Goblins of Eberron

[Storminator]

Had another session of my GoE game yesterday. As we work into Paragon tier I'm experimenting with speeding up combat. I did the half hp and +10 damage house rule. Made combat a lot quicker - but that's because essentially no monster could stand up to the Elementalist Dragonborn's breath-action point-rebreath. My half hp monsters were cremated in one round. Hmmmmm - might need some tweaking! I think some fiddling with monster composition will help. The minions hitting for 21 points of damage was an eye opener tho!

Some very interesting story action too. Both the Lord of Blades and the priest of the Becoming God offered Hammer (warforged knight) a job. They will be following up later. And the group completed their main mission, which was to rescue a kidnapped bugbear. They caught his captors on the airship in the Mournlands, killed the crew (Elementalist . . . ) and the Dragonmarked heir, sparing only the ship's captain, who taught them enough sailing to not crash the ship, nor barrel roll it. They returned the Rhukaan Draal, returned the bugbear to his clan, and sat down with their clan leadership to plot the next move. The bugbear's clan will formally ally with our "heroes" if they start a war with the elves (evidence points to elves as kidnap masterminds). But if Darguun starts a war, Thrane and Breland and possibly New Cyre will attack Darguun, so the group is going to try to restart the Last War. They've chosen Thrane and Breland as possible antagonists, so they'll be posing as Brelish and oppressing/murdering Silver Flame adherents inside of Breland in the hopes of sparking a nationalist/religious war.

PS

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Here's a suggestion a site made about monster damage: http://dmg42.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/boot-on-face-of-level-1-damage-forever.html

No, I haven't tested this myself.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Here's a suggestion a site made about monster damage: http://dmg42.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/boot-on-face-of-level-1-damage-forever.html

No, I haven't tested this myself.

Thanks for that link, Psi! I've printed it and am going to use it to see if that helps my games at all, as I've suffered from the same issues the guy who made the charts did.

 

[CAFRedblade]

Keep in mind that before you make modifiers to monsters to quicken combat, that they are all up to the MM3 Math, then apply the 1/2 hp / +10 damage. Most Heroic monsters will be alright, but Paragon and higher monsters need adjusting. For the most part I simply double the static damage of older monsters. Although if you have access to the DDI tools many, although not all, monsters have been updated via Dragon/Dungeon or additional adventures.

 

[Storminator]

Keep in mind that before you make modifiers to monsters to quicken combat, that they are all up to the MM3 Math, then apply the 1/2 hp / +10 damage. Most Heroic monsters will be alright, but Paragon and higher monsters need adjusting. For the most part I simply double the static damage of older monsters. Although if you have access to the DDI tools many, although not all, monsters have been updated via Dragon/Dungeon or additional adventures.

I do check that. I've also found that if you customize a monster and push it up a level then back down a level it's damage changes. I haven't checked extensively, but the new damage seems to be in line with the MM3 damage.

I like the dmg42 table tho - I'll be looking at those for next time.

PS

 

[Trit One-Ear]

Keep in mind that before you make modifiers to monsters to quicken combat, that they are all up to the MM3 Math, then apply the 1/2 hp / +10 damage. Most Heroic monsters will be alright, but Paragon and higher monsters need adjusting. For the most part I simply double the static damage of older monsters. Although if you have access to the DDI tools many, although not all, monsters have been updated via Dragon/Dungeon or additional adventures.

Simple advice but really good to hear. I've been unclear myself on if reducing HP (I do 2/3rds but may try half soon) and increasing damage was enough to get old monsters close to MM3 standards, or if updating them first was necessary.

Does anyone happen to know if the DDI monster builder (when starting from scratch) is updated to use the new math?

Also, Chris Perkins a while ago posted a spreadsheet he uses to find monster math on his DM Experience blog. I don't have the link of me but can try and find it when I get home later).

Trit

 

[Storminator]

On tweaking my monster selection - I had some level 13 minions and some level 9 skirmishers. The level 13 minions did some freaky damage with the +10 - it was 21 points on a hit. But the level 9 skirmishers got caught in the AoE, which essentially bloodied them on a hit, so the sorcerer used an action point, hit them with the AoE again, and killed them all (while simultaneously wiping out the minions). There was 1 monster (plus 2 bosses) left after his round. The level 9 guys had lower defenses, and hence all but one got hit twice, and lower hp. A bunch of the minions were missed by one AoE, but hit by the other and killed. Had I reversed the levels of the monsters, the level 9 minion would still have done 18 points of damage, which would have got everyone's attention, and even after the double AoE the level 13 skirmishers would have survived. Overall that would have been a more satisfying combat.

But it's OK because I had a bunch of non combat that I had to get thru because I need to pick up the pace of the game. This was the 3rd session on this mini story and I no longer have the luxury of extending these little arcs.

PS