🥳🥳Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms launches TOMORROW! Grab your FREE, beautiful Yokai Dawn dice set by backing early! heliana.lt/RyokoKS 🐉🐉Kaiju Fighting Rules Lite Version here! www.heliana.lt/RyokoKaijuLite
Awesome video; I've personally had success with having bosses that have 12 key features that they channel 6 of at a time; when their health drops to 0, it refills and they lose a feature to gain an unused one, and if they lack a spare feature, they die
Getting recognition from DND shorts really shows how much pointy hat has grown and he’s officially a big boy creator. And I’m actually genuinely proud of him
I think kaiju fortitude providing immunity to being moved might be a little too much, because some of the best Kaiju scenes in media (including Empire Strikes Back's AT-AT scene) are when one big creature throws another big creature into a structure or trips them and they go crashing into something. Maybe a fix could be "immune to effects from spells and abilities that would move them, except for abilities from gargantuan sized creatures" or something similar.
Pretty sure this falls under "should be left to GM fiat", although the problem is that it mixes with "players have to accept the GM weaving how things affect the monster, instead of pure RaW-consistency". But yeah, it's oh-so-satisfying that, hey, maybe the push effect is no good if you just try using it, but if you just had the fighter hit its legs, the barbarian do a charging bash, and the wizard fireballed the kaiju's face... what better time to have somebody push down the big kaiju to the ground? Ultimately, it becomes a matter of tabletop improv, which can be... good, or bad, but that's the risk and reward of the system.
Love this idea! One thing to note is that, in 5e, "Gargantuan" is a catch-all for anything above 25 feet. These are all supergargantuan! For example, Bakuryo's token is 60 feet by 30 feet. (Source: am writer of Bakuryo).
If you want to banish them, It should be a quest for some maguffin and then there should still be a fight while you do some ritual. The Kiju should be aware it is happening
@@timothyevans6930 Good point. That seems thematically appropriate for monsters that can't be slain or conventionally defeated - and it can still make for a climactic fight scene. Matt Mercer had two climactic boss fights in that format on Critical Role: The Rite of Prime Banishment for Vecna and the Ritual of Sealing for Uk'otoa. In both cases, they still had to have a whole fight - it's just that the need to seal the boss away changed the win condition. Uk'otoa didn't even really play differently from a normal fight - the players just had to use a special power they'd received after Uk'otoa dropped to 0HP. But for Vecna, the whole fight was balanced around needing to deal enough damage to cause major wounds in Vecna's body, then hammering the Prime Trammels into his wounds, and then completing the Rite of Prime Banishment. All of those things except the wounds were high-DC skill checks that they had to succeed on in the middle of a terrifying final boss encounter, which made for an incredible degree of suspense. So I think this can be an excellent basis for a climactic fight. 🙂
I feel like something to add is in addition to having specific weak spots and pointing things out during combat is that if a player comes up with a clever, resource intensive, dangerous or otherwise idea, reward it. The scale under your example's chin - If a player decides they're going to scale the creature, throw a grenade/fireball/whatever in its mouth, and then probably take an AoO as they escape, that absolutely counts as a hit against the chin weak spot. Everyone else sees as the flames from the explosion blow the protruding scale open and out of the bottom of the neck. The dragon will never let you throw something in its mouth again unless you ready an action to do it when it attacks (which then might mean the wizard or artificer become immune to being bitten), but that first cool moment still works, exposes the real weakness, and keeps the fight moving without players feeling frustrated that they can't find a weak spot.
And even then, you'd have to worry about if the Dragon is able to deal with the explosive quickly enough. Like if it's a red dragon the fire won't do an insane amount, but the shockwave might do some damage, but doing it against a white dragon would produce the best results
Narrating a Kaiju's appearance and behavior can give attentive players a way to find out exploitable weaknesses by intuition or experience. If a player has fought water elementals who are vulnerable to lightning before - or simply reasons an aquatic form would be weak to that or getting frozen - they might conclude that using lightning or ice against Bakuryo's water form is a good idea.
yea, so like, if someone is fighting a rock golem/kaiju, and they know rock monsters take extra damage from weapons that do extra damage to rocky enemies, they might be able to do that to the boss
Same here, sounds like so much work and so much creativity was poured into it, I was not considering it until now, but now I am ; for all the good ideas but also because it looks like it'll be a beautiful piece of art.
Well, i think this video has a good point but it only really apllies to massive scale bosses. My DM sent our party into a boss fight recently which i thought was super cool. To give you some context, we're playing an Ebberon domain of dread campaign called dread metrol, where basically the capitol of Cyre, Metrol, has become a domain of dread with the queen of Cyre as its dread lord and now the city is under siege from endless hordes of undead that pour out of the mists. The boss we fought was actually one of the dark powers that trapped Metrol in the mists, she was called "Aspect of the Empress of Shadows" and she was pretty terrifyingly strong. Her whole thing is that she would bombard the party with a huge number of saving throws, and then try and get her nycaloth goons to finish us off, her multiattack let her make two attacks that forced you to make a con save or gain one level of exhaustion, and one attack that forced you to make a wis save or become charmed, it was pretty terrifying. I remember, on one of the first turns she turned hee attention to me and I had to use everything i had just to pass those saving throws but I did, and though our wizard did get killed temporarily and our fighter got incapacitated by psychic scream for the whole fight (so maybe he didn't have a great time) the rest of us had a pretty good time i think
@@k-aw-teksleepysageuni8181Pointy Hat is another dnd UA-cam channel that makes mostly videos like this one talking about dnd mechanics, classes and races and then gives you a free new way to play with them that still fits in with the original thing for mechanics he usually gives tips on how to fix whatever’s wrong with it, for classes he makes a whole new subclass that you can use, and for races he usually makes a new sub race based on the lore and abilities of that race and the logo/icon of his channel was actually shown in this video at 0:13 when he’s joking about being sued.
I remember the fight against Mr. Freeze, I was so confused and frustrated until I realised the computer program enemy was adapting... I was instantly terrified as Batman; I felt like I was trapped in with Victor rather than the other way around. I always try to add story beats on my Podcast for my party to make it more interesting, especially damage sponge bosses. Great video and good advice for all DMs!
That reminds me of a boss fight in, I think the game was called Mystic Ninja. Essentially a Blue Eastern Style Dragon was abducting children, and your group gets transported onto it's back to try to stop it. You start near the end of it's tail and need to get up to its head while the dragon tries to throw you off. Once you get to the head though, you notice a device that starts attacking you. Once you destroy the device, the dragon crashes. It turns out the device was mind-controlling the dragon, who is beside themself with shame that they've been stealing children and unfortunately has no recollection of where they are. The dragon then gives you a flute that they can hear from anywhere and essentially opens a fast travel option for you for previously visited and air accessible locations.
This is the video that sold me on Ryoko's Guide. It is now a must-have for me! Excellent mechanics, definitely fixes a major weakness in D&D in an elegant and epic way. Kudos!
a fun thing I have tried is armored stacks, which are basically 1HP health pools that can block spell effects. This also inadvertently buffs quick attacking classes and nerfs spellcasters
Contingency spells and consumable protections like contingency help too. Preparations help as well, a Lich might have a Dispel Magic or Counter-Spell Glyph of Warsing set up or even one of Plane Shift for themself. A Cleric Might have a Mass Healing Word go off after a Fireball KO’s Minions and exploits 5e rules so they are back up or have a Spirit Guardians spell go off on a command word. You can also have the villain be proactive and hamper the players’ progress by forcing them into situations where they are forced to use their cool stuff by scouting them out first.
@@thoughtbox6391You could do it similar to damage resistance from 3rd edition. If you connect with a weapon attack, remove one armor stack. If you deal more than say 15 damage in a single strike, any damage over 15 affects the target's real health pool as well. So the rogue dealing 36 damage deals 21 damage and removes an armor stack, while the fighter doing 10, 11, 8 and 16 deals 1 damage and removes 4 armor stacks.
Genuinely You're the best D&D youtuber and one of the best content creators ive ever seen. Like it feels like you read my mind and say exactly what im thinking in these videos
This is a fantastic expansion on combat. I do love the dynamic behavior system, it really would make combat more engaging. I was helping a friend develop one for a Monster Hunter-inspired TTRPG as well as a dynamic combat system that doesn't involve using map, which I'm actually quite proud of because it is tied up very well together with other mechanics. Unfortunately she can't use anything I've made because the vision she had for the system isn't compatible. I'm still going to fine-tune and develop it to use else where.
These rules are great! Honestly a lot of your content, rules/world building, and other videos have made this channel GOATed in my opinion. One of the best community building channels on the internet. Thank you for your content for the rest of the DND community.
