Monster Killing the grind: phased "boss" fights

[Halivar]

So, I don't use solo monsters in my 4E game anymore. The grind is just too much. But it's such a shame, right? I mean, sometimes I want to have a BBEG who's bigger, badder, and tougher than everyone around him.

Yesterday I was playing WOW with my guildies, going through a succession of solo boss fights in a raid dungeon. After a bit, I realized I was having more fun with those boss fights than with 4E's. The difference between the two is this: in WOW, solo boss fights have "phases" where the battle-scape is altered dramatically, and tactics must adapt to the new situation.

Can this be done in 4E? I think so.

As an example, let's take our standard Solo Elite poison-breathing dragon. 4 times the hit-points, 4 times the PITA. Now, let's mix it up.

First, half the hit-points because for about 1/3 of the fight, players are going to be too preoccupied to hit the dragon. The fight will still be as long, but it will be more varied.

Phase 1: (100%-50% hp)
The dragon operates as normal, and the fight is your standard tank n' spank. The dragon saves his encounter powers and action points. Once the dragon hits 50% health, phase 2 kicks in.

Phase 2:
The dragon makes its bloodied attack (if any) and takes flight. He shrugs off all marks and effects while he does so. Let players nearby make their opportunity attacks, but any attempt to move, slide, push, drop, or otherwise prevent the dragon from taking flight fails.

While in the air, the dragon is out of range and making full use of its flight speed. Essentially, it's off the map and "up there." A small hoard of dragonling (or dragonborn, or kobold, or whatever) minions pours out and attacks the party. Every round, the dragon chooses a party member at random and hits them with a glob of poison. It's a standard attack against that person, and the map is marked. Next turn, that glob of poison becomes a burst 2 area of effect that lasts 1 turn. It does damage to allies in range, and empowers minions, turning them into standard monsters with full hit-points.

This continues for a predetermined number of waves.

Phase 3: (50%-0% hp)
The dragon lands, and calls for backup. 4 elite "adds" pop out and attack the party. Make sure the players know that all creatures on the board will not ignore marks, and will attack players that marked them consistently. Periodically, the dragon targets an elite and hits it with a glob of arcane goo. After one round, the arcane goo becomes a burst 1 area of effect that affects creatures and players other than the dragon, and lasts for 1 turn. Anyone or thing in the burst gains DR 10, +5 to hit, and +10 to damage. The idea is that the dragon is trying to empower his allies, but if players move them off the bursts, they can take its bonuses for themselves. If the dragon dies before the elites do, then players must fight the elites without the benefit of the arcane bursts (a moderate passive insight check to realize this). If the elites die before the dragon does, then the dragon stops creating arcane bursts, and it becomes a normal boss fight until the dragon drops.

What it looks like:
In phase 1, players are beating on the dragon. In phase 2, players are avoiding areas of danger while killing minions OR doing damage control on empowered creatures. In phase 3, players moving elites around to steal their dragon-given bonuses. They can choose to kill the dragon first, but this may make the fight harder for them, since they'll be facing 4 elites without the benefit of the the arcane burst bonus.

Optional: Timed boss fights
Sometimes things drag out way too long and everyone at the table wants some immediate resolution. In WOW, bosses have something called an "enrage timer" that prevents players from nickel-and-diming a creature to death over the course of an hour. Essentially, if you don't kill the boss fast enough, the boss gets big, red, angry, and everyone dies.

Now, sudden death isn't very fun, but I think the concept can be adapted to create a time limit on the fight.

Predetermine the maximum number of rounds the fight should take. Give the players a mechanism to know what that round limit is. When you hit that many rounds, the boss gains DR 20, +5 to hit, +10 to damage, and +4 to saves. Essentially, the fight is over. Players are aware that the creature has enraged, and they have lost the fight. They can discretely take a leave of absence from the fight, OR they can stick around and try to drop the "hard-mode" boss for an appropriate XP bonus.

[Fanaelialae]

While I like the idea of phased boss fights, IMO you can't directly translate WoW-style fights into D&D (because they're different mediums; real time MMO vs turn based RPG).

