You can’t just kill a boss monster like you would a minion of the boss monster. (Every boss monster has minions, which are similar in theme but much easier to kill)
If you take down a boss monsters Hit Points to zero before you have found their Weakness, they will just come back. Most likely they will come back stronger and with new, more powerful abilities.
Your best bet is to fight them off, find an opening, and get the hell out of there.
So how do we kill them? With Research?
Excellent use of Perception and Intelligence. (Which is what you will use to research)
To defeat the boss monster you must investigate what is going on.
A campaign starts when your team of Agents is sent by the D.C.U. to find out what is going on with an unexplainable horrific event, and to contain it. This means either trapping or killing the boss monster.
To do this you must research the “crime scene” and find clues to find out 2 things:
- You must figure out what exactly happened at the location and fill out a Monster Containment Form with all the information you have gathered.
- You must find out everything about the monster and fill out a Monster Containment Form with all the information you have gathered.
Monster Containment Form sounds like Orwellian Nonsense
- To be sure, Agents are annoyed with the paperwork, but one you have filled out all the sections of the Monster Containment form, you have completed everything you need for 100% victory of the campaign.
- Technically you can win without all information found, but you don’t get 100% victory. All you need to win in the quickest and least complete way possible, is to learn everything about the boss monster’s weakness, and use that to kill it.
A practical example:
You find out that the ghost haunting the Victorian Mansion cannot be killed unless:
You intern her remains underneath her favorite tree in the backyard by the rose garden.
You confront her in the final battle with a family picture of her father and mother, who committed suicide after her death.
You kill her in the basement where she fell and wasted away, her family none the wiser.
This would win the campaign, but you don’t have all the information for a 100% completion.
Your reward at the end of the campaign might be her locket, which gives resistance to all ghost or spectral attacks. But you wouldn’t get the more powerful items for the 100% completion.
These could be abilities, spells, or powerful magical items.
A 100% Completion would involved filling out the Monster Containment Form with the above 3 weaknesses. As well as:
Finding out why she has a favorite tree
Finding out the significance of the rose garden
Finding out about how she died Finding out about her family’s suicide
Finding out about her home life before her death.
Monster Containment form Template on pg. 43
So how do we find out about these things?
Something like the basement battle weakness would be announced by the DM if you happen to fight her in the basement. You can accidentally find a weakness.
However, learning about where her remains are and what do with them could only come from research.
Research is done through a combination of story progression and roll playing, as well as rolling checks against intelligence, perception, arcanum, and other skills as appropriate to uncover information.
A practical example:
Roleplaying: You have a discussion with the caretaker of the Victorian Mansion. Through conversation you learn that there is a legend regarding the suicide of the owners back in the 1800s.
Intelligence Check: You go to the local library and search old newspaper clippings to see exactly how they did it.
Perception Check: You return to the mansion and see that the basement door is boarded up. Inside you find a little girl’s skeleton and claw marks on the forgotten door.
Charisma Check: You convince the caretaker’s wife, who was the little girl’s nanny, to admit how exactly she died.
Fill out the Monster Containment Form
And reap the rewards!