Ok hear me out: DnD boss fights, but they’re Pokémon Doubles format. Only two characters on the field, but any character can switch in or out on a turn. Benched players are not considered in the fight and don’t take damage. The Shield spell works like Pokémon’s Protect: immune to damage for the turn but higher chance to fail if used repeatedly. Players decide what to do at the start of the turn and make their moves and the DM decides what to do at the same time, and the move order is determined by initiative or priority. (If you are a VGC player or a Pokémon player, you know what these are but basically redirection or the help action (can include fake out)goes first, then Shield, then other moves) More prediction based but if you and your party are Pokémon nerds( in the best way possible, I am one of you) then give it a go! Want to see how it turns out for you :)
I was already interested in your book, but now I am in for sure. The kyju climbing, weaknesses, fighting and chaos threshold sounds amazing and they should be a perfect fit for my homebrew world. Plus, I think they would make fighting an ancient dragon much more epic.
Man that was such a teas collab, shame! And thank you so much for this! I've always felt giant boss fights were very underwhelming mindless smash fest, this makes it like puzzle that needs to be solved, like in actual video games!
This is some really good stuff! I had decided not to buy any more D&D content as I'm favouring other systems, but I will seriously consider picking this book up now haha.
Perception and Survival to spot the vulnerable areas are fine, but I think you can give the option of Investigation after reducing the Chaos Threshold... simply like "We did 10 Attacks on that damn thing, but some areas are more protected, generate stronger responses of the creature". Investigation. When you look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues, you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. You might deduce the location of a hidden object, discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of weapon dealt it, or determine the weakest point in a tunnel that could cause it to collapse. I think that would work beautifully in the case of the Kaiju battle, maybe after 5 to 10 reductions, or depending on the battle. And I would add a DM "Tool-bag" for smashy types... if they don't go for clues you could tie different weaknesses to different checks of the Intelligence variety and depending on the Kaiju: Like Religion if it is a divine beast, Nature if it is more of a giant Beast, Arcana if the kaiju is more of an eldritch or magical entity. History to recall legends about the mighty beast would work as well. It just gives more direct reference to the possibilties of Int and not only Wis and can be a great "toolkit" for some DMs if they are newer, or if they simply never thought about it.
I was trying to figure out how to fix an issue where one character was dealing significantly more damage than the others without making things so tough that the other characters feel like they aren't doing anything at all, I think this will solve that issue, thanks.
Fighting against the water dragon sounds like sooo much fun to DM, imagine narrating all her behaviours as they come and dropping allusions to her weak spots 😳
I am currently planning a boss fight that ends up throwing the players into a realm where each player has to face their biggest fear (rodents, death, heights, whatever that character's fear is.) I am hoping that they will be engaged enough to be able to escape and move deeper into the "dream" in order to finish off the boss. The characters can also go insane and I made a mechanic for it. I REALLY hope it goes well. It'll be a while until the fight so I have time.
This sounds like something I as a player would LOVE! It seems like you'd have ways to tweak this setting to help the players forward or hamper them further - e.g. by allowing them to face each character's individual fear as a party, so most of the party members are not scared at any time, or forcing them to either face multiple fears simultaneously or each face their fear individually. I would love to know how the idea turns out for you, but I envy your players already 😊
@@CocoWantsACracker The CURRENT plan (after they fight the demon and get it to half health first, triggering the dream sequence) is to have each player be alone in their nightmare. HOWEVER, I feel that this might take away from the other players as I focus on each individual player (they might not mind.) But I have been debating on having all of them be in the same dream, and when they "beat" that dream then they move further down into a different nightmare, all the way to the lair, where they fight again. This would make it so they can still have some cool roleplay with each other and be supportive in-character etc. As well as including all the players at all times. It might just feel less personal, but also would make it shorter and easier for me to handle.
@@ZkiiGames That definitely sounds like good reasoning. It also means everybody knows what happens to the others, preventing unintentional metagaming later on due to a player witnessing something important their character did not. I myself appreciate every little thing the DM introduces that relates to my character specifically despite my DM not considering it a big deal, so you may be pleasantly surprised at how the players feel about how personal your plot is. For most players I know, the most important thing to make it feel something resolved around them individually would be that they have to be the person who solves the problem or overcomes the threat. And considering the nature of the encounter you are setting up, I think that could very well be an in-game condition for the problem or threat to subside as well. I trust you are going to create an epic experience for your players, as you sound exactly like my favorite DM when she tells me about plans she made for other campaigns I do not participate in.
@@ZkiiGames I'm not sure how you are hosting your sessions, in person or online, but in either setting, like you kind of alluded to, but not sure if you meant "same dream" to all be in the same room, you could have them in a series of rooms, where small gaps in the wall allow them to communicate while the rooms are empty then in turn each room is populated with said fears, this would set up a turn based system (much like when in combat), would not mean you focus all attention on 1 person for 10-15 mins and would allow communication support through the walls to allow others to help the party through the trauma via role playing. Also means if they are seperated they can't fight each others fears, which I know I'd do.
Can't thank enough for this guide, I've been working on my own world where the final bosses are literally marine monsters like Jormungander, Cectus and many more. So, the additions and advices here are literally liquid gold.
5:44 I'm not a huge fan of these mechanics in the same way I'm not a fan of Legendary resistance: they only say "no". A good immunity mechanic on a boss should say "No, but". Having the boss being able to break magical barriers with an action is actually pretty good, your party still gets a benefit when they cast these spells on them. Here's an example of a "No, but" mechanic that can replace legendary resistance. Thrugnook is the goblin tribe's secret weapon in their raid on the PC's hometown. He's an ogre, armored and armed to the gills with a basket on his back where three goblin archers take potshots on the battlefield around him as he fights. If a spell would take Thrugnook out of the fight, he will instead grab one of the goblin archers from his back and throw it into the path of the spell, blocking the spell but eliminating one of his goblin archers from the fight. While Thrugnook's body will shield the goblins from AoE magic, players can also choose to kill the goblins on his back, eliminating the ogre's protection and allowing the party mage to finally get their big banishment or polymorph off in a way that feels earned. Essentially if you want a boss to be protected against something eliminating it immediately, make sure that the party still gets *something* for their efforts, even better if that something creates a secondary goal for the party to pursue: an armor to chip away at so the mage can come in with a big banishment finish.
Not nearly as robust, but I once had a mechanical boss with separate HP for each of its legs (that could effect its speed) and an access panel on the top that was vulnerable to a good Thieves' Tools check. (I'd've also accepted Tinkerer's Tools or some creativity with it.) The players went instead with running away... Only time they ever ran from one of my boss fights. They had high anxiety because of the dungeon's gimmick, which I hadn't anticipated that they'd have so big an issue with. It was just a giant Sphere of Annihilation that moved 5 feet per round towards them as they navigated the place. Their speeds were all WAY faster than that, and they had to wait for the boss to catch up to the boss room after they looted it before they could run. (The sphere disabled in the last room to revealing the boss. It was inspired mechanically in part by Pikmin 2's Water Wraith.)
This was something my friend talked about when running more narrative games like Dungeon World. He called it "Narrative Positioning", you had to find a way to get into a position where the narrative of you being able to attack the enemy made sense. Whether it was climbing up the tricky hide or the Colossus Heel -grind The Mile High to attack the back of his neck or studying the techniques of the one thousand year old sword master for months before you can even play a finger on her you have to make it make sense in the series.
Another thing is have dynamic settings. An example that I’m thinking of using is that a red archdragon made their lair in a dormant volcano. Once the players reached a certain damage point (and say, cut off a limb, stabbed an eye, anything to make the moment feel epic), the dragon roars in pain, it’s fury causing the volcano to wake up as the dragon takes off. So the players now have to deal with a dragon using its breath attack in flyby, shifting terrain, and, if you want to make a moral decision, a lava flow heading towards a nearby town.
On one hand, awesome ideas, and I'm keen to see how some of them pan out over time. On the other, I'm a little weirded out with how close some of them are to stuff I've already got in IP. Going to take it as obviously great minds thinking alike.
Wait a damn second, did he just seamlessly weave D&D advice and a Longford kick-start ad into one video? Incredible, I'd definitely pledge if I had the money
I love this. I never wanted to use things like Tarasque against players, because of this problem. It is nearly town sized monster, that they just poke in the ankle and then it says "Okay, am a dead now".
This looks amazing! I can't wait for the backing to go live and for it to get in our hands. I'm going to be looking at doing a Kaiju campaign or something. I think this is something DnD needs (even though it's still fun without.)
