Difficult monsters

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

I love how many tricky questions can be settled definitively by looking up the actual text of the rule. That means some people did a fantastic job with these books.

Thanks for the compliment. To be fair, I'm sure many things are less than perfect . . . but to stay on topic: One thing that's really, really hard is to design a "boss" that isn't just stupidly unfair ("Immune to everything. Each attack kills one target, no defense or resistance allowed.") but isn't a glass cannon or otherwise flawed.

That said, a lot of monsters meet the "boss" criterion only if the GM carefully reads the description and notes. Dragons are a great example. Reading the stats blocks alone, they aren't impossible to take out with a good shot. But there are mitigating circumstances, like:

Dragons are also intelligent – the older, the smarter. They use canny tactics . . .

. . . these creatures vary widely, and the GM should customize each one . . .

. . . a particular dragon could have any advantage – most famously Alternate Form (Human), Danger Sense, Discriminatory Smell, Extra Heads (with Extra Attacks and different breath weapons), and See Invisible . . .

Dragons this big sometimes cause Terror.

Dragon may have Magery 1-6, up to Energy Reserve 50 (Magical), and wizardly spells!

All of which means that a dragon might, say, show itself only after the delvers are stuck in a swamp outdoors . . . and freeze some of them with Terror . . . and then blast them with all four standard breath weapons plus magic spells. Which is actually a lot more important than its Dodge, DR, HP, etc.

So remember, while it's important to play fair, that isn't the same as playing nice. I made sure to include reminders.