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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 5795716" data-attributes="member: 1165">I think we need a breakdown of that.First, what race is the PC? If they're not a dwarf (or, I guess, a warden), said PC just spend a standard action and did no damage with it. Second, Second Wind is a 1/encounter thing, so maybe you're overreacting. Third, the boss shouldn't just target AC, that's pretty poor monster design. What was the monster? Fourth, what sort of gear does that PC have, because that's not right.A 7th-level knight, for instance, could have AC 10 + 3 (half level) + 10 (+2 plate) +2 (heavy shield) for an AC of 25. With Second Wind, that's a 27 until the start of the fighter's next turn. He's getting a +10 bonus from somewhere in addition to the Second Wind bonus. Find and fix. You shouldn't be allowing material from any sourcebook that gives out +10 bonuses to AC! (The math in 4e is tight; a +4 bonus to anything is huge.) (Also, isn't a natural 20 always a crit, and thus max damage?)That's not really necessary, and you only need one monster book (any one from MM3 or later). There's three ways around that. The first is to not just use brutes, soldiers and skirmishers, all of which usually attack AC. Controllers get a bonus to hit anything other than AC, they're all over the book, and often target multiple defenses as well. Just like parties fill their roles (usually: defender, striker, controller, and leader) monsters have their own roles (soldier, controller, brute, skirmisher, lurker, and I might be missing one, plus the leader subtype). Your PCs would be having trouble if they were all fighters, ranger archers, or all clerics, or what have you - for instance, PC fighters would have a hard time targeting the high AC scores of soldiers.The second is modifying monsters to suit your PCs (on the grounds that you fix imbalance by presenting a balanced game), eg changing defense type. I can turn an NPC warlock into a crossbowman on the fly and the players have no idea I'm doing this (all I needed was to change the flavor text, and make things target AC).Third, making monsters is so easy you can use an index card for the creation notes - this is because the monster math is far more transparent than in 3rd Edition or Pathfinder.Even a perfectly balanced game system isn't immune to DM inexperience, when you consider that no two parties are identical, so no monsters can be perfectly balanced for every party. You're not used to the system so you're running into issues. Your players seem to be cheating, reporting math "errors" ("What's your AC?" "37? Really?") or are at least finding the most broken things they can apply to the Character Builder. You aren't taking the advice presented in this thread well either, or answering questions properly.For instance, that 7th-level fighter example, we still have no idea how they got their AC that high, or why someone would attack that specific character against that specific defense at that specific time.I'll provide an example between 2e and 3e where someone "proved" the CR system wasn't balanced. This was on the cusp of 3.5, it had just come out and the ogre was bumped to CR 3, but the poster refused to acknowledge that or any errata. Whatever. He had a party of 2nd-level PCs: a ranger, a wizard, a druid and a rogue. (Note that at least one of those PC - ranger - is not top-tier. The CR system couldn't deal with class design problems.) The players were very experienced but trained to 2nd edition. When seeing the ogre, the wizard cast the mighty spell... Magic Missile. They created a bolt of magic about the size of their fist and hit a hulking 9 foot tall monster with it. Never mind the numbers, it should have been obvious to something with no knowledge of the rules that the attack would do nothing but irritate the ogre. It's not surprising the party got squashed. The problem wasn't the CR system, the problem was not adjusting to the new rules.</blockquote>

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