Bosses

A boss fights in stages, uses mechanics against the party on a timer, and heals itself. A raid boss also goes berserk when the fight runs too long.

The mechanics

Nearly every boss comes with unique mechanics. 29 bosses are scripted one by one - Graktan, Gundar, Klauth, Sangrolu, the Elder Wyrm and the rest - and no other creature uses their mechanics.

The raid bosses are the exception, for now. They are the only ones that draw at random from the shared set below, so every raid fight uses the same seven mechanics in a different order. Each raid boss is told apart by a signature spell. Unique mechanics for each raid boss are in progress.

A raid boss picks from the shared set one entry at a time. An entry is one of these mechanics, or two or three of them at once, and the boss never picks the same entry twice in a row:

• A mini-boss, summoned to fight beside it.
• Exploding creatures, which run at players and explode on them.
• Waves of spawns.
• An area of effect dropped where players are standing, or a wave of damage at those spots.
• A pulsing pillar planted on a player, which deals damage until it is destroyed.
• Fixed damage to everyone in range at once.
• A prison: the first player within 20 metres who fails a saving throw is petrified for 1 round (6 seconds), and the boss attacks only that player.

The tier of the dungeon sets how hard the mechanics hit, whatever the boss:

The damage type is picked at random: slashing, magical, acid, cold, electrical, fire, divine or sonic, 12.5% each. Negative energy, bludgeoning and piercing never come up.

Healing, and the clock

Bosses carry a set number of full heals, potions, or a self-cast Harm if they are undead, and use them as the fight goes. What is left is countable.

A raid boss goes berserk if the fight drags. The party is warned at 10 minutes (berserk in 10 minutes) and at 15 minutes (berserk in 5 minutes). At 20 minutes the boss goes berserk: +20 attack bonus, +50 pure damage on every hit, and 2 extra attacks per round. The berserk lasts until the boss dies.

A boss also reacts when it is left standing and ignored. It resets to full health when the party leaves: in an instance when the instance empties, elsewhere when the area empties.

Grades

Bosses come in 4 grades. The grade is what makes one boss harder than another of the same creature type: each grade adds +5 to its challenge rating, and raises its hit points further on top of that.

World bosses

A world boss appears out in the world rather than in an instance. Its summoning is announced first, and the boss appears about 5 minutes later.

See also

• Dungeons
• Creatures
• Monster abilities