The first half of your example sounds boring and grindy (the dragon just spams it's at-will attacks until bloodied). It's almost as though you're shifting the grind from the end of the fight to the beginning, and I don't see what the benefit could possibly be.

Phase 2 seems kind of cheesy to me. Even in the Onyxia fight (at least in the vanilla WoW days when last I fought her), which is what I assume this was based on, ranged attackers can hurt her while she's flying around. Turning minions into standards also seems like a real nuisance (at the very least a minion ought to have to spend a full round in a cloud before transforming, so that the PCs' have the chance to stop the transformation).

The buff from the bursts in phase 3 seems excessive. In addition, I'd use 4 standard creatures rather than 4 elites (adding 4 elites will introduce a mountain of hp, adding to the grind rather than reducing it).

In no situation would I recommend using an enrage timer. That's a cheap WoW gimmick used because in certain fights, under the right circumstances, a group can wear a "low" damage boss down over time ez-mode style. This is because WoW has in battle mana regen and cooldown timers on abilities (in battle resource recovery). In order to make these fights challenging, the designers put a time limit on them (the enrage timer).

D&D characters, as a general rule, don't have in-battle resource recovery (recovery generally requires resting, regardless of edition). Hence, D&D characters don't need to be "challenged" with a time limit (they're inevitably getting weaker as the battle continues). Additionally, hard-mode kills in WoW are for parties that are vastly over geared for the encounter in question or got the guy down to 1% health before the enrage and had just enough juice left to get him down despite the enrage. D&D characters don't really have the option to over-gear or over-level, so "hard-mode" is a rather foreign concept.

That said, phased bosses can be a lot of fun.

One easy approach is to design your "solo" as 2 elites or 4 standard creature. As each creature is "killed", the next set of stats are used. This creates a creature that varies it's tactics throughout the fight.

Another twist I've used is a creature that berserks. Basically, I create a x level encounter using a solo and additional creatures. If all of the non-solos are killed off before the solo is bloodied, the solo goes berserk, taking half it's remaining hp in damage and dealing double damage thereafter. The few times I've used it, it's lead to short and tense end battles (hypothetically, the solo is dealing the same damage over the remainder of the fight, but because the fight is half as long it's much more stressful for the party). I suppose that it might superficially be similar to an enrage timer, but it really isn't, as rather than making the fight nigh impossible for the PCs, it's simply designed to bring the fight to it's conclusion in half the time (with a bit more challenge).

Don't get me wrong, a lot of your above examples were actually pretty dynamic and cool. The concept of an attack that then becomes a zone buff for the solo's allies is great, as is the idea of a buff that the PCs can "steal" for themselves. Adding non-solos to a solo fight is a rule I swear by.

Where it goes off track, IMO, is that unlike WoW the PCs are only going to get one chance at doing the fight "right" (if they die, a retry is not a corpse-run away). Therefore, it's important not to make something like the arcane buff from phase 3 mandatory. DR 10 is pretty decent resistance even at epic levels, and +5 to hit is an enormous buff. I could easily see a TPK if the party doesn't figure out that they're supposed to steal the buff, or even if they figure it out but roll like crap with their forced movement attacks. It's fine for a gimmick to make a fight easier or harder, but it shouldn't make it potentially insurmountable. +2 to hit and +5 to damage would be plenty IMO (no DR), without making the buff an outright necessity.

Your ideas are good, but you need to keep in mind that you're designing the fight for a D&D party, rather than a WoW raid.

[Halivar]

Oh, not by any means was I proposing a polished encounter. Consider it more of a proof-of-concept. The idea is not to bring WOW into D&D. Rather, plunder from WOW those combat elements designed to fix some of the very same shortcomings that are evident in current D&D combat. The numbers given are mostly a hand-wave.

[fuzzlewump]

I like the idea, and actually use it already, but a word of advice is to try to avoid making the encounters seem contrived: forced into phases that don't make much sense. If you're fighting a dragon in its layer, it's going to use the best tactic at all times. If that means he can fly up and be immune to attacks, he's always going to be doing it. Like you said, not a polished encounter, but something for everyone to keep in mind in adventure design is to have appropriately intelligent monsters. While it does make designing an encounter more difficult, I think it would be more rewarding in the end.

