When it comes to Dragonlance, and especially the newest published adventure, Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, there are few villains that grab the imagination (and the spotlight) like the OG Death Knight himself, Lord Loren Soth. While the original cover art of the adventure depicts Dragon Highmaster Kansaldi Fire-Eyes riding her Red Dragon, Ignia, the alternate cover art and a good chunk of the adventure really revolve around the famed Dragonlance villain.
The problem that DMs running SotDQ encounter though, is how little Soth truly plays into the adventure outside of being a plot device. Additionally, so much time is spent referring to both Soth and Belaphion, the Voice of Takhisis, that the final battle against Kansaldi Fire-Eyes can have less investment for the players, unless you’ve really laid the groundwork to focus their attention on this faceless villain that makes no appearance until the final act.
This leaves Soth as the true BBEG in SotDQ, and the deus ex machina that is used to take him out of commission can leave the DM, as well as the players, feeling unsatisfied.
So, what did I do to alter the penultimate battle in the Sanctum of the Bastion of Takhisis to create a finale before the finale? I played with an excellent mechanic found throughout the SotDQ adventure and then topped it off with a trick by famed DM, Matt Mercer, himself that left me wondering why I haven’t been doing this the whole time!
Environment
Environmental effects are an easy and interesting way to up the ante in any encounter and really make your players be on their toes the whole time.
Almost from the get-go, SotDQ attempts to mimic the fog of war through their use of Battlefield Events (random events happening on initiative count 0 every round) and “the Fray” – the border of the map representing the larger battle – counting as difficult terrain and requiring Dexterity Saving Throws or suffering slashing and piercing damage from errant sword swings and arrow volleys.
I loved the ease of this so much that I added it to the final encounter in the Sanctum – which houses the Cataclysmic Fire which powers the Floating Citadel – against Lord Soth and his bannerman, Wersten Kern. While the adventure has a way to take Soth out of the entire encounter, I kept him away for 3 rounds, because without Soth showing his baddassery, I felt that the players would feel unsatisfied (as would I!)
Since this would be, in essence, a solo Boss fight, I added environmental effects from the Cataclysmic Fire to keep the battlefield random and chaotic – requiring more than the characters rushing up on Wersten Kern and wailing away on their lack of action economy.
Environmental Effects of Cataclysmic Brazier, Initiative Count 0, roll d10
Obscure Fog: A thick, purplish fog covers the area. Creatures cannot see further than 5 squares.
Blood Rage: Spirits killed in the Cataclysm whisper throughout the area, stoking your rage. On any attack roll, creatures roll twice and take the higher result. All hits deal an extra 5 damage.
Poison Gas: The area fills with a terrible poison gas. Each creature takes 5 damage at the beginning of their turn. DC 12 CON Save or lose turn
Polarity Charge: An electric field fills the area. Any creature that wears metal armor takes 10 lightning damage.
Magical Instability: The fields of magic grow chaotic in this area. Any creature that casts a spell must succeed on a DC 15 Concentration check or the spell reflects onto them.
Weak Dimensional Boundary: This area twists the boundaries between worlds. At the start of your turn, roll a d6 and be teleported up to 30’ in a direction. 1-2: no effect, 3: teleported north, 4: teleported south, 5: teleported east, 6: teleported west.
Unholy Aura: The unholy nature of this area hinders the restoration of life. Any effect that would heal a creature instead heals half the amount.
Screaming Madness: Maddening screams fill the minds of all combatants. At the beginning of each creatures’s turn, that creature moves its speed and attacks the nearest ally as a free action.
Unstable Ground: The ground of this area rumbles and cracks, throwing opponents in disarray. While in this area, creatures must succeed on a DC 12 Athletics check or be knocked prone. The area is difficult terrain – move at half speed.
Searing Stone: The floor of this area burns with great heat. Any creature that moves less than two squares takes 10 fire damage.
Hit Points
We’ve talked about dialing the hit points up and down on monsters to alter the challenge, and in our Curse of Strahd campaign, I really altered Vampyr’s (our true, final boss of Barovia) by ramping him up to 600 hit points. But, as I discussed on the review episode of that final battle, the characters managed to mow through nearly 2000 hit points without any rests. This is, undoubtedly, familiar to many of you.
We’ve discussed adding additional minions to make the characters have to spread their fire, but what about the amazing cinematic flavor of a team going toe-to-toe with a nearly unstoppable force (Avengers vs. Thanos, for instance)?
I thought back to my viewing of Critical Role when Vox Machina or The Mighty Nein, or Bell’s Hell went up against a solo BBEG and how much of a titanic struggle it was.
Obviously, Matt Mercer was doing something to alter it and a quick Google search uncovers what it was from fans who really break down the battles played out on the show. In this example, Vecna didn’t have just more hit points than a usual Lich… he had around 5 times the amount.
I often say that I currently ramp every monster to maximum hit points regardless. But when it comes to someone special, a real boss, like Vampyr, Wersten Kern, Kansaldi-Fire-Eyes, or Lord Soth… don’t be afraid to REALLY ramp up the hit points.
In this encounter, I took Wersten Kern from a measly 178 (which a good Paladin can unload in about 2 rounds) to 400. This, coupled with the environmental effects, made it a real knock-down, drag out, epic battle that lasted at least 5 rounds. And once Soth entered the encounter, all bets were off – as I had raised his hit points from 228 (seriously, against 5 characters between 11th and 12th level?!) to 800. This makes these villains truly formidable.
By just massively ramping the hit points, I was able to keep their abilities untouched (which differs from my treatment of Count Strahd) and still have them strike the required amount of fear in the players that a final villain needs.
Final Thoughts
Some DMs might feel like it’s cheating or unfair to ramp hit points like I did in our Dragonlance finale. If you do, that’s cool, you don’t have to do it in your game. But I would bet that the majority of you have had multiple instances where your own “baddest man on the planet” ended up more like Mike Tyson against Jake Paul than “Iron” Mike against Marvis Frazier.
Matt Mercer, after his decades of running games, obviously felt the same – which allowed him to create challenging, memorable, terrifying, and epic final battles with singular foes.
So, don’t feel constrained by the stat block, because Lord Soth isn’t going to be the Death Knight from page 47 of the Monster Manual. But realize that by altering the ability to “take a licking and keep on ticking,” your villain can become a true capstone to the adventure that you’ve put your heart and soul into making memorable.
Until next time, Heroes… LIVE THE ADVENTURE!
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If you are trying to make an epic and rememberable encounter with the BBEG why even worry about how many hit points he has? Just keep the fight going until the perfect moment arrives for him to die and then make it happen. The players will never know. 🙂