Depending on how your players build their characters, they might be able to jump right into some tough combats. However, a party with a balanced skill range will be more suited to low or mid-level boss fights. A classic problem for most game masters is balancing between playing for or against the player characters’ strengths and skills. So for an intro quest, which should you do? In my opinion, it should be a 3:1 ratio. 3 out of every 4 encounters should be suited specifically to the players’ builds. The first boss encounter of a campaign or an introductory one shot should be one of those 3. Remember that “suited” does not equal “easy.” It just means that the boss or primary opposition has a weakness that the players’ specifically have a way to exploit or else does not exploit any of the PCs’ weaknesses.
So towards those ends, these are my top 10 picks for antagonists to use in an intro quest from the Q.U.E.S.T.E. core rulebook.
10. NPCs
NPCs have the most flexibility when it comes to keeping things interesting and tailoring the encounter to the players. However, that flexibility comes with the highest level of complexity, book keeping, prep work. It can be anything from an enemy party of adventurers to a single NPC with one or more major positive attributes. Because they are the most flexible, it’s easy to incorporate twists, like boss fight stages, lore drops, or other dramatic moments. Once again, adding elements and details to keep things fresh also adds to the work that the Narrator has to do and they can cause the combat to drag on.
9. Ancient Horror
Ancient horrors in the core rulebook have the same pros and cons as NPCs if you’re using them for a boss fight. They are relatively easy to tailor, but at the cost of some additional work. They have the benefit of being more monstrous. If an alien monster with strange, unknowable magics and abilities matches the flavor of your game, then this is an option worth looking into for an intro quest, especially if you can use it as a breadcrumb to move a campaign forward.
8. Green Web
Playing to the PCs’ strengths doesn’t mean they aren’t getting challenged. Using a stationary opponent for a final boss will certainly challenge their expectations. The green web makes for an interesting final boss that isn’t too dangerous but still takes some work to take down. It only gets eighth place because it might be a little too far outside of the box. Not every Narrator or player character is going to find this opponent interesting. It could be difficult to provide a solid motivation for the PCs to feel engaged.
7. Gorgon
While the green web is interesting because it is atypical, the gorgon is great because it is highly typical, one of mythology’s first boss fights. This can be a pretty balanced combat depending on the terrain and environmental factors that you include, since the gorgon is statted out as a glass cannon. Its petrification ability can take PCs out of the fight, but only a few good hits can take the gorgon down, meaning the last PC standing could get the job done and then find a way to revive their allies. However, taking PCs out of a boss fight completely isn’t the most fun thing to do, and your players might whine about it.
6. Lesser Demon
Demons are an easy antagonist to utilize, both in terms of plot and mechanics. It’s not very original and its tough to make it feel unique, but it’s a staple choice and a solid fallback. Demons lend themselves to being a jack-of-all-trades combatant, with magic and melee. You can shift the dial to one side or the other or just settle it in the middle and try to keep the PCs guessing. Either way, it’s a staple for a reason.
5. Hag
In terms of prep and and plot details, a hag can be viewed as a more extreme version of a gorgon. Their stat block does not include a lot of health or crazy defenses, however they are a versatile spellcaster that puts a lot of tricks up the Narrator’s sleeve. Depending on how the Narrator plays their hand, it could easily be too much for a beginner party of PCs. Fighting spellcasters can keep combat really colorful, but it can also end a combat a little too quickly if the PCs make a misstep. Additionally, it can be a little difficult to use a hag to breadcrumb a larger campaign in a way that feels natural.
4. Vampire (young)
Vampires make for an interesting fight because they’re ultimately melee fighters with mechanics that make them seem more like spellcasters. It makes a slightly more unique boss compared to the lesser demon. Depending on the players you have at the table and their character builds, you can pick an age on the Vampire Abilities table anywhere from 0 to 200 years to create a general difficulty level. Then, you can add one or two NPC stat packages to give your vampire a general strategy to use. Some interesting options include Berserker, Cult Leader, Gangster, Mage, Psion, or Swordsman. The one real drawback is that they are pretty genre specific. Using them immediately establishes a dark fantasy theme.
3. Lesser Drake
This is a tough fight. A group of players that builds their characters specifically around this opponent can easily walk away with some nice dragon leather Gucci boots and purses, but a party that doesn’t know to expect this is going to have a tough time and will probably suffer at least one character death. A dragon has high health, high defense, and solid attack bonuses. The fact that this monster can be on this list is really the only reason that it is. Using this monster for an intro adventure could have a really epic payoff at the table, but only if it was proceeded by a really solid session zero.
2. Chimera
The chimera ranks ahead of the drake because it generally represents a similar kind of combat encounter with a much lower risk level. In addition, it carries a lot of the same benefits that the ancient horror does with its moldability while simultaneously being much easier to conform to different genres. Building a chimera for a boss fight is a great example of the point we made earlier about creating a suitable opponent. You can either give it slightly high stats overall with a specific weakness that the players can figure out, or you can look at the players’ primary weakness as a cohesive party and purposely not give the chimera any way to exploit that weakness. Boss battles are usually battles of attrition anyways, so having an enemy that sounds cool and unique goes a really long way to keep the fight interesting. Having an enemy with unique mechanics can keep the fight interesting as well, but its overall benefit compared to the amount of work it requires usually makes it way less efficient as a strategy for keeping the PCs engaged.
1. Goblins
The real tried and true staple of an introductory adventure, the bread and butter of mob cannon fodder, a classic, good old-fashioned goblin can hardly let you down when you’re trying to just have a fun ice breaker. The reason? Tactics. Mechanics are cool, and visual descriptions get a great wow factor, but tactics are the real opportunity for the Narrator and the PCs to both be having fun. Treating superior numbers as a boss ability can also make for a flashy drag out brawl. If you want it to feel like a normal boss fight, you can also use the Swarm stat modification on page 268. However, if I was a player, I would enjoy taking them down one at a time.
Your campaign needs to start somewhere and your one shots need to end somewhere. While it can be fun to replay a board game or rewatch a movie, playing through the exact same adventure or scenario can get a little dry if you’re recycling it every single time you start up a game. Shaking things up is most of the fun in ttrpgs. The real chore of ttrpgs is setting up the story or helping new players learn the ropes, and no two groups are completely alike in terms of what they want to get out of a game, so its nice to have options. If you really want to split hairs, you can always just make a completely original monster or NPC to fulfill your story goals. Depending on the kind of story you want to tell, you don’t even need a specific antagonist or confrontable final boss. But that’s a blog post for another day. Tell us what you think of our list, and tell us if you have a go-to monster or theme for intro quests when trying out a new rpg.
Henry Standage