More appropriate for an intelligent being fight, I think, is to have phases arise from things that the enemy didn't expect, whether the characters did or not.

Here's my rudimentary example: dragon sees players fights and with full force, sending minions, causing eruptions or whatever, that sort of thing from the get go. It sees a losing battle and tries to fly away. 'Phase 2' is the player's stopping it, which can depend on the adventure. If they are 'monster hunting' maybe they have a harpoon of sorts, or a tethercord, something along these lines in order to hold on to it. If they can't stop it, then it flies away with no trouble. This may seem bad, but it makes it more rewarding when they finally do take it down.

'Phase 3' is ripping free of the harpoon, damaging its wings or whatever, and starts bleeding acid/fire/lightning blood everywhere, and goes into a reckless-backed-into-a-corner last stand.

In summary, make the phases more fluid, and don't use contrived 'hold-off-on-power' unless maybe the enemy is an incredibly proud Dragon Ball Z character. ("I'm only using 10% of my power right now, blah blah")

[CCamfield]

The thing that I don't get is, well... having those minions appear and possibly turn into full monsters and having more reinforcements sounds more grindy to me. A predefined number of waves of minions coming out - that's a grind right there.

The books already talk (at least in DMG2? I think?) about amping up the damage or granting the solo a new ability when it becomes bloodied.

Just... don't use solos alone? Use a lower level one with some additional allies?

And I can't emphasize enough (and I say this as an experienced WoW player and guild master), the enrage timer idea is completely and utterly horrible for D&D.

[fuzzlewump]

Originally Posted by CCamfield

The thing that I don't get is, well... having those minions appear and possibly turn into full monsters and having more reinforcements sounds more grindy to me. A predefined number of waves of minions coming out - that's a grind right there.

The books already talk (at least in DMG2? I think?) about amping up the damage or granting the solo a new ability when it becomes bloodied.

Just... don't use solos alone? Use a lower level one with some additional allies?

And I can't emphasize enough (and I say this as an experienced WoW player and guild master), the enrage timer idea is completely and utterly horrible for D&D.

Wait so, reinforcements are more grindy, and yet you say to not use the solos alone? As someone who puts minions (1 hp) on the board with as many tokens I can find at the time (12 or so) I can say that they add an interesting component to any fight. Not to say to use them all the time, but they can be a dramatic component to an adventure.

[CCamfield]

I think it's the bit where, at the time that the players are in the middle of fighting with the boss, they are literally stopped from doing so, and having to fight a predetermined set of waves of minions. That's what I find "grindy". "Ok, if we kill these 12 minions... ok, 8 more... then eventually we'll get to fight the boss again." It seems like an artificial interruption to the boss fight, rather than ratcheting up the tension by throwing the reinforcements in at the same time as fighting the solo. That would force a player choice - do they try to finish off the solo, or divert attacks to take out the reinforcements?

A more natural interruption of the fight would be if the boss retreated deeper into its lair (considering this is a dragon), and its allies popped an ambush on the players as they tried to pursue.

[Saeviomagy]

I think that the key to avoiding grindy boss fights is to watch for reasons why players and monsters might be repeating the same action over multiple rounds.

Typically those reasons are either that the individual has no more encounter/daily powers OR that a tactic is working just fine and only requires at-will powers.

The solution is to make sure that these things don't happen.

For the first (running out of dailies and encounter powers), you need to give people things to do that are more effective than firing off all their dailies followed by all their encounter powers.

One of the ways to achieve that is by having terrain that gives a bigger benefit from using an at will than using a daily or encounter power will. Bullrushing a foe into the lava, grabbing them to keep them there, attacking terrain features to collapse them on top of foes and making skill checks to get something to go are all good examples.

Another way is to simply make sure that there is always some sort of condition that can occur which will make a daily or encounter power MORE valuable when the condition happens. Keep this up as a theme, and try to telegraph it.

For example: sure blasting the shapeshifting mithril golem with a fireball is a great idea, but wouldn't it be better to do it AFTER knocking over that vat of liquid nitrogen onto him? If the bad guy is helpless until the beginning of his next turn after whomping out his uber-attack, isn't it better to save brute strike for then? etc etc.

