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These sorts of recommendations have the crucial problem that they're missing Masterwork Armor bonuses to AC (assuming the DM doesn't hand out masterwork armor without any enhancement bonuses when the players would normally get MW armor of each type). For characters wearing heavy armor, this is...

I don't have DMG 2, but this doesn't seem correct. A monster that is being run competently will tend to use its more effective powers in any given situation. Having more options will thus increase its average effectiveness. However, this effect might not be that large if the theme powers are...

The strategy that leads to the highest probability of victory for the monsters is generally "Run away, get all monsters together, and come kill party", and the best monster allocation strategy would be something more like "all monsters in one room in the first place." I'd advise jointly doing...

No level 1 artillery in MM1 or MM2 has a +9 vs AC (or a +7 vs FRW, with the usual 2 lower for targeting FRW instead of AC). The DMG guideline for artillery (pg 184) is level +7 attacks vs. AC. Is there any actual data behind this +9 number?

Or perhaps people giving the advice on stats can do basic math but simply have a different assessment of the situation? In particular, as people have mentioned, starting with Str 14, Con 13, Dex 14, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 12 could be easily changed to Str 16, Int 8, Cha 10 for a stronger melee...

Agile armor is anywhere from slightly worse to much worse than a one-plus higher basic "Magic" Armor, depending on what level you're at. Unless you can get Agile Armor and then trade it out soon after for the basic magic armor with a +1 better enhancement bonus (or you don't care because the...

This isn't quite true. A stun effect removes one round of offense, but a solo's offense is not (and should not be, by design) equivalent to that of five normal creatures. Solo monsters don't suffer gradual attrition during the combat, so they shouldn't have comparable per round offenses to 5...

Pocket Ultimate Power is now available, both from Green Ronin (see link above) and in stores. Just thought I'd mention it for the people who have been waiting for a paper copy of this book for a long time.

Side note: This is why you should stick to all the level 11 solos, all the level 11-12 solos from XYZ books, and so on when doing these types of exercises. Or list the ones you looked at. That way other people can easily go back and look at the same monsters you looked at. On persistent...

If players were perfectly amenable to altering options that they have been using in play, "trying things out" would be easier to do. I've seen some horrendously overpowered characters in non-4e games, who were recognized as such by the group, presumably because the discord that would be created...

I can see why the PC would want to roll against 9 or 10 + the monster attack bonus with their defense bonus: it changes the odds in their favor! With equal attack bonuses for the monster and defense bonuses for the PC, a monster hits on a roll of 10 or higher (55% of the time). So a PC should...

Certain Justice is too good. Suggested house rule: Champion of Order (Paladin Paragon Path): Certain Justice (Encounter 11): Change the second sentence to “If the target is marked by you, it is also weakened and dazed until the end of your next turn.” Change damage to 1[W] + Strength...

A simple fix for both of the Avenger MC feats would be to add the line: "You can reroll only two attack rolls with the Oath of Enmity granted by this feat." This leaves them as strong MC feats, but keeps extreme abuse in check.

Indeed, I pointed this out here and here. I make mostly the same points you make in this post, though in slightly different words. Great minds, great minds ;)

My Roll Call thread has two detailed character creation examples, which should be helpful in learning the character creation system: Minotaur, a powerhouse, and the Martial Artist archetype I also have three fights written from the perspective of the players and GM, so they're designed to help...

Yep. If you're halving HP, you can double monster damage directly in this way. You can also just double the dice and double the bonuses (6d8+18 in the above case), so you don't have to compute any averages on the spot. This has some problems: for example, monsters with low damage plus...

See my post above. This idea is only true for small changes to HP/damage. If you reduce monster HP by 90%, it's not going to be balanced by increasing damage by 90%! The reason is that how long a monster lives is (roughly) proportional to its HP, the number of attacks it makes is (roughly)...

If you are giving monsters 1/2 of their normal hit points, it would make sense for monsters to do around twice their normal damage. This is assuming that monsters are already balanced in terms of damage per encounter, encounter length in round is proportional to monster HP, and the problem is...

Shouldn't ability chekcs include the half-level bonus (+2 in your case) as well? In that case, the aiding Rogues would succeed on Aid 80% of the time each, and the Barb's base check would be +7. This would have increased your chance of succeeding on the skill challenge from about 25% to about 45%.

Stalker0 says most of what needs to be said: That using Sure Strike is occasionally better than a basic attack doesn't mean that Sure Strike is "optimal!" Said Dwarf Fighter most likely has 18 Con. If you compare to Brash Strike, the fighter would get +7 damage in return for giving up combat...