WotC has changed their solo monster design with MM2. See D&D Alumni: Demogorgon.
From the previews, it looks like solos are becoming roughly 4x the offense and 4x the HP of normal monsters. It also looks like elites (as well as solos) do not have a bonus to defenses over normal monsters. The DMG's guidelines (page 184) give +2 to three defenses to elites/solos, and this seems to be widely followed in the MM. Can someone with MM2 confirm that solos/elites generally don't have higher defenses than normal monsters (of their level/role) in MM2?
If so, this is a major change: elites and solos no longer have a bonus to defenses, and solos have reduced HP at Paragon/Epic (and do more damage).
In your own version of this challenge, you might play these two as originally presented, or you might reconfigure Orcus closer to the newer solo monster design tenets: give him 20% fewer hit points, -2 defenses, but also increase his damage output by 50% when bloodied.
From the previews, it looks like solos are becoming roughly 4x the offense and 4x the HP of normal monsters. It also looks like elites (as well as solos) do not have a bonus to defenses over normal monsters. The DMG's guidelines (page 184) give +2 to three defenses to elites/solos, and this seems to be widely followed in the MM. Can someone with MM2 confirm that solos/elites generally don't have higher defenses than normal monsters (of their level/role) in MM2?
If so, this is a major change: elites and solos no longer have a bonus to defenses, and solos have reduced HP at Paragon/Epic (and do more damage).
Last edited: