Strategies for a Boss Battle
It's finally arrived: The Big Bad Boss Battle. You've done all the quests, traversed the darkest dungeons, and fought (or maybe talked to, who knows) all the monsters in your path to this moment. The question is, can you defeat them? Ready or not, you're about to find out.
Players think that a GM isn't going to kill a character or, even worse, TPK the party at the end of a campaign. I don't know of any that would go into the battle intending to kill anyone, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. The dice may not roll in your favor, or even worse, the party does enough foolish things to kill themselves. I've said it a million times: we, as players, tend to do incredibly dumb stuff. A good GM won't set you up for failure, but it's not their job to protect us from ourselves.
So here are some things you can do to set yourself up for a glorious victory, not a disastrous defeat. If this is the case, why not start the fight off with a surprise round?
Surprise them
Unless you're wandering around, hoping to stumble across them, you'll know where the BBEG is. Gaining a surprise round isn't the easiest thing, especially when a fighter is stomping around in a full suit of plate mail. Yes, I know there is no such thing as a surprise round, but you get my drift.
The best-case scenario would be to attempt a Group Check. Whether or not you can try such a check is up to the GM. If you take the time to position the party members in advantageous locations and wait until the right moment, a kind and benevolent GM will probably let you attempt it.
Make a ''Knowledge" Check
Unlike Pathfinder, D&D doesn't have a specific knowledge check. This doesn't mean that you can't glean some vital knowledge about the creature you are fighting. A GM should allow you to make any number of Intelligence checks if you ask the right questions.
An Arcana check could tell you about the magic, whether spells or items the creature possesses. A History check could provide information if you know the creature's lore or from tales passed down through the generations. Learn from the regional effects via a Nature Check. A Religion check could tell you about what god the creature worships and, in turn, what powers they granted them.
Battlefield Control
I've discussed the importance of controlling the battlefield at length (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6). You can gain the upper hand in many ways by controlling the physical location around you. By controlling the landscape, you can limit a creature's movement options, which, in effect, lets you decide where and how the creature moves and acts.
Ready an Action
To Ready an Action, you must use your Action to ready a Reaction. It seems like a lot to give up on your turn, but don't let that fool you. Readying an Action, in effect, changes the initiative for that round and can give you the upper hand if used correctly. If the creature has minions, a rogue can ready the sneak attack action, with the trigger being "when another enemy moves within 5 feet of the BBEG" (or something similar if your GM uses flanking rules). If you've gained control of the battlefield (see above), this may not be as hard as you think.
Readying an Action can also create some great attack/spell combos. I've also written a couple of articles about combos, and here is one of my favorites from the articles. If you have a druid, ranger, and/or bard in the party, plant growth and spike growth. This combo is especially effective if the BBEG and his minions rush towards you.
The ranger or druid holds their action with the trigger being "When plant growth is cast, I cast spike growth." Now, farther down the initiative, another party member casts plant growth. All normal plants within a 100-foot radius become overgrown, with any creatures in this area now using 4ft of movement to go 1ft. The spell's range is 150ft. All normal plants in a 100-foot radius centered on that point become thick and overgrown. In addition, you can exclude one or more areas of any size within the spell's area from being affected, allowing you to shape the landscape however you want.
Once the spell is cast, it is immediately followed up with spike growth. Not only are they slowed by the Plant Growth, but they are also in difficult terrain. Where normally the creature would be able to get out of the growth's 20ft radius in two turns, based on our above example of 30ft movement, it now takes four rounds, each doing 2d4 damage. That's 8d4 with normal movement, 4d4 if they dash. Sure, it's not a ton of damage, but the damage and the loss of movement speed, all for the cost of a 2nd and 3rd-level spell slot, make it well worth it.
Retreat to fight another day.
There is not much to say here except that there is no shame in running away. Especially if the other option is death.
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