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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 7h

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Reposted by Dan Talks Games

Wintzards of the Coast @drilmagic.bsky.social · Sep 3

Strixhaven Stadium: the crack of the bat. the scent of a verdant field. The excitement of the crowd. These are the things that piss base ball fans off the most

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 21h

Me reading 4e abilities and realising there's no difference except arbitrary perception and taste of power caps. #ttrpg #dnd #pathfinder2e

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 21h

Hero units get height privilege.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

This one point has gone longer than I anticipated, and my break's almost done, so I'll touch on the other points later, but I wanted to start with this one before I feel it's an incredibly overlooked and particularly egregious trap a lot of modules and GMs fall into that causes unrealised problems.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

To be clear, this does not mean you should *never* do solo medium bosses, or that it can't be done *right.* But if it's the *only* type of major encounter you know how to do, and/or you don't realise the pitfalls that come with that design, you will janky and unsatisfying encounters.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

If the GM isn't doing this to show off their dream anime or comic book villain, it's often done to placate a player who wants one to beat, and solely beat for their own gratification, not a holistic experience shared by the rest of the table. Again, it bucks too much of the genre's virtues.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

One of the running throughlines I see with self-important damage dealers is they want to be the people to have the Le Epic Showdowns against major adversaries and get the HDYWTDT moment, but *this is a terrible format for that style of engagement,* both mechanically and in terms of player dynamics.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

This is great for single player games where you have a character of seemingly equal skill and size to pit your skill against, but terrible for a multi-person, grid-based strategy game where you can't abstract ganging up as easily, not to mention its very self-important.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

What this usually translates to in expectation is the major bosses being akin to the solo bosses you see in an action game or a Soulsborne; your Virgils, Jetstream Sams, Souls of Cinder, etc. Or even humanoid RPG enemies like pre-final form Sephiroth and Kefka. More 'rival' style adversaries.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

The other reason people put too much stock in solo humanoid enemies is that it's a symptom of the crippling myopia that runs rampant throughout the RPG scene.

So many players secretly see themselves as the main character, and see bosses as their moments to shine.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

(see also: humanoid MMO raid bosses like Arthas, Kael, Illidan, etc. who need to have their models *literally scaled up* from their cannon size to be targetable, and even then look kind of stupid being surrounded and pounded, compared to something like a dragon or other monstrous giant)

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

Even if it's high fantasy, a lot of the time a player soloing a dragon usually needs to be augmented by super powered magics, or is fighting alongside a party, if not an entire army.

Even Thanos and Shredder only fought solo a few times and mostly had troops supporting them.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

It's less narratively jarring for a party of 4+ to be teaming up with a solo dragon, or a hydra, or even an ogre. If we're talking about the ever-illusive 'gamefeel', it 'feels' more realistic for larger creatures to be stronger and more durable, while being able to take on multiple enemies at once.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

Now, a generic medium humanoid BBEG as a solo boss is not inherently bad on its own, but it *uniquely* exasurbates all of the above I'll be discussing further down.

Many of these issues are far less pronounced (though still a problem that requires workable solutions) with larger enemies.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

The issue is that mechanically, it can be any combination of aesthetically stupid, or unsatisfying.

How do I know this?

Because this is literally what PF2e does with its boss level scaling, and *everyone fucking complains it's not fun.*

*Even though that's exactly how those movie fights play out*

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

Now, of course these *can* serve a purpose of showing you how absolutely GOATed they are and should be taken seriously as a threat. Even when flanked by mooks, you should portray them as such. They should hit hard, AND take hits hard, making them stronger in both offense and defense than the party.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

...and it becomes no more apparent than when you fight an enemy that is literally the same size as the rest of the party.

My favourite examples are the fights with Thanos on Titan in Infinity War, and this classic showdown between the Ninja Turtles and Shredder in the 1990 movie.

Turtles vs Shredder | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

YouTube video by Flashback FM

youtu.be

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

The issue is this works fine in an abstracted combat system where things like positioning, specific damage and health values, and practical strategy are secondary to cool storytelling beats and evocative imagery.

Once things get specific though, you see the realities of those limitations...

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

You can tell what a GM's tastes are when they throw a medium humanoid solo boss at you and turn them into a walking one-man army. This kind of trope has always been kind of silly on paper and requires huge amounts of suspension of disbelief to make work. It's like a reverse conservation of ninjutsu.

Conservation of Ninjutsu - TV Tropes

In any martial arts fight, there is only a finite amount of ninjutsu available to each side in a given encounter. As a result, one Ninja is a deadly threat, but an army of them are cannon fodder. A sp...

tvtropes.org

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

Point 1 - let's get something out of the way that some people probably don't want to hear but I think they need to for their own good:

Medium sized humanoids suck as solo enemies. It's a very anime or comic book trope that can hype a villain, but is both uninspired and bad for gameplay.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

So I've been thinking about this *a lot* over the years, and there are four major issues solo enemy boss battles have in grid-based tactics games that I've noticed as throughlines.

1. Size
2. Staticness
3. Debuff/condition potency
4. Granularity of targetable options

#ttrpg #dnd #pathfinder2e 🧵

UnseenD4 @unseend4.bsky.social · 13d

If your high fantasy campaign ends in another status quo "showdown with the bbeg" where it's the party vs one single enemy:

Fucking do better. That shit was new and exciting in the PlayStation 1 era. At this point it's a cop-out.

Particularly true if you are running pf2E or D&D5e

#ttrpg

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

...and *he* turned into a giant biblical abomination.

You ain't getting your Soulsborne slightly-larger-than-you swordsman for a Le Epic 1v1 showdown, and it's self-important to think you're the one that's bespokely getting catered to that way.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

So many people have the 'you need to have this intimate, visceral connection to the final boss to make it matter' and I'm like my brother in christ, even if that's true having a medium sized humanoid that can solo a party of four looks stupid AF, even Cloud had friends help fight Sephiroth...

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

You *can* make interesting ones, but it's difficult in tactics format.

More importantly, it's exactly as you said, it's uninspired, and the people who are like 'solo boss battles are the most important/only bosses that matter' comes from skewered wants that don't suit a party-based format.

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