1/2 hp and damage mod = monster level?

[SlyFlourish]

I'm tweaking some damage output of the monsters in 4e to make them a bit more fast and dangerous. I realized that adding the monster level in damage might do the trick. Do you think this is too much of an increase?

Right now I'm thinking that, for some creatures, I'll use half HP and replace the damage mod with +level.

Thoughts?

 

[Stalker0]

I'll give you the same advice I give everyone who wants to try this trick, don't cut the hp in half, try something smaller like a third or a fourth.

You may feel that monster's have too many hitpoints, but keep in mind that a party's damage is pretty high at the begininng of combat...its just that there damage tends to wane at the latter rounds of combat. Even taking off a quarter of a creature's health should drop the number of round it takes to kill it by 1 or 2. Multiply that by 5 monsters and that's a big speed increase in how fast they die.

 

[keterys]

Yeah, I tried an experiment at one point by making an area where damage was doubled while bloodied, which is very similar to 3/4 HP... and it was actually quite fast.

 

[Sadrik]

Stalker0 says to lower the HP more this follows that a little try this: +1/2 level damage bonus to players and monsters and 1/2 HP for monsters.

It normalizes the damage output of the players, for instance, the lower damage classes really get a leg up and it provides more benefit to them than it does to the characters who are already producing a tremendous amount of damage (strikers).

At 1/2 HP they would also be worth 1/2 XP of course too. It should give you a better moving game combat wise.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I was hoping to keep the math simple by using the bloodied value instead of having to do the math beforehand but I think that 3/4 works better than 1/2. Would this still work well with a +1/2 level in damage boost to the monsters or replacing the damage mod with + level? Or is that damage now too high?

I think tomorrow I'll run at 3/4 hps and + level in damage and see how it looks.

 

[cbbakke]

We tried the 1/2 level for damage for players and it didnt work out very well. The striker classes got the worst of it and a lot of powers it created problems for.

I may try 1/4 the HPs and monsters doing 1/2 level more in damage. The combat is too long right now.

 

[SlyFlourish]

Yeah, I only want to tweak things on the monster's side. I don't want to houserule anything for players.

Right now I think 3/4 hps for monsters and +1/2 level for monster damage would probably be about right. I'm running a game tomorrow and I'll see then.

 

[the Jester]

I've been starting to do design tweaks on monsters myself- though I've only done some solos and elites this way so far. But I have been halving hit points and doubling damage dice while keeping the static bonus the same (so 1d10+5 becomes 2d10+5). It has made the fights much more exciting and dangerous-feeling. I like it so far, and we'll see how it goes with a few regular monsters before too long. I don't think that I'll do all monsters that way, but if it works super well I might. We shall see.

I have to note that my party is leader-heavy, however.

 

[keterys]

Another axis of modification is defenses and attack bonuses, fwiw - if you give creatures -2 to all defenses, frex, they'll die faster too.

Many creatures probably don't need higher attack values (though some, especially some brutes, could afford it), another thing to consider is upping critical chance.

I've been wondering if something like a blanket increase to increase on 19-20 for paragon and 18-20 for epic would be interesting for monsters or not.

 

[the Jester]

...another thing to consider is upping critical chance.

I've been wondering if something like a blanket increase to increase on 19-20 for paragon and 18-20 for epic would be interesting for monsters or not.

Oooh.

I don't know if I'd do this for every monster in the upper tiers, but I like the idea of doing it for some especially cool ones.