While it’s sometimes fun to flip open a bestiary or monster manual to find a random monster to throw at the PCs, when you’re planning a boss for your party to face, it’s best to put some thought and care into the selection. You might even go so far as to make the boss of the adventure a full-fledged and statted-out NPC using the typical character creation rules instead of relying on the sparse monster stat block in the book. How much prep you put into the boss is up to you, and is, quite honestly, an entirely different article than this one.
Regardless of how much prep you put into the boss, they should support the themes of your story, have their own styles, speak in a recognizable manner, and have a reason to be the leader of the mooks the PCs will be facing.
Support Your Theme
The boss (or bosses) of your adventure should support the overall theme and tone of the story you’re presenting to your players. If you have an adventure about rescuing a kidnapped ice pixie, then having a fire-based boss as the main opponent would feel appropriate because of the opposing forces at play. However, if you have a gang of intelligent raiders capable of intricate planning and execution of their schemes, then having a lower-intelligent creature (like an ogre) as the leader of the raiders wouldn’t quite make sense.
If your theme is one of romance, then a swashbuckling, sword-wielding, bright-eyed person might fall right in line with reflecting the themes and tones of your story. If you’re going more for space-based horror, then the boss might be the queen xenomorph that has infested a space station or colony.
Style and Affectations
Let’s talk about two different appearances and styles using the examples I just put in the prior section.
The swashbuckling swordsman (or swordswoman) will likely have fancy, bright, ornate clothing to go along with their flashy sword moves. There will be layers of clothing that are different colors and hues, but the combination of colors won’t clash or look gaudy (to most people). The colors will look wonderful and amazing on them. Something that catches the eye, really. They’ll most likely have a handkerchief readily available for dabbing at minor wounds or wiping away tears from a heartbroken lover. They’ll be kind and gentle in all appearances and approaches…. Until it’s time to draw blood, then they’ll be deadly serious.
The queen xenomorph, on the other hand, will be all scales and carapace and fangs and acidic drool. Odds are, the xenomorphs will blend in with the darkness of space, which means they’ll be black and shades of dark gray, except for their teeth, which will clearly show in dim light. The queen will most likely not speak the PCs language, if she speaks at all. She might be intelligent, but incapable of forming proper words with her fang-filled mouth. Just because she can’t speak doesn’t mean she’s at animalistic intelligence.
Speech Patterns
I’m with Phil in this area in that I can’t do quality accents for a great length of time, so I don’t try at all. However, there’s more to speech patterns than the accents. Word choice, emphasis, and inflection can play into establishing a character’s style and imprinting on the players’ memories.
If you’ve ever read the Darksword trilogy (technically there are now 4 books, not counting the RPG effort) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, then you’ll be aware of speech patterns from a few different characters. Saryon is hesitant, halting even, in his speech because he lacks confidence. Joram speaks bluntly and to the point because of how he was raised. There is one character that when you see his dialogue, you know it’s him. That’s Simkin. He is, I’m pretty sure, the only character in all that lengthy tale that uses the word, “egad,” in his dialogue. There are other examples as well. When you read Simkin’s dialogue, you just know who is speaking because of the word choices and cadence of speech.
What does this have to do with your boss? Well, you can make the boss stand out by letting most NPCs and mooks and such have similar speech patterns, but break the mold and have your boss speak in a different manner. Give them some flair or special way of talking. A way that allows the PCs to identify them in just a few syllables. It’ll drive home the uniqueness and special nature of the boss.
Leadership
Why is the boss the boss? Why are they leading? The best way to approach this is to give them a driving purpose and goal (along with some motivations, eh?) that are more important and powerful than those of the lieutenants and mooks that follow the leader. People tend to follow leaders that have a clear vision and purpose. If someone is “in charge” but doesn’t really have a desire to drive a mission or objection forward, they’re probably not going to be “in charge” for very long. Nature abhors a vacuum. Likewise, followers abhor a lack of leadership and direction.
This means you need to give your mooks a reason to follow the leader into perilous situations. Otherwise, the foundation of your story will crack, crumble, and sag.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this sixth installment of this series. We’re about halfway through now, and I’m looking forward to talking about the mooks that follow your boss in next month’s article.