Unique Bosses

[Cookie Ninja 374]

I'm fine with that. As long as you dont release a game with the boss before i do!

 

I will release imformation about other bosses i made tomorrow, i think you will find the interesting.   (as im of to bed now)

[Guyver 65]

I like tough bosses. I'm going to have at least tone boss the can Charm you, I actually want it to be similar your "Possess" skill.How'd you set it up?

 

Speaking of charms, I made a series of status effects called "x element Dominion" It's an AoE confusion skill that debuffs elemental resistance and changes your attacking element to the nature of the spell. If a fire spirit casts flame dominion, you have a chance to get confused and your attack element changes to fire and you get a fire damage debuff. If you attack an ally, you'll hit them hard with the debuffed element and if you attack the fire spirit it'll heal.

 

It's super annoying in some of my boss fights that have reinforcements that can cast these skills.

[Cookie Ninja 374]

This boss that i made pretty early in game is a pain.

 

He is not to interesting at first glance:

High Hp

High Def

And deals heavy physical damage to a single target.

 

Seems easy enough, If you ignore the fact that he copies himself. These copies come in at full hp.

 

Round 1 1 boss becomes 2

Round 2 2 bosses become 4

Round 3 4 bosses become 8 here it stops as no more allowed

 

You have to kill all of them at once in order to finish the fight, easier said than done as you are now being hammerd by 8 bosses and they have a chance to stagger your party.

 

Simple but deadly!

[lonequeso 1,921]

Lol! Reminds me of a villain from an anime. He could only make seven copies of himself. If you didn't take them all out at once, he instantly heal himself to full strength. I hope the player has some AoE skills.

[Cookie Ninja 374]

I have another one:

 

He uses a skill that is alot like "Bad breath" from final fantasy.

 

You are gonna be done in pretty fast if not prepared for him.

 

As well as when he is immune to all status ailments until he reaches 15% Hp (he then becomes vulnerable to "Magic null" state). This is key as when he reaches 10% he uses "Full restore".

 

I'd love to see the face of the player when they, after a long and hard battle sees all progress gone in an instant! xD im so evil it hurts

 

Edit: 11 more bosses to go, i'll keep em commin bit by bit!

Edited October 6, 2015 by Zhakrissto

[lonequeso 1,921]

Lol. You are evil 

Were you always this evil, or is it a side effect of your cookie and fairy dust addictions?

[Cookie Ninja 374]

Dunno  :wacko: We have a long tradition of not showing mercy among Cookie ninjas. I guess RM really brings that side out of me!

 

I got 16 bosses in my game... asside from the first boss they are all very evil.

 

When i read this thread for the first time i rofl'd! My first boss is actually slime king

he summons 2 types of minions that either heal him or cover him. (didnt elaborate much more on that tho)

However i did work out how slime society works xD

[lonequeso 1,921]

My King is totally different from yours. First, they're Goos, not slime. He has loyal servants, and not minions. They cure and shield him. See? Totally different.

 

You made a society for the slimes? Sweet! My characters didn't care about how or why the goos were in the cave or why they were protecting the mineral you need to collect. After several failed attempts at diplomacy, my characters decided to solve all their problems with violence. Lol, there's actually a conversation just before a  boss fight where the main character says something to the effect of,

"Maybe we can try and reason with him, an- You know what? Screw it. Everytime we try to be diplomatic we just end up having to fight anyway. Let's just kick his ass and be done with it."

The rest of the party agreed. 

[Cookie Ninja 374]

My King is totally different from yours. First, they're Goos, not slime. He has loyal servants, and not minions. They cure and shield him. See? Totally different.

 Yea, no resemblance what so ever >.>

 

Next entry:

 

This one requires circumstances to understand. You meet him in the middle of nowhere,

he takes all your items and money and runs away! Now you can either accept your losses and just leave him.

Or you have to chase him down, You have to fight him multiple times and chase him down agian.

 

Every time he has a new set of skills and a different attack pattern.

 

In the last of four fights he will use confuse on your party and when he reaches 20% hp he will use your items to heal him self.

Aswell as he will throughout the fight he will also use your items to remove any ailments.

 

Dialog at the start of the fight lets the player know that this is what is going on! xD

He can be staggered to prevent him using all your pot's... if the player figures it out

 

Not hard to set up... but it takes a hell of long time with variables and eventing!

[lonequeso 1,921]

Lol. You seem to like getting super elaborate with your boss designs. What's the reward for beating him? Unless it's something good, I might just say screw it and let him go.

[Cookie Ninja 374]

Reward:

1. All your stuff back
2. Generous exp
3. Key to his secret stash (in there you find a uniqe accessory that makes a character imune to all types of stuns and confuse) + some other stuff

In my game gaining more than one type of imunity is like super rare!

