D&D 4E The 4e Solo Thread

[Quickleaf]

Hey, I have a solo question. I'm converting the loup de noir to 4e, the leader of the pack is the solo villain of my group's upcoming adventure. So they have a feature which halves all weapon damage except from silver/blessed weapons. This looks like one of those things that 4e pretty much dropped, but in this case seems suited to the monster since its got a dark magic cloak that turns it into a friggin werewolf!

I'm particularly curious if others, maybe [MENTION=1210]the Jester[/MENTION], have converted monsters with similar traits and how youve handled it?

Anyhow, my first draft of the Beast is a basic solo brute with "wolf-y" powers/traits. The more I think about it though, it might be interesting if in his lair he has several magic animal pelts allowing him to assume different lycanthrope forms, for example, when bloodied or at certain stages. Might make it more interesting than just being a straight-up damage machine.

 

[the Jester]

Hey, I have a solo question. I'm converting the loup de noir to 4e, the leader of the pack is the solo villain of my group's upcoming adventure. So they have a feature which halves all weapon damage except from silver/blessed weapons. This looks like one of those things that 4e pretty much dropped, but in this case seems suited to the monster since its got a dark magic cloak that turns it into a friggin werewolf!

I'm particularly curious if others, maybe [MENTION=1210]the Jester[/MENTION], have converted monsters with similar traits and how youve handled it?

Anyhow, my first draft of the Beast is a basic solo brute with "wolf-y" powers/traits. The more I think about it though, it might be interesting if in his lair he has several magic animal pelts allowing him to assume different lycanthrope forms, for example, when bloodied or at certain stages. Might make it more interesting than just being a straight-up damage machine.

If I was doing it and I wanted to keep the ability, I'd reduce its base hit points by somewhere around 30%.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

One way to approach it would be to give it regeneration at a large amount, but a Trait would indicate a hit from a silvered or blessed weapon would suppress it until the start of its next turn. The downside to that is that after one character strikes it, it becomes killable by anyone's regular attack.

Other options include Resist xx all damage, vulnerable xx silver/blessed; or giving the property to the weapons themselves. I believe there are a few in the compendium that deal bonus damage to shapechangers.

I think my gut would be to give it resist xx weapon damage, vulnerable xx silver/blessed, and a small amount of regeneration on top of that or a temporary hit point mechanic.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The easiest is just regeneration (negated by silver), but werewolves get that by default. So my other suggestion is to give him a special resistance to weapon attacks of 5 per tier (avoided by using a silver weapon). Naturally, that's in addition to regeneration. To fight this guy, you really want silver!

Usually when giving weapon resistance, I use the formula 2/5/10 resistance per tier (so less than standard), but that's assuming there's no way to bypass the resistance, and in this the loup de noir gives a way to do that.

 

[Quickleaf]

Thanks for the feedback!

If I was doing it and I wanted to keep the ability, I'd reduce its base hit points by somewhere around 30%.

That makes sense. I'm not wedded to the idea of replicating the ability mechanically, rather I want to maintain it thematically because it's one of the two defining features of the monster. The other being it can tear out your throat

One way to approach it would be to give it regeneration at a large amount, but a Trait would indicate a hit from a silvered or blessed weapon would suppress it until the start of its next turn. The downside to that is that after one character strikes it, it becomes killable by anyone's regular attack.

Other options include Resist xx all damage, vulnerable xx silver/blessed; or giving the property to the weapons themselves. I believe there are a few in the compendium that deal bonus damage to shapechangers.

I think my gut would be to give it resist xx weapon damage, vulnerable xx silver/blessed, and a small amount of regeneration on top of that or a temporary hit point mechanic.

Yep, I am avoiding regeneration/overcome by silver because (a) it allows the Beast to then be wounded by steel just as much as silver and that feels weird, and (b) tracking regeneration is a PITA, especially if you've got a pack of werewolves or a gang of trolls.

Resist and vulnerable would be the easiest. I was recently looking over one of the Bard (Skald) powers that deals psychic damage which can't reduce the target below 1 HP, and if the target would fall below they instead flee from the bard. It made me wonder if I might be able to get something more interesting out of this monster if it has a triggered power that kicks in when "killed" by a non-silver/blessed weapon...

The easiest is just regeneration (negated by silver), but werewolves get that by default. So my other suggestion is to give him a special resistance to weapon attacks of 5 per tier (avoided by using a silver weapon). Naturally, that's in addition to regeneration. To fight this guy, you really want silver!

Usually when giving weapon resistance, I use the formula 2/5/10 resistance per tier (so less than standard), but that's assuming there's no way to bypass the resistance, and in this the loup de noir gives a way to do that.

Yeah, that's the third reason I'm avoiding regeneration. In the adventure figuring out just what this monster is provides for significant tension and potential for "blame the wrong lycanthrope." Then again maybe I should give him regen anyhow...hmm. Yes the resist 10 would be what I would use (it's a level 13 solo brute).

