A really stronk duelist challenges a party member to a duel

>A really stronk duelist challenges a party member to a duel.
How do you tempt your players into fighting what would be considered a optional super boss without just the generic "he gives you some shiny new gear" or "he joins your party for a while"?

You gotta work up to it.

First he has to become an irritation to the party.

Status. Beat the best and you become known as the best. Let them leverage a new found reputation for fun and profit. Intimidate people who'd otherwise fight the party, get contracts they'd have been passed over for, kid's asking for autographs and wannabe groupies throwing Lacey undergarments at them.

He insults then and offers a duel to restore their honor.

He forces the party to insult him (some sort of local rude action or hospitality, or just bumping into them and spilling his drink) and demands a duel to restore his honor.

He hosts a fighting tournament before revealing himself as the current champion.

He duels every other member of a PC's family and defeats them, robbing the family of wealth, then stakes it all on a duel offered to the PC.

He buys the next bridge the party is going to cross and refuses to let them pass without a duel.

He steals all the party's footwear while they sleep and will only return it if they face him barefoot on the naked earth of the dueling ring.

He steals all the party's clothing while they sleep and will only return it if they face him naked on the naked earth of the dueling ring.

He steals the party's next macguffin and stakes it on the outcome of a duel.

He steps in for the next person the party has legal trouble with, offering to duel one of them to decide the case.

He hires a witch to give one of the PCs horrific nightmares each and every night which can only be resolved (this is stated in the dream) by dueling him.

He pretends to know the whereabouts of one of the PCs lost loves/relatives and offers to tell them if they duel him.

Etc etc etc.

>beating him will catch the attention of the bbeg/someone important
>if there is someone in the party who fancies themselves a showboater, you can play to that
>He keeps out preforming the party and stealing their spotlight

there are ways, you just have to get creative

Even more important question: how do you tempt them to respect the 1vs1 duel instead of gangraping him?

If they don't respect it, word gets out that they're cheaters and their reputation suffers.

Isn't the promise of honorable victory temptation enough? I wish my DM included some badass fencers here and there. Also, maybe he could teach you his extra-special sword trick if you can beat him, and that extra-special trick can be used against the BBEG (ugh).

They won't care since results > reputation. Specially since it's gonna be reputation with their enemies.

Megidolaon spam

"He said your waifu a shit!"

Oh and they also will claim they're not cheaters since they never accepted the terms.

Speaking of important questions: If it's a 1v1 duel, is the rest of the group just standing around thumb up ass while the PC and DM have a roll-off? Because I remember Veeky Forums having a very strong opinion about Deckers...

He's a famous DUELIST for a reason. Be it by magic, expert planning, or sheer luck he always manages to lock his opponents in 1v1 combat, where he is king. Fluff him as a legend who defeated an entire army or militia by forcing them all into single combat. This guy is supposed to be an optional superboss right? Give him some superboss tricks.

>Face him naked on the naked earth
I think I've read enough, but I must keep going

I actually have been deving a optional boss type bloke that can be dropped into whatever setting just so I don't have to keep making new ones.

So if this gives you any help OP, because I'm just going to drop this.
He works via a risk vs reward system, if you defeat him, you get a reward. If you lose, you can choose the risk you get. But you can only get each one once. He also comes with a rule that he will mirror the person challenging him exactly.
He also can't be damaged unless challenged, only his challenger can damage him, but also vice versa. He can't even crush a butterfly unless it somehow challenged him and he accepted. For each victory you can only have one reward.

>Rewards
Party:He joins the party until he would die normally. At this point his health works like normal, so anybody can damage him. So the stronger you are when you fight him the better, because he's basically a clone of you.

Equipment:He will always give you a good item for the goal you currently have, but it's up to you to find out what he wants you to do with it. For example you faced him because you needed something to slay a dragon with, so when you defeat him he gives you a rock. If you examine the rock well enough, you'd discover it's basically a grenade that explodes on contact with dragon saliva.

Extra live:Literally just a 1-UP that instantly respawns you the second you would die in the exact same position and pose.

Merchants tongue:People selling you things will be strangely compelled to sell you things for half off. Even if they actively hate you and your guts.

Going to have to continue this because I'm autistic
1/2

>Risk
Haunt:This one works a bit weirdly. Basically I made a table of things that almost killed each of my party members. Remember that troll that only TPWd everyone? Well with this risk he will have a random chance of just teleporting in every time the loser gets in a fight. Without warning and for any kind of fight, even a drunk bar fight. If you roll a 5 or lower then I'll bust out a second table and roll on that, which contains things that almost killed you from ANY campaign. Even if it's not the same setting.
In simpler words, remember that angry troll that nearly killed your street sam? That guy can show up with a strong urge to kill your guy, even if he doesn't know what's going on.

Bastard tongue:Pretty much the opposite of Merchant's Tongue. People trying to sell you things, even indirectly, will sell it to you at a higher price. This can cause some buggery both directly and indirectly, like say a king wants to buy food for his army from a neighboring nation but since the loser falls into that category, he's having to pay a higher price.

Curse of the duel:Sets you to 1HP and 0 def until the end of the day. At this point anything will kill you, even a slight bump on the head. But it has to be combat damage.

Warriors escort:A form of death. This prevents this character from being revived because the duelist will literally escort their soul into their afterlife and making sure they stay there.

Basically I used a risk vs reward system and I'm still working out the kinks.

>Fluff him as a legend who defeated an entire army or militia by forcing them all into single combat.
So he becomes cuchulainn? I can get behind this his legends are fucking fantastic

bump

Because it's there.

If it's fantasy and NPC is THE DUELIST he could have a magic item that forces you into a fair duel. Something like:
>Gloves of the Duelist
>Wearer can throw one glove to challenge someone.
>Challenged has to put on glove to accept duel.
>If anything attempts to harm wearer when a challenge is submitted but not accepted gloves teleport him to safety.
>If anyone from outside the duel tries to interfere in an accepted duel, trespasser and both duelist receive the damage.
>If you try to run away after accenting you just get teleported back.
>Can't take out the gloves until the duel is finished.