Class: Ogre Ape

Depending on the setting, this could be an ogre, an ape, or an ogre ape. (Or a half-giant, or a goliath, even a really brawny barbarian. Any big guy/gal, really.) It has a touch of James Young's barbarian, SaltyGoo's ogre and Skerples' brawler.

Ogre Sitting by vshen

 

Language: dialect basically unheard of Around Here

Items: loincloth, greatclub (d10)

Skills: Astrology, Cooking, Fishing, Herb Lore

A: Unconquered, Half-Naked

B: choose one of Commanding Roar or Powerful Presence

C: Unbreakable

D: choose one of Silverback Punch or Withstand

Unconquered

You are an eight foot tall slab of muscle.

Your unarmed attacks deal d4 damage. Double your base maximum HP.

This probably requires a bit of an explanation. In my current ruleset, you have base HP based on Constitution and extra HP from class levels. So if your rules have for example Meat and Grit, double the Meat. If nothing like that is applicable, maybe step up their hit dice, or simply give them +2 HP per level?

Half-Naked

You are immune to the negative effects of weather and hypothermia.

Commanding Roar

Once per encounter, you can give a one-word command to a humanoid that is smaller than you. It can choose to fall prone instead of obeying the order.

Powerful Presence

At the start of each round, you can decide how creatures smaller than you react to you: They either avoid fighting you unless there is no other choice, or they gang up on you, ignoring your teammates.

Unbreakable

Once ever when you would die, instead regain full HP and gain a cool scar.

Silverback Punch

Once per session, you can knock anything unconscious. This can be used even against things like golems or doors, where unconsciousness should be interpreted liberally.

Withstand

Once per session, completely ignore an attack or effect. If it would normally continue further, you also shield everyone behind you.

This negates secondary effects too (If a trap swings a huge stone hammer at you and you withstand it with your face, you also won't be knocked back.), but may not help much against ongoing effects. (When splashed with liquid flame, you can withstand the initial damage, but you will still be on fire.)

Ritual of Communion

No wizard is to be trifled with lightly, but when several wizards join forces, they become the stuff of nightmares. Especially if they literally join forces via the ritual of communion.

Winter Solstice by shk28

All wizards partaking in a communion must be within a pre-made magic circle. The wizard who initiates the ritual becomes the communion master, the rest are communion slaves. Communion slaves cannot use magic until they break communion by stepping outside of the circle.

The communion master gets access to MD and spells of all communion slaves, and can use them as if they were his own.

Only one participant is affected by any Mishaps or Dooms triggered during communion. The communion master chooses who is affected - potentially shunting any consequences of powerful spells onto a communion slave. This is often kept secret from the communion slaves, for obvious reasons.

Wizard shackle: Most often forged in the form of a ring or manacle, it obviates the need for a magic circle when starting a communion. The bearer of the master ring can draw upon anyone wearing a linked shackle.

Legendary Resistance-less

Legendary Resistance (3/day): If the creature fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

I dislike this ability. It is not fun at all.

I understand why it exists - because otherwise there are way too many save or suck powers that can easily leave any boss struggling to take a single turn while the party murders them - but giving the boss several Get Out of Jail Free cards per day, with no clear indication to the players that their attack worked and the monster just decided that "Nope, I don't like that!" feels unfair and unfun to me. On a second thought, giving a clear indication what just happened might be worse, as the player just wasted a limited resource and there is not even a trick to be learnt and abused later - it just doesn't work until brute-forced by running the boss out of their daily uses.

 

Here are d6 alternatives to Legendary Resistance. While this is parlance specific to D&D 5e, these abilities should be easy to use for any OSR boss just as well.

1. Save Immunity: The boss automatically succeeds on any saving throws it is proficient in.

I like immunity on bosses more than resistances. Giving a boss one or two immunities and clearly communicating that to the players gives them a nice restriction to work around, which breed creativity. Giving a boss some resistances basically just prolongs combat.