Perfect timing, prepping an enhanced Cryovain fight into a monster hunter style fight with an adult crystal dragon. I was struggling to come up with some cool evolving fight mechanics and you have some great stuff here!
3:49 You have no idea how fitting that clip is to what you were saying. That scene was supposed to be a huge fight scene, but Harrison Ford was sick that day, so he improvised and pulled out the gun. Boss fight ended in two seconds.
Damnit, now i need to back your book. It's going to be awesome and I've had a plan to make the last adventure to get the party to level 20 a battle versus the tarrasque. I suspect you're kaiju will for that theme perfectly
I love that you used this particular picture for the thumbnail, because this was the very first boss we had to fight with my 2-person 5 lvl party, on a second session 😂 (dw, this was all fun and laughs though, he just wanted some entertainment in watching us suffer :D)
I'm so excited for my copy, man. I always thought dragon fights were a little boring, so I homebrewed an "attack the wings enough to stop flight" and "attack the throat enough to stop breath attacks" mechanic (with increased AC, of course)
I like the Sturdy mechanic that Baldur's Gate 3 gives, where certain enemies or objects have a damage threshold you have to meet in order to deal damage to it. It really feels like it would fit a big monster boss.
You sir just sold a book. I'm literally getting ready to run a Land of the Primordials campaign so kaiju rules are something I've been playing with for a month now.
I was real proud of an impromptu kaiju monster fight I had for a party of 3 a while back. It was an ice spider colossus with each leg being over 100 feet tall with bristles as thick as a human body. It summoned a blizzard periodically that would obscure the parties vision and fire pins of ice for very little but very constant damage (this was a party with no healing options so I didn’t want a big bad monster that would crush the wizard, sorcerer, or fighter) they found that every time they dealt enough damage to a leg it would screech in pain, ending the blizzard temporarily but otherwise wasn’t going to stop the monster. After 100 or so damage to a leg, it would simply break off a portion and stand in the new stump. Feeling discouraged, 2 of them climbed to the top and onto the spiders back. There they found the spider wasn’t one solid carapace but a series of gargantuan plates that would shift as the spider moves. While up there, feeling even more discouraged, the sorcerer did some more damage to the legs, causing it to screech in pain and temporarily dissipating the snow storm below but now that 2 of them were up top, they also saw the plates would flare, exposing sensitive areas of the spider, including its actual brain. They figured it out! One deals pain to the spider and the others hold their actions to strike the brain as soon as the plates flared! The spider did begin to rampage, nearly throwing the fighter and wizard off its back but they held on! They defeated the spider and it’s hellish limbs came crashing to the ground! To reward their toughness (it was like a 6 minute in game fight which as we all know is forever) and they were rewarded the tough feat, the title of conqueror of the white death, with appropriate medals, the towns mayor granted them the ability to shop at any business and he’ll cover the tab (within reason. Fighter wanted a bow with cool quivers and homebrew arrows like green arrow, bladesong wizard wanted a buffed whip and sword as well as access to their wizard if library for new spells, and sorcerer got some cool homebrew magic items). The lumberjack guild was so grateful for the deed they did that they crafted them a beautiful wagon with the spiders skull for the back of the wagon that’s jaw would open up and allow them access within. spiders skull was like 10-15 ft in dimension with plenty of eye holes so they could cover within and use them to shoot from cover. Spiders skull also had high AC and hitpoints so it was a light weight tank for the party
I can see Uka'toa as a major inspiration for this system. A Rage mechanic that could nuke the field, damage types having unique effects, and areas on its body that are vulnerable. Your team has just taken that one battle, as well as looked at the other massive creatures in the game, and expanded upon them in such a beautiful way. Well done. 🎉🎉🎉
No one will probably read this, but this video was INCREDIBLEY useful. It helped me translate Bloodborne-esque fights into my DND games without killing the magic for my players. I would have bought the book if I could:(
I feel like im gonna buy this book and then just stat my own monsters based on your design philosophy. Seriously, this is an amazing evolution of tabletop boss fights.
I have to admit you have done a really good work of promoting your upcoming book, I will definitely back your book for 2 reasons 1.- the content is really interesting and 2.-Give me the shiny rolling stones!!!!!!!!
me and my dnd group recently played an eberron one-shot where we fought in a great war against fiends, while allied with the rest of the world. In the final boss fight, our DM used a slightly altered version of the Soul Khatesh and the anti-magic field, instead of being permanent, was an orb the Soul Khatesh placed in the sky, which had hit points and an AC, meaning that we could destroy it in order for our spells to work. Imo that was a really cool way of applying this mechanic. Even though he only altered it slightly.
Gorgeous! I do t do Kaiju in my games (though now I'm thinking of starting) but this has great concepts for other boss battles! I'm gonna sit down and capture these ideas before they run off. Thank you!
When I homebrewed the Colossi From Shadow of the Colossus, I didn't outright prevent players from dealing damage normally. I just gave the vital spots really low AC (10-16) and the Colossi very high AC (23-32) as well as Resistance to almost all damage. They also had a trait that made them to drop to 1 hit point instead of 0, and then become immune to any damage that doesn't come from a melee weapon attack that hit the vital spots. So while the players were heavily incentivized to be strategic, they weren't outright forced, except for the finishing blow...if they wanted to blaze away normally, they could, they were just making the fight significantly harder for themselves. They also had Immutable form, and the Forcecage problem was solved with a Trait that increased their square size above 20-by-20, so they were just too damn big to fit inside one..which, Lore-wise, most gargantuan monsters would be, but having it right in the stat block that they occupy a 25-by-25 space instead of 20 hard counters that nonsense
This is very similar to how I run my boss fights! So I can't wait to back your kickstarter and garner new material and ideas for my bosses ^^ I love giving my players investigative prompts to find and learn vulnerabilities in the enemy that they can hone in on. It's like a reward for them engaging so much in the story outside of just battle (i.e. talking to npcs, researching the history of the world/area, strategizing with the environment taken into account). I just love seeing it.
Amazing Content Creator and Amazing Content, its never been this easier to support and purchase a product. Looking forward for this Kickstarter Campaign and any other future project.
I've had an idea for a campaign for a while now. Whole campaign is in a valley between 2 mountain ranges. Kaiju wakes up at one end and starts making it's way to the other, walking straight through cities and armies along the way. The party starts in the village closest to where it woke up and they have to go ahead of it, warning everyone of the danger. Along the way, however, they discover the kaiju doesn't actually fight anyone, it's just moving through the valley. If the party does some digging, they find out there's a cult in the valley trying to revive another kaiju that is basically a rival to the one we met at the start, and the first one is responding to the other one being resurrected. With the end goal being the party join the kaiju and face the evil one and cultists at the end. Or they kill both. Or they just take out the cultists and watch the kaiju fight.
Interesting. I'm mentally trying to imagine how all this applies to boss battles with other "boss" monsters. The initial list of issues to be fixed is very interesting and useful.
Really, I only have two things I usually try to emphasize as a DM. Spell variability, and environmental variability. A battle should (almost) never just be on an open plain. Make them take place on a boat in the middle of a sea, in a small cavern, a large cavern, a tavern, in a hobbit hole, in a forest on a flying ship, etc. Have teaps layed out, maybe a mote, or a a giant chasm. This will give both your enemies, and your players things to strategize around, and a reason to move around, beyond to use cure wounds. Many abilities, and attacks rely on things like visibility, and range. For example: the paladin ability aura of protection is an incredibly good way to check spell casters, as it gives a boost equal to your charisma to every allied character, but only within ten feet. This makes it an incredibly interesting balancing act. Does the paladin try to separate itself from the squishies, so as to draw attention away from them, or stay close to make them tankier? This brings me to my next point. Variability in spells. This doesn’t really have to be spells, but really any ability. The reason that bosses are so memorable is usually that they have a gimmick that keeps you on your toes. Maybe they teleport, have greater invisibility, silvery barbs, resistances, weaknesses, or immunities, can change the damage type of their spells, go intangible for a turn, or charms their enemies. When making a boss, don’t just give them 3 attacks per turn, and 300 hp. Try to give them something janky, which will force your players to find counters beyond just attacking more. Make them try to climb high grounds, find cover, sus put an invisible opponent, etc. A boss battle can take hours, and it’s important to keep players on their toes.
The only slight change I'd make is maybe add more weaknesses to each Kaiju not just three only so there's variety. So like the GM picks three weaknesses out of a list to use only cause the Kaijus sound great if it's your first time fighting them but if you have to repeat the same motion everytime you fight them it could dull the creatures and make GMs not want to run them.
there are other ways to damage kaiju (like the Calamitous Damage rule) so fights vary more than the exact same three weaknesses! But it's too much for a single video, this is just the core of the system!
one way to see it is like the froxes in TOTK: they're large, legendary/OP items or spells like the ancient blade, which normally deletes monsters, don't work, and they have 3 different weakpoints: their mouth, which can be exploited with bombs or cannons, their eye which can be shot at with an arrow to stun the monster, and the 5 ore veins on their back.
