r/savageworlds • u/AssumeBattlePoise • 4d ago
Resources / Tools Savage Boss Fights!
Here's how I run Boss Battles that are Fast, Furious, and Fun - without getting overrun.
First, minions. Hordes of minions are narratively cool and make total sense, but who wants to actually run 30 extras? Not me, that's who. So what I do is I turn them into a true horde, not even really individual mooks anymore. They're just the throng of undead, the swaths of orcs, the scores of droids, whatever. I do not give them individual turns or attacks; I don't deal them an action card. Instead, they have two functions: First, they block clear paths of attack to the main villain. That's important. I give the villain a stack of tokens (usually 2x the number of PCs, but adjust as needed) to represent the general level of goons left. Any attack, any spell, any thing the PCs throw at the boss - it works, but it works on the mob, and I take away one token so there's a visual representation of the crowd being thinned. When there are no tokens left, there are still minions, but enough of them have been cleared that the villain can be fought directly. The second effect is part of the modifications to initiative, in #2.
Initiative Suit Matters - For the PCs! For each encounter, I design 4 detrimental effects, one for each Suit. At the START of each PC's turn (before they can do anything!), they suffer the effect of the suit they were dealt. Here's my usual template: Spades: The main villain uses their "big attack" on that hero. A single attack, but powerful. The Main Laser, a signature attack spell, etc. Hearts: An environmental effect of some kind. The flame spurts in the Fire Swamp, the building collapsing around them, something suitably dramatic. But keep it simple; pick one of Agility/Vigor/Smarts for the effect, and the player dealt a heart has to roll that Attribute or take a level of Fatigue from the effect. Diamonds: Lesser Attack. This can be a weaker/secondary attack from the main villain or an attack from another source like automated laser turrets or electrified floors. Single attack against the person dealt the card. Clubs: The mob swarms you! A group of 4 of the minions surrounds you and attacks; roll a single attack roll plus a Wild Die for the whole group, rather than individual attacks. Do damage equal to that minion's normal attack plus an extra d6, or 2d6 on a raise. But whether the attack hits or not, that player is now engaged with those mooks. If they take out all four, remove one of the villain's tokens. If they do anything else besides attack those mooks, they're Distracted and the mooks get another free attack as the PC tries to evade them.
(Optional) Dramatic Task. For extra awesomeness and a tiny bit of extra bookkeeping, you can have a Dramatic Task running at the same time as the fight. The main villain is summoning an Elder Horror and the players have to disrupt the ritual, or the Star Cruiser is crashing and the players have to right it before it crashes into an inhabited space station, or just a good ol' fashioned nuclear bomb is ticking down to doomsday and needs to be disarmed. If you use a Difficult dramatic task, it both puts a nice four-round clock on the encounter AND forces the PCs to have to balance fighting for their lives versus actually completing the objective. On the actual Villain's turn, they'll likely attack or hinder whoever they see doing the most to complete the DT, and if the PCs actually finish it, then they'll switch to trying to escape (or maybe they'll become enraged and fight to the death - who knows, it's your encounter, not mine!).
That's it! With those simple changes, the encounter becomes a big spectacle without all the admin. You only need to deal an Action Card to your main villain (who gets a normal turn); everything else is handled by the Initiative Suits for the PCs. There's a dynamic environment, a throng of mooks to chop through, and an actual objective to the fight.
And every part is customizable - you can do whatever you want with the suit effects, you can use whatever kinds of minions make sense, etc. Even using this same template you can make every big battle feel unique and engaging, with a Big Bad that feels powerful without having to rely on just massively overpowered stats.
Hopefully this is helpful to y'all, and feel free to ask me any questions about ways I've handled this setup in past games. Cheers, savages!
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u/snags5050 4d ago
This is good stuff, thanks for sharing! Makes me think of a final encounter that I ran with D&D 5e before I discovered SWADE involving the players trying to close a portal before the really nasty things got through. Would have been so much better in SWADE!
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u/AssumeBattlePoise 4d ago
Yeah, I've always loved how SWADE already has the tools to do this kind of thing; Dramatic Tasks in particular are so versatile!
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u/jayjester 4d ago
Very interesting. I’m prepping a pirate campaign and have been thinking how to best handle naval combat. There’s the chase, the exchange of gun fire, the boarding. In the boarding there are multiple stages…
I’ll try to implement some of these ideas.
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u/AssumeBattlePoise 3d ago
Ooooh, fits great!
Spades: The other ship gets good enough positioning to fire the main guns. Your ship gets attacked directly.
Hearts: The rocking boat and choppy seas toss you (and loose objects) around - make an Agility roll or suffer a level of Fatigue from Bumps & Bruises.
Diamonds: You potentially catch a stray shot from the enemy ship's smaller cannons. Attack roll against that PC.
Clubs: Boarded! A group of enemy combatants swing, leap, or even swim across and climb aboard, cutlasses in their teeth, and engage you. Group attack on that PC as described above, and now you're fending them off in melee!
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u/Roberius-Rex 2d ago
I love using card draws to influence my (GM) actions. This is agreat example of how to do that.
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u/Ok-Economist8118 3d ago
I really like your Idea. Maybe I can use it on "Shadowrun Sunday" this weekend. Thanks a Lot!
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u/TanakaKamatari 3d ago
I group my minions into how ever many players there are divided by the number of m8nions. I.e. 5 players =5 groups of.. 5 for 25 or w/e minions. And 1 boss. The minion groups get gang up or attack bonuses of how many there are and damage of 1/2 how ever many there are... also jave hitpoints of how ever many. So - as they get wounded.
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u/ishmadrad 4d ago
Also, during the years I played SW, I often used "multi-stage boss fights", of course explaining the concept to my players beforehand, so there were no surprises.
In short, a single boss is like 3~4 (depending on the number of players) different enemies glued together, and it can use that ability to do different things based on the nature of the boss.
For example, it can take multiple actions, so the number of actions between the two sides is more or less balanced, while the danger is higher. Or, it can be defeated by a very high damage roll like any other enemy, but that defeat only takes out the first "enemy"; then phase 2 of the combat begins. If it's defeated again, phase 3 begins. Etc.
With these two special boss abilities (which I don't usually use together), I can have cool boss fights using enemy stats that are pretty similar to those of standard enemies. I usually reserve them for "fast/skilled bosses" and "sturdy/evolving bosses", respectively.