I made a monster - looking for some cretiques

[Iron Sky]

We fought this thing tonight (since we killed it, I think it's safe to read this thread now).

Normally our group has a warlock(Student of Caiphon Star-Infernal), Stormwarden Ranger, Daggermaster Rogue, a Radiant Servant/melee/healing cleric, and a Divine Champion Paladin. The Paladin didn't show up until after the fight was over, so we only had 4 of our 5 members for this fight.

It took us about 5-6 rounds to take her and her 4 bodyguards down. When we found out that her bodyguards were taking damage for her, we pretty much ignored her until they were all dead. I think by round 3-4 the last bodyguard was down and 2-3 rounds later she was down too. She managed to dominate the rogue once(who attacked the cleric) and my ranger for two rounds(attacking the warlock, then the cleric).

Our daggermaster rogue managed to fail his aura-saves until the last round, so he spent a few rounds just sitting on his thumbs for a bit. My stormwarden failed for a round as well.

The cleric managed to make all his saves and the warlock stayed outside the aura for most of the fight. I think everyone went bloodied at least once during this fight(my ranger was down to 19/110 HP at one point), though the cleric still had a couple healing powers left at the end of the fight.

When she went down and started to raise from the dead, the three strikers all readied actions for when she "got back up".

When she did, first up was, my stormwarden with Rain of Steel doing 20 damage at the start of her turn, then crits on his first two attacks of Blade Cascade, then a hit. ~120-30 damage(before insubstantial) for 2 crits, a hit, and a miss.

Then the daggermaster crit, dealing another ~110, bloodying it and giving him a follow-up attack that did another 40 or so. The warlock rolled a crit on his daily too, but she was already dead, so the crit was wasted.

All-in-all, it was a pretty fun fight though there was some small disappointment that she died before we could use more daillies on her(we tend to horde them for just such worthwhile occasions).

 

[eriktheguy]

Wow, looks like an interesting solo-type monsters. I thought it looked grindy, but for the group you suggested I guess it works.
I personally don't like the aura, because it reeks of grind. I would probably go for something more offensive (damage or condition when people hit her maybe, I dunno). But thats just how I run my table.
If you let your players roll stats you might consider using monsters a few levels above them, or using the same level monsters but giving them a static 'to hit' and defense bonus.

 

[Sanzuo]

Wow, looks like an interesting solo-type monsters. I thought it looked grindy, but for the group you suggested I guess it works.
I personally don't like the aura, because it reeks of grind. I would probably go for something more offensive (damage or condition when people hit her maybe, I dunno). But thats just how I run my table.
If you let your players roll stats you might consider using monsters a few levels above them, or using the same level monsters but giving them a static 'to hit' and defense bonus.

My goal for the aura was to make the battlefield dynamic. Players would realize that getting closer to her would gradually make it more difficult to hit. This would encourage them to move around a lot more and the queen would have a reason to use her powers to move the players around. I'm just really pleased the queen didn't get stun-locked through the whole fight like what seemed to be happening a lot lately.

Also, it seems to me that by level 16 or so, the player characters have a LOT of abilities at their disposal. I've noticed that these abilities tend to mitigate an occasional missed action.

The first fight before the players got into the queen's palace WAS grindy to say the least. The whole area was filled with moths that made a dazing attack to a PC at the beginning of their turn. I'm not sure what got into me when I thought about that.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Cool, it sounds like the fight went well and was reasonably threatening.

Now that my group is into Epic level my opinions on solo design have changed. At Epic levels the PCs have so much going for them, they can take a real pounding while putting out massive damage themselves, they also have access to multiple status effects and tactical quirks. All this means that a Solo needs to be so much more serious.

Last session ended in the climax of a side quest for my group which culminated in them facing an Exarch of Gruumsh that had been altered in a forge designed to manipulate Primal Matter. The resulting creature was a hideous mutation of its previous form and through an accident during forging it had also subsumed some of the mages that were manipulating the forge.

I designed this creature with the very real thought that I might kill one or two of my PCs, my group is 6 level 22 characters and the solo is a 26 brute. In the end the group killed it without too many problems, but a couple of them were close to death an one time or another. I must also state that the rest of the side quest was fairly dangerous, the first encounter they faced upon teleporting in turned out to be the first two encounters rolled into one which bumped it to a level +5 encounter and worked really well.

