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As has been stated many times, by default over 29 levels PCs lose 2 on AC relative to monster to-hit and lose 4 on their two strong FRWs relative to monster to-hit and 7 on their weak FRW relative to monster to-hit (for an average FRW loss of 5). So AC should scale better. These numbers are...

I agree that as a whole, MM solos are too boring. Adding actions would make most solos more interesting and is essential to making some solos usable (Hydras!). I believe you had 6 PCs. So that's 6 level 7 PCs against a level 10 solo, roughly a level +2 encounter. If the players still have...

How does targeting attacks sequentially like this (assuming this is how it's supposed to work) interact with marks? If the dragon targets a non-fighter with its first claw attack, does it get -2 to hit and trigger the fighter's combat challenge because it's making an attack that doesn't include...

Compared to the level 22 Red Dragon solo soldier in the MM, it looks significantly better offensively. However, it's also weaker defensively; 2 lower AC for its level and just over 2 lower average FRW for its level. It also has 250 fewer HP despite being only one level down. So the designers...

No, my position on this has been quite consistent. Let me try to summarize my views: The preponderance of the evidence suggests that the PH-II feats are intended to fix the scaling of FRW being so poor in the PH. Using overpowered epic feats in PH-II to do this is bad. Taking Epic [your...

This is a separate issue from the main point of this thread, but I'd worry that your changes to increase solos' action ratio would make them too powerful (edit: looking at the book, the Adult White Dragon does look pretty weak; still, these changes would substantially increase its power). In...

I don't see a change to stun being a simple nerf as particularly problematic. However, Stun is notable for inflicting such a large penalty on offense while inflicting no more than the usual "grants CA" on defense. You could change that as follows (or in many ways like it): A stunned creature...

If you change Stun in this way, you should reword powers like Seal of Binding and Ice Tomb from stunning a creature to "the creature can take no actions." I think both of these powers would have been better if this had been their wording in the first place. For example, if you use Seal of...

Solo action ratio deserves a separate topic entirely. I will say that solos wouldn’t need as many actions to keep up with players if they weren’t so affected by debuffs. :) Would a dragon be able to use this as an immediate reaction to being affected by a Stun/Daze? If not, that’s a problem...

This would really keep Orb Wizards in check :) Having solos auto-make saves is a large change of the game's existing mechanics, though- maybe too large, since the saving throw bonus for a solo only ends up mattering on one-round effects. It also doesn't decrease the length of save-ends effects...

(Did you mean "can't?") One could do all sorts of calculations to try to get at an answer here. However, this is a question that it is possible to answer without having done a ton of calculations off of tables in the DMG. To quote James McMurray, who's on your side of "causing FRW to scale...

Indeed. I don't refrain from pointing out your errors when your errors weaken your point. I'm not a lawyer or debater tasked with advancing a particular side of this argument; rather, I've taken a position based on my judgment of the situation. There's no value in strengthening my position...

I didn’t mention this because in the context of comparing elites to solos, their defenses should be the same. I should have mentioned this in the context of comparisons to normal monsters, though. The DMG has essentially the same guidelines for increasing defenses for solos and elites (+2 to...

I think of what I'm doing as adding a property to each solo monster to resist status effects better, and using the exact same property each time. As LuckyAdrastus says, your solos look very flavorful and fun to play against. If you could only choose one resilience solution for every solo...

Suppose we started from the premise that FRW attacks were fine as is, with their better scaling being an internal part of the system's math, and looked at my question "In particular, do you think that attacks against FRW become weaker over time relative to attacks against AC in a way that...

Is this in response to my point above? PC AC scales 2 points worse than the monster's to-hit over 29 levels. Certainly I don't think it's true that "Since AC doesn't scale 4-5 points worse than monster to-hit there's no way to create challenging epic-level opponents who attack AC." By...

I've said many times that I don't think these feats are balanced or an appropriate solution for FRW scaling issues. What I am saying is that there are stronger tests of whether the game's math is off (in the PH) than whether the game becomes too easy at higher levels, particularly when...

This is an extreme counterfactual, though. You're comparing a party that has used many more resources on abilities that are best in this exact circumstance to a party that has used none of those resources. The 5+ to 15+ math is also somewhat off in favor of the PCs, but I won't go into great...

Do you mean, solos get their usual +5 bonus to saves, but can save against the above conditions at the start rather than the end of their turn? That leads to 0.25 average rounds for save ends effects with these conditions, and 0.2 average rounds for until end of turn ends effects with these...

For 2 -2's hitting a monster to cause the monster to lose 2/3 of its damage, the monster would have to hit 30% before these -2 penalties were applied. That seems extremely unlikely to occur with a solo attacking FRW, even with the PH II feats allowed. Indeed, you started with the assumption...