The second one is where we might consider "phases". If the dragon is going toe-to-toe with the party, and they've settled into a routine of "everyone hit the dragon with your biggest damaging at-will" and it's working for them, then the fight will be routine and boring. The dragon needs to mix it up. Taking wing would seem like like the obvious course to take, but unfortunately that means that most characters will be reduced to basic ranged attacks, which sucks. So if the dragon is going to take wing, something needs to be added to the encounter to make ordinary, boring ranged attacks a sub-par path to take. That could be one of two things: either the players get given something else to do (something to climb and leap upon the dragon from? Some terrain feature that can force the dragon to ground?) OR the dragon needs to mix up what the players need to do to survive (melt the platforms that the players are standing on with breath attacks! collapse parts of the ceiling! inhale for a mega breath that the players must take shelter from!).

All are very wow-like boss effects.

The important thing that you MUST remember if you do this is that the course of action must NOT be totally damning. WOW boss tactics typically TPK the raid if the raid doesn't understand what to do. You can't afford to do that with a D&D party: they can't just run it back. Courses of action should be relatively obvious (because the party will only get one shot at the encounter), and penalties for failure should be forgiving (at least the first couple of times).

[Markn]

Phased fights are awesome and do work.

I tried it for the first time a few sessions ago and it turned into the best 4e fight we have ever had bar none. My group fought a purple worm that was modified somewhat so that it had 3 standard actions per round - at 35, 25 and 15. I also added a few powers that let it attack further away so it wasn't always attacking the same person. But here is what I did to make it phased:

100%-75% HP's - Wormbrood (minions) came out of the ground and attacked PC's keeping them thinking not only on the worm but the minions as well.

75%-50% - A wall of water that was holding water back burst (due to the thrashing of the worm) and it flooded the lower part of the caverns. It turned out that this had almost no effect in play, other than two things. First, the wizard PC triggered it about a round early using an item that let him burrow and he enjoyed the surprise. Second, the only other PC that was affected by this was the dwarf fighter and he had boots that let him walk on water and was able to avoid being knocked prone. So it let the PCs shine with some items while vastly changing the landscape and the area in which the PCs could fith.

50%-25% - Again, the thrashing of the worm knocked stalactites loose from the ceiling which targetted everyone at the beginning of their turn. I made an attack roll and if hit did some damage. I had a few areas where 2 PCs could gain cover from the stalactites and this encouraged movement to those locations if they wanted to avoid the auto attack at the beginning of their turn.

25% - 0% - Fungus that was growing on the stalactites released a gas that targetted PCs 50% of the time at the start of their turn causing an attack that had some debilitating effect that was random between three effects. This gave some of the other classes a chance to shine.

In the end this fight was wicked awesome! Phased sole fights work very well. Use the terrain as much as possible, throw in things that can let classes shine during that phase and a good time will be had by all.

There were some previous threads of people who did the same thing, only I can't locate them. There were even better ideas in there. If anyone can locate them, I'd appreciae a post here.

And to the OP, good luck with future designs for solo battles!

[keterys]

I'd posted about one a... long... time ago:

Adult Black Dragon, level 11 Solo (3000 XP)
~8 Blackspawn Hordelings, level 9 Minions (800 XP)
Falling Stalactites (500 XP)
Caustic Geyser (400 XP)

Phase I: Overconfident
In the first phase, it assumes they will be easy meat for its attacks and takes few precautions to defend itself properly. It tries to group the party up as much possible for breath weapons and uses an action point to use frightful presence and a breath weapon in the same turn. Phase I ends when the dragon is reduced below 450 hp.

Phase 2: Suddenly Cautious
It will begin to use Cloud of Darkness to serious effect so it can try to work its way past defenders to more fragile strikers or controllers in backlines and take them down. It likely burns its second action point during this phase so that it can use both a cloud and breath in one turn, or something similar. Phase 2 ends when the dragon is bloodied.

