Adjusting Monsters for Faster Combat

[Dausuul]

So, I've been thinking about how some folks are finding 4E combat too slow and defensive, and after playing in a defensively-oriented party at mid-Paragon tier, I'm starting to see their point. While the techniques in the preventing grindspace thread can help a lot, it may also be necessary to tweak the monsters a bit, especially at higher levels.

To that end, I've just crunched a bunch of numbers based on the monster creation guidelines in the DMG, and come up with the following system. It should preserve the overall balance of 4E, while shifting monsters toward a stronger offense and weaker defense. Be forewarned that I have not yet tested this in actual play; but it ought to be in the right ballpark.

Here's how it works: You either reduce a monster's hit points or its defenses (not both!), and boost its attack damage to compensate. Attacks that can be used more or less at will should get the "normal" damage bonus, while attacks that can be used only once or twice an encounter get the "special" damage bonus.

If you want to speed up combat a bit, use "Excitement." If you want swingy, dangerous, high-octane battles, use "Carnage." The last version, well, use at your own risk.

*** EXCITEMENT ***

--If reducing hit points: -2 x level (-1 x level for lurkers and artillery; -8 x level for solos). For elites, double these values.
--If reducing defenses: -2 all defenses, including AC.
Heroic Tier: +2 damage (+3 on special attacks).
Paragon Tier: +3 damage (+5 on special attacks).
Epic Tier: +4 damage (+7 on special attacks).

*** CARNAGE ***

--If reducing hit points: -4 x level (-3 x level for lurkers and artillery; -16 x level for solos). For elites, double these values.
--If reducing defenses: -4 all defenses, including AC.
Heroic Tier: +3 damage (+6 on special attacks).
Paragon Tier: +5 damage (+9 on special attacks).
Epic Tier: +9 damage (+14 on special attacks).

*** GYGAX ***

--If reducing hit points: -5 x level (-4 x level for lurkers and artillery; -7 x level for brutes; -24 x level for solos). For elites, double these values.
--If reducing defenses: -6 all defenses, including AC.
Heroic Tier: +5 damage (+9 on special attacks).
Paragon Tier: +8 damage (+14 on special attacks).
Epic Tier: +13 damage (+21 on special attacks).

 

[Dalzig]

Just to clarify, does "-X AC, -X all defenses" mean that you remove 2X from AC? AC is still a defense so... If you mean "all defenses" to mean "all defenses other than AC," either just list out the defenses or say NADs (non-armor defenses).

I might have to try out the defense lowering aspect of this. I don't have a problem (yet) with extremely long battles, but everyone seems to enjoy the battles more when they hit more often.

 

[Dausuul]

Just to clarify, does "-X AC, -X all defenses" mean that you remove 2X from AC? AC is still a defense so... If you mean "all defenses" to mean "all defenses other than AC," either just list out the defenses or say NADs (non-armor defenses).

Updated the original post for clarity.

 

[brehobit]

I'm going with 3/4 the hitpoints and 4/3 the damage.

In general that means increasing the die size one step, but d12 becomes d12+2 and then 4/3 times the bonus damage (round to closest).

so
d6+4 (7.5) --> d8+5 (9.5)
d8+11 (15.5)--> d10+15 (20.5)
d12+3 (9.5) --> d12+6 (12.5)
2d4+2 (7) --> 2d6+3 (10)

Should make combat a bit more "swingy" which 4e could use a little bit of (but hopefully less swingy than 3.5)

 

[Walknot]

You might check out this thread over on 4e Fan Creations. A couple of folks posted some interesting alternatives.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/247121-1-defenses-vs-1-attacks.html

 

[keterys]

I have an all dwarf party in one game that is pretty defensive, but has a bit of a problem hitting... maybe I'll try changing up one section of an adventure to be

-2 def, -2*lvl hp, +2 att, double crit range

And see how that changes things. Should make things much burstier, for good or ill.

 

[gtoasnt3]

I considered several tactics found here and a couple of other things to speed up combat for us. What did we decide in the end?

The biggest "time" factor was our PC's taking too much time to find the right power during his/her turn. We were using 3.5" index cards and the guys never wrote down the bonuses and damage rolls. We used the system off of 4epowercards.com and had the guys fill out all the blanks on the powers. With every racial/class power on one or two pages (8th level), and all the hit and damage values pre-done, we are flying through the combat sequences now. No other changes were necessary.

 

[Oreot]

Removed because it was a stupid question and I had a severe brain fart. Nothing to see here, move along.

 

[Nikosandros]

Stupid question, but I am assuming by this you mean -2 per level and not actually multiplied by the level?

How are the two different?

 

[Stalker0]

From experience, lowering defenses by 2 is a much bigger hit than that reduction of hitpoints.

Not only does the monster die factor, it gets hits with status effects more frequently. I don't consider the 2 equal, unless you decreased the hitpoints even more.