The Trick

Finally, in order to make a proper Zelda-style foe, you must consider: what’s the “trick” to beating this enemy? Nearly every enemy should have some kind of trick, strategy, or weakness that Heroes can learn and use to help beat them.

This trick might take one of any number of forms, such as:

A Vulnerability to a type of damage (such as “Fire” or “Sharp” damage).
A Weak Point, which when exposed and struck, allows you to ignore the foe’s Defense or hinder their assault.
A defect in their strategy that, when noticed, the enemy cannot easily compensate for.
A way to remove some otherwise-innate power or capability that the enemy depends upon.

For Normal monsters, Heroes shouldn’t be required to discover and utilize the “trick” in order to beat the bad guy. While it would certainly make life easier to do so, Heroes should be able to brute-force their way through almost as well.

For Heavies and Minibosses, the trick should be very useful, but still not strictly required. Heroes should be encouraged to seek it out, but if they’re willing to expend lots of time and resources, they should still be able to defeat their enemy without it. Afterwards, they should take the lesson to heart, and want to discover this foe’s Achilles heel.

For Bosses, the trick might be (but is not necessarily always) strictly required. In most cases where a Boss’s trick is strictly required, the Boss is totally invulnerable unless its Weak Point is exposed.

Heroes should be able to uncover an enemy’s trick through observation and clever reasoning, but they can also always fall back on the Learn Lore Maneuver.

If Heroes are attacking a foe who is invulnerable, or whom it isn’t advisable to attack without discovering their trick first, the GM should be sure to tell the players! Inform them that their attacks “seem to have no effect” or that “there must be a better way to do this”. It’s no fun for the players if they waste their turns and resources when there’s no chance of success.

And one final piece of advice: a GM shouldn’t be afraid to let their Heroes use unconventional methods to expose Weak Points, exploit Vulnerabilities, or take advantage of a foe’s foibles – especially if it’s the kind of thing they can only do once. The fights in every Zelda game strive to be unique, interesting, and entertaining; so too should the fights in Reclaim the Wild.