3:1 monsters and monster tracks (not disco)

[Quickleaf]

Considering a house rule for next 4e game I'm DMing...

The Rule

• Replace minions and standard monsters with a new enemy I have named "Monsters" in my creative brilliance. Monsters act as 3 in 1 standard monsters (or 2 for a particularly tough monster).
• Each individual monster is linked on the same "hit point track". All attacks against that monster type (e.g. kobold skirmishers) deal damage against this "track." Whenever the one-third (or one-half) marker on the “track” is reached a monster dies.
• In large groups of monsters there might be a group “bloodied” action, like a solo.

Why?

• The DM keeps track of information. Yah!
• Individual monsters go down faster and dish out more damage (since there's more of them attacking and easier for them to gain flanking).
• Monsters can often be taken down in one hit by a striker (unlike a standard) and “overkill” damage is useful (unlike a minion).
• Monsters avoid several pitfalls of minions: getting taken out by area effects in one fell swoop, missed attacks doing nothing, and critical hits or attacks dealing damage types they’re vulnerable are worthless.

Here's an example of what I'm thinking:

Kobold Skirmishers Hit Point Track
81
72 one dies
63 one dies
54 one dies
45 one dies
40 all kobolds skirmishers shift 3 squares toward same enemy and make a basic attack
36 one dies
27 one dies
18 one dies
9 one dies
0


The more I think about it the more I like it! Has anyone tried something like this before? How did it go? Can you forsee any problems with linking monster hit points as I'm suggesting?

 

[Will Doyle]

This is too abstract for me, and seems to shine the spotlight too much on strikers (unless I've totally misunderstood it).

My main gripe:

I'm over here, hitting this goon. I deal five points of damage with every hit. But meanwhile you're over there, hitting that goon. Just through my bad luck, or your high damage, you always deal enough to kill your goon, yet I'm always just falling just short of my kill. In fact, in a huge skirmish, I could theoretically hit my goon dozens of times without him dropping.

This said, I love your idea of powers that trigger off "group bloodied". Forgive me for riffing off this, but - ignoring the track a moment - imagine having a template that you could apply to any encounter group, with different group effects triggered by different conditions.

Something like:

Death Cultists
When first PC is bloodied - all cultists gain +5 to damage rolls until the end of their next turn.
When first PC is knocked unconscious - all cultists are pulled 2 squares towards the unconscious enemy. If any of them end this move adjacent, they can deliver a coup de grace as a free action.
When first PC is killed - all cultists are stunned until the end of their next turn as they dance on the spot, chanting the name of their blood god.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=6682161]Will Doyle[/MENTION]
You're totally right about stealing kills. Would XP you, but I did so "too" recently.

What I really was going for was a way to make "overkill" damage work against other monsters of the same type. Otherwise not only am I upping the damage the enemies can deal, but I'm also limiting the damage they can take.

For example, a certain group of hive mind creatures might have a trait "Shared Agony" that applies any overkill damage to the nearest creature connected to the hive mind as psychic damage.

Or with your death cultists example, they might have a magical pact which drains the souls of the living cultists when one dies, but charges some sort of magic soul receptacle. So if a cultist took 8 hp "overkill" damage, you'd divide that among the other death cultists evenly then add a tally mark to the soul receptacle. Perhaps the # souls in the receptacle determines the extent of the "group bloodied" power of the death cultists.