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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AtomicPope" data-source="post: 4345239" data-attributes="member: 64790">You're not looking in the right places.  Monsters that tear off huge chunks do exist.  They're Artillery, Lurkers and Skirmishers (the Strikers of the Monster World) and the occasional Solo.  Furthermore, 4e is not all about hit points and damage - effects play a major roll in every encounter.  Unlike previous editions it's the effects not the hit points or damage that changes the tides of battle. The Earth Titan isn't just a simple two slam Monster, it's also an Elite.  This means that it can rush right into the middle of the party, use Earth Shock to stun all of the weaker party members and Double Slam the stunned characters.  All of this can be done in a single round.  The damage of the Earth Shock is good but the effect is better.  Stunning Controllers and Leaders changes the dynamic of the fight.  The abilty to shut down monsters (controllers) and quickly recover from attacks (leaders) is stymied.  If there are two Earth Titans the ability to stun several characters at once can result in serious damage to the entire party. From my own experience in playing and DMing 4e the effects dictate the tides of battle.  Most of my players are 3e and falsely assume that they will either win easily or TPK.  In one encounter the PC's thought they would roll through the easy equal level encounter.  They had killed two brutes in one round but spread themselves too thin across the grave site.  Three minions and the remaining brute ganged up on the cleric and dropped him in one round.  In another fight that was supposed to be more difficult they struggled the entire time (Warlord was dropped three times) yet managed to not TPK.Hong hit the nail on the head.  If you have a strong Controller you need Minions to overwhelm the PC's and make things a bit hectic.  The minions will provide a body count and a flank while softening up the PC's.  They're not absolutely necessary but they do change the tempo of battle.</blockquote>

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