The key to a good colossus climb - to making the biggest monsters feel big - is to recognize that it's not just a boss fight, the boss is its own dungeon
In my opinion, the best way to fix ANY fight in not just dnd but in general is adding more problems. This translates to many things, some of wich are in the video, some are not. An example, i recently made a boss, a vampire, for wich i literally copied Stradh stats and made him a level 5 spellcaster, first problem, the boss. Then i add the second problem, an estatue that shoots laser beams and if the vampire is heavily damage will heal it. This two problems created an interesting dynamic in the fight, as some players where hurting the boss and other the statue, but then the statue would attack and the vampiere tryied to charm, now a player is low on health and the favourite npc is in risk of being charmed. So they hit the boss hard to end the fight (the satue is inmmune to 90% of all damage and resistant to the rest), but then the statue opens and heals the vampire, now it is vulnerable to damage. After defeating the vampire happends the thrird problem, the statue was the sarcofagus, so they must destry it. What they told me and what i saw, was them struggling to keep everything in check, they had to adapt to each turn, as the multiple problems also interact with each others. This doen't necesarily means that only more enemies are the answer, in the most recent boss fight (and the one my players liked the most), there was this plant giant that was going to attack them, but in the distance an even bigger and more powerfull giant was aproaching. The plan in my notes was easy, a timed-fight, they also need to sacrifice a npc important to win the fight and after fight, a bit of sad rp (it was a test of a boss-fight). Instead, they decided to CHARGE TOWARDS THE GIANT, WHILE FLYING A GRIFFON. Two of them went to try to dispel the giant and the other player was left to 1vs1 the original boss. The fight was long and they manage to do everything more or less according to their plan, but they told me that the feeling of having to solve multiple problems at once was the best way to enhance the fights and made the unique. That also creates a lot of room for rp and for each player to enjoy their favourite part in combat. The player that was left to solo the boss, loves to be a badass that deals tons of damage and is all powerfull (alone made my boss reach half health, wich for a bard, is incredible), the others prefer to try wacky things and experiment with lore and magic, there for they went to try destroy the giant (not without a previous note on my part that if they failed it was very possible they would die). In conclusion, in my own experience, when creating a boss think to your self: What more problems should arise in battle? Maybe more phases, more enemies, mcguffings you need to recolect, using the enviroment, talking to the boss (i love this one).
Chaos Tresholds reminds me of Dark Souls, Elden Ring, or Bloodborne - where bosses enter new phases. This is awesome and I can't wait to try this out as a DM!
Love how this video was just a Trojan Horse to promo his book lol. But hey, it's his channel, and he did seriously answer the question too. No shame in using your channel to promo your projects too.
I've been designing a ttsrpg and I came up a rule I call "what you see is what you get". In reference to giant enemies. Bigger enemies have an hp multiplier while small enemies have a negative multiplier. My bosses have weaknesses and environmental exploits.
Whenever I have a big boss fight at higher levels where force cage may be involved , I give them minions with dispel magic. But they are kind of trash at dispelling magic so it usually takes several round for them to dispel it . This gives the players the chance to take down these dispellers before they can free there master . Thus making force cage not a win button, but still incredibly helpful
nice idea, but maybe there should be some interaction for kaiju fortitude? so there is at least a minor benefit of environmental effect - thinking that krakken with polymorph and banishment: polymorph into a chicken - initially that spell seems to work - the tendrils sprout feathers, her form starts to shrink and vanishes beneath the waves - the concentrating caster however, takes X psychic damage at the end of the turn and the ship risks being capsized as the kraken explodes upwards, reverting to its original size/shape. Now it takes one round's worth of drowning effect, and some damage from the explosive collision with the ship (and it landing back on top of it if the PCs are able to keep the ship from breaking up) banishment - the attempt tears the kraken as it is torn between the current plane and the elemental chaos, it can opt to vanish (ends the combat but it will return at the end of the spell's full duration), or it can resist but takes X damage from the planar tearing and exertion, then maybe another condition like confused as its mind is still a bit scrambled, or maybe the confusion only removes one of its legendary actions.
the idea would be to make the spell do something so it isn't as "sad trombone noise" as legendary resist, and may give PCs another advantage (maybe the polymorphed tarrasque retains the chicken feathers long enough for them to be set on fire for extra damage from a flame spell)
I recently had a boss fight with a Lich, in my campaign when his health got low. He healed back to full health and got a new weapon, a necrotic great sword, increasing the fight’s Stakes. The party was fighting against the clock trying to kill the Lich before he could cast power word kill successfully. The party lost the race and the Rogue’s mom was killed.
This sounds exactly like what I've been looking for to help me with a few homebrew kaiju I've been struggling with! BTW, I (as well as many others) would LOVE to see a few collabs between you and Pointy Hat. Should we take this to mean that y'all have something in the works? 🥺
I.e. turn end boss fights into video game boss fights lol. But it makes a lot of sense as people have been refining and improving game design with boss fights as a major aspect of this for decades so it is a good idea to use such existing knowledge to improve your game.
One thing I can tell you is for gameplay is attacks that are sure hit, that hit next turn if you do not move, so trip, grapple, difficult terrain and the such is really dangerous, I have an iron golem with a big axe that creates over time more and more difficult terrain by using their sure hit move in a 2x2 square now with erupting earth that can trip on a failed save this is a fight that gets more dangerous over time. The golem has 140hp and the sure hit move does 4d4 slashing/bludgeoning damage. This was made for 3rd lv players so that it is really dangerous they got through it in 11 turns, which was fairly quicker than I expected but nearly the entire room was difficult terrain so they had a really hard te getting around and could only nearly avoid it. of course an artificer that used shove to get people to get hit wasn't very appreciated.
Mental note... let him finish before running off and completing next steps... now I need new players... and a new truck Jokes aside. Youve earned a pledge from me. Going to gift this to my dm fir Christmas if its out in time. Otherwise a late Christmas lol 😂
🥳🥳Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms launches TOMORROW! Grab your FREE, beautiful Yokai Dawn dice set by backing early! heliana.lt/RyokoKS
🐉🐉Kaiju Fighting Rules Lite Version here! www.heliana.lt/RyokoKaijuLite
WHAT
TOMORROW
COWABUNGA I HAD NO IDEIA
I'm so excited! I love your videos and I'm sure I'll love your book!
Awesome video; I've personally had success with having bosses that have 12 key features that they channel 6 of at a time; when their health drops to 0, it refills and they lose a feature to gain an unused one, and if they lack a spare feature, they die
I love it when youtube creator just make references to other ones. It feels fair
Been waiting for this; SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!
Getting recognition from DND shorts really shows how much pointy hat has grown and he’s officially a big boy creator. And I’m actually genuinely proud of him
Pointy hat is on his way to kingdom truly
I think kaiju fortitude providing immunity to being moved might be a little too much, because some of the best Kaiju scenes in media (including Empire Strikes Back's AT-AT scene) are when one big creature throws another big creature into a structure or trips them and they go crashing into something. Maybe a fix could be "immune to effects from spells and abilities that would move them, except for abilities from gargantuan sized creatures" or something similar.
Pretty sure this falls under "should be left to GM fiat", although the problem is that it mixes with "players have to accept the GM weaving how things affect the monster, instead of pure RaW-consistency". But yeah, it's oh-so-satisfying that, hey, maybe the push effect is no good if you just try using it, but if you just had the fighter hit its legs, the barbarian do a charging bash, and the wizard fireballed the kaiju's face... what better time to have somebody push down the big kaiju to the ground?
Ultimately, it becomes a matter of tabletop improv, which can be... good, or bad, but that's the risk and reward of the system.
@@dawk7 Great thing about Rule 0, is it's always RAW
Love this idea! One thing to note is that, in 5e, "Gargantuan" is a catch-all for anything above 25 feet. These are all supergargantuan! For example, Bakuryo's token is 60 feet by 30 feet. (Source: am writer of Bakuryo).
