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In general, WotC didn't do a good job designing monsters to be balanced based around their special abilities. Monsters with better special abilities tend to be meaningfully stronger than other monsters at their level/role, and "better special abilities" often means "inflicts more conditions...

Right, that's the general idea. I specifically said that I was assuming the problem was the relative balance of monster offense/defense. One thing I hadn't considered, though, is that changing monsters to have more damage and lower HP really encourages PCs who can "nova", expending resources...

I don't think WotC should necessarily errata all of the MM1 solos to correspond to the new solo guidelines, though including a (free) detailed discussion of how their basic guidelines changed (so you can change the MM1 numbers yourself) would be nice. The Fen Hydra would still be a very bad...

Actually, in the MM2 podcast, they say exactly that. Roughly, "We included hydras in MM2 in part because the MM1 hydras don't work, and we've decided not to errata the MM1 hydras." One of the guys in the podcast mentions (around 9:00 in) finding out the hard way about the poor design of the...

As keterys says, this doesn't help against until end of next turn effects, or stunned/dazed due to being an immediate reaction. You don't have to think of a "general solo condition fix" as changing a rule. It could also be creating a specific ability, called, say, Tough as Nails, that gives...

Total defenses isn't a great metric, because, particularly in the heroic tier, most attacks go against AC. See the stats here: 51% of heroic tier MM creatures only have attacks against AC, and only 4.4% don't have an attack against AC. There's an interesting thread on the WotC optimization...

If you are giving monsters 3/4 of their normal hit points, it would make sense for monsters to do about 4/3 normal damage, assuming that monsters are already balanced in terms of HP/damage combined, and the problem is their relative balance of offense/defense. The actual number should probably...

It's not just hydras. Brutes were generally too weak in MM1, and many have had errata to increase their damage-e.g., Hill Giants, Ogres, Death Giants, etc.. Brutes didn't get enough to compensate for lower attack/defense values. However, Brute solos are especially weak in MM1, because solo...

Neither. +2 at 15th, +3 at 25th is how the feats are written in the first place.

Many of these issues (and the "just add directly to weakest FRW" option) were discussed on page 1 of this thread. The Barbarian is the only class feature that needs obvious revision in this way. For what it's worth, a scimitar isn't an off-hand weapon. So Tempest fighter + Scimitars isn't a...

The deity rules are special rules used for deities, high level solos like Tiamat or Vecna. Among other things, deities get an immediate save to end ongoing damage or any condition placed on them. That seems pretty good. It's clear what is or isn't covered; on PH page 277, covered; not on...

So, to clarify, does anyone have MM2 and want to weigh in on whether elites have been changed to not have defense-bonuses over normal monsters?

WotC has changed their solo monster design with MM2. See D&D Alumni: Demogorgon. From the previews, it looks like solos are becoming roughly 4x the offense and 4x the HP of normal monsters. It also looks like elites (as well as solos) do not have a bonus to defenses over normal monsters...

Huh? The reason the deity rules are more generous to the monster is that the solo's +5 bonus to saves applied on its immediate save to end a condition, and also that it can make those immediate saves against ongoing damage (an immediate save against ongoing damage is excessive; ongoing damage...

It's 17 levels if you start with an even Dex score. 1-7, 11-13, 21-27.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. How can a character give up his epic destiny to take a second Paragon Path? What he means is that a Str/Wis/Dex boosting ranger can take advantage of all of the powers and feats requiring a high Wisdom (e.g., Armor Splinter) that a Pit Fighter would take...

This is true, but I'm not sure why it's relevant to this thread. From a purely descriptive perspective, MM solos clearly do not do as much damage as 5 normal monsters. The point of this thread is how to modify solos so status effects aren't as strong against them. The question is: "How can...

Extending Karinsdad's rule to any condition is the "deity rule" with a reduced chance of making the save. It avoids the problem of making solos too hard to affect, since it's less generous to the solo than the deity rules. Once you make it a "save that isn't modified by anything", you could...

This guess was right: WotC has changed the way they design solo monsters in general with MM2. See: D&D Alumni: Demogorgon. I don't have MM2 to know exactly how they've implemented this, but it seems like solos are becoming roughly 4x the offense and 4x the defense of a normal monster, rather...

WotC messed up both by making many AV items that are too strong due to at-wills/properties (e.g., Reckless Weapons or Iron Armbands of Power), and by making many daily power items too weak in the PH and AV. There are a number of items where the Daily power would be excessive if available as an...