DM Help - solo dragon stats check

[NNCSavage]

Looking to give my group a big send-off.
We're going to try some various stuff (paranoia, star wars, etc) in between now and Next release and then I will be running a conversion of WotBS.

They are level 6. They are all around the +11-13 to hit range
Paladin Goliath - generally runs the OA and slow aura/stance
Dragonborn blackguard - does cold necrotic with his dread smite(?), more dmg with CA
Half-Orc barbarian - has reach 2, feat for giving CA 1 square away, mainly uses jarring smash for granting CA
Cleric - melee based - blessing of battle used most often
Druid - controller can shift into a melee form that does reflex attacks, summons a frog they dubbed Darth Toad

Looking at pitting them against this:
Dragon-lich
Level 10 Solo Controller
Large Natural Magical Beast (dragon, undead)
Initiative +10
Senses Perception +12, darkvision
HP 428; Bloodied 214
AC 26; Fortitude 24, Reflex 25, Will 22
Immune disease fear poison; Resist 20 cold, 15 necrotic; Vulnerable 10 radiant
Saving Throws +5
Speed 7, climb 7 (spider climb), fly 10 (clumsy)
Action Points 2


Traits:
Action Recovery
When the dragon-luch ends it's turn, any dazing, stunning, or dominating effect on it ends.
Instinctive Domination
On an initiative of 10+ it's initiative check, the dragon can use a free action to use Mesmirizing Glare. If the dragon cannot use a free action due to dominating or stunned effect, that effect ends


m Bite (Standard; at-will) ♦ Necrotic
Reach 2: +15 vs AC; 2d8+13dmg, +2d8 vs stunned
m Claw (Standard; at-will)
Reach 2 (1 or 2 creatures, twice vs single); +15 vs AC Hit: 2d8+9 dmg Effect: can slide the target up to 2 squares
c Breath Weapon (Standard; recharge 56) ♦ Necrotic
Close Blast 5: +13 vs Reflex Hit: 2d8+17 necrotic damage and the target is weakened (save ends) Miss: Half Damage and target is weakened until end of it's next turn
r Mesmerizing Glare (Immediate Interrupt; at-will) ♦ fear
(1/round, when an enemy makes a melee attack against the dragon-lich) Ranged 5; +13 vs. Will; the target is stunned until the end of the dragon-lich's next turn.
c Frightful Presence (Standard; encounter) ♦ Fear
Close burst 5; targets enemies; +13 vs. Will Hit: the target is stunned until the end of the dragon-lich's next turn.
Bloodied Breath (Free; encounter)
Breath weapon recharges and the dragon-lich uses it immediately


Alignment Evil
Languages Common, draconic
Skills Arcana +11, History +11, Insight +12, Intimidate +11, Stealth +10

Assuming they do not beat the stealth check, the dragon lich will breathe in the surprise round.
first round otherwise would blast them with the breath weapon, then action point to drop the presence.
in later rounds priority would be:
breath if it recharges
focusing on stunned targets with bite, action points to focus if any are left
if no stunned targets claws

Thoughts? Changes?
I used some dmg numbers from sly flourish's cheat sheet. and some powers from various dragon in the draconomicon and the traits from the Vault.

Thanks for any comments in advance
-NNCSavage

 

[Lindeloef]

r Mesmerizing Glare (Immediate Interrupt; at-will) ♦ fear
(1/round, when an enemy makes a melee attack against the dragon-lich) Ranged 5; +13 vs. Will; the target is stunned until the end of the dragon-lich's next turn.

This I don't like. Stunned is a really, really unfun condition. Maybe change to dazed instead?
Apart from that, it is Ranged 5? This attack goes off on a melee attack -> they get an attack of opportunity if he uses it.


Does the Cleric have Moment of Glory?

 

[DEFCON 1]

Just on first glance... +11 to +13 to hit means the party needs 13s to 15s to hit the lich (prior to hopefully getting combat advantage). Even with CA, that's 11s to 13s, which means they are hitting less than 50% of the time, thus prolonging the length of battle.

With the number of HP you have to go through to kill the lich solo... hitting at less than 50% is going to be a long, drawn out slog I suspect (especially if the party is Weakened throughout a lot of it). My personal choice if I was doing this fight would be to make sure both sides can hit their targets needing about 7+ or thereabouts, just so that the damage does get distributed out there. Better to let your monster get hit more often but have more HP than less HP but rarely getting hit. It keeps the players more involved in the combat, plus allows all the special abilities and tactical maneuvers to go off during the fight.

