I would make Dragonborn lvl81 with all perks and very high armor + magic resist. I would also give him several phases, as boss encounters in MMO. This is fun design imo because it gives VARIETY in the challenge.

Phase 1: He sits on his throne summoning large amounts of monsters/servants to attack you. The intent is not to kill you, but weaken you and exhaust your resources by zerging you.
Phase 2: He then sends 3 of his most powerful champions at you.

A Breton vampire assassin with high magic resist that is weak to fire and moderate physical defense, wielding 2 daedric daggers and using stealth.
An undead Nord champion with 2-Hander that has high physical resist but is weak against magic.
An ancient Altmer mage that uses purely destruction spells, lightning and frost. Weak to physical damage and magic both but frequently uses dragonskin, ward and teleport.

Phase 3: When 2 out of the 3 are dead he joins the battle himself.

Abilities: Teleport, dragonskin, Grand healing, summon dragonborn DLC new creatures of choice with twin souls perk, destruction spells (lightning focused).
Shouts: Marked for death + unique unrevealed dragonborn shouts.

Phase 4: At "death" he casts you aside with fus ro dah and casts off his robe + helmet revealing his face and revealing armor underneath, he becomes a melee fighter.
Phase 5: He mounts a dragon and you fight the last battle on dragons in the sky.
Phase 6: When his dragon dies it crashes into the ground, he transforms into an avatar form of Hermaeus Mora (If indeed he serves him?), a vile corrupted dragon/humanoid hybrid.

Thats how I would go about it. How would you design the final encounter? (From a pure gameplay/combat perspective)

Well anything that is not "Hit him with your sword until his HP is down" would suit me.

bump

Maybe he actually wants to aid us against HM and then dies.

Your ideea is awesome.

I hope its a hard fight.

A fight where you are clearly losing and in a cutscene you see that the dragons will help you. 1. Dragonborn dies and from now on Dovahkiin no longer has to kill dragons and they all turn friendly.

Step 1: Have it possible to talk him down.

Step 2: If Step 1 Fails, a Standard Dragon Priest encounter, but he actually can summon support. Standard Dragon Priests have the spell, but it never works. Additionally he can Thu'um.


Personally, I really dislike heavily scripted battles, They always come off as really arbitrary and artificial. The combat AI In Skyrim isn't actually that bad. I actually believe the enemies have a lot more logic ability than modern shooters.

the fact that dragons are evil in every game or movie always annoyed me, pls Bethesda NERF it!

that depends on who is the actually last adversary. I hope Miraak is not.

I much prefer your approach to the OPs. Its how I would do it too.

hmm someplace really high up like on top of a tower or something or underground deep underground .
not sure about the dialogue though .
would be pretty cool if the original dova could hurl huge objects at you , and you have to dodge them .
the final blow should definitely be in slow motion to create more drama to it .

maybe an air battle, your dragon against his .
or he turns into a dragon and so do you that would be pretty sweet as well .

I like the OP's idea, maybe with the exception that I would skip the fight on dragons. That one seems to me a bit overkill. I also think it would be cool for the fight to be preceded with a conversation.

Alternatively, what I'd like to see is that once you enter the final encounter, the DB is completely immune to all types of damage and in order to break this immunity, you have to solve a set of puzzles within the room, all the time being prone to his attacks (dealt by himself, his summons and/or minions... with the summons and minions not having immunity, of course). Once the immunity is broken and the actual fight 1-on-1 fight begins, the DB uses different shouts, teleportation and so on....and maybe at the end you have to face his shadow version, something like with the guy at the end of Meridia's temple?

Turning and fighting on dragons is kinda childish idea, visual "epicness" with nothing on the inside. I prefer the fight to be also at least a little bit psychological. After all you are both Dragonborn(s), and "he was the first", you just have to respect and fear him in some way ))

I much prefer this. OP has far too many stages, I don't feel like fighting Frieza.

well describe what you mean in terms of psychological then ? , fighting on dragons is going to happen whether it be final fight or during questing .