Phase 3: Rage
When bloodied, the dragon lets loose an awful roar and breathes. Its eyes gleam with eldritch energy and the entire cavern shakes and its four pools of water boil with acid surging to the surface. The Falling Stalactites trap is triggered by its breath. It can then fly into its acid pools to make them burst out as a caustic geyser attack when it goes in, and when it goes out on its next turn. Each pool can only be used in that manner once, but continues to deal acid damage to anyone who falls into them. Phase 4 begins either when it's reduced to 140 hp or after the rain of stalactites ceases.

Phase 4: Desperation
It calls upon the powers of a demon god, promising it payment, in exchange for its help. From the dragon's scales, blood, and the acid of the pools minions begin to form. Four form immediately widely separated, then 1 emerges from one of the acid pools each round until the combat ends. It likely spends a lot of time in a cloud of darkness at this point as it fights in whatever way makes the best tactical sense .

[Garthanos]

Wow some really cool ideas on this thread I am subscribing ;-)

[Siberys]

Something I intend to do at some point is to stat up a boss as a series of elites. The players must fight them through different terrains, with little or no rest between. Same net effect as fighting a solo, but spaced for better pacing.

[Mesh Hong]

As long as a Solo creature is designed as a threatening and interesting opponent fights involving them don’t always have to involve massively complicated phased staging, or bizarre and interactive environments. But like all things DMs should try to present a mixture of different Solo’s throughout a story or campaign.

Some will be fairly straight forward, some will take place in interesting or changing environments, some might evolve through two or more forms during a combat and some might be a truly bizarre combination of all these options.

The following is an extract from the next instalment of my monster manual series (the book of serious threats), and is an example of a solo threat that changes (quite radically) when bloodied.

Bear in mind this is a level 2 Solo and is intended to be a Serious Threat, anyway I hope you find it another interesting addition to this discussion.


Spitting Fungus Level 2 Solo Artillery
Large Natural Beast (plant, blind) XP 625

Initiative +4 Senses Perception +5, blindsight 10, tremorsense 20
Sleepy Haze (poison) aura 1; all creatures inside the aura take a -2
penalty to attack rolls; all creatures starting their turn inside the aura are
slowed until the end of their next turn
HP 152; Bloodied 76; see Bloodied Evolution
AC 16; Fortitude 16, Reflex 15, Will 13
Immune disease, poison, gaze;
Resist 10 acid; Vulnerable 5 cold
Saving Throws +5
Speed 4, climb 4 (spider climb)
Action Points 0 see Fungal Devourers (separate creature)

Fungal Scrape (Standard; at-will) ♦ poison
Attack +8 vs. AC; 1d6+2 damage; on hit target takes 2 ongoing poison
damage (save ends)

Spitting Spores (Standard; at-will) ♦ poison
Close blast 3; attack +7 vs. Reflex; 1d8+3 poison damage

Fungal Blast (Standard; recharge ) ♦ poison
Close burst 5; attack +7 vs. Fortitude; 1d10+3 poison damage; on hit
target is immobilised (save ends)

Exploratory Spore (Minor; at-will) ♦ poison, 1/round
Spitting Fungus creates and shoots out a Fungal Spore that lands in a
cloud of poison; area burst 1 within 15; must target empty square; attack
+5 vs. Reflex; 1d4+2 poison damage; creates a Fungal Spore in the target
square (see separate stats), Fungal Spore acts directly after the Spitting
Fungus in the initiative order

Bloodied Evolution (Immediate Reaction) ♦ when first bloodied
When first bloodied Spitting Fungus splits into 3 Fungal Devourers, see
separate stat block

Sliding Form (Move; at-will)
Spitting Fungus may shift 2 squares as a move action

Alignment Unaligned Languages
Skills Endurance +8, Stealth +9
Str 12 (+2) Dex 17 (+4) Wis 8 (+0)
Con 14 (+3) Int 14 (+3) Cha 3 (-3)


Spitting Fungus is usually found growing and surviving in old abandoned ruins or shallow sparsely inhabited dungeons. It is made up of a thin but wide green, brown and orange surface hugging lichen or mould, and can spread out to over thirty feet in diameter. When it senses a potential meal it slowly starts to retract until it is a thick patch of rough fungus approximately eight to ten foot in diameter and moves into a position where it can start to pepper its victims with its spores. Recognising the Fungus as a threat is usually a Dungeoneering or Nature check vs. the creatures Stealth roll.