Here is the end boss:-

Enraged Primal Exarch of Gruumsh Level 26 Solo Brute
Huge Immortal Magical Beast (angel) XP 45,000

Initiative +20 / +10 ( / +0) Senses Perception +19, darkvision, truesight 5
Will of Gruumsh aura 4; All non bloodied enemies inside aura take a -2
penalty to saving throws, all bloodied enemies inside the aura take a -4
penalty to saving throws
HP 1,000; Bloodied 500; see Multiple Actions
AC 38; Fortitude 40, Reflex 36, Will 38
Immune charm
Saving Throws +5
Speed 6, fly 6 (clumsy)
Action Points 2, also see Slaughter Gods Glory

Massive Punch (Standard; at-will)
Reach 3; attack +29 vs. AC; 4d6+10 damage

Tear Up and Throw Away (Standard; at-will)
2 attacks against the same target; Reach 3; attack +29 vs. AC; 3d6+10
damage; if both attacks hit the target takes the following secondary
attack; attack +27 vs. Fortitude; 4d6+10 damage; on hit target is thrown
(slide) 10 squares and knocked prone

Fused Brain (Minor; at-will) ♦ special, 1/turn
The Exarch has 6 attached Brains as a result of a catastrophic experiment
with primordial matter; each turn the Exarch can activate one random
Brain attack;
1: Force Missile - Range 10/20; attack +29 vs. AC; 3d6+10 force damage;
on hit target is pushed 4 squares
2: Acid Spray - Close blast 3; attack +27 vs. Reflex; 1d10+8 acid
damage; on hit target takes 10 ongoing acid damage (save ends)
3: Hold Ray - Range 10; attack +27 vs. Will; 1d6+6 damage; on hit target
is immobilised (save ends)
4: Frost Ray - Range 10; attack +27 vs. Fortitude; 2d6+8 cold damage;
on hit target is slowed (save ends)
5: Life Drain - Range 10; attack +27 vs. Fortitude; on hit target loses a
healing surge
6: Heal - Exarch regains 100 HPs

Call of Gruumsh (Standard; encounter) ♦ thunder
Burst 10; attack +27 vs. Fortitude; 5d12+10 thunder damage; on hit
target is dazed and takes 15 ongoing thunder damage (save ends); on
miss target takes half damage

Summon Slaughter (Standard; recharge 56) ♦ psychic
Burst 10; attack +27 vs. Will; 1d10+8 psychic damage; on hit target must
make an immediate free "at-will" attack against a valid target of Exarch's
choice (this action is considered domination)

Threatening Reach
Exarch has threatening reach (3) with its Massive Punch attack

Multiple Action
Exarch acts twice each round on initiative +20 and +10; each turn Exarch
may take a standard and a minor action; when bloodied Exarch acts three
times each round on initiative +20, +10 and +0; if stunned Exarch loses 1
of its initiative actions for the required duration

Slaughter Gods Glory
When an enemy that Exarch can see is reduced to 0 HPs the Exarch
regains an action point (its cannot have more than 2 action points at any
time)

Alignment Chaotic Evil Languages supernal
Skills Athletics +28, Endurance +28, Intimidate +26
Str 30 (+23) Dex 22 (+19) Wis 12 (+14)
Con 30 (+23) Int 8 (+12) Cha 26 (+21)


Lessons learned.

1000 HPs is not really that much for a level 22 group to dish out in a short period of time, (in the actual encounter it managed to heal twice so it actually had 1200 HPs). I am coming to the conclusion that Epic Solos should have at least 150% HPs to make them viable.

During the combat I made it so that the “head” actions didn’t provoke opportunity attacks and if the Exarch was blinded the heads could still see to perform their actions when appropriate.

With a previous important Solo that also was supposed to have 1000 HPs I actually fudged it having a heal for 250 HPs and then secretly gave it an additional 500 HPs to buy it a few more rounds. My players didn’t notice until I told them later, and they all agreed that it was a good fight. This reinforces my feeling that Epic Solos should have more, not less HPs (contrary to the MMII philosophy).

I wonder if any other DMs have come to similar conclusions once their group has reached Epic tier play?