 

[NNCSavage]

ok - let's say their average to hit is +12 base +14 CA
PC hits on 10+ (55%) without CA and 8+ (65%) with (AC:22 F:20 R:21 W:19) or should I go to 9+ / 7+ ?
and if i'm dropping them that low, especially +9/+7 should I boost HP then?
Replace anywhere it says "stunned" to "dazed"? including the bite bonus?
Also - I was thinking about reducing the resistant to 15/10 or even 10/10 although I think it'll only affect the blackguard and even then not by much.
Maybe also remove the "weaken on miss" breath effect? If I get a run of good recharges they might all be stuck at half damage.

I was also thinking about adding a power to the lich "bone storm" allow it to shift without provoking OA's, minimal damage: 2d4+4. mainly used to avoid getting stuck in CA. recharge on 5/6. but grant vulnerable 10 area powers for the turn it was used.

I believe the cleric does not have moment of glory, but if he does I'll come up with some devilish way to counterattack it if it makes the fight too easy.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Your PCs are only level 6, so you shouldn't use a level 10 boss. IMO, you're better off with a level 6 or 7 boss and various effects (traps, for instance) that can "fill in the XP gap" and better yet convince PCs to spend actions dealing with them instead.

I just ended my Dark Sun campaign at level 13, and it ended with the boss (level 13 solo controller), her bodyguard (elite level 13 soldier) and four guardian orbs (level 13 artillery [leader]), with each orb healing her 5 hit points a turn. Needless to say, the boss went two or three rounds taking no net damage, as PCs went around smashing the orbs.

I used too many immobilizing effects, apparently.

Looking to give my group a big send-off.
We're going to try some various stuff (paranoia, star wars, etc) in between now and Next release and then I will be running a conversion of WotBS.

They are level 6. They are all around the +11-13 to hit range
Paladin Goliath - generally runs the OA and slow aura/stance

Slow? I'm not familiar with this build.

Dragonborn blackguard - does cold necrotic with his dread smite(?), more dmg with CA
Half-Orc barbarian - has reach 2, feat for giving CA 1 square away, mainly uses jarring smash for granting CA
Cleric - melee based - blessing of battle used most often
Druid - controller can shift into a melee form that does reflex attacks, summons a frog they dubbed Darth Toad

Looking at pitting them against this:
Dragon-lich
Level 10 Solo Controller
Large Natural Magical Beast (dragon, undead)
Initiative +10
Senses Perception +12, darkvision
HP 428; Bloodied 214
AC 26; Fortitude 24, Reflex 25, Will 22
Immune disease fear poison; Resist 20 cold, 15 necrotic; Vulnerable 10 radiant
Saving Throws +5
Speed 7, climb 7 (spider climb), fly 10 (clumsy)
Action Points 2

Looks cool so far, except the defenses. In the new Monster Math, elites and solos no longer gain the +2 defense bonus.

Traits:
Action Recovery
When the dragon-luch ends it's turn, any dazing, stunning, or dominating effect on it ends.
Instinctive Domination
On an initiative of 10+ it's initiative check, the dragon can use a free action to use Mesmirizing Glare. If the dragon cannot use a free action due to dominating or stunned effect, that effect ends

I recommend giving it the "dwarf trait" as well, basically Stand Your Ground and Steady-Footed, reskinned, because I learned the hard way that flying is useless if your PCs can knock the monster prone. (With a hover speed, the dracolich probably won't take falling damage, but it's still not flying.) With a save at +5 whenever it gets knocked prone, it can resist knockdowns, a big deal if you have PCs who can knock opponents prone with ranged/AoE attacks at-will.

m Bite (Standard; at-will) ♦ Necrotic
Reach 2: +15 vs AC; 2d8+13dmg, +2d8 vs stunned

I recommend extra damage against dazed opponents, see below.

m Claw (Standard; at-will)
Reach 2 (1 or 2 creatures, twice vs single); +15 vs AC Hit: 2d8+9 dmg Effect: can slide the target up to 2 squares
c Breath Weapon (Standard; recharge 56) ♦ Necrotic
Close Blast 5: +13 vs Reflex Hit: 2d8+17 necrotic damage and the target is weakened (save ends) Miss: Half Damage and target is weakened until end of it's next turn

Weakening is harsh. IMO it shouldn't inflict that on a miss. (The Monster Vault version weakens for 1 turn on a miss too, but IMO that's overpowered.)

r Mesmerizing Glare (Immediate Interrupt; at-will) ♦ fear
(1/round, when an enemy makes a melee attack against the dragon-lich) Ranged 5; +13 vs. Will; the target is stunned until the end of the dragon-lich's next turn.

This is too much stunning. An at-will stun is no fun for players. Worse, it'll stun them as an interrupt, so it can negate an incoming hit too. I recommend switching this for daze, or some other nasty effect, and have bite deal extra damage against creatures affected by said effect.

