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 its own set of iconic elemental villains iꦅn the form of the Archfiends, and these♚ can easily be used as bosses in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
The second member of the Archfiends is Cagnazzo, also known as the Drowned King. Cagnazzo is first encountered in the form of a mortal king, as it used magic to disguise itself as a ruler and usurp their position. Cagnazzo uses its role to help its master's plans for world🌠 domination, either through action or inaction. It would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for some meddling adventurers, leading to a difficult fight in a throne room.
Setting The Scene - The Drowned King
Cagnazzo is intended to be a tough boss e💦ncounter, so the party should be fully rested before taking him on. The Archfiends are meant to be a serious threat, so the DM should not be afraid to portray Cagnazzo as a terrifying foe.
Cagnazzo is a master of charm and deception, and it won't reveal its true form until it has been confronted with direct evidence of its misdoings, or it is being outright attacked in its throne room. Cagnazzo can transform into its original form in a few seconds, with꧒ its small mortal body cracking and breaking into a monstrous sea creature. The throne it's sitting on will snap under the immense weight of its new form, as Cagnazzo lets out a wide smile that shows off rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Cagnazzo's Statblock
Strategies & Tactics
Cagnazzo's opening move will be to strike all nearby enemies with Tsunami. It doesn't care if the attack will slay any nearby guards or courtiers, as its main goal is to wipe out those who have discovered its secret as soon as possible. It only has the strength to perform Tsunami once per battle, so it will engage the par💧ty with melee attacks soon after.
If the party wo🎉rks out that Cagnazzo is weak to ice-based attacks, it will use Water Shield on its next turn, in ord🤪er to trick one of the party members into performing a follow-up ice attack that will heal it. It's up to the DM to determine how obvious Cagnazzo's weaknesses are, as it's unlikely that the party will have encountered a creature like it in the past. If the party is struggling, then the DM might want to give one of the characters an easy skill check in order to remember some lore about its weaknesses.
When weakened, Cagnazzo will attempt to heal itself using Withdraw, but it won't take the paﷺrty long to realize that this form has weaknesses, as Cagnazzo's immobility will leave it wide open t🐷o certain STR/DEX-based attacks. In battle, Cagnazzo will rely on its Bite attack and status effect Legendary Actions to methodically take down the party.