Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Boss Fights: Fairly Countering Novas
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Rod Staffwand" data-source="post: 6311967" data-attributes="member: 6776279"><p>I can't stand alpha strikes vs. solos and spent a lot of my 4E run actively fighting against them. I've used:</p><p></p><p>1. Initial positioning. Starting the solo in partial or total concealment, or behind cover, that prevents optimal targeting and focus fire and forces movement. I rarely start an encounter with the PCs enter a room and facing down a solo standing right in front of them.</p><p></p><p>2. Blockers. These are generally hordes of minions. In encounter design they should be engaged first by the party, with the solo not yet on the scene or a valid target. Their purpose is to distract the party from focusing on the solo and to punish them if ignored. I started giving minions significant powers and traits that activated on combat advantage, activated on OAs, dealt damage or debuffs on death, or compounded the more minions engaged a PC. As a DM, minions are your controllers. They're there to mess with the party's battleplans. It doesn't matter if the PCs are dropping them by the score. It means they're drawing attacks and the PCs are losing out on efficient action economy. [I diverge from the 4E guidelines in that I don't give out XP for minion-slaying and generally use 6/standard in Heroic and 10/standard in Paragon. I'd use the standard minion guidelines if the party is lacking serious area-effect skills. Also, solos that summon a minion horde on bloodied are fun.</p><p></p><p>3. Force Fields. This is any sort of barrier placed on a solo to soak up damage at the beginning of a combat. It might be a magic aura or some sort of bodyguard monster. Perhaps a magic statue must be destroyed before the solo can be targeted maybe it just lasts for 1-3 rounds. Perhaps a skill challenge might do it or just a ton of attacks or attacks of a certain damage type. The barrier can block all damage or effect, or it might block half the damage or it might convert damage to another effect (daze or stun, depending on the damage threshold). The presence of Force Fields should be obvious, though careless or impatient players might miss their significance. If a party ignores the barrier and uses all of their best powers to no effect at the start of the combat, you're looking at a long, boring slog for the remainder of the fight. The point is to make the fight fun and dramatic, not screw the players over.</p><p></p><p>4. Reverse Alpha Strikes. Give the solo a potent one-off attack at the start of the combat. I have no qualms about having the solo use this at the very start of round 1, regardless of initiative. Ideally, this should be a large area-effect power that does some damage but, more importantly, has significant forced movement or debuffs. Once again, the point is to disrupt the party battleplan and put them on the defensive for a round or two. In the Tiger Solo Fight, a pounce from hiding that scatters and knocks down party members would be perfect. A fun one is having a huge solo smash a cave wall, causing boulders to fall down (transforming the battlefield and forcing reactions from the PCs).</p><p></p><p>5. Solo Defenses and Debuff Removal. It sounds like you already have this one down. Solos NEED this sort of stuff. Even something as simply as having them pay 10HP per Tier to remove conditions (my favorite ad hoc solution) works wonders.</p><p></p><p>6. Escalation Solo Mechanic. My riff on the 13th Age escalation die was to give solo +2 to AC/Def at the start of a combat. This becomes +2 to Attacks when bloodied. Thus, the solo is better defended at the start and more aggressive towards the back half. You can offset the bonuses with appropriate penalties if desired. Either way, this should be accompanied with DM hints to key the players into what's happening.</p><p></p><p>7. Skill Challenges in combat. Ideally, this is another thing the PCs need to focus on and a tax on their action economy. This can be an escalating threat that needs to be dealt with or something that weakens or even defeats the solo. I often dispense with the 3 or X failure count on these challenges, especially if it's a standard action to make a check. In the sense of "defeating a solo" the PCs might be able to topple the ruinous fortress, burying the dragon in it's own lair. On a successful check, the PC can roll some good p42 damage and add it to a tally. With 3 or 5 successes, the PCs have brought the structure down and get to inflict the entire tally to the dragon. Optionally, you can have the roll for all the damage at once, but you get the idea. Maybe the party can attempt while hiding and running from the dragon (gaining cover and concealment against its attacks), thus suffering less damage and making it an attractive option. I'd just caution against over-developing these challenges and, as