 

 

Lol. You seem to like getting super elaborate with your boss designs.

 

Yes! I want to make every boss memorable....

Edited October 8, 2015 by Zhakrissto

[Point08 219]

Um, Zhakrissto, shouldn't you be busy replying to a different thread? Just kidding, of course!

 

You have some pretty interesting boss ideas. Now this thread makes me wonder, out of all the one's posted so far, which would actually be the most difficult? Impossible to measure of course, as it would depend on the rest of the game mechanics, what abilities the character's have, etc. But still cool to wonder about.

 

I don't have a boss in my game, since I don't yet have a game. However, I have plans for one that I think will be interesting.

 

First though, I have to mention that in my game that I don't yet have, there is a fatigue system. Everyone builds fatigue in combat. Physical types build, unsurprisingly, physical fatigue while mages build mental fatigue. If your fatigue gets high enough you start to suffer penalties (such as decreased speed and/or damage, for mages there is a greater risk their spells go out of control...yeah, that's also a mechanic, sorry mages). If it reaches full, the character will lose consciousness for a few turns, and then awake with a lowered fatigue level. Sleeping (even in combat, such as through a sleep spell) is a way to rapidly recover from fatigue.

 

So Mr. Boss, he has various attacks that aren't anything too terrible or unconventional. That is until he starts getting fatigued. Then he starts to use a party-wide AoE attack that causes a DoT state, which is stackable. It also decreases the effectiveness of most forms of healing. This ability can be problematic, quickly. Easy right, just sleep the boss and let his fatigue recover. You could even sleep some party members to let them recover, as they're probably getting a bit fatigued by now as well. Sounds good, except for a few problems. One, he has some pretty hefty defense, but it suffers a heavy penalty as he gets fatigued. Let him rest too long, and party damage goes way down. Another problem, he has help (of course he does), and they're jerks. They also have really high defense, but they don't do a whole lot of damage. Why are they jerks? They like to wake up Mr. Boss (and each other) if slept. There's various methods to beat him, but they all require strategy. Simply trying to power through his AoE attack will almost certainly end in death unless the player has a very good grasp on strategic ability use (which is a big part of combat in my game). Sleeping him and killing his helpers works, but he's going to keep waking up, and killing the helpers is going to take a long time due to their defense. Do the characters have enough health/mp and/or ability to manage fatigue to do that? There is a way to partially deal with the helper's ability to wake each other and the boss, but it requires the player to really think, and again, be familiar with their abilities, as it takes a certain combination of abilities to make it work right. (I'm not going to say what it is here, and spoil it).

 

Of course, since the fatigue system isn't finished, I can't even be sure this will work, so it may never get past the idea stage unfortunately.

[lonequeso 1,921]

I'm fatigued just thinking about it. It sounds like a very well thought out boss. I'm sure there's a way to make a fatigue system. If you're not using it for anything else, 

TP could be the base. Then you'd just need Custom Conditions script for the battlers. 

[Point08 219]

Actually, I do use TP. Charmin Ultra Soft in fact. Wait, oh...haha, you meant that TP. Let's just pretend that didn't happen.

 

Unfortunately, I do use TP, as well as MP. Even MP has to be altered since in my game, magi works more like skills. You don't just start a fight with full MP and cast until empty. Powerful spells have to be built up to. In other words, MP is gained throughout the fight, and while spells cost MP, they also reward some (like skills cost TP, but often also reward some TP just like regular attacks do). I'm also making the game in MV, so a lot of this unfortunately has to stay in the planning phase for a few more weeks. Then I have to figure out what is possible by default, what I need scripts for, and if I'm capable of writing them or if I need someone else to. Yay...

 

I hope the boss is well thought out. It could turn out once I playtest it that he sucks. It also depends on how skill use turns out and whether or not it is easy enough for the player to figure out that sometimes buffing enemies and/or placing negative effects on allies can be beneficial (kind of like the idea in some games where you can purposely get poisoned, or poison yourself, to prevent being slept).

Edited October 8, 2015 by Point08

[lonequeso 1,921]

Figuring out the fatigue system will be the major thing. You need to have custom conditions in battle, too. It's quite an undertaking. I wouldn't worry too much about a single boss. There aren't too many RPGs I've played that have it. It'd be a cool mechanic.

[Ctelin Ajira 0]

I actually have two entries for this one.  As a rule, non-damaging status Magic generally ignores MEV and MRF in my game, for reasons involving game balance - I don't want my MEV-boosting ability to be a catch-all. (WARNING: TEXT WALL)
 

---

 
First entry: a Lich
 
Combat Gimmicks:

• A phylactery that, if the Lich is dead, reflexively resurrects the Lich.
  • However, you must kill the Lich to attack the Phylactery, as
    • it's immune to status effects and damage of certain elements
    • the Lich reflexively covers the phylactery against damaging physical and magical attacks
      • As such, AE won't help you kill both at once.