There's also no need to mention a 1/round limit, as a creature only gets one immediate action a turn. (Immediate actions are always triggered actions, and there's no trigger here. Did you mean a minor action? In which case keep the 1/turn limit.)

c Frightful Presence (Standard; encounter) ♦ Fear
Close burst 5; targets enemies; +13 vs. Will Hit: the target is stunned until the end of the dragon-lich's next turn.

As above. It's an encounter, but it's still really nasty (multi-stun). High rolls could result in an entire party of PCs unable to act. (Paragon-level PCs, IME, can often avoid stuns, but not 6th-level guys.)

4e treats a dracolich as its own creature, but the dracolich was a living dragon at some point. I would replace Frightful Presence with an encounter or recharge ability taken from when it was alive. The easiest, of course, is the green dragon, as it's also a controller.

Bloodied Breath (Free; encounter)
Breath weapon recharges and the dragon-lich uses it immediately


Alignment Evil
Languages Common, draconic
Skills Arcana +11, History +11, Insight +12, Intimidate +11, Stealth +10

Assuming they do not beat the stealth check, the dragon lich will breathe in the surprise round.
first round otherwise would blast them with the breath weapon, then action point to drop the presence.
in later rounds priority would be:
breath if it recharges
focusing on stunned targets with bite, action points to focus if any are left
if no stunned targets claws

Thoughts? Changes?
I used some dmg numbers from sly flourish's cheat sheet. and some powers from various dragon in the draconomicon and the traits from the Vault.

Thanks for any comments in advance
-NNCSavage

The Vault's dracolich's mesmerizing glare dominates PCs. That's probably still too good for a level 6 monster. I think it's fair to force a PC to attack instead, even dealing damage if the PC misses (so at least some damage gets dealt if the dracolich hits with that attack).

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=6682577]NNCSavage[/MENTION]

I'll leave the level 6 PCs to level 10 solo debate for others. It largely depends on how optimized PCs are and how effectively they work as a team.

Two important things to consider:

1) Your party is almost entirely melee based. The dracolich flies. How shall the twain meet?

2) Stun is a boring unfun condition. Dracoliches (MM1 style) are kings of stun, and therefor unfun. If you want to retain the same feel consider one of these alternatives:

• cannot take out-of-turn actions and loses next standard action
• cannot take out-of-turn actions and end all sustained abilities
• as an interrupt end target's turn

 

[NNCSavage]

I was trying to go with something hard (hence the +4 level) but after the responses and some more thought I came up with another idea:
I could go with a pair of elites, one controller, one artillery, give them something cool to do if they managed to get a PC caught in between them.
Maybe have them summon some skeletal guards or the like. Give them a trait to save out of daze/dominate/stun at a +5 if needed.

I also ran into an article by the Angry DM about making 3 stage solo to break it up and make it more interesting.
I cannot post the link due to my newness (google search: angry dm colmarr). each stage gets 1 breath use and 1 action point. halved damage since it gets 2 turns.
I could just re-skin the powers to go from a white dragon to the lich and just drop the defenses by 1 each to level 8 appropriate.
Maybe shed or reduce the cold resistance between stages 1 to 3. probably would not even need to have any conditions applied on attacks.

or combine the 2 and start with 2 elite whites w/ shared hp pool, stage 2 they go lich form and have the summons.

The problem with the melee versus flying monsters (they faced wyverns before) is that they ready an action to attack when the monster is in range.
So flyby attack, PC action , PC action, PC Action, rinse/repeat.
It was very tedious to keep track of (PC: *sigh* I ready my attack, again) and it ended up annoying all of us.
Perhaps I needed to incentive them more to come up with a different solution, although this same group once captured a goblin and forced him to act as bait (while tied to a rope) for monsters hidden in some dank water. Perhaps I can use the moonstaff they have from a previous puzzle again, allowing it to chain the dragon-lich for a short while.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

As written (you sound like you will be changing it) the monster doesn't ever need to come within range of their attacks. It has ranged stunning attacks, after all. It can just slowly wear away PC hit points with its breath weapons.

Why would the dragon use claw or bite? It's smarter to hang back.

 

[NNCSavage]

Well the only actual ranged damage is from the breath weapon, but technically the dragon could stand back and wait for it to recharge while they plink away.
Thematically the dragon-lich is supposed to become more deranged as the rounds progress.

I'm starting to lean toward the 3 stage idea.
full flight stage, immune to prone/knockdown effects or give +5 save against, cold based ranged attacks, maybe an ice patch encounter power, cold resist
after it takes enough damage it will turn into the dragon-lich (its true form) and drop to hovering or clumsy flight due to bone wings, lowered cold resist but add necrotic resist
then the final stage, no flight and rather hurt it goes into more of a brawler/skirmisher, lashing out at flankers to push them away, increase necrotic resist

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Mesmerizing Glare is ranged, and it can do so once or twice a round (due to the Instinctive X ability).

I like how you're splitting up the three stages, by the way.