2. Save Adaptation: The boss automatically fails when it makes a saving throw of each type for the first time, but always succeeds afterwards.

A variation on Save Immunity, this means that the players' powers just work (fun) but cannot keep the boss bound for long (also fun). It also forces the players to change their approach each round - no spamming the same spell over and over. Few fights will take more than 4 or 5 rounds and this power should reset between encounters, so the boss probably won't become immune to everything.

3. Purge: As a bonus action, remove one effect affecting the boss.

This should be a bonus action, so that the boss can use it without giving up its turn completely, but works best if the boss has other bonus actions that will compete for their place in the action economy. You can debuff the boss, but it will rarely last more than a round. Still, it will cost it a bonus action it could otherwise use for more nefarious purposes. Plus if you can layer several effects, or somehow force it to use its other bonus action, you can keep the debuffs going. This is my second favourite, as it gives the GM some fun decisions to make in the heat of combat and at the same time prevents the boss from sucking for long even if it fails every single saving throw.

4. Reflect: When targeted by a spell that allows a saving throw, the boss and the caster roll an opposed ability check. If the caster fails, their spell is redirected back at them.

Very scary power that nonetheless doesn't help if the boss fails and gets caught in whatever nasty spell the wizard had prepared. High risk, high reward.

5. Unfair Exchange: As an action, the boss targets one enemy that must make a saving throw. On failure, the boss and the target exchange all their temporary effects.

The boss tries to switch its debuffs for a PC's buffs. Once again, very scary but dependant on a failed saving throw of the PC.

6. Redirect: As a reaction when it fails a saving throw, the boss can redirect the effect to one of its nearby underlings.

This is pretty close to the original Legendary Resistance, but the players get a clear indication that their power worked, that the boss is evil, abusing its minions like that, and that there is a solution - remove all minions. Also their power still works, if against a minion, so nothing feels wasted. This is my definite favourite.

For extra fun, instead of minions, give the boss several fully independent shadow clones and have it switch places and effects with the clones. Chaos reigns.

d12 Stranger Backgrounds

1. Found in a circle of ancient stones. You can speak with animals/plants/elements/the Dead (choose one), but may never learn to read, write or do complex maths. Start with a fetish.
2. Wandered out of a cave rumoured to lead to the Nightmare Below. You don't need to and cannot sleep or dream. Start with a map that shows a long lost secret.
3. Arrived as the only passenger on a derelict, rotting ship. If the whole party dies, you somehow survive but lose everything you are wearing and carrying. Start with bad dreams.
4. Fled a sinking paradise island nobody has ever heard of. When you sing, reroll non-aggressive Reaction with a +2 bonus. Start with a harp and an insufferable optimism.
5. Escaped from a plague pit. Your rotting flesh can be sealed up with mud and squashed bugs. Mindless undead ignore you unless you attack first. Start with a hooded cloak.
6. Raised in a forgotten monastery. Your bare hands and feet count as sledgehammers. Start with a bald head, a mendicant bowl and an endless supply of koans.
7. Sealed in a sarcophagus. Immaculate. Beautiful. Uncanny. Immune to filth, mutation and ageing. Start knowing d4 rare languages.
8. Survived in the woods. Become an animal until dawn when touched by moonlight. Choose the animal the first time you change. Start with d4 extra rations of raw meat.
9. Grew up in a cult that recently died out. Before every session, the GM gives you a prophetic dream. Start with d4 followers that consider you a living god.
10. Born of a dead mother, saved by illegal alchemy. Turn monsters to potions with a night of work. Start with a bloody cough and a mutation.
11. Conceived immaculately; born under a fateful star. Once ever, you can perform a miracle. Start with a ring that glows near evil.
12. You were always here, just out of sight. You can always move faster than someone who is running away and fleeing for their life. Start with friends among thieves and children.

From Bing Image Creator