D&D Solos - just not that threatening

[Saeviomagy]

I find that as a player, solos tend to become boring grinds once we stop discovering new things about them and the encounter.

ie - so far every solo has been cool and interesting, but once we've figured out their tactics, the fight is just a lot of roll, roll, roll, mark off hps, roll, roll, roll.

I think solos would be much more epic if they had extra powers that trigger not only on bloodied, but also at 75% and 25% hitpoints.

 

[Wraith Form]

I find that as a player, solos tend to become boring grinds once we stop discovering new things about them and the encounter.

ie - so far every solo has been cool and interesting, but once we've figured out their tactics, the fight is just a lot of roll, roll, roll, mark off hps, roll, roll, roll.

I think solos would be much more epic if they had extra powers that trigger not only on bloodied, but also at 75% and 25% hitpoints.

Funny.....it almost sounds like you miss those page-long 3.x Monster Manual stat blocks....

 

[Runestar]

Funny.....it almost sounds like you miss those page-long 3.x Monster Manual stat blocks....

Nah, in 3e, combat was - roll for initiative, hit (just to see if you got a 1 or not) or cast spell, win. No need to bother marking off hp.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Funny.....it almost sounds like you miss those page-long 3.x Monster Manual stat blocks....

The problem with the 3.x monsters is that they rarely lived long enough to use all their powers, and even when they did, the powers didn't actually tend to be all that interesting or tactical (ie - "take lots of damage" or "roll a save or be incapacitated").

4e's elites are just fine: they tend to get off all or most of their powers, and their powers make a difference to how you fight them. Them and non-elites are pitched pretty much right. It's just the elite solos that tend to run out of steam long before they run out of hitpoints.

 

[NorthSaber]

Our group plays with all damage maximized, so this leads to quicker and more exciting fights.

Still, I think solos are not very good opponents - at least solo - as the PCs simply have way too many actions compared to the solo.

 

[MarkB]

So when the vampire showed up we ended up blowing our dailies (3 strikers, 2 defenders) on it and did 95 damage in round 1, followed by 60-ish in round 2.

This is one problem with solos - the context in which they are generally used. They tend to show up as the capstone fight of a long dungeon crawl, and the party then go nova with whatever dailies and action points they have available.

The most enjoyable solo encounter I've run, and the one I've seen players have most fun with, was in an LFR scenario, where the solo was put in as the very first encounter the party faced. They had no idea what else they might have to face that day, or whether an extended rest would be a viable option afterwards, so they couldn't just blow all their big powers against this critter in the first round - they had to get tactical, and try to deal with it using more expendable powers. It certainly helped that it was a flavourful encounter, in a reasonably 'busy' environment that provided options for both them and their opponent.

 

[wgreen]

Anyone have any thoughts about how the solos in the MM compare to custom-created solos that use the rules in the DMG? I haven't run any MM solos, but I created one using the DMG, and when I threw it at the players, everything went beautifully. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

I did make sure to include interesting terrain, though. With the solo being a controller, it was pretty fun.

-Will

 

[Lord Zardoz]

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish

How threatening does a Solo need to be to be considered worth while? Reading some of the comments on this thread, it sounds like people are disappointed when the Solo is unable to pull off a single handed TPK. My understanding is that a Solo is not really any more difficult than any other encounter totaling up to the same level of experience, assuming a viable selection of monsters.

How often do those encounter push your party to the brink?

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Guyanthalas]

alright, thought i'd throw my two cents in. first of all, i'm on a smartphone so please forgive gramatical and spelling errors.

solos have the major disadvantage of action economy. my group is a part of six with myself as a player. this means that we are getting in a minimum of six hits to the solos one. Morgan Scott is DMing the session and has made a couple changes that seem to be very interesting with his home brew. i'll have him post the stat block in full after we are done destroying it tonight.

what really changes things is it has hampering effects it can do as a minor action, double hits or burst effects as a standard, and a special ability that lets it take two reactions a round as opposed to the RAW one.

i'll let you know how it plays!

 

[Runestar]

Reading some of the comments on this thread, it sounds like people are disappointed when the Solo is unable to pull off a single handed TPK.

I don't think anyone was ever asserting that, but rather, even though victory against the solo was pretty much assured, the process of actually achieving that victory is extremely tedious, because you still have to go through the motions and wade through its huge pool of hp. They never actually seemed to be in any danger of dying, which made the fight even more monotonous.