Help me balance my custom level 8 solo Gnoll Queen Berserker

[Old Gumphrey]

Ok, I made this gnoll queen into a level 8 solo using 2 templates as prescribed by the DMG on page 174+. There are no level 8 solos to compare her to, and she honestly looks a lot like the level 9 white dragon, possibly even better. She is using a +2 berserker heavy flail, and its power is figured into her abilities (that's why her defenses are so low).

The regen 5 and resist all 5 is what's making me unsure. The consume soul is also uber nasty, but that can be avoided completely by killing her mooks first (knowledge check to know what powers the enemy has).

What do you guys think? Is this thing too nasty for a level 8 solo? Level 9 solo?

Gnoll Demonic Scourge (Savage Berserker / Demonic Acolyte) Level 8 Solo Controlling Brute (Leader)
Medium natural humanoid XP 1750
Initiative +6 Senses Perception +7; low-light vision
Resist 5 radiant, 5 all
Leader of the Pack aura 5; allies in the aura gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls. While this creature is bloodied, the bonus increases to +2.
Shield of Abyssal Majesty aura 5; Allies in the aura gain the demonic acolyte’s resistance(s).
Saves +5
Action Points 2
HP 404; Bloodied 202
Regeneration 5
AC 16; Fortitude 22, Reflex 13, Will 15
Speed 5
mHeavy Flail (standard; at-will) ✦ Weapon
+16 vs. AC; 2d6 + 8 damage, or 2d6 + 10 while bloodied (2d10 + 20 critical or 2d10 + 22 while bloodied); against a bloodied enemy, this attack also knocks the target prone; see also pack attack.
Bloodthirst
If the gnoll demonic scourge bloodies an enemy with a melee attack, an ally adjacent to the enemy can make a melee attack against that enemy as an immediate reaction.
Overwhelming Attack (free; encounter)
The gnoll demonic scourge applies its bloodthirst power to two allies instead of one.
Pack Attack
The gnoll demonic scourge deals an extra 5 damage on melee attacks against an enemy that has two or more of the demonic scourge’s allies adjacent to it.
Consume Soul (immediate reaction, when an ally within 5 squares of the acolyte is reduced to 0 hit points) The demonic acolyte regains hit points equal to one-half its level.
Murderous Frenzy
The savage berserker gains 1 action point the first time it reduces a foe to 0 hit points in an encounter.
Savage Rebuke (immediate reaction, when hit by a melee attack; at will)
The savage berserker makes a basic melee attack.
Alignment Chaotic evil Languages Abyssal, Common
Skills Insight +10, Intimidate +13, Religion +10
Str 20 (+9) Dex 14 (+6) Wis 12 (+5)
Con 16 (+7) Int 13 (+5) Cha 15 (+6)
Equipment hide armor, +2 berserking heavy flail

 

[n'haaz-aua]

Well, shes a solo, so she doesnt have any mooks... so that power suddenly becomes moot...

 

[Mengu]

This would make a better Elite than Solo. I'd make it an Elite Brute (Leader).

You would of course have to readjust HP's, Action points, saving throws and such. You would also remove Savage Rebuke.

Also regardless of what weapon she is wielding, AC 16 is way too low. 8th level characters attacking AC have an attack bonus around +13 or +15.

 

[The Real Aranan]

Well, shes a solo, so she doesnt have any mooks... so that power suddenly becomes moot...

Solo doesn't literally mean "you can only ever fight this alone and it has no friends because it's an antisocial loser oh god why me

." Rather, it just means it's an average encounter for a group of 5 level Xs where X is the solo's level. Just like you can have encounters higher level than the party, you can have a solo equal to the party's level with some extra stuff thrown in.

 

[Old Gumphrey]

Well, shes a solo, so she doesnt have any mooks... so that power suddenly becomes moot...

Right. That's why example encounters have solos combined with other things on pages:

21, 76, 77, 79, 83, etc., etc., et al

This would make a better Elite than Solo. I'd make it an Elite Brute (Leader).

Thank you for your opinion; I wholeheartedly disagree.

Also regardless of what weapon she is wielding, AC 16 is way too low. 8th level characters attacking AC have an attack bonus around +13 or +15.

Luckily for her, she'll be fighting 5th level characters. Also, luckily for her, the weapon that drops her AC by 5 also grants her +2 attack and damage and resist 5 to everything.

That's sort of why I explained that these stats were already included. I'm not really sweating her getting hit with resist 5 all and regeneration 5. In fact, I'm a bit worried that PCs landing hits every single turn isn't going to be enough to bring her down.

I am still interested, though, in posts that are relevant to the topic, if anyone would mind eyeballing it for balance as a level 8 solo creature.

 

[The Real Aranan]

Well, Old Gumphrey, how important is this NPC to your overall game? Is it just some random super soldier gnoll your players will encounter? Are the gnolls a huge threat to the game that your players have been actively working toward for the last few sessions?

 

[Old Gumphrey]

Are the gnolls a huge threat to the game that your players have been actively working toward for the last few sessions?

Very. She's the head honcho of Chapter 1. Right now, she's a savage berserker elite. But when the "good guys" turn the tide of the fight thanks to the PCs help in recruiting allies, she, in her frustration and rage, sacrifices her top captain to Yeenoghu, who grants her instant and terrible power in the form of the demonic acolyte template.

The PCs will see her transform, get a little huger, radiate black waves of demonic power, and then charge screaming at them with a flail the size of a man on top of a demonic acid spewing hyena the size of a clydsedale.

I'm pretty confident in her being a solo.

 

[Mengu]

I'll see if I can compare it to the Adult White Dragon, using my party of five 8th level characters. Bear with me a minute.

Expected damage using at-will powers for my 8th level part against her would be around 60 points per round. She'll negate 20 of that with resist, and 5 of that with regeneration, so they'll be doing 35 points per round. Against her 400 HP's, it would take them around 11 rounds to take her down. In 11 rounds (13 actions with action points), she will dish out around 135 points of damage in that time ignoring pack attack, crits, etc. Savage Rebuke will essentially deal an equivalent amount, for a total 270 points.

Expected damage using at-will powers for my 8th level part against the adult white dragon would be around 40 points per round. Against its 400 HP's that'll be a 10 round fight. In that time its breath weapon will charge around 3 times, plus this initial charge, plus the Bloodied breath, will yield 5 breath attacks. Assuming each breath attack catches 4 in the blast and hits 2, it will do 200 points of damage. In that time, it also gets to make 8 Dragon's Fury attacks, which is another 88 points, so that's a total of 288 points the dragon will dish out before it goes down.

These numbers are extremely adhoc but I see the two to be mostly comparable, with the Gnoll sitting below the dragon because encounter and daily powers are more likely to work on her than the dragon. So she's fine as a Solo.

Pack attack, Blood Thirst, Pack Aura, and especially Shield of Abbysal Majesty can push it over the edge a bit depending on how many allies she has with her. If it's only 1-2, it's probably not too bad, 3 is iffy. If it's 4+ non-minions, she might be a bit too powerful. Resist 5 all on a couple Soldier allies would be brutal.