Summary
Running a memorable boss encounter for your players is a staple of any long-runningDungeons & Dragonscampaign. However, at a certain level, it might start to feel nearly impossible to keep your players on their toes, especially if your table is full of expert D&D players.
So, what’s a Dungeon Master to do? Well, luckily, there are some tips and tricks you can bring to your table to help make boss encounters for expert players not only challenging but memorable. We’ve compiled this list of the best tips to help keep boss battles feeling fun, fresh, and most of all, difficult for your expert players.
10Legendaries Are A Must
You Have To Ruin The Fun
This first tip may seem obvious, but some DMs forget just how important Legendary Resistances and Actions are, especially if you’re dealing with a large D&D party. For those not in the know, Legendary Resistances grant powerful bosses the ability to turn failed saving throws into successes, and Legendary Actions allow bosses to take attacks and move on other players' turns.
Not only is this essential for leveling out action economy in combat, but it’s also important for keeping the combat feeling climactic. After all, combat can be ended with high-level polymorphs used against bosses if you’re not careful.
9Use Self-Restores
Don’t Just Add HP
One cheaper way to make combat more difficult is to buff a boss’s HP either before or midway through the fight. A lot of DMs fudge numbers, and HP is one of the easiest ways to do this. However, this can often backfire, and sometimes might leave players questioning the validity of the fight.
That’s why adding boss abilities thatcan restore HPis better than just fudging the numbers yourself. If you really want to add a challenge, you can design your boss so that they can restore themselves from conditions and HP, leaving players to either destroy the source of this ability or use other types of damage to take the boss down.
8Employ Lair Actions
Even The Odds
Lair Actions are always going to help even the playing field when it comes to boss encounters. Plus, they help make the battle feel more climactic. While many lair actions just inflict damage, the best way to use these devices is to have lair actions that inflict conditions or change up the field of play.
For example, a dragon could reside in a volcano that emits toxic fumes, leaving players blinded if they fail Constitution saving throws. Or, a Colossus could destroy the structure the players are fighting in, leaving them to crawl over rubble as if it were difficult terrain.
7Add Secondary Combat Goals
It’s Not All About Damage
While many expert-level D&D players are all about character optimization and simply doing the most damage in a single round, it’s important to add secondary combat goals to keep things interesting. This also helpsat higher levels of play, when players have access to so many combat-ending abilities right out of the gate.
For example, you could place a valuable NPC to the party in harm’s way, or inform the party that they must retrieve a valuable item from the combat lair without damaging it. This means they’ll have to think more carefully about launching Fireballs or other AoE spells.
6Force Out Counter Abilities
Get Those Counterspells Out Now
At the top of a combat encounter, when players are feeling fresh and spicy, it’s best to attempt to force out counter abilities like Counterspell while they still have access to them. The best way to do this is to target squishier characters, or unleash powerful one-hit kill type spells like Power Word Kill.
This forces spellcasters to use Counterspell to prevent their teammates from going down too quickly. From there, once you know your table has burned through their counter abilities, you can unleash more deadly attacks.
5Use Time Limits
Restrictions Are Key
Another great way to challenge high-level players is by employing a time or round limit. you’re able to either use an above-board timer or simply enforce a round limit. This not only helps keep combat feeling efficient, but raises the stakes significantly.
For example, if players are facing off against an Arch Lich, inform them that they have five rounds to take out the Lich before their evil ritual is complete. This means players will have to go all-out to try to stop the boss, leaving them potentially vulnerable afterward.
4Take Players Off The Field
Level The Playing Field
Many high-level DMs may be familiar with this tactic. It’s always great to geta dastardly rogue, monk, or other pesky player off the board with the use of a Banishment spell or other magical means. Doing so not only helps even the playing field but can provide secondary combat goals for players as well.
Yes, a lot of the time, this means that players will still be trying to inflict damage on the boss to break their concentration. However, you can use Legendary Resistances to save on these, meaning you can potentially keep dangerous players off the map for three to four rounds, depending on how you play your cards.
3Add Damage Resistances And Immunities
Tailor-Made For Your Party
By the time players reach higher levels, they may have started to tailor their character builds toward a particular kind of damage or ability that’s proven difficult for you, as a DM, to deal with. That’s why, when it comes to designing boss fights, it’s really important that you add damage resistances and immunities where possible.
Beyond just damage types, you should also consider adding condition immunities to certain powerful bosses. The most common condition immunities to add are immunities like prone or grappled, meaning that a pesky barbarian can’t just hold the boss in place while the rest of the party takes turns attacking.
2Adjust Recharges
Homebrew It Up
Many powerful boss monsters from the 2025 Monster Manual have recharge abilities. This is most common for dragons with their breath weapons. Typically, these abilities recharge on a d6 roll of five or six. However, depending on your party size, there’s nothing saying you may’t adjust these slightly.
One great trick to use is to scale the recharge depending on how much damage the boss has taken. For example, you can add a rule to the creature’s stat block that says that, when they reach half HP, their abilities recharge on a 3+, rather than just a five or six. This can help keep combat feeling climactic in the back half of the encounter.
1Weaken The Party First
Think Of It Like A Prologue
Lastly, it’s always worth considering taking high-level parties down a peg before they even get to the final boss encounter. For example, if an adventuring party must traverse a large tower full of traps and other lower-level combat encounters before reaching the boss, they’re likely to expend some spells and abilities before they even reach the big bad.
This can help drain the party’s resources a little bit so that they’ve hopefully burned through some slots, recharge features, and more, evening the playing field a bit. Just be careful not to actively punish players. If they only burn things like cantrips, so be it, and you should still plan to run the boss encounter as normal.