If you want to banish them, It should be a quest for some maguffin and then there should still be a fight while you do some ritual. The Kiju should be aware it is happening
@@timothyevans6930 Good point. That seems thematically appropriate for monsters that can't be slain or conventionally defeated - and it can still make for a climactic fight scene. Matt Mercer had two climactic boss fights in that format on Critical Role: The Rite of Prime Banishment for Vecna and the Ritual of Sealing for Uk'otoa. In both cases, they still had to have a whole fight - it's just that the need to seal the boss away changed the win condition. Uk'otoa didn't even really play differently from a normal fight - the players just had to use a special power they'd received after Uk'otoa dropped to 0HP. But for Vecna, the whole fight was balanced around needing to deal enough damage to cause major wounds in Vecna's body, then hammering the Prime Trammels into his wounds, and then completing the Rite of Prime Banishment. All of those things except the wounds were high-DC skill checks that they had to succeed on in the middle of a terrifying final boss encounter, which made for an incredible degree of suspense. So I think this can be an excellent basis for a climactic fight. 🙂
I feel like something to add is in addition to having specific weak spots and pointing things out during combat is that if a player comes up with a clever, resource intensive, dangerous or otherwise idea, reward it.
The scale under your example's chin - If a player decides they're going to scale the creature, throw a grenade/fireball/whatever in its mouth, and then probably take an AoO as they escape, that absolutely counts as a hit against the chin weak spot. Everyone else sees as the flames from the explosion blow the protruding scale open and out of the bottom of the neck. The dragon will never let you throw something in its mouth again unless you ready an action to do it when it attacks (which then might mean the wizard or artificer become immune to being bitten), but that first cool moment still works, exposes the real weakness, and keeps the fight moving without players feeling frustrated that they can't find a weak spot.
And even then, you'd have to worry about if the Dragon is able to deal with the explosive quickly enough.
Like if it's a red dragon the fire won't do an insane amount, but the shockwave might do some damage, but doing it against a white dragon would produce the best results
Narrating a Kaiju's appearance and behavior can give attentive players a way to find out exploitable weaknesses by intuition or experience. If a player has fought water elementals who are vulnerable to lightning before - or simply reasons an aquatic form would be weak to that or getting frozen - they might conclude that using lightning or ice against Bakuryo's water form is a good idea.
Maybe, maybe not. It's not a thing in normal D&D, so players wouldn't necessarily know to look out for it.
yea, so like, if someone is fighting a rock golem/kaiju, and they know rock monsters take extra damage from weapons that do extra damage to rocky enemies, they might be able to do that to the boss
this looks amazing. you just earned my kickstarter pledge when it drops.
Same here, sounds like so much work and so much creativity was poured into it, I was not considering it until now, but now I am ; for all the good ideas but also because it looks like it'll be a beautiful piece of art.
Agreed, Seems like a much needed addendum and tool for DMs. This cannot arrive soon enough. (Currently runninng a game.. )
same
Supported on KS. Especially looking forward to the Alchemy integration!
Same. Sounds fun.
Well, i think this video has a good point but it only really apllies to massive scale bosses. My DM sent our party into a boss fight recently which i thought was super cool. To give you some context, we're playing an Ebberon domain of dread campaign called dread metrol, where basically the capitol of Cyre, Metrol, has become a domain of dread with the queen of Cyre as its dread lord and now the city is under siege from endless hordes of undead that pour out of the mists. The boss we fought was actually one of the dark powers that trapped Metrol in the mists, she was called "Aspect of the Empress of Shadows" and she was pretty terrifyingly strong. Her whole thing is that she would bombard the party with a huge number of saving throws, and then try and get her nycaloth goons to finish us off, her multiattack let her make two attacks that forced you to make a con save or gain one level of exhaustion, and one attack that forced you to make a wis save or become charmed, it was pretty terrifying. I remember, on one of the first turns she turned hee attention to me and I had to use everything i had just to pass those saving throws but I did, and though our wizard did get killed temporarily and our fighter got incapacitated by psychic scream for the whole fight (so maybe he didn't have a great time) the rest of us had a pretty good time i think
This short just keeps going, it’s got cool ideas that I wanna try, but man, it’s the longest short ever.
Did the Pointy Hat get a new human Avatar?
Whose the pointy hat?
@@k-aw-teksleepysageuni8181Pointy Hat is another dnd UA-cam channel that makes mostly videos like this one talking about dnd mechanics, classes and races and then gives you a free new way to play with them that still fits in with the original thing for mechanics he usually gives tips on how to fix whatever’s wrong with it, for classes he makes a whole new subclass that you can use, and for races he usually makes a new sub race based on the lore and abilities of that race and the logo/icon of his channel was actually shown in this video at 0:13 when he’s joking about being sued.
literally
@@k-aw-teksleepysageuni8181a non-trashy creator
Bro got a new main
I remember the fight against Mr. Freeze, I was so confused and frustrated until I realised the computer program enemy was adapting... I was instantly terrified as Batman; I felt like I was trapped in with Victor rather than the other way around. I always try to add story beats on my Podcast for my party to make it more interesting, especially damage sponge bosses. Great video and good advice for all DMs!
10:28 I was so happy to hear this was an option! Not enough books have peaceful resolution mechanics
That reminds me of a boss fight in, I think the game was called Mystic Ninja. Essentially a Blue Eastern Style Dragon was abducting children, and your group gets transported onto it's back to try to stop it. You start near the end of it's tail and need to get up to its head while the dragon tries to throw you off. Once you get to the head though, you notice a device that starts attacking you. Once you destroy the device, the dragon crashes. It turns out the device was mind-controlling the dragon, who is beside themself with shame that they've been stealing children and unfortunately has no recollection of where they are. The dragon then gives you a flute that they can hear from anywhere and essentially opens a fast travel option for you for previously visited and air accessible locations.
This is the video that sold me on Ryoko's Guide. It is now a must-have for me! Excellent mechanics, definitely fixes a major weakness in D&D in an elegant and epic way. Kudos!
Just when I was thinking about an encounter against Tiamat, you came to the rescue. Truely a hero and an amazing video.
a fun thing I have tried is armored stacks, which are basically 1HP health pools that can block spell effects. This also inadvertently buffs quick attacking classes and nerfs spellcasters
How would that affect rogues since they make usually one attack?
Contingency spells and consumable protections like contingency help too. Preparations help as well, a Lich might have a Dispel Magic or Counter-Spell Glyph of Warsing set up or even one of Plane Shift for themself. A Cleric Might have a Mass Healing Word go off after a Fireball KO’s Minions and exploits 5e rules so they are back up or have a Spirit Guardians spell go off on a command word. You can also have the villain be proactive and hamper the players’ progress by forcing them into situations where they are forced to use their cool stuff by scouting them out first.
@@thoughtbox6391You could do it similar to damage resistance from 3rd edition. If you connect with a weapon attack, remove one armor stack. If you deal more than say 15 damage in a single strike, any damage over 15 affects the target's real health pool as well.
So the rogue dealing 36 damage deals 21 damage and removes an armor stack, while the fighter doing 10, 11, 8 and 16 deals 1 damage and removes 4 armor stacks.
What's the point? Martials are already the best combat classes in the game.
@@shiuido359 Who's gonna tell him?
Genuinely
You're the best D&D youtuber and one of the best content creators ive ever seen. Like it feels like you read my mind and say exactly what im thinking in these videos
This is a fantastic expansion on combat. I do love the dynamic behavior system, it really would make combat more engaging. I was helping a friend develop one for a Monster Hunter-inspired TTRPG as well as a dynamic combat system that doesn't involve using map, which I'm actually quite proud of because it is tied up very well together with other mechanics. Unfortunately she can't use anything I've made because the vision she had for the system isn't compatible. I'm still going to fine-tune and develop it to use else where.
Also we definitely need a proper pointy hat collaboration with you! Please do dnd with a twist with him!
Things like this is what dnd really needs. So glad and grateful to have you in the community!
These rules are great! Honestly a lot of your content, rules/world building, and other videos have made this channel GOATed in my opinion. One of the best community building channels on the internet. Thank you for your content for the rest of the DND community.
Ok hear me out: DnD boss fights, but they’re Pokémon Doubles format.
Only two characters on the field, but any character can switch in or out on a turn. Benched players are not considered in the fight and don’t take damage. The Shield spell works like Pokémon’s Protect: immune to damage for the turn but higher chance to fail if used repeatedly.
Players decide what to do at the start of the turn and make their moves and the DM decides what to do at the same time, and the move order is determined by initiative or priority. (If you are a VGC player or a Pokémon player, you know what these are but basically redirection or the help action (can include fake out)goes first, then Shield, then other moves)
More prediction based but if you and your party are Pokémon nerds( in the best way possible, I am one of you) then give it a go! Want to see how it turns out for you :)
I was already interested in your book, but now I am in for sure. The kyju climbing, weaknesses, fighting and chaos threshold sounds amazing and they should be a perfect fit for my homebrew world. Plus, I think they would make fighting an ancient dragon much more epic.