---

 
Second entry: My antagonist, Alexander (a very fun boss, for a loose definition of fun.  Your mileage may vary on that claim)
 
Combat Gimmicks:

• Balanced as a Player Character (he would have been in your party for the Lich battle described above, and, since he is fought immediately afterward, he can't be stronger than he was in that fight)
• Has access to the same skills he had as a Player Character, and can potentially perform some downright deadly combos (again, can't arbitrarily be stronger than he was during the Lich fight)
  • An AE buff that returns all damage received
  • An AE buff that halves damage
  • An instant kill that executes only on those afflicted with certain status effects
    • Three damaging area-nukes with status procs that pertain to the above instant kill
  • A single-target spell that converts MP into damage (ignores MEV and MRF)
• Is equipped with pretty good defensive equipment, including a robe that halves damage of any element, a helm that absorbs Holy element, and an accessory that nullifies status ailments
• Will react to certain buffs that hinder his efforts
  • Raise a stat?  He casts Reverse Polarity to invert your buffs (done with eventing, switches, and a script snippet)
  • Increase MEV or MRF?  He switches to spells he knows that ignore MEV and MRF (done with eventing and switches)
• Has three loyal followers:
  • A mage with high EVA, some MP regen, and an additional action per turn (all thanks to equipment setup you as a player get access to later)
  • An archer with poison-enchanted arrows and an angel ring (the angel ring's effect is to resurrect the wearer once with 1 HP the instant the wearer suffers from the Death state.  See Reraise from Final Fantasy)
  • A knight with heavy armor that heavily mitigates physical attacks and boosts the wearer's MEV, a shield that maxes out CEV, and an accessory that gives him immunity to instant death
    • Should Alexander ever drop below half-health, the knight can and will cover him against physical attacks
  • As a result of all of this, you can't really just use any one attack to kill all of them
• No one is afraid to drop an Elixir on self should their HP or MP drop too low (the knight will prioritize protecting Alexander above healing, though)
• Can and will destroy you if you relegate the first turn to setup spells like you would any other boss in my game.

---

 

Which one would you say is more interesting?  And are they unfair?  My game is still pretty early in its development, so any feedback on what I need to fix would be nice.

Edited October 9, 2015 by Ctelin Ajira

[lonequeso 1,921]

They both sound equally interesting to me.

 

I'm a bit confused by the first one. It sounds like the phylactery instantly brings the Lich back to life. Is that right or does it take a turn or two? I'm just wondering how much of a window the player has to damage the phylactery before the Lich respawns. Also, about how many hits the phylactery can take.

 

​The second one is definitely complex. As for difficulty, that's something that has to be play tested. You explained it well, but words only go so far in describing a battle system. Just make sure there is some sort of strategy to defeat the enemies. 

[Cookie Ninja 374]

I'd recite what lonequeso just said. (but that would just be boring)

So instead!

 

Next entry:

This boss is a trio!

 

1st: Tank

High Hp and high Def.

Covers the other 2 and delays turn when he attacks

 

2nd: Healer

Throws heal on the boss with lowest % Hp

If all of them are full on Hp will throw MANY buffs on the bosses. (one at a time tho)

Therefore it is vital to deal damage every turn to keep him occupied!

 

3rd Killer

Has four attacks

Dispair: Blind, Silence and Poison 1 char

Cascade: Heavy physical damage AoE

Funny gas: 50% chance to apply confuse state on every partymember (rolls them individually so 0-5 characters afflicted)

 

Reaping: apply death state to a character (she does this alternating 3 and 5 turns between succesive uses, does not consume the turn of the boss and is 100% accurate)

She will do it turn: 5, 8, 13, 16, 21, 24..... and so on. Just to clarify.

 

You need to go in very well prepared. Strategy is core in my game (there is more than 1 way to tackle this, but no way is an easy win)

[lonequeso 1,921]

I have a knack for knocking out triplets  Normally, I'd kill the healer first, but if the tank is begin a jerk and covering him, then he has to go. AoE skills work really well on Covering enemies. They get hit twice. The healer would likely be second. It's just a matter of surviving the killer until you can get to her.

 

I mentioned in some detail about my Spectre. I thought I'd elaborate on it. Like I said before, it switches states that change it's elemental strengths/weaknesses and it's stats. Right now they follow a specific order, I'm probably going to change that. It switches states every three turns. Essentially they're Fire Force, Ice Force, and Lightning Force. It will absorb whichever element the "force" is in. Easy enough to avoid, but it still will temporarily take damaging skills away. It recovers HP every turn and has a fairly strong HP drain skill. It also has AoE and single target skills for each of the elemental states. It has very high MAT, and can do massive damage to characters w/out high MDF. It also has a handful of skills that just apply statuses for good measure. It uses those the least frequently. The main concern is surviving it's attacks.

