Need help finishing/tweaking Solo

[Dragongrief]

Below is what I have so far for the Boss monster of my group's next session. There will have been one combat and a skill challenge or two before this, so they should be relatively fresh.

This villain may become recurring, so they don't necessarily have to kill him to win, just beat him down "far enough".

The group is Level 4 and will have between 4 and 7 players.

Yet Unnamed Villain
Level 6 Solo Controller - Shadar Kai
Initiative +6 Speed 6
Hit Points 280; Bloodied 140
AC 20 Fort 18 Ref 18 Will 18

Repelling Strike (Standard, At-Will, basic melee) * Thunder: +10 vs Ref; 1d10+4 thunder damage and target is Pushed 3 squares.

Dark Lightning (Standard, At-Will, basic ranged) * Lightning, Necrotic: Range 10; +10 vs Fortitude; 1d6+4 Lightning and Necrotic damage and target is Dazed until the end of its next turn.

Chained Lightning (Standard, Encounter) * Lightning: Range 5; +10 vs Ref; 3d6+4 Lightning damage and Secondary attack.
Secondary: Range 3 (from Primary Target); +10 vs Ref; 2d6+3 Lightning damage and Tertiary attack.
Tertiary: Range 2 (from Secondary Target), +10 vs Ref; 1d6+2 Lightning damage.

Binding Darkness (Standard, Bloodied Recharge) * Necrotic: Close Burst 5 all enemies; +9 vs Will; 3d6+4 Necrotic damage and target is Immobilized (Save Ends).
Miss: Target is Slowed (Save Ends)

Living Darkness (Standard, Recharge 4-6) * Summoning: Summons 4 Darkspawn within 3 squares of the caster.

Defensive Strike (Immediate Reaction, At-Will): When struck in melee by a Marked opponent, may use Repelling Strike against the attacker.

Shadow Jaunt: Shadar Kai Racial

Revitalizing Surge (Minor, At-Will): May absorb an adjacent Darkspawn to recharge his Shadow Jaunt ability.


Darkspawn
Level 6 Minion
Initiative +4 Speed 4
Hit Points 1; No damage from missed attacks
AC 22 Fort 18 Ref 18 Will 18
Slam (Standard, At-Will, basic melee): +10 vs AC; 5 damage and target is marked.

Does this look like a good set up? The Darkspawn are there to take some of the hits for the Solo and also act as his additional actions.

 

[malcolm_n]

Letting him have a 4-6 recharge to summon 120 hp worth of extra creatures is pretty powerful and can cause grind at the least or a TPK at worst. Maybe make it per encounter, or change them to minions. Everything else looks alright for the level at first glance.

 

[Dragongrief]

Thanks. I'll go with the Minion change. The idea behind the summoning was to provide a (relatively) constant flow of "help" to stop the PCs from just boxing him in and pounding away.

With that, do you think I should got with the DMG recommendation of giving 2 Standard Actions per round? Or should the minion flow count for that?

It looks like my party is up to 2 Leaders and 4 strikers confirmed for the session. There's one more striker and a defender that are possible, but not likely.

 

[fba827]

Sounds like a solid theme going on, nice work! ...


i'd toss in an immediate reaction at-will ... somethings that might be appropriate (thematically) based on what you wrote here ...
a) when hit for damage does Dark Lightning as an immediate reaction but doesn't provoke an opportunity attack when using this immediate action.
b) when hit for damage, as an immediate reaction he changes to lightning and zaps to another location (treat as a teleport 8)
or something along those lines for either an attack or movement based on a reaction

And maybe something to 'absorb' one of the minions. I.e.
minor action: a darkspawn adjacent to the solo is absorbed into the solo's hand/staff/rod/whatever (effectively killing it) and the solo's next attack with dark lightning made this turn gains +X to attack and +X damage

oh yeah, i wouldn't (but this might just be me) bother with initiative for the minions. they act on the same initiative as the summoner. makes it easier on yourself since you'll conceivably have several of these popping out at various times so it might be odd to track who goes on which turn.

Finally, the only other (but more important) thing I would add is terrain features or hazards... solo combats really shine a lot better if there is some feature to the area. it can be as simple as a field with difficult terrain littered about, or it can be a fight on a swinging rope bridge, and so on. but my point is, just give it some thought if you haven't already.

edit: i did not actually look at math parts of it, just concept and power setup.

 

[malcolm_n]

I would say definitely keep him by the book as far as actions; and include his minions immediately after his initiative, as stated by fba.

 

[Dragongrief]

Added in an anti-melee Immediate Reaction, made him Shadar Kai (which fits his story role), and added a power to absorb a minion to recharge the racial teleport.

I like the idea with the Minion initiative. I was planning to stick them at 14 (as if they'd rolled 10s), but putting them right after him would guarantee they get to take at least one action before being destroyed.

Depending how the previous encounter goes, this will either be fought at the bottom of a mountain that just had a minor avalanche (my "Out running a temple" thread), or at some point on the trek back to town.

If it's the former, rough terrain will be a given, as will as some larger debris that can be used for cover.

For the latter, I'm not sure. The country is mostly grasslands, though he could attack at night or when they're passing a river.

 

[Mesh Hong]

My first impressions of the creatures is that its defences are a little high, I would have expected:

AC 20; and Fortitude, Reflex and Will around 18

For most of the combat he will only be able making one attack a turn, which is a little dull. Really he should have an at will double attack, and maybe a recharge burst, blast or attack that can hit 3 PCs.

If you are going to make the summoned creatures (4) minions I wouldn't have the summon power as a standard action, I would make it a move action. This would allow him to maintain an attack.

You mention that you want him to be a recurring villian. If this is the case I would try and design an escape route for him. You say you will have 2 leaders and 4 strikers facing him, there is a very very good chance they will cut him to ribbons before he can escape unless he starts retreating very early.

 

[Dragongrief]

@Mesh:
I worked up the creature using the guidelines in the DMG. The base Controller comes out to what you're thinking of (20/18/18/18), and then it says to add +2 to 3 defenses for each the Elite and Solo increase (then i dropped Fort by 2 afterwards).

I am using the 2 Standard Actions recommendation. Would you still say make the Minion summoning a Move, or leave it Standard?

His "escape power" has no combat application, so I didn't put it in the block. It would pretty much amount to Standard: Open portal, Move: Go through.
The players will have seen it in a previous encounter, so they'll know he's capable of it.

Preserving him as a re-occurring isn't of utmost importance, but it would be good to have someone familiar to throw at them occasionally.

 

[malcolm_n]

The rules in the DMG were changed some time back for monster creation. Solo/elite creatures don't gain the bonus to defenses any more. They also gain fewer hit points, but get more powerful as the fight goes on (usually when bloodied).

 

[Dragongrief]

Ahh. I should probably go find some errata then.