Man that was such a teas collab, shame! And thank you so much for this! I've always felt giant boss fights were very underwhelming mindless smash fest, this makes it like puzzle that needs to be solved, like in actual video games!
This is some really good stuff! I had decided not to buy any more D&D content as I'm favouring other systems, but I will seriously consider picking this book up now haha.
Perception and Survival to spot the vulnerable areas are fine, but I think you can give the option of Investigation after reducing the Chaos Threshold... simply like "We did 10 Attacks on that damn thing, but some areas are more protected, generate stronger responses of the creature".
Investigation. When you look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues, you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. You might deduce the location of a hidden object, discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of weapon dealt it, or determine the weakest point in a tunnel that could cause it to collapse.
I think that would work beautifully in the case of the Kaiju battle, maybe after 5 to 10 reductions, or depending on the battle.
And I would add a DM "Tool-bag" for smashy types... if they don't go for clues you could tie different weaknesses to different checks of the Intelligence variety and depending on the Kaiju: Like Religion if it is a divine beast, Nature if it is more of a giant Beast, Arcana if the kaiju is more of an eldritch or magical entity. History to recall legends about the mighty beast would work as well.
It just gives more direct reference to the possibilties of Int and not only Wis and can be a great "toolkit" for some DMs if they are newer, or if they simply never thought about it.
This is amazing and I will try it in almost every oportunity in my games. Great work, Pointyhat. And you too, Shorts.
The quality on this looks insane. Plus the ideas sound super fun. This is my first kickstarter pledge ever when it launches. Great work.
I was trying to figure out how to fix an issue where one character was dealing significantly more damage than the others without making things so tough that the other characters feel like they aren't doing anything at all, I think this will solve that issue, thanks.
Fighting against the water dragon sounds like sooo much fun to DM, imagine narrating all her behaviours as they come and dropping allusions to her weak spots 😳
I am currently planning a boss fight that ends up throwing the players into a realm where each player has to face their biggest fear (rodents, death, heights, whatever that character's fear is.) I am hoping that they will be engaged enough to be able to escape and move deeper into the "dream" in order to finish off the boss. The characters can also go insane and I made a mechanic for it. I REALLY hope it goes well. It'll be a while until the fight so I have time.
This sounds like something I as a player would LOVE! It seems like you'd have ways to tweak this setting to help the players forward or hamper them further - e.g. by allowing them to face each character's individual fear as a party, so most of the party members are not scared at any time, or forcing them to either face multiple fears simultaneously or each face their fear individually.
I would love to know how the idea turns out for you, but I envy your players already 😊
@@CocoWantsACracker The CURRENT plan (after they fight the demon and get it to half health first, triggering the dream sequence) is to have each player be alone in their nightmare. HOWEVER, I feel that this might take away from the other players as I focus on each individual player (they might not mind.) But I have been debating on having all of them be in the same dream, and when they "beat" that dream then they move further down into a different nightmare, all the way to the lair, where they fight again. This would make it so they can still have some cool roleplay with each other and be supportive in-character etc. As well as including all the players at all times. It might just feel less personal, but also would make it shorter and easier for me to handle.
@@ZkiiGames That definitely sounds like good reasoning. It also means everybody knows what happens to the others, preventing unintentional metagaming later on due to a player witnessing something important their character did not.
I myself appreciate every little thing the DM introduces that relates to my character specifically despite my DM not considering it a big deal, so you may be pleasantly surprised at how the players feel about how personal your plot is.
For most players I know, the most important thing to make it feel something resolved around them individually would be that they have to be the person who solves the problem or overcomes the threat. And considering the nature of the encounter you are setting up, I think that could very well be an in-game condition for the problem or threat to subside as well. I trust you are going to create an epic experience for your players, as you sound exactly like my favorite DM when she tells me about plans she made for other campaigns I do not participate in.
@@ZkiiGames I'm not sure how you are hosting your sessions, in person or online, but in either setting, like you kind of alluded to, but not sure if you meant "same dream" to all be in the same room, you could have them in a series of rooms, where small gaps in the wall allow them to communicate while the rooms are empty then in turn each room is populated with said fears, this would set up a turn based system (much like when in combat), would not mean you focus all attention on 1 person for 10-15 mins and would allow communication support through the walls to allow others to help the party through the trauma via role playing. Also means if they are seperated they can't fight each others fears, which I know I'd do.
Can't thank enough for this guide, I've been working on my own world where the final bosses are literally marine monsters like Jormungander, Cectus and many more. So, the additions and advices here are literally liquid gold.
5:44 I'm not a huge fan of these mechanics in the same way I'm not a fan of Legendary resistance: they only say "no". A good immunity mechanic on a boss should say "No, but". Having the boss being able to break magical barriers with an action is actually pretty good, your party still gets a benefit when they cast these spells on them.
Here's an example of a "No, but" mechanic that can replace legendary resistance.
Thrugnook is the goblin tribe's secret weapon in their raid on the PC's hometown. He's an ogre, armored and armed to the gills with a basket on his back where three goblin archers take potshots on the battlefield around him as he fights. If a spell would take Thrugnook out of the fight, he will instead grab one of the goblin archers from his back and throw it into the path of the spell, blocking the spell but eliminating one of his goblin archers from the fight. While Thrugnook's body will shield the goblins from AoE magic, players can also choose to kill the goblins on his back, eliminating the ogre's protection and allowing the party mage to finally get their big banishment or polymorph off in a way that feels earned.
Essentially if you want a boss to be protected against something eliminating it immediately, make sure that the party still gets *something* for their efforts, even better if that something creates a secondary goal for the party to pursue: an armor to chip away at so the mage can come in with a big banishment finish.
Wow those kaiju mechanics sound cool as hell, and I love a good and well researched East Asian theme! You’re doing great work here.
Epic! So love those Kaiju! I’m certainly gonna pinch those climbing on monster rules for my current dragon campaign
Not nearly as robust, but I once had a mechanical boss with separate HP for each of its legs (that could effect its speed) and an access panel on the top that was vulnerable to a good Thieves' Tools check. (I'd've also accepted Tinkerer's Tools or some creativity with it.)
The players went instead with running away... Only time they ever ran from one of my boss fights. They had high anxiety because of the dungeon's gimmick, which I hadn't anticipated that they'd have so big an issue with. It was just a giant Sphere of Annihilation that moved 5 feet per round towards them as they navigated the place. Their speeds were all WAY faster than that, and they had to wait for the boss to catch up to the boss room after they looted it before they could run. (The sphere disabled in the last room to revealing the boss. It was inspired mechanically in part by Pikmin 2's Water Wraith.)
I am SOOO stealing this idea for my hyped up Void Dragon bossfight
This is why i love world of io 2:45 the Dm, Brett, is really good at making bosses like this, and they feel and act real
This was something my friend talked about when running more narrative games like Dungeon World. He called it "Narrative Positioning", you had to find a way to get into a position where the narrative of you being able to attack the enemy made sense. Whether it was climbing up the tricky hide or the Colossus Heel -grind The Mile High to attack the back of his neck or studying the techniques of the one thousand year old sword master for months before you can even play a finger on her you have to make it make sense in the series.
Ok fine you've convinced me.
This sounds like fantastic additions to combat, very excited to back this
Another thing is have dynamic settings. An example that I’m thinking of using is that a red archdragon made their lair in a dormant volcano. Once the players reached a certain damage point (and say, cut off a limb, stabbed an eye, anything to make the moment feel epic), the dragon roars in pain, it’s fury causing the volcano to wake up as the dragon takes off. So the players now have to deal with a dragon using its breath attack in flyby, shifting terrain, and, if you want to make a moral decision, a lava flow heading towards a nearby town.
On one hand, awesome ideas, and I'm keen to see how some of them pan out over time. On the other, I'm a little weirded out with how close some of them are to stuff I've already got in IP. Going to take it as obviously great minds thinking alike.
Woah! A LONG D&D short- wait- wait WHAT! This video made me so happy to see!
(Also loved the thumbnail art)
Wait a damn second, did he just seamlessly weave D&D advice and a Longford kick-start ad into one video? Incredible, I'd definitely pledge if I had the money
I love this. I never wanted to use things like Tarasque against players, because of this problem. It is nearly town sized monster, that they just poke in the ankle and then it says "Okay, am a dead now".
I love these ideas and it addresses all the issues I've had with running solo monsters in DnD.
This looks amazing! I can't wait for the backing to go live and for it to get in our hands. I'm going to be looking at doing a Kaiju campaign or something. I think this is something DnD needs (even though it's still fun without.)
