Bonuses for being Elite/Solo

[Altamir]

I know for certain this has been answered elsewhere, but I've searched and searched and I cannot seem to find it.

What exactly gets added to a monster when you upgrade it to elite or solo? I know that at least 2 things happen, but I could swear that there was more.

I know that elite gets +2 to its saves and solo +4
I know that elites get 1 action point, solos get 2

Do they get some type of defense/hit point bonus? or is that all? Thanks in advance for your help with this.

 

[Revinor]

AFAIK, elite gets 2 x hp, solo gets 5 x hp.

Are you sure about elites getting guaranteed saving throw bonus? In the current writeup of Skeleton Tomb Guardian it is missing.

 

[Altamir]

Great! Thanks.

I am not 100% sure about elites getting +2 to saving throws, only that the Chuul Juggernaut gets it. As well as the Grell which is an elite solider, and the Grell Philosopher, which is an elite controller. I'm guessing the Tomb Guardian didn't get it because its a DDM card.

 

[Szatany]

I'm not 100% sure myself but I think that solos gain +8 to defenses.

 

[arscott]

The pitfiend also has the save bonus.

I have a feeling that there are major errors on the Skeletal Tomb guardian. Not only does it not have the AP and the save bonus, it also looks like it doesn't have the right hp. Despite being a 10th level elite brute, it only has about 10 more hp than the Chull, a 10th level non-elite soldier.

So it looks like all of the "Make this guy elite" math is missing. He's certianly got enough attacks to be an elite, though.

 

[Celebrim]

Can I be a solo monster?

 

[Stalker0]

Keep in mind though that elites and solos aren't just about being bigger and badder, in general they have attacks suited to hurting several people on the battlefield. Upgrading a regular unit to an elite should take this into account. For example, a brute could gain a cleaving attack or something of that note.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I know for certain this has been answered elsewhere, but I've searched and searched and I cannot seem to find it.

What exactly gets added to a monster when you upgrade it to elite or solo? I know that at least 2 things happen, but I could swear that there was more.

I know that elite gets +2 to its saves and solo +4
I know that elites get 1 action point, solos get 2

Do they get some type of defense/hit point bonus? or is that all? Thanks in advance for your help with this.

I think you are missing something here.

Solo monsters are not just upgraded creatures of a different kind - they are creatures which are specially designed to take on a party by themselves. That means that they have additional actions which help even them out against the party (take the Black Dragon with his immediate action tail swipe every time somebody misses him or something similar).

So there may well be stuff about upgrading monsters to elites, but I doubt that you'll see much in the way of 'upgrading' monsters to solo status...

Cheers

 

[variant]

4e really is a MMOG ripoff...

Are we gonna start referring to them as mobs? Do they have an aggro radius also?

 

[Altamir]

I think you are missing something here.

Solo monsters are not just upgraded creatures of a different kind - they are creatures which are specially designed to take on a party by themselves. That means that they have additional actions which help even them out against the party (take the Black Dragon with his immediate action tail swipe every time somebody misses him or something similar).

So there may well be stuff about upgrading monsters to elites, but I doubt that you'll see much in the way of 'upgrading' monsters to solo status...

Cheers

Yep, I'm aware of that. I was just purely interested in the mechanical aspect of it. Taking a rather bland creature and "upgrading" it to solo status isn't going to make the fight interesting in anyway. It will more than likely result in a boring, long, and highly unbelievable fight. Simply based on the major difference between its attacks, defenses and gobs of hit points.

Take the human mage for example, same level as the black dragon, upgrade it to solo status and you have a mage with only two encounter abilites a 17 AC, and 210 hit points. After the 10th+ round of combat your players are going to start giving you funny looks. Thank you for clearing up my questions though!