Base Quests in four difficulty steps

[lucasdp]

Very true! The barbarian opened the door, and I can't remember if she had used her action already or not... But if she hadn't, she could have killed the skeleton. But she would then be blocking the door, so the elf couldn't have shot from where he was. But with the skeleton gone, anyone else could have walked right up to Balur and attacked anyway. So many possibilities...

But I just want to have at least one turn with my boss monster!

[Count Mohawk]

Well, let's be fair here: You just got unlucky. A crossbow will only waste a monster with 3 Body and 5 Defense about 5% of the time.

(This is also why, when your sorcerers have a big hand of magic, one of the most useful abilities you can give them is the power to cast multiple spells a turn. I am reminded of Ahravax from slev's HQR, who knows literally every Chaos Spell, but will die long before he gets through even a quarter of them.)

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Perhaps some sort of artefact like a Talisman or Staff of Arrow Warding that can deflect a single ranged attack each turn would be in order (especially as I am planning to replace 'Goblin Warriors' with 'Goblin Scouts' armed with bows to prevent Heroes from loitering in the doorways)!

[Gold Bearer]

Maybe boss monsters should go straight after the hero that reveals them and keep that turn sequence.

Maybe all monsters could get an initiative rating of 0-3, lower being better, that decides how many heroes can go after they're revealed.

[Anderas]

Maybe you use EWP cards like interrupt and alert. There are lots of solutions. The trick is to find one that is playable with Vanilla HQ and with any fan version.

So I think I will use the 'go straight after the discovering hero' some day in a quest, but as special feature. Normally i'll use a Portier, that's easy. And of course, any other solution that comes to my mind also. like wandering Monster Balur. Like 5 Body Points. Like an Ogre as Bodyguard so that the Heroes don't really know who to shoot first. Like a falling block trap triggered by the door opening, and three other doors that open at the same time to let the bad guys access the Heroes from the flank. Like, anything else that comes to my mind.

[lucasdp]

I agree, Anderas. I didn't mean to imply that major changes needed to be made to how boss monsters operate (nor did I mean to hijack your thread!). This was just one instance of one possibility in which the dice rolls were really not in my favor.

Frankly, what I've really learned from this is that I need to think on my feet a little better when I'm GM-ing, and I probably don't need to tell the heroes all the info on a boss when he is found. If I hadn't told them he had three body points to begin with, I could have said, "Oh, crossbow hits for three, but he ain't dead yet!" and then given Balur an extra one or two BP to (hopefully) allow him to live until my next turn.

[Anderas]

I tried that. I want to play without life changes as I am soft and i wouldn't kill entire Hero groups if I make changes in the middle.

So I tried to make these before, and the result is visible in this thread. You're really right on the topic.

[Gold Bearer]

Frankly, what I've really learned from this is that I need to think on my feet a little better when I'm GM-ing, and I probably don't need to tell the heroes all the info on a boss when he is found. If I hadn't told them he had three body points to begin with, I could have said, "Oh, crossbow hits for three, but he ain't dead yet!" and then given Balur an extra one or two BP to (hopefully) allow him to live until my next turn.

I definitely wouldn't go that route because where does it end? In that example it makes the first attack against him completely pointless because if it wounds him he gets more BP anyway. I couldn'd play in a game where the EWP was making any part of up as they go along because nothing the heroes do matters at all if they're at the mercy of anything one player decides thewy want to happen. That's not playing a game, it's telling a story. The EWP should be doing everything in their power to kill the heroes. That way what's going to happen in the game is unknown to everyone instead of what one person decided they want to happen, where's the fun in that?

Maybe all monsters could get an initiative rating of 0-3, lower being better, that decides how many heroes can go after they're revealed.

Hmm, this could be interesting. I'm going to open a topic for this.

[lucasdp]

We played Race Against Time and I applied my "turn counter" to have the dungeon begin to cave in at the end of turn 15, and I adjusted so the boss (in our case, Gulthor) shows up at the end of turn 18. I think it worked well.

For starters, the heroes were well into the safety of the last two or three rooms by turn 15, so the cave-in wasn't really a threat, but did give them a sense of urgency, which only increased when Gulthor showed up. Tangerine the barbarian basically took one swing at Gulthor, then said, "Screw you guys; I'm going home," and made for the stairwell. Sparky the elf managed to nail Gulthor with his crossbow on his way out, killing the Chaos Warrior so the other heroes could escape safely as well.

I think it played out nicely. I've attached my notes on how I planned out the cave-in. For reference, I don't think we made it past turn 23 or 24. Feel free to share any thoughts.

[Anderas]

Hahaha that's a good way. I think I'll take it into my Quest book in the next version! Thanks a lot!