Perfect timing, prepping an enhanced Cryovain fight into a monster hunter style fight with an adult crystal dragon. I was struggling to come up with some cool evolving fight mechanics and you have some great stuff here!
3:49 You have no idea how fitting that clip is to what you were saying. That scene was supposed to be a huge fight scene, but Harrison Ford was sick that day, so he improvised and pulled out the gun. Boss fight ended in two seconds.
Damnit, now i need to back your book. It's going to be awesome and I've had a plan to make the last adventure to get the party to level 20 a battle versus the tarrasque. I suspect you're kaiju will for that theme perfectly
I love that you used this particular picture for the thumbnail, because this was the very first boss we had to fight with my 2-person 5 lvl party, on a second session 😂 (dw, this was all fun and laughs though, he just wanted some entertainment in watching us suffer :D)
I'm so excited for my copy, man. I always thought dragon fights were a little boring, so I homebrewed an "attack the wings enough to stop flight" and "attack the throat enough to stop breath attacks" mechanic (with increased AC, of course)
I like the Sturdy mechanic that Baldur's Gate 3 gives, where certain enemies or objects have a damage threshold you have to meet in order to deal damage to it. It really feels like it would fit a big monster boss.
Fun part is that this mechanic is already in Dungeon Masters Guide. Solid objects made from different material have different damage threshold.
I have been going back and forth over buying this for a while and this video sold me
You sir just sold a book.
I'm literally getting ready to run a Land of the Primordials campaign so kaiju rules are something I've been playing with for a month now.
I was real proud of an impromptu kaiju monster fight I had for a party of 3 a while back. It was an ice spider colossus with each leg being over 100 feet tall with bristles as thick as a human body. It summoned a blizzard periodically that would obscure the parties vision and fire pins of ice for very little but very constant damage (this was a party with no healing options so I didn’t want a big bad monster that would crush the wizard, sorcerer, or fighter) they found that every time they dealt enough damage to a leg it would screech in pain, ending the blizzard temporarily but otherwise wasn’t going to stop the monster. After 100 or so damage to a leg, it would simply break off a portion and stand in the new stump. Feeling discouraged, 2 of them climbed to the top and onto the spiders back. There they found the spider wasn’t one solid carapace but a series of gargantuan plates that would shift as the spider moves. While up there, feeling even more discouraged, the sorcerer did some more damage to the legs, causing it to screech in pain and temporarily dissipating the snow storm below but now that 2 of them were up top, they also saw the plates would flare, exposing sensitive areas of the spider, including its actual brain. They figured it out! One deals pain to the spider and the others hold their actions to strike the brain as soon as the plates flared! The spider did begin to rampage, nearly throwing the fighter and wizard off its back but they held on! They defeated the spider and it’s hellish limbs came crashing to the ground! To reward their toughness (it was like a 6 minute in game fight which as we all know is forever) and they were rewarded the tough feat, the title of conqueror of the white death, with appropriate medals, the towns mayor granted them the ability to shop at any business and he’ll cover the tab (within reason. Fighter wanted a bow with cool quivers and homebrew arrows like green arrow, bladesong wizard wanted a buffed whip and sword as well as access to their wizard if library for new spells, and sorcerer got some cool homebrew magic items). The lumberjack guild was so grateful for the deed they did that they crafted them a beautiful wagon with the spiders skull for the back of the wagon that’s jaw would open up and allow them access within. spiders skull was like 10-15 ft in dimension with plenty of eye holes so they could cover within and use them to shoot from cover. Spiders skull also had high AC and hitpoints so it was a light weight tank for the party
A Monster Hunter like fight system? Count me in!
What I gathered from this overview sounds absolutely awesome! Keep up the great work!
I can see Uka'toa as a major inspiration for this system. A Rage mechanic that could nuke the field, damage types having unique effects, and areas on its body that are vulnerable. Your team has just taken that one battle, as well as looked at the other massive creatures in the game, and expanded upon them in such a beautiful way. Well done. 🎉🎉🎉
No one will probably read this, but this video was INCREDIBLEY useful. It helped me translate Bloodborne-esque fights into my DND games without killing the magic for my players. I would have bought the book if I could:(
I feel like im gonna buy this book and then just stat my own monsters based on your design philosophy. Seriously, this is an amazing evolution of tabletop boss fights.
The. Sheer. Amount. Of. Content. in this book…
Simply STAGGERING. So many mechanics! I have never seen anything even remotely close to this from WotC
I won't lie this feels more like a big advertisement for the Kickstarter. You do it extremely well and I very much enjoy it.
That's because it is. The Kickstarter page lists him as being part of the promotion team. Bad form not stating this IMO.
@matancohenuk He literally says "This is from my Kickstarter" within the first minute.
@@hr329085 should have a big banner that says it's advert / paid.proprio throughout the video
I have to admit you have done a really good work of promoting your upcoming book, I will definitely back your book for 2 reasons 1.- the content is really interesting and 2.-Give me the shiny rolling stones!!!!!!!!
me and my dnd group recently played an eberron one-shot where we fought in a great war against fiends, while allied with the rest of the world. In the final boss fight, our DM used a slightly altered version of the Soul Khatesh and the anti-magic field, instead of being permanent, was an orb the Soul Khatesh placed in the sky, which had hit points and an AC, meaning that we could destroy it in order for our spells to work. Imo that was a really cool way of applying this mechanic. Even though he only altered it slightly.
Gorgeous!
I do t do Kaiju in my games (though now I'm thinking of starting) but this has great concepts for other boss battles! I'm gonna sit down and capture these ideas before they run off. Thank you!
When I homebrewed the Colossi From Shadow of the Colossus, I didn't outright prevent players from dealing damage normally. I just gave the vital spots really low AC (10-16) and the Colossi very high AC (23-32) as well as Resistance to almost all damage. They also had a trait that made them to drop to 1 hit point instead of 0, and then become immune to any damage that doesn't come from a melee weapon attack that hit the vital spots. So while the players were heavily incentivized to be strategic, they weren't outright forced, except for the finishing blow...if they wanted to blaze away normally, they could, they were just making the fight significantly harder for themselves. They also had Immutable form, and the Forcecage problem was solved with a Trait that increased their square size above 20-by-20, so they were just too damn big to fit inside one..which, Lore-wise, most gargantuan monsters would be, but having it right in the stat block that they occupy a 25-by-25 space instead of 20 hard counters that nonsense
I love dnd with a twist format and I love your energy and knowledge, combining the two often would be amazing
This is very similar to how I run my boss fights! So I can't wait to back your kickstarter and garner new material and ideas for my bosses ^^ I love giving my players investigative prompts to find and learn vulnerabilities in the enemy that they can hone in on. It's like a reward for them engaging so much in the story outside of just battle (i.e. talking to npcs, researching the history of the world/area, strategizing with the environment taken into account). I just love seeing it.
Holy crap, THIS is how you advertise a kickstarter campaign! I told myself I was done buying books, but now I might just have to!
I NEEDED THIS SO MUCH LISTEN
Honestly - behaviors, weak spots.... such amazing ideas
Amazing Content Creator and Amazing Content, its never been this easier to support and purchase a product.
Looking forward for this Kickstarter Campaign and any other future project.
this vid/ad put me on the verge of tears of happiness by doing everything right
it all makes me so happy
Best well-disguised ad ever. Might pick this up honestly
I love how close knit the Dnd creator community is!
I never even pay attention to 3rd party ads. But this looks genuinely awesome.
I've had an idea for a campaign for a while now. Whole campaign is in a valley between 2 mountain ranges. Kaiju wakes up at one end and starts making it's way to the other, walking straight through cities and armies along the way. The party starts in the village closest to where it woke up and they have to go ahead of it, warning everyone of the danger. Along the way, however, they discover the kaiju doesn't actually fight anyone, it's just moving through the valley. If the party does some digging, they find out there's a cult in the valley trying to revive another kaiju that is basically a rival to the one we met at the start, and the first one is responding to the other one being resurrected. With the end goal being the party join the kaiju and face the evil one and cultists at the end. Or they kill both. Or they just take out the cultists and watch the kaiju fight.
Interesting. I'm mentally trying to imagine how all this applies to boss battles with other "boss" monsters.
The initial list of issues to be fixed is very interesting and useful.
The best boss fight mechanics, incredible work.
Now, I am gonna "steal" and repurpose a few of these for my use.
Really, I only have two things I usually try to emphasize as a DM. Spell variability, and environmental variability.
A battle should (almost) never just be on an open plain. Make them take place on a boat in the middle of a sea, in a small cavern, a large cavern, a tavern, in a hobbit hole, in a forest on a flying ship, etc. Have teaps layed out, maybe a mote, or a a giant chasm.
