Smarter Bosses

Okay I’m reading through the Village of Hommlet 4th Edition version which is not so much a conversion as it is a faithful xerox of the original but with 4e stat blocks.  I don’t have a problem with that, it brings back memories, good ones.  The giant frog swallowing the halfling whole and the look of surprise and shock on the player’s face? Priceless.

But in reading this it brings up just how flat out stupid the bad guys aka everyone not the players are.  As an example (duplicated partially here without permission) -

Writing Desk: This table contains paper, ink and several notes written to “L” from “RD”.  Also is a letter from “L” to “H” describing…

Okay A, why the HELL does Lareth sign his letters with an L and put Dear H on them?  He KNOWS who they’re from and he KNOWS who they’re going to.  The person who gets them?  They KNOW who they’re from.  I doubt if H gets a lot of letters from other people about the guard setup in the moathouse.  And I doubt, actually I know, that Lareth only gets reports from Hommlet from one person.

If this was a unique event it might just be a set of really stupid bad guys.  But it’s not.  Wizards especially loves the not so secret ‘note’ aka big flashing red arrow to tell the characters who the spies and secret traitors and such are.

I’d just like to call for a boycott on secret notes and journals that require a DC Easy to find to hand spoon information to the PC’s.  Make them work for it!  Have the notes be cryptic and not bluntly obvious.  I think in secret agent 101 one of the first things they tell you is “Don’t sign your notes.”.

Something a little more involved and that would give a valuable reason for a little roleplay is “As you read through the cryptic notes that seem to be describing recent events in a town, you assume Hommlet,  you see that whoever wrote it is concerned that ‘the baker’ seems suspicious and keeps nosing around.’ “.

Now you have a perfect opportunity for the players to go check out the baker and see who he’s been hanging around.  And what if it’s not the baker but actually one of the apprentices, the agent doesn’t really know the difference.  And what if the apprentice is actually just hanging out on his breaks near the agent’s place so he can watch a certain girl at the well?  Now you have a whole crazy mixup just waiting to happen.

Unless they’re just really low intelligence and wisdom and are young as in this is their first time bossing, most bosses are going to have at least some idea on an escape route.  They know they’re likely to get overthrown either by a younger, stronger, smarter creature in their ranks or by some do-gooder PC party.  As an example my Zizzor Hive Mother had a power “Preserve The Species” (see below) that allowed the Mother to move her full speed as a minor action, granting her 3 moves, 4 moves if she used an Action Point or 32 squares of movement as an Get Out of Jail Free card when combined with her Savage Cry. Â  The final Boss in that series of encounters had an extended Fade Away power, he was a Gnome, and as a standard encounter action he could sustain the invisibility (but it broke if he took damage) and would use that if things looked really badly. So some smart work on the player’s parts and they could stop both bosses from getting away but the bosses did have a chance to get away.

Using those kinds of options helps get your players in the mindset that the bad guys aren’t just meatbags of hit points and they’re destined to win.  After one or two bosses get away with smart tactics or preperation (or even better drive the players away with overwhelming force but that’s another article) then they might start thinking inside the box and planning on keeping the boss contained while they fight it.  Rather than just assuming it’s going to stand there and die for them.

As an aside, speaking of Hommlet, let’s try and avoid the Grab Bag Effect of monster placement too.  No goblins in a room next to Gnolls next to Orcs next to Undead.  4E gives us this HUGE ability, that no prior edition came close to, in having a themed set of encounters.  My Zizzor one off is an example, good I think but then I’m biased, of how you can have a series of encounters that are interesting by simply incorporating a different mix of subtypes.

I know that it large part the grab bag o’ monster encounters was forced on DM’s by the lack of variety.  No player wants to go through a dungeon and have 18 fights of the same Orc to face the Hill Giant that’s leading them.  So they added in a mish mash of encounters to make the encounter series interesting even if it made no realistic sense.  But we don’t have to do that now.  Have your first fights with goblin foragers with a goblin warrior or two, then some goblin archers or sneaks and a goblin shaman, the big fat goblin boss with the twin elite wargs as guardians. Â  It’s all goblin, it makes sense but each fight plays out different depending on the mix of controller, soldier, minion etc.

And remember to have that big fat goblin boss have a bolt hole in case things look really badly.  And honestly if the party has just ripped a new one through your entire crew, most bosses should be gone by the time they get there.  If they’re smart.

As a parting thought I give you the playbook for any boss – The top 100+ things I’d do if were an evil overlord.

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