Puzzles ? dont you think thats a bit of an anti climix and kinda hilarious ? after the build up and aggression in the dialogue between the first Dragonborn and the currant one in the final battle i think the last think we need is " READY! .....SET ! .......... ::: move block here :::: ....:::: pull leaver there::::

but what about dragonheart?

I like it, Except with the Mage, that lightning is OP. On my guy at least.

I would perfer anything that isn't Just hit him.

Original dovahkiin is flying on a dragon with his army of dragon slaves that he's gonna use to conquer Tamriel starting with Skyrim. He enslaved the mind of my buddy Paarthurnax, and is riding on him! He got here because the old DB shouted his name and Paar thought it was my voice.

I the newest and most swaggin dragonborn fly on another dragon from Solstheim, and fight through the other dragons to get to them, absorbing souls left and right on my way to the old bag DB. Once I get to him, he unleashes Lightning storm, the master destruction spell on me and my new dragon! He kills the dragon, and the old bag begins to svck his soul as I descend. I unleash a hail marry dragonrend shout, and it hits paarthurnax dead center.

I crash land on top of the dragon's skeleton, and go unconscious. When I wake up, it is dark, and I see Paarthurnax with his face half buried in the dirt, and bleeding. It seems that I have injured him, but he looks like he'll be fine...until an ice spike is burried in his throat by the other dovahkiin from a distance....My vision is blurred from the tears in my eyes, and rush over to him.

His voice is gurgling from the blood in his mouth, but I manage to hear him say......Drem Yol Lok...Dovahkiin...Then he begins to burn, and I against my wishes absorb his soul. I let out a shout so powerful from my anger and grief, that all of Solstheim is a tremble, and I turn to face my ancient foe....The battle was heard from all corners of Tamriel. The army of dragons at his command watch as him and I fight in one on one combat in the old nord way to determine who is the strongest. The first, or the last? The beginning or end? Alpha or Omega?

That's pretty good. Shame paarthy snuffed it though.

Good imagination.

IF we do fight this other dragonborn,it better not be like harkon or alduin.

i hope they suprise us with something that we would least suspect.

Anyone else get an awesome Cthulhu vibe from this?

He lures you to an Ancient Room that holds an ancient power. Apart from being a huge beautiful room with a dark green glow, if removes all your items except the sacred Buthos wear. (which prooves this room is an ancient dueling room for the most powerful fighters.) You are stuck using magic and of course YOUR THUM'. Luckily you realize that after touching a series of switches you can grab the only weapon which is an ancient katana. Upon defeating old Dragonborn, all his souls create a beautiful light show which you receive but you also notice that some of them are absorbed into wall. Upon abosortion a massive wall opens showing you a massive chest with some ancient loot. Apart from the chest is a words wall with a shout that gives you "Power of the Drsgon". By shouting your body turns into a glowing green figure with glowing green eyes. During this 45 seconds your speed is doubled, your weapon damage tripled and you can use unrelencting force multiple times in under 45 seconds. Unfortunately the cooldown time is 15 minutes.

It seems at this moment this battle has been forseen since the beginning of time. The original dragonborn believes that by absorbing your power that he can now conquer all of tamriel. This is shown in a carved Granite wall that shows the battle of the dragonborns

Your destiny has been fulfilled. Tamriel is safe!

I would make it like Batman and Bane. The Hipsterborn would taunt the new Dovakhiin (in Bane voice of course):
"You merely adopted the Thu'um, I was born with it."
Hipsterborn would be obviously over-powered compared to Dovakhiin and would eventually break his back and throw him into Apocrypha.
"You can watch me torture an entire island and when you have truly understood the depth of your failure, we will fulfill Alduin's destiny... We will destroy Skyrim and then, when it is done and Skyrim is ashes, then you have my permission to die."

Why. Why nobody mentioned engaging him in HAND-TO-HAND? Now that is some bad-assery.