All the creatures’ main attacks involve the expulsion of thick clouds of noxious spores that poison its victims. Some of these spores are actually smaller versions of itself that once released are individual creatures in their own right who, if they survive the conflict, will eventually grow to become Spitting Fungi themselves.

A Spitting Fungus will always try and use its Exploratory Spore attack every turn in order to try and create a line of defence and hinder its victims from drawing too close to it. It will then use Spitting Spores and Fungal Blast when available while trying to keep away from any melee characters. Its favourite method of doing this is to move up walls or hang on ceilings.


Fungal Spore Level 2 Minion
Small Natural Beast (plant, blind) XP 0 (see Spitting Fungus)

Initiative +5 Senses Perception -1, blindsight 10
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion.
AC 16; Fortitude 13, Reflex 16, Will 12
Immune disease, poison, gaze;
Resist 5 acid; Vulnerable 5 cold
Speed 5

Fungal Slam (Standard; at-will)
Attack +7 vs. AC; 4 damage

Defensive Haze (Immediate Reaction) ♦ poison, when missed by a
melee attack
When missed by a melee attack Fungal Spore releases a cloud of thin
poisonous sporelets that deal 2 poison damage to all adjacent creatures

Sliding Form (Move; at-will)
Fungal Spore may shift 2 squares as a move action

Alignment Unaligned Languages
Str 10 (+1) Dex 18 (+5) Wis 6 (-1)
Con 12 (+2) Int 8 (+0) Cha 3 (-3)


The Spitting Fungus form of the creature is really its dormant or passive form. When sufficiently damaged it goes through a radical reactive alteration and splits into three wholly different fungi. These Fungal Devourers are a lot more predatory and aggressive, preferring to grab their victims and smother them with their highly acidic forms.

Fungal Devourers are soft mounds of either green, brown or orange fungus, approximately four foot wide by three foot high. They have no limbs but they are able to grasp their victims by wrapping round and grasping anything they hit. Once they have a victim grabbed they will use their Acidic Smother to burn their enemies with their sickly acidic spores or if damaged they will use their Feeding Fronds attack to gain nourishment from their enemies blood.

When destroyed the Fungal Devourer suffers a catastrophic collapse which sends out a thick cloud of acidic and toxic spores into the air that blocks line of sight and can even blind creatures unfortunate enough to be caught inside it. Any other Devourers who are still active will try and capitalise on this by attacking creatures inside the zone and even using the zone itself for cover making finishing them off all the harder.

Encounters with the Spitting Fungus will usually be in large rooms or courtyards and should have a couple of high ledges or different levels in them. It would also be useful to have large pillars, statues or crumbling structures to add an interesting mix of terrain and cover options. There could also be areas of loose rubble that would count as difficult terrain or even a ten foot deep pit to add a little variety.


Fungal Devourer Level 2 Brute
Medium Natural Beast (plant, blind) XP 0 (see Spitting Fungus)

Initiative +3 Senses Perception +5, blindsight 10
HP 30; Bloodied 15; also see Choking Spore Field
AC 15; Fortitude 15, Reflex 14, Will 11
Immune disease, poison, gaze;
Resist 10 acid; Vulnerable 5 cold
Saving Throws +5
Speed 5, climb 4 (spider climb)
Action Points 1

Fungal Grab (Standard; at-will)
Attack +5 vs. AC; 1d10+3 damage; on hit target is grabbed (escape ends)

Acidic Smother (Standard; at-will) ♦ acid, grabbed target only
Grabbed target only; attack +3 vs. Fortitude; 2d6+3 acid damage; on hit
target is dazed until the end of Devourers next turn

Feeding Fronds (Standard; encounter) ♦ grabbed target only
Grabbed target only; attack +5 vs. Fortitude; 1d6+2 damage; on hit
Fungal Devourer regains 15 HPs