This will give both your enemies, and your players things to strategize around, and a reason to move around, beyond to use cure wounds. Many abilities, and attacks rely on things like visibility, and range. For example: the paladin ability aura of protection is an incredibly good way to check spell casters, as it gives a boost equal to your charisma to every allied character, but only within ten feet. This makes it an incredibly interesting balancing act. Does the paladin try to separate itself from the squishies, so as to draw attention away from them, or stay close to make them tankier?
This brings me to my next point. Variability in spells. This doesn’t really have to be spells, but really any ability. The reason that bosses are so memorable is usually that they have a gimmick that keeps you on your toes. Maybe they teleport, have greater invisibility, silvery barbs, resistances, weaknesses, or immunities, can change the damage type of their spells, go intangible for a turn, or charms their enemies. When making a boss, don’t just give them 3 attacks per turn, and 300 hp. Try to give them something janky, which will force your players to find counters beyond just attacking more. Make them try to climb high grounds, find cover, sus put an invisible opponent, etc.
A boss battle can take hours, and it’s important to keep players on their toes.
The only slight change I'd make is maybe add more weaknesses to each Kaiju not just three only so there's variety. So like the GM picks three weaknesses out of a list to use only cause the Kaijus sound great if it's your first time fighting them but if you have to repeat the same motion everytime you fight them it could dull the creatures and make GMs not want to run them.
there are other ways to damage kaiju (like the Calamitous Damage rule) so fights vary more than the exact same three weaknesses! But it's too much for a single video, this is just the core of the system!
@@DnDShorts Ah okay my bad sorry for not fully understanding that makes more sense.
one way to see it is like the froxes in TOTK: they're large, legendary/OP items or spells like the ancient blade, which normally deletes monsters, don't work, and they have 3 different weakpoints:
their mouth, which can be exploited with bombs or cannons,
their eye which can be shot at with an arrow to stun the monster,
and the 5 ore veins on their back.
Well, you sold me. Gotta buy Ryoko’s now!! Seems like a blast of an adventure
The key to a good colossus climb - to making the biggest monsters feel big - is to recognize that it's not just a boss fight, the boss is its own dungeon
In my opinion, the best way to fix ANY fight in not just dnd but in general is adding more problems.
This translates to many things, some of wich are in the video, some are not.
An example, i recently made a boss, a vampire, for wich i literally copied Stradh stats and made him a level 5 spellcaster, first problem, the boss. Then i add the second problem, an estatue that shoots laser beams and if the vampire is heavily damage will heal it.
This two problems created an interesting dynamic in the fight, as some players where hurting the boss and other the statue, but then the statue would attack and the vampiere tryied to charm, now a player is low on health and the favourite npc is in risk of being charmed. So they hit the boss hard to end the fight (the satue is inmmune to 90% of all damage and resistant to the rest), but then the statue opens and heals the vampire, now it is vulnerable to damage.
After defeating the vampire happends the thrird problem, the statue was the sarcofagus, so they must destry it.
What they told me and what i saw, was them struggling to keep everything in check, they had to adapt to each turn, as the multiple problems also interact with each others.
This doen't necesarily means that only more enemies are the answer, in the most recent boss fight (and the one my players liked the most), there was this plant giant that was going to attack them, but in the distance an even bigger and more powerfull giant was aproaching. The plan in my notes was easy, a timed-fight, they also need to sacrifice a npc important to win the fight and after fight, a bit of sad rp (it was a test of a boss-fight).
Instead, they decided to CHARGE TOWARDS THE GIANT, WHILE FLYING A GRIFFON. Two of them went to try to dispel the giant and the other player was left to 1vs1 the original boss. The fight was long and they manage to do everything more or less according to their plan, but they told me that the feeling of having to solve multiple problems at once was the best way to enhance the fights and made the unique. That also creates a lot of room for rp and for each player to enjoy their favourite part in combat. The player that was left to solo the boss, loves to be a badass that deals tons of damage and is all powerfull (alone made my boss reach half health, wich for a bard, is incredible), the others prefer to try wacky things and experiment with lore and magic, there for they went to try destroy the giant (not without a previous note on my part that if they failed it was very possible they would die).
In conclusion, in my own experience, when creating a boss think to your self: What more problems should arise in battle? Maybe more phases, more enemies, mcguffings you need to recolect, using the enviroment, talking to the boss (i love this one).
Oh man as someone whose preferred fighting style is always "shadow of the collosus", this is everything I've ever wanted.
This is a way better, more fleshed out version of boss fights/encounters I’ve done on very few occasions.
Chaos Tresholds reminds me of Dark Souls, Elden Ring, or Bloodborne - where bosses enter new phases. This is awesome and I can't wait to try this out as a DM!
Love how this video was just a Trojan Horse to promo his book lol. But hey, it's his channel, and he did seriously answer the question too. No shame in using your channel to promo your projects too.
I've been designing a ttsrpg and I came up a rule I call "what you see is what you get". In reference to giant enemies. Bigger enemies have an hp multiplier while small enemies have a negative multiplier. My bosses have weaknesses and environmental exploits.
This is legit the type of thing I was looking for prior to running my last session (just scaled down to a non-kaiju scale)
Whenever I have a big boss fight at higher levels where force cage may be involved , I give them minions with dispel magic. But they are kind of trash at dispelling magic so it usually takes several round for them to dispel it . This gives the players the chance to take down these dispellers before they can free there master . Thus making force cage not a win button, but still incredibly helpful
nice idea, but maybe there should be some interaction for kaiju fortitude? so there is at least a minor benefit of environmental effect - thinking that krakken with polymorph and banishment:
polymorph into a chicken - initially that spell seems to work - the tendrils sprout feathers, her form starts to shrink and vanishes beneath the waves - the concentrating caster however, takes X psychic damage at the end of the turn and the ship risks being capsized as the kraken explodes upwards, reverting to its original size/shape. Now it takes one round's worth of drowning effect, and some damage from the explosive collision with the ship (and it landing back on top of it if the PCs are able to keep the ship from breaking up)
banishment - the attempt tears the kraken as it is torn between the current plane and the elemental chaos, it can opt to vanish (ends the combat but it will return at the end of the spell's full duration), or it can resist but takes X damage from the planar tearing and exertion, then maybe another condition like confused as its mind is still a bit scrambled, or maybe the confusion only removes one of its legendary actions.
the idea would be to make the spell do something so it isn't as "sad trombone noise" as legendary resist, and may give PCs another advantage (maybe the polymorphed tarrasque retains the chicken feathers long enough for them to be set on fire for extra damage from a flame spell)
I recently had a boss fight with a Lich, in my campaign when his health got low. He healed back to full health and got a new weapon, a necrotic great sword, increasing the fight’s Stakes. The party was fighting against the clock trying to kill the Lich before he could cast power word kill successfully. The party lost the race and the Rogue’s mom was killed.
I'd definitely love to see what you've done with Team attacks! I've got a rule for it but I'd love to see a second opinion.
This sounds exactly like what I've been looking for to help me with a few homebrew kaiju I've been struggling with!
BTW, I (as well as many others) would LOVE to see a few collabs between you and Pointy Hat. Should we take this to mean that y'all have something in the works? 🥺
Good luck!! I'm so excited for your kickstarter!
I.e. turn end boss fights into video game boss fights lol.
But it makes a lot of sense as people have been refining and improving game design with boss fights as a major aspect of this for decades so it is a good idea to use such existing knowledge to improve your game.
This is the first video of yours that made me want to back the Kickstarter
One thing I can tell you is for gameplay is attacks that are sure hit, that hit next turn if you do not move, so trip, grapple, difficult terrain and the such is really dangerous, I have an iron golem with a big axe that creates over time more and more difficult terrain by using their sure hit move in a 2x2 square now with erupting earth that can trip on a failed save this is a fight that gets more dangerous over time.
The golem has 140hp and the sure hit move does 4d4 slashing/bludgeoning damage.
This was made for 3rd lv players so that it is really dangerous they got through it in 11 turns, which was fairly quicker than I expected but nearly the entire room was difficult terrain so they had a really hard te getting around and could only nearly avoid it.
of course an artificer that used shove to get people to get hit wasn't very appreciated.
You forget the best way for the Party to defeat the Enemy..... SEDUCTION;)
This was the best ad for a book ever
Mental note... let him finish before running off and completing next steps... now I need new players... and a new truck
Jokes aside. Youve earned a pledge from me. Going to gift this to my dm fir Christmas if its out in time. Otherwise a late Christmas lol 😂