D&D 4E Is it just me, or do damaging effects suck in 4E?

[Victim]

You have 5 PCs attacking 1 beholder target. If each character is doing roughly 20 damage per action, then the beholder goes down in 9 rounds. That doesn't seem too unreasonable.

 

[EroGaki]

I noticed that monster powers don't do much damage either. But then, PC's won't have 900 hp, either...

 

[Sojorn]

How the devil are a group of PC's supposed o take out a beholder with 900 hp when their powers do crap damage like 8d6? I'm sorry, but who wants to spend 3 hours in game trying kill the stupid thing?

A party of 5 level 19 characters will tend closer to 100-200 damage each round.

Even if all 5 characters just plink the beholder with an at-will in a round, that's still about 75 damage or so. If the players just unload their single target dailies round after round, said beholder will probably last 3 or 4 rounds at most. Possibly a little longer if there's misses and there probably will be.

 

[phil500]

Haven't people already given examples of how to kill the biggest dragon in the game in just a few rounds?

where?

 

[FourthBear]

I think this is definitely an area where I would wait until problems are seen in actual table play. If it seems like combats are taking too many rounds to resolve, then it might be appropriate to look at ways to increase damage. As others have noted, this appears to be a deliberate design decision to reduce damage across the board at mid-to-high levels.

 

[Stalker0]

Possibly a little longer if there's misses and there probably will be.

Considering that solos tend to have higher defenses then normal, you must incorporate misses into your calculation. Even a 30% miss rate will increase a 9 round combat to 12.

 

[Korgoth]

Unfortunately, you only have to get him down to 450 HP and then you can just use Intimidate.

 

[Byronic]

Apparently you only need a Wizard, a sleep spell and an orb

 

[Sojorn]

Considering that solos tend to have higher defenses then normal, you must incorporate misses into your calculation. Even a 30% miss rate will increase a 9 round combat to 12.

Still a far cry from a 3 hour combat.

However, I'm still slightly worried that Solos will tend to get "grindy" even if they are capped at about 15 rounds or so.

 

[Rechan]

I noticed that monster powers don't do much damage either. But then, PC's won't have 900 hp, either...

Monsters don't really have healing surges.