Choking Spore Field (Immediate Reaction) ♦ zone, acid, poison,
when reduced to 0 Hps
When reduced to 0 HPs Devourer explodes in an acidic and poisonous
burst, leaving a dangerous cloud behind it; burst 2; creates a zone that
lasts until the end of the encounter that blocks line of sight, any creature
entering or starting their turn inside the zone takes 4 acid and poison
damage; any creature starting their turn inside the zone is blinded (save
ends)

Alignment Unaligned Languages
Skills Endurance +8, Stealth +8
Str 16 (+4) Dex 14 (+3) Wis 8 (+0)
Con 14 (+3) Int 12 (+2) Cha 3 (-3)


The Spitting Fungus is not really interested in collecting treasure so any items or coins would probably lie undigested where ever the creature’s last victims were killed and eaten. A particularly cunning Spitting Fungus might push its collection of shiny objects into a prominent position in the room and hope to use them as bait to draw victims into a trap where it could ensure gaining the element of surprise.

[keterys]

Yep, that's a far more interesting solo than many that have been published.

[Mesh Hong]

Another way of making a “solo” encounter more dynamic is to have it as two or more creatures sharing the same HP pool.

This is a solo I used in my campaign that worked very well. (I think I might have posted this at some point in the past but it might be relevant to this thread)

Actually this might not be pertinent to the thread as it is not a staged or staggered fight. I will post it anyway to put forward the view that Grind is all in the mind, and if an opponant or environment is interesting enough you can hold your players attention during a solo style encounter.

The Herald of Ixxaboxx is a pair of identical Coatyl that share the same HPs and Action Points through a divine link.

Each Coatyl has its own initiative, attacks, and separate recharges as if it were two identical creatures, with the exception that its Majestic Presence power may only be used once during the encounter.

Of special note look out for a few effects that require more than 1 saving throw to remove.

Herald of Ixxaboxx (2 linked coatyl)
Level 17 Solo Skirmisher
Large Immortal Magical Beast (angel) XP 8,000

Initiative +17 Senses Perception +13
HP 830; Bloodied 415; see Bloodied Retaliation
AC 33; Fortitude 29, Reflex 32, Will 32
Immune charm, illusion;
Resist 20 Radiant; Vulnerable 10 necrotic
Saving Throws +5
Speed 8 fly (hover)
Action Points 2

Bite (Standard; at-will)
Reach 2; attack +22 vs. AC; 2d8+7 damage

Radiant Tail Slap (Standard; at-will) ♦ radiant
Reach 2; attack +22 vs. AC; 2d6+7 radiant damage; on hit target is
pushed 4 squares and knocked prone

Radiant Pulse Beam (Standard; at-will) ♦ radiant
Range 20/40; attack +20 vs. Reflex; 1d10+7 radiant damage; on hit target
takes 5 ongoing radiant damage (save ends), every time this damage is
applied it also deals 5 radiant damage to any adjacent creature

Hypnotic Gaze (Standard; recharge ) ♦ charm
Range 10; does not provoke opportunity attacks; attack +20 vs. Will; on
hit target is dominated (2 saves ends)

Majestic Presence (Standard; encounter) ♦ charm, once use
between the pair
Burst 5; attack +20 vs. Will; on hit target is stunned until the end of
Coatyls next turn; after-effect target takes -2 penalty to attack (save ends)

Prismatic Breath (Standard; recharge ) ♦ special damage
Close blast 4; attack +20 vs. Reflex; on hit roll D6
1: 1d10+7 fire damage; 10 ongoing fire damage (save ends)
2: 1d10+7 cold damage; 10 ongoing cold damage (save ends)
3: 1d10+7 lightning damage; 10 ongoing lightning damage (save ends)
4: 1d10+7 acid damage; 10 ongoing acid damage (save ends)
5: 2d8+7 radiant damage; dazed (save ends)
6: 2d10+7 necrotic damage; lose a healing surge and immobilised (save ends)

Scorching Burst (Standard; at-will) ♦ fire
Area burst 1 within 20; attack +20 vs. Reflex; 2d6+7 fire damage

