The Final Fantasy franchise has used four powerful bosses with elemental themes since the first 🐭game in the series, which is something that has also been used a lot in . Final Fantasy IV had i🍬ts own set of iconic elemental villains in the form of the Archfiends, and these can easily be used as bosses in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
The third member of the Archfiends is Barbಌariccia, the Empress of the Winds. Barbariccia is fought within the Tower of Zot when the party is trying to rescue a kidnapped Rosa. 💯Like the other Archfiends, Barbariccia is an incredibly powerful foe, and even reaching her should be a challenge unto itself.
Setting The Scene - The Empress Of The Winds
Barbariccia is the guardian of something the party needs, either an incredibly powerful magic item or a prisoner. She resides at the top of a tower filled with devious traps and powerful foes. Barbariccia keeps tabs on intruders with the help of a crystal ball and her interest grows with each floor they ascend. As the party reaches her location, they can hear the wind starting to howl in the sky beyond the walls of the tower, as Barbariccia grows more excited at the thought of a challenging battle. Once the par📖ty reaches her floor, she will welcome them as if she were a noblewoman greeting guests for dinner, before conjuring a massive tornado around her body.
Barbariccia Statblock
The Question Of Maelstrom
The Maelstrom is an incredibly powerful move and some DMs might not want to use it. The move we have created reflects the effects of Maelstrom as presented in Final Fantasy IV. Maelstrom is somewhat balanced by the fact that Barbariccia is incapacitated the round after it's used, and her Tornado Form is out of commission for a few rounds after. The ability to shave a party's hit points down to single digits is a frightening one, and it can work as a great eye-opener for a group who breezed their way through the previous dungeon. If the party has access to plenty of potions and divine spells, then they should be able to alleviate most of the pressure in the free round they have while Barbariccia recovers. They will also gain another round when Barbariccia next activates her Tornado Form.
If the DM thinks that the Maelstrom is too powerful, then replace its current effect with 8d6 thunder damage (DC 16 CON save for half) and allow her to act during the next round. She still can only use it once per battle and she is still ⛎prevented from using her Tornado Form for three rounds after it's used.
Strategies & Tactics
As a member of the Archfi✱ends, Barbariccia is intended to be a powerful boss battle. As such, the party shoulไd be fully rested before attempting this battle. They'll quickly lose most of their hit points to Maelstrom, but it helps to have full access to their other abilities and spells.
Barbariccia will start the battle by conjuring her Tornado form and using Maelstrom. It's entirely possible that the party could break her Torna𝔉do before she fires Maelstrom, protecting them from harm. Once in her regular form, Barbariccia will fire off spells and use her Wind Arcana Legendary Action to try and recharge them between turns. She can zip around tꦬhe battlefield at high speed and will try to incapacitate spellcasters with her Stone Touch. Barbariccia is an incredibly powerful foe and adventuring parties shouldn't take her lightly, despite her fanservicey outfit.