a result, feel obligated to push the players to use them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rod Staffwand, post: 6311967, member: 6776279"] I can't stand alpha strikes vs. solos and spent a lot of my 4E run actively fighting against them. I've used: 1. Initial positioning. Starting the solo in partial or total concealment, or behind cover, that prevents optimal targeting and focus fire and forces movement. I rarely start an encounter with the PCs enter a room and facing down a solo standing right in front of them. 2. Blockers. These are generally hordes of minions. In encounter design they should be engaged first by the party, with the solo not yet on the scene or a valid target. Their purpose is to distract the party from focusing on the solo and to punish them if ignored. I started giving minions significant powers and traits that activated on combat advantage, activated on OAs, dealt damage or debuffs on death, or compounded the more minions engaged a PC. As a DM, minions are your controllers. They're there to mess with the party's battleplans. It doesn't matter if the PCs are dropping them by the score. It means they're drawing attacks and the PCs are losing out on efficient action economy. [I diverge from the 4E guidelines in that I don't give out XP for minion-slaying and generally use 6/standard in Heroic and 10/standard in Paragon. I'd use the standard minion guidelines if the party is lacking serious area-effect skills. Also, solos that summon a minion horde on bloodied are fun. 3. Force Fields. This is any sort of barrier placed on a solo to soak up damage at the beginning of a combat. It might be a magic aura or some sort of bodyguard monster. Perhaps a magic statue must be destroyed before the solo can be targeted maybe it just lasts for 1-3 rounds. Perhaps a skill challenge might do it or just a ton of attacks or attacks of a certain damage type. The barrier can block all damage or effect, or it might block half the damage or it might convert damage to another effect (daze or stun, depending on the damage threshold). The presence of Force Fields should be obvious, though careless or impatient players might miss their significance. If a party ignores the barrier and uses all of their best powers to no effect at the start of the combat, you're looking at a long, boring slog for the remainder of the fight. The point is to make the fight fun and dramatic, not screw the players over. 4. Reverse Alpha Strikes. Give the solo a potent one-off attack at the start of the combat. I have no qualms about having the solo use this at the very start of round 1, regardless of initiative. Ideally, this should be a large area-effect power that does some damage but, more importantly, has significant forced movement or debuffs. Once again, the point is to disrupt the party battleplan and put them on the defensive for a round or two. In the Tiger Solo Fight, a pounce from hiding that scatters and knocks down party members would be perfect. A fun one is having a huge solo smash a cave wall, causing boulders to fall down (transforming the battlefield and forcing reactions from the PCs). 5. Solo Defenses and Debuff Removal. It sounds like you already have this one down. Solos NEED this sort of stuff. Even something as simply as having them pay 10HP per Tier to remove conditions (my favorite ad hoc solution) works wonders. 6. Escalation Solo Mechanic. My riff on the 13th Age escalation die was to give solo +2 to AC/Def at the start of a combat. This becomes +2 to Attacks when bloodied. Thus, the solo is better defended at the start and more aggressive towards the back half. You can offset the bonuses with appropriate penalties if desired. Either way, this should be accompanied with DM hints to key the players into what's happening. 7. Skill Challenges in combat. Ideally, this is another thing the PCs need to focus on and a tax on their action economy. This can be an escalating threat that needs to be dealt with or something that weakens or even defeats the solo. I often dispense with the 3 or X failure count on these challenges, especially if it's a standard action to make a check. In the sense of "defeating a solo" the PCs might be able to topple the ruinous fortress, burying the dragon in it's own lair. On a successful check, the PC can roll some good p42 damage and add it to a tally. With 3 or 5 successes, the PCs have brought the structure down and get to inflict the entire tally to the dragon. Optionally, you can have the roll for all the damage at once, but you get the idea. Maybe the party can attempt while hiding and running from the dragon (gaining cover and concealment against its attacks), thus suffering less damage and making it an attractive option. I'd just caution against over-developing these challenges and, as a result, feel obligated to push the players to use them. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Boss Fights: Fairly Countering Novas
Top