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Message: <blockquote data-quote="OnlineDM" data-source="post: 5540414" data-attributes="member: 90804">If you do end up going with a monster whose defenses are really high, effectively making it so that the PCs can only connect on a critical hit, keep in mind that some characters from the Essentials books don't have daily attack powers. Also, some daily attack powers don't deal damage on a miss - they're reliable instead (not a great comfort if the PC can never hit).I think it's reasonable to have a monster that can be hit only with a 15 or better on the die as a scary encounter. But requiring a crit is going to make for a frustrating battle (unless, you know, you have a wizard in the party who can throw magic missiles at the wounded eladrin, er, giant...).A non-optimized character probably has an 18 in their primary stat (+4 to hit) and a weapon with a +2 proficiency bonus, with no expertise feat. That means that they're only at +6 to hit (or +4 to hit against a non-AC defense if they're an implement user). Keep those numbers in mind. If you have a monster with AC 23 and NADs of 21, then the non-optimized PC needs a 17 on the die to hit (unless they can get combat advantage or some other edge). A Brute has an AC of level+12, so if you want to shoot for something more like AC21, that would be a level 9 brute. If it were a skirmisher, the AC is level+14, so that's a level 7 skirmisher. I'd completely avoid the soldier role due to the higher AC. A level 9 brute sounds about right.Keep in mind, though, that a normal single-target damage expression for a level 9 brute is 2d8+12, averaging 21 damage. A critical hit would be 30 damage - enough to drop most 1st level PCs from full health to unconsciousness. If we're talking about a wizard PC, that might kill them outright even if they started at maximum HP. This might be the level of scariness that you're looking for, but make sure you're aware of the potential lethality of the encounter.</blockquote>

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