the center. The three parts are connected by 3 tokens, making a chain that is 9 medium-sized creatures long. Each segment can move 1s, but has to remain adjacent to its neighboring segments. The head is the striker, the tail the controller, and the center the leader. The center grants the entire creature regeneration. Killing the center causes the wyrm to split into two smaller wyrms made of 4 segments each. The tail becomes another striker, making the encounter more deadly, but both new wyrms lack regeneration.
Monster zero
A three headed dragon with a huge mini for the body. On the front and both sides are a chain of 4 tokens ending in a medium sized mini to represent a head. Each head is a striker and can move into any space it can reach and still be connected by its adjacent segments. The body can move back and forward, but can’t move side to side or turn. The PCs must attack the “necks” of each head to chop it off. Make sure to keep track of where the head falls when it dies. After the monster is decapitated, a large eye sprouts from each bleeding neck hole and the chest opens up into one giant eye. The disembodied heads then float off the ground and become flying menaces, but lack any breath weapon they had while still connected to the body. The body acts like a giant beholderhemoth. If a head is destroyed, it rises again as long as the body is alive.
I started Dungeon Mastering with secondhand AD&D materials in 1996 and have run a vast number of D20 campaigns, from cliche' medieval adventures in a kingdom made of Lego bricks to fighting zombies and the mob in the mid 1930s. I try to make the gaming experience as enjoyable, fast-paced, and easy to play as humanly possible. 
As complicated as they sound to set up, I imagine they don’t move around a lot.
Any feedback from your players on how these Big Bosses were received?
This just brought a huge smile to my face – I’m definitely going to have to find a way to work one of these into my game at some point. Great idea!
I had a similar idea a while back, also inspired by video games… My implementation was a bit different, though, using a boss who changes forms throughout the course of the battle.
http://www.encounteraday.com/2009/04/27/multi-part-bosses/
The feedback has always been positive. These monsters are a bit more work to set-up, but the expression on the players’ faces has always been worth the effort.
The giant squid moved a lot and had to keep rotating to keep its main tentacles directed at the PCs.
The great wyrm was highly mobile with each segment moving 1s per turn. A constant threat was one or more PCs getting surrounded by the creature. I forgot to mention that when it split into two, those segments increased to moving 3s a turn.
Monster zero is probably the most mobile, especially after the heads broke off and began zipping around the board as flying monsters. I had to reduce the amount of turning the beholderhemoth form made to give the party a fighting chance against its gaze attacks. The first time I ran it without turning restrictions killed 3 PCs and ended in a strategic withdrawal.
I always liked the idea of a puzzle boss fight. Not necessarily a gimmick fight, where you have to run around and hit buttons in order to beat the boss (because that’s anticlimactic and boring as hell, unless your group is specced for it), but a fight where the players have to think.
As a player, nothing’s more fun than saying “My god, my attacks, they do nothing!” and then figure out how to beat it. My fondest memory is fighting some sort of sand monster in a vehicle-based fight, and hearing the GM say “You hit, but it doesn’t look like it did anything.” That’s when I learned what Damage Resistance was.
Wow, I really like this idea. I’m going to add it to my list for a game I’m trying to come up with. Thanks!
Wow. It’s articles like this that make me feel good about still not having a D&DI account. This is the type of thinking that really enhances the game more than adding another character class or some new feats.
wow, I need to try that. Guess I’ll work on a giant squid encounter myself, and see what happens. Thank you a lot for the insight.
Another excellent idea
I am trying to assemble something similar, in which an NPC is posessed by a suit of armor and some weapons once owned by a fallen knight.
He starts as a party solo brute, and “changes” into a solo skirmisher, and finally solo artillery as first armor and then weapon are destroyed.
I figured it would be a good way to keep the party on their toes, as there are already some pretty solid party tactics that tend to make short work out of a solo without minions.
Realy Great!
A good idea… The Giant Squid i wanna use in a old adventure that i will master it again! This adventure start with the PC´s get in a caravel to going to other continent… All NPC´s have their on motivation to croos the sea and they meet fr the first time in this caravel!