Curse of Ixxaboxx (Minor; encounter)
Range 20; does not provoke opportunity attacks; automatic hits; target
gains vulnerability 5 radiant (3 saves ends)

Bloodied Retaliation (Immediate Reaction) ♦ when bloodied
When bloodied Curse of Ixxaboxx refreshes for each Coatyl, these are
used as an immediate reaction; each Coatyl may then make 1 Radiant Tail
Slap attack

Serpentine Opportunist
If Coatyl has combat advantage it deals an additional 2d6 damage with its
bite attack

Alignment Unaligned Languages supernal
Str 20 (+13) Dex 24 (+15) Wis 20 (+13)
Con 22 (+14) Int 18 (+12) Cha 24 (+15)

[AbdulAlhazred]

I really think the main blame for the issues with the reputation of Solo encounters in 4e should be laid squarely in the lap of the MM1 chromatic dragons. They certainly CAN make good solid interesting opponents, but their design in and of itself doesn't particularly support or encourage that. You have to work at it. There are some other MM1 solos that are less than inspiring as well (the Purple Worm is certainly a flagrant example).

I find that the issues are really generally a good bit smaller than they are made out to be though. MM2 solo design tends to just internalize into the design of the monster some of what earlier solos need to gain from environmental factors. Nothing is wrong with that and it makes them more CONVENIENT monsters to use, but not always better.

Certainly when I put a White Dragon in a cave with a bunch of stalactites that could drop, several sheets of treacherous icy terrain, and gave it several Chillborn Zombies for allies it easily made a fine and interesting encounter. Maybe the last 2 rounds were starting to get a bit slow, but that kind of thing is easily solved as witness several suggestions above. Mine was simply to have the dragon change tactics and then bargain with the party when that didn't seem to help it. Overall it worked out very well in the context of the whole adventure and was an interesting fight.

I also wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment about not creating gimmicky styles of phases. Its a very heavy-handed DMing style to suddenly throw in some new rule just because the monster is below X hit points now and we have to create a different challenge. Its fine to make it part of the monster itself, that works out pretty naturally if its done reasonably. Doing it by simple "Now the monster flies and you have to fight the minions" is just video-gamey. Far better the purple worm example where the terrain evolves. Maybe best of all the black dragon example where the changes in tactics are sensible and fit the monster's personality and leverage its intelligent use of the environment.

I found the OP's version a bit heavy handed in the way his transitions worked where all of a sudden certain conditions and powers simply go away/don't work. In a video game you may not notice that so much and since the rules are not explicit it doesn't seem so jarring. In a 4e fight where the players KNOW the rules they will call you on that sort of thing. "Hey, my X power immobilized it, it can't just fly away." and players should always be able to trust that the rules are consistent at all times or if they are going to change in a specific situation it should be clear how, when, and why that situation comes up.

[Neuroglyph]

Originally Posted by Markn

Phased fights are awesome and do work.

Awesome post Markn, I like this idea quite alot - much better than the original poster who was trying to recreate the WoW Onyxia fight for some reason

Having the fight in phases where the terrain hazards change is really a nice way to keep a boss fight from becoming a boring slug-fest.

Look forward to trying this in my next adventure I write

[Markn]

Glad you liked it!

[Halivar]

Originally Posted by Neuroglyph

much better than the original poster who was trying to recreate the WoW Onyxia fight for some reason

It was a proof of concept, nothing more. In my defense, I'll say that at the time of the OP, I had never seen the Onyxia fight before (though I saw it a week ago, and yeah, Phase 2 is identical). I was more inspired by some of the Ulduar bosses that lay down terrain buffs and nerfs that can be stolen from/given to the enemies.

[Nifft]

Originally Posted by Neuroglyph

Awesome post Markn, I like this idea quite alot - much better than the original poster who was trying to recreate the WoW Onyxia fight for some reason

Nothing wrong with stealing stuff that works.

I love phased fights, especially running battles where the BBEG escapes to the next encounter area when he falls below certain thresholds. In D&D, that threshold is HP (e.g. 25% increments for a Solo whose death the party is seeking, and who I hope will last through all 4 encounters); in Exalted I measure in motes.

Cheers, -- N