 

The rewards are well worth the struggle. A good chunk of XP/gold and it drops a unique robe for mages. If you explore the room after, you'll unlock one character's special skill (like the hidden limit breaks in ff7). There's also an ancient artifact in a chest that starts an "Item Trading" quest. I'm still deciding what the reward for that will be.

[Lord Vectra 414]

I have many unique and difficult bosses and I can't pick one because I love them all.

 

I currently have 9 bosses and they're all so special in their own way.

 

Let's talk about two of them. 

Note: Their identities are hidden

 

Man 1

He switches between elements. His skills, strengths, and weaknesses changes when his HP get's to a certain level. This makes it difficult to kill him since all Revenants, distinctively, have different strengths, weaknesses, and skills. You have to constantly change your strategy accordingly. His kind are naturally immune to a lot of ailments.

 

Man 2

Can not be inflicted with any ailment that stops him from attacking except for the ailment, Disarm. He inflicts many ailments that can mess up your strategy and stop you in your tracks. He doesn't have a pattern so it'll be difficult to counter him. It'll be difficult to play on the defensive or offensive side since he inflicts ailments at very random times. You cam use a negative hp regen ailments like burn so that he'll be weakened to a certain element. Burn increases fire damag to the victim by 10%. Even then, it'll be tough to out-power him or go total defense.

 

He is a part of a religion that the believers are assigned to an animal. The most common is wolf but his is the mark of the Lion. Due to this, his special ability is Prideful Roar. He uses it when his HP has reached to a certain amount. The entire party's Max MP is decreased to 0 for 10 turns. His other special ability is Summon Beast III which cause crazy bleeding damage.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Vectra

[Rezanta 373]

Well, I like the lists here... It makes me feel like I didn't prepare my bosses. Anywhom...
My boss, Xerian, isn't really that hard, but he can leave a painful beating if you don't time your attacks. He uses an ability called "Sharpen", which doubles his next attack damage. To add more pain, he'll then either attack a party memeber twice, or hit with Power Slash, which deals 1000~2000 damage generally with his XP version. (Thankfully Powerslash is only used when he has the Sharp (x2 in XP) state). In VX, he deals moderately less damage with Power Slash, roughly 1000 to 1500 damage, excluding variance and any bonus state... But we're just getting to the VX Ace version. In this, Xerain can also cause members to gain "Crushed" or "Fear" states. The first causes attacks to deal 1/5th of their damage for 1-2 turns, and I do think the generic fear is self-explained. I hope you like it.

[lonequeso 1,921]

Lol. In others words, Xerian uses Sharpen, player uses Defense.    Still, one misstep and you got a dead character.

Sounds like you have a high HP game. Unless he's a later boss. Thanks for sharing 

 

When I originally made this post, I was asking about special bosses that you don't see often in games. It kind of evolved into bosses that require a well-thought out strategy to beat. That's a good thing. Easy boss fights are boring. Hopefully, people who read this thread will be inspired to make create some bosses that are both unique and difficult.

Edited October 11, 2015 by lonequeso

[Rezanta 373]

Very good point. I need to get out of the habit of springing a lot of bosses, but then again, none of my bosses come out easy early on. If I can get around to getting my game demo set and finished, the first chapter has you facing Xerian twice. Don't worry, you can buy Elixers and grind at the arenas. Would you say that balances it out?

[xoferew 261]

In my first game you had to collect 99 crystals throughout the game, in order to be able to approach the final boss without dying instantly.  In the battle, each turn the boss broke one and sometimes three of your crystals in addition to his main move.  Once in awhile he broke five.  It was like a countdown, if you didn't kill him before the last crystal broke it would be game over.  You also had to little by little throw all your special stuff at him.  Key items, keepsakes, crafting tools, whatever.  It had the psychological feel of really sacrificing everything, almost undoing your entire journey.  (That was the intention at least.)  The boss's actual moves were probably not that interesting since I can't remember them. 

[lonequeso 1,921]

@Rezanta- Earlier bosses tend not to be super complex. In most RPG's the characters don't have a lot of skills yet so it's harder to make a really complex boss. Generally you don't want to make an early boss incredibly hard unless the entire game has a high degree of difficulty. Usually games have a difficulty curve. As far as balancing goes, as long as the player has time to stock up and prepare for the boss fights, you'll be fine.

 

@Xoferew- Cool concept. Winning is kind of bittersweet.