[Heroic Solos] Lividius, Tiefling Murderer

[nookiemonster]

The defenses seem OK to me.

For example, a level 4 Slayer with 18 Str wielding a greataxe will have an attack bonus of +4 (Str) +2 (weapon proficiency) +1 (weapon talent class feature) +2 (level) +1 (expertise feat) = +10 and be hitting on 8's. If the Poised Assault stance is used, that's an extra +1, and of course combat advantage is an extra +2. And by fourth level, the slayer should have a +1 magic weapon of some sort. So the fighters will be hitting him on sevens (or even sixes with +3 proficiency weapons).

An Eladrin Mage with INT 20, a magic implement, and implement expertise would be getting around +9 vs defenses of 15-ish. If anything, his defenses seem a little low. He has a lot of hit points, but he should be getting hit a lot. The teleporting is nice, but the Eladrin Mage I play has Orb Expertise and is Enchantment School, so Beguiling Strands is shoving him backwards six squares on most turns. If the other PCs have missile weapons, they can just potshot at him until he dies.

 

[Kurtomatic]

I also note that he has an encounter triggered action called Infernal Wrath that we havn't seen.

I didn't transcribe Infernal Wrath, since it's the tiefling racial power, and pretty well known.

 

[Thanlis]

Note also that he's a solo who's all by himself; we know how quickly those die. The high hit points and the higher than normal defenses are just going to keep him alive for... well, let's see. 240 hit points. The PCs will have their dailies and encounters, plus an action point. That's a four or five round fight, I think.

 

[fuzzlewump]

Ack! I'm not a fan of ordinary PC accessible creatures (like Tieflings) being Solos - I prefer to make the scary ones Elites and reserve Solo status for legendary or just damn big stuff (Dragons, Liches, etc.) And he's just an obnoxious feystepping scumbag with a burst 1, a slashing wake, and two action points.

Yeah, I understand you here.

I'm thinking it's the Minion effect going on, where level 20 minions shouldn't be minions to level 1 adventurers. To a level 4 group, Lividius is a level 4 solo. To a level 8 group, he's a level 8 elite. To a level 12 group, he's a standard monster. I just made those numbers up, but if he's worth 875 experience you can look up how he translates.

His abilities and stats would fluctuate with party level so verisimilitude is a bit out the window, but I like the narrative flexibility of a big bad evil guy still being a (manageable) threat of some kind up to say, level 12, when he started being one at level 1.

As far basic humanoids being allowed solo or elite status, I like it because I run a Sharn campaign in the Eberron setting so generally humanoids are the most common thing, so it's nice to have the flexibility there.