Book of Serious Threats - RESEARCH

[Mesh Hong]

I am currently working on my next heroic tier monster manual (the book of serious threats) and have got to a point where I realise that a spot of research might be useful if I am to produce something that people will find useful.

I would appreciate feedback from people as to the main types of solo creatures they have used (or faced) in their heroic campaigns. It strikes me that solos reside in a strange niche, in my opinion they should be used sparingly.... so whenever they are used they are probably plot specific or important set piece encounters.

That is just my philosophy, if other people use them differently I would certainly like to hear about it.

So far I have created:

Possessed wizard - level 1 artillery
3 Headed Giant Rat - level 1 brute
Bog Beast - level 2 controller
Spitting Fungus - level 2 artillery
Langstile Worm - level 3 lurker
Tusk Ogre Savage - level 3 brute
Hobgoblin Bane Marked Veteran - level 4 soldier (leader)
Corpse Contingency - level 4 brute
Monstrous River Crab - level 5 skirmisher
Insect Lord - level 5 controller
Dragon Spider - level 7 skirmisher

Now a lot of these creatures are not straight forward single solos, many have secondary sets of powers, have secondary stages or include secondary creatures. (the type of things you would probably expect from my style of creature creation)

But

what sorts of creatures or threats do you expect in a heroic tier story?
do you expect fantastical creatures in exotic environments?
do you expect humanoid villainous types in city based environments?
do you expect your solo's to be the main enemy and final encounter or a mini boss on the way to the final showdown?

I suppose, bottom line, I am asking for advice on generally what types of creatures/threats it would be most useful for me to concentrate on. I don't really need anything specific and I am not putting out a call for specific creatures, I am just trying get a feel for what type of things people would find useful.

Thanks

 

[Sporemine]

I think designing general solos is going to be a tough idea. I usually design my own, needing them to fill a specific "boss monster" niche in my campagain. Solos are so focused on one specific role (usually the villain) that there is no way easy of making them non-role specific. A good alternative would be giving the reader the solo, the level and a basic concept for the quest or adventure, allowing them to come up with the rest and feel special.

Example:

3 Headed Giant rat, level 3 solo

(stat block)

A botched summoning spell that tore a small rift to another plane was diverted into a sewer by the unfortunate summoner in a last bid to save te nearby town. Horrible otherworldly energies seeped fromthe remains of the portal, warping the wildlife in the sewer. This didn't become apparent until local townspeople started going missing, night after night, to the sound frenzied squeaking and the footsteps of thousands of small creatures. The PCs have been tasked with solving the problem and eliminating the giant rat.

Thats the only way I can really see it working. I don't think you'll have problems coming up with good scenarios, looking at the ones you have in your other books.

Kudos on making it to the third book

-Sporemine

 

[Eric Finley]

One very common archetype here is the Betrayal Solo. This is your employer/liege/archpriest who you discover is gone bad. I would build that sort of monster to have specific abilities versus key party members due to knowing them so well, and specific defenses (from potions or what have you) versus their best methods. To do a less-party-specific version you could give them some Versatile Resistance and simply use their IC knowledge of the PCs to use it properly, and then some role-specific lockdown or controller capabilities which specifically hinder common roles (melee striker, melee defender, ranged striker, etc), again plus the IC knowledge to use them to best effect.

Maybe also something like "Hostage threat" as a linked power/terrain/obstacle, for when that's an element in play.

The other major kind of solo I would like to see explored is the Emergent Solo... a solo who is the result of the PCs' efforts thus far. Complete this ritual - oh, wait, that was a summoning? Repair this temple - oops! Cure this curse - um, maybe that was there for a reason. And so forth. Those tend to make sense only as solos, true solos (no backup), and as such would be pretty economy-of-actions sensitive.

 

[Mesh Hong]

The other major kind of solo I would like to see explored is the Emergent Solo... a solo who is the result of the PCs' efforts thus far. Complete this ritual - oh, wait, that was a summoning? Repair this temple - oops! Cure this curse - um, maybe that was there for a reason.

Hmmm, that's a good theme. I will try to come up with a couple of things along these lines. thanks.

 

[Eric Finley]

Amusingly, if you built in a skill challenge template for the stuff-that-went-before tied to the Emergent Solo, then you could hardlink the solo's powers to the skill challenge. For example, maybe he has a Dominate attack which only works on the guy who made the final Arcana roll of the ritual, or he has an aura which inflicts to-hit penalties based on how many successful rolls (or Aids) you made during the skill challenge. (Were it up to me I'd do both standard and Obsidian skill challenge templates for this - the Obsidian really is superior IMO.)

 

[Mesh Hong]

Amusingly, if you built in a skill challenge template for the stuff-that-went-before tied to the Emergent Solo, then you could hardlink the solo's powers to the skill challenge. For example, maybe he has a Dominate attack which only works on the guy who made the final Arcana roll of the ritual, or he has an aura which inflicts to-hit penalties based on how many successful rolls (or Aids) you made during the skill challenge.

Yes, that is the sort of thing that came immediately to mind when I read your suggestion. Though I think you would have to keep it general, I don't really like the idea of targetting individuals depending on their actions in a previous skill challange.

I think you would be able to have a series of extra powers on a creature that are only available if certain parts of the skill challange were failed. The trick would be to not make the creature too weak if the party passed all the elements of the challange and not too strong if the party failed all the sections of teh challange. Its definately one I will try to include.