EDIT: On further thought, I realized I started with a mechanics question when I should have given a bit of the monster's story. The Beast is the result of a hag's curse against those who participated in her execution (she was owed a debt by a Duke whose life she saved, and when she came to collect the Duke reneged and had her beheaded). A druid NPC told the Duke of the hag's vulnerability to cold iron and holy blessing, a smith NPC fashioned a cold iron axe, a priest NPC blessed the blade, and the Duke's son beheaded the hag. Her dying curse was: "Those who have raised hand against me shall wear their bestial soul, under the pale moonlight released of care and control." The current Beast is the Duke's son, but if killed without breaking the curse, then one of the other NPCs is next in line to receive the curse. One of the aspects that I'm highlighting is the adversarial nature between the Duke and his son; the Duke was always talking about the importance of strength, maintaining the duchy, and protecting his family with thick walls. His son has found his strength thru this dark curse which he thinks he can control (he can't) and is planning a coup.

 

[Jhaelen]

Since a solo is the equivalent of 5 monsters, I always try to give solos 5 attacks per round.

I've taken the opposite approach:
Since I feel that the official solos are really only the equivalent of 4 monsters, I only count them as 4 standard monsters for the encounter budget, making it easier to add more 'minions'.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Thanks for the feedback!

<snip>

Resist and vulnerable would be the easiest. I was recently looking over one of the Bard (Skald) powers that deals psychic damage which can't reduce the target below 1 HP, and if the target would fall below they instead flee from the bard. It made me wonder if I might be able to get something more interesting out of this monster if it has a triggered power that kicks in when "killed" by a non-silver/blessed weapon...

I know the power you mean (I'm playing a Skald right now in an online game). That's a good seed of an idea for how to deal with that situation.

 

[Quickleaf]

I know the power you mean (I'm playing a Skald right now in an online game). That's a good seed of an idea for how to deal with that situation.

One idea I'm entertaining is: Non-silver/blessed weapons that hit the Beast shatter. If the are magic they become useless until repaired.

Then I'd team that up with some sort of power that triggers "when the Beast would br reduced to 0 HP by by an attack without the [silver] or [blessed] keyword." Not sure what the power would do yet.

How's that sound?

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

One idea I'm entertaining is: Non-silver/blessed weapons that hit the Beast shatter. If the are magic they become useless until repaired.

Then I'd team that up with some sort of power that triggers "when the Beast would br reduced to 0 HP by by an attack without the [silver] or [blessed] keyword." Not sure what the power would do yet.

How's that sound?

I think the idea could be fine, depending on how your adventure plays out and how your players deal with this. I will say that broken weapons all over the place has the potential to shut down pretty much every melee character, which could be disastrous, depending on how it plays out.

If you have an initial encounter with this beast that shows the players / characters what happens when you attack with normal weapons, I think it could be a really thematic encounter, especially if they learn from it (and go equip themselves with silvered weapons in order to hunt this thing down). It might be a good idea to have the beast's intention be to escape after doing some nefarious deed, and have the now mostly weaponless players powerless to stop him. Obviously, spellcasters have the potential to put the damper on things, as do bow users with control-type powers (i.e. seekers and hunters, and many ranger powers).

As for the triggered power, this might be a good opportunity to have it free action trigger the beast's Second Wind. Monsters & NPCs are entitled, but seldom use it because of the action economy. If you want the triggered power to be at-will, then you could just have it regain a pile of hit points. Or it could even trigger some beastly rage; stay at 1hp, gain a bunch of temp hp, and +x to hit and +xdx to damage...

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=98255]Nemesis Destiny[/MENTION] Yeah, I'm looking at throwing in a thematic encounter like that, I've just got to be careful because those sorts of encounters can reek of railroading since its a given that the monster gets away or else the rest of the adventure is over.

Anyhow, when NPCs go "and our spears broke and our swords bent on its impenetrable fur hide", which players tend to roll their eyes at a bit as DM hyperbole and a signal that the real heroes need to step up, they can be like, "oh crap, those peons before were right!"

The other thing it does is get players thinking out of the box. Obviously getting your blade silvered or blessed is optimum, but until then the martial types need to come up with a more effective technique. In my group it'll be interesting too because one of the fighters carries around like a dozen swords which the other players find amusing.

So in addition to the Magic Wolfskin trait and the as-of-yet undefined triggered power, I'm also going with:

Resist 10 non-silvered/blessed weapons
Vulnerable 15 critical hits from silvered/blessed weapons

That way the optimized ranger in the party isn't exempt from the Beast's incredible resistance to weapons. Also, I felt the straight up Vulnerable was a bit too cut-and-dried because once the PCs realize the monster's incredible resistances it's a sure bet they stop into town and drop 500gp each for silvered weapons. Then the monster just sucks damage. Instead, I decided that crit-fishing this guy with the appropriate weapon would be encouraged because crit-fishing is a team sport and it gives the players that role-playing high

As for the triggered power, I think both your suggestions are good. One thing I'm doing with this monster is making him more than just a werewolf-on-steroids; he's a skinchanger who has other animal skins he can wear. That dire boar he hunted? His father's pet dire bear that went missing? Yep, he can wear them. Since I'm using those to add a bit of staging/development to the fight, I could design them so that the triggered power @ 0 hp lets him trigger an extra use of skinchanging combined with regaining his healing surge value HP.

Could even tie his action points to the skinchanging, so he starts with 1 but each time he changes (or maybe each new form he changes to) he gets an extra action point. I'd have him change to two new forms: werebear at 3/4-1/2 HP, then wereboar at 1/2-1/4 HP, then back to werewolf 1/4-0 HP. Of course if his triggered power activates then he could get another 1/4 HP with a new form.