Hey, unusual post here. Wanted to talk about my least favourite type of boss gimmick: Add bosses.

What do I mean? An "add" is a World of Warcraft term where a boss summons a weaker enemy to get at you. I've seen this concept in many games as a boss gimmick and I've hated it every single time. There's probably a better name for this gimmick that I'm unaware of

Some examples that come to mind are:
- Royal Rat Authority (Dark Souls 2): a boss where the challenge comes from 6 smaller rats in the room with you.
- Okumura (Persona 5/Royal): a boss where he summons basic robot enemies.
- There's a few in Batman: Arkham Asylum, where they copy and paste an early boss with more enemies tacked on.

They're underwhelming at best and frustrating at worst. I don't understand why they keep making these types of bosses, does anyone enjoy this? Is there a good example out there?

Anyway that's my rant off my chest

From a story-telling perspective, sometimes it fits well thematically. A less physically imposing boss is going to rely on others to do the dirty work for them as their "boss"ness derives from other strengths (wealth, rank, magic, etc...)

From a mechanics point of view, in some games it's almost a necessity. Take something like Path of Exile/Diablo, etc... where you have classes/skills that require dead bodies for some/most of your abilities. A Necromancer would have a heck of a time with a boss that wipes out their zombie/skeleton army easily or doesn't provide fodder for skills like corpse explosion to deal damage.

Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean by boss adds and there's something more specific than just having the occasional minion wave/meat shield to chew up.

I ran into one of these at the end of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines tonight. Well, actually, two of them! Both bosses spawned additional enemies and both were extremely annoying, one more so than others. I'm being intentionally vague because spoilers

@dhobo That's exactly what I mean. I do understand story-wise, but I rarely see it play out successfully in gameplay. I imagine it's something that varies depending on the genre, couldn't imagine a Tower Defence boss without waves of enemies for example.

@moho_00 Haven't played it, but yeah if the boss fight functions on its own it shouldn't need adds I think :P