Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Anthony Jackson" data-source="post: 4412658" data-attributes="member: 73145">The way stun locking can completely shut down solos has been discussed ad nauseum, but the problem is really wider than stun locking; any debuff is worth more on an elite or a solo, because it's equivalent to hitting 2 or 5 standard monsters.This is also theoretically a problem if you're using a higher level standard monster, but a standard monster worth 5 monsters of the character's level will be about nine levels higher than the PCs and you'll need a lot of luck to hit it with a debuff.This does naturally imply that you can use high level standards as solo monsters (particularly if you give them evasion), but this has a reverse problem: the reason solos and elites have mass hit points and high damage, rather than huge defenses and attack bonuses, is because fighting really high level standards isn't much fun. You never really get to use your nifty tricks (because you keep missing) and defensive tricks are equally irrelevant (as it hits you on a 2).So, how can this be fixed? My basic feeling is that using a debuff on a solo should feel like it accomplishes something (so no just cranking up the defenses and/or immunities) but shouldn't be totally awesome.One possible solution: give solos in general a bonus standard action per turn, and remove all conditions (even ones that are not save ends) between the first and second action. This means that debuffs still do something, but don't render the creature irrelevant.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Anthony Jackson, post: 4412658, member: 73145"] The way stun locking can completely shut down solos has been discussed [I]ad nauseum[/I], but the problem is really wider than stun locking; [I]any[/I] debuff is worth more on an elite or a solo, because it's equivalent to hitting 2 or 5 standard monsters. This is also theoretically a problem if you're using a higher level standard monster, but a standard monster worth 5 monsters of the character's level will be about nine levels higher than the PCs and you'll need a lot of luck to hit it with a debuff. This does naturally imply that you can use high level standards as solo monsters (particularly if you give them evasion), but this has a reverse problem: the reason solos and elites have mass hit points and high damage, rather than huge defenses and attack bonuses, is because fighting really high level standards isn't much fun. You never really get to use your nifty tricks (because you keep missing) and defensive tricks are equally irrelevant (as it hits you on a 2). So, how can this be fixed? My basic feeling is that using a debuff on a solo should feel like it accomplishes something (so no just cranking up the defenses and/or immunities) but shouldn't be totally awesome. One possible solution: give solos in general a bonus standard action per turn, and remove all conditions (even ones that are not [I]save ends[/I]) between the first and second action. This means that debuffs still do something, but don't render the creature irrelevant. [/QUOTE]

Verification