MidSession Elite Help!

[Trit One-Ear]

I'm in the middle of an online session with my players and they're nearing an two-elite fight and I'm quickly updating my math to the new MM3. I've been half-ing monster HP up to this point, but remember possibly reading someone on here (perhaps [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION]) that they don't reduce Elite or Solo HP.

Do you guys find this to be the best way to handle fights like this?

Trit

 

[Saagael]

I usually don't half a bosses health, only its because I plan the fight to be in phases and dynamic, and halving hit points would make things go too quick. If its just 2 elites, I'd say keep their hit points the same, but if the battle goes too slow, you can slowly start doing extra damage to the monster when the PCs hit it (i.e. vulnerable 5 all), and doing an equal amount extra damage on its attacks.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

I usually don't half a bosses health, only its because I plan the fight to be in phases and dynamic, and halving hit points would make things go too quick. If its just 2 elites, I'd say keep their hit points the same, but if the battle goes too slow, you can slowly start doing extra damage to the monster when the PCs hit it (i.e. vulnerable 5 all), and doing an equal amount extra damage on its attacks.

Excellent, thanks for the quick reply. I was leaning this way and am very comfortable with winging it as things go.

We ended up spending a bit more time on some RP and skill challenge elements tonight so I have another week or two to rework my elites. Thanks for the help anyway.

Trit

 

[Quickleaf]

Excellent, thanks for the quick reply. I was leaning this way and am very comfortable with winging it as things go.

We ended up spending a bit more time on some RP and skill challenge elements tonight so I have another week or two to rework my elites. Thanks for the help anyway.

Trit

Yep I agree with [MENTION=84839]Saagael[/MENTION] that with a two elite fight there's no need to reduce monster HP.

However if it were a fight with one elite and lots of minions & standard monsters I would consider halving or 2/3rd-ing the elite's HP. I never reduce solo HP in half, for much the same reason as Saagael, and also because I tend to include damaging terrain in solo fights and sometimes let the solo sacrifice HP to shake off conditions. Anyhow, that's a whole other story.

Good luck with the game Trit

 

[Trit One-Ear]

I went into last night not telling my players I had done something different with monster math, curious to see what they'd think. There was a lot of "wow, he hits hard! Take him out!" and "Man we took him out fast."

One impression I got that didn't quite work for me is how quick individual monsters go down. This isn't a problem if I have 3-4 of the same monster running around, but after our ranger brought a monster to bloodied in a single shot, I had to quickly cram in as many of his fun abilities as I could. Anyone else get a feeling that 1/2 HP might be a touch too low? Maybe 3/4?

After play, however, I told my players what I had done, and they agreed it was more fun because combat lasted probably 20 min as opposed to 2 hours . They're interested in a mix of math and HP levels, asking me to reduce HP for some fights but not other. I'm reluctant to do this (elite/solo fights excluded) because I see a lot of room for error in there (concerning the flow and fun of encounters) but might play with various HP levels... we shall see.

Thoughts/comments?

Trit

Trit

 

[S'mon]

I always halve hit points. If I wanted the fight lengthy & dramatic I might use 2 Solos, though 1 half-hp Solo 3 levels above the PCs is pretty darn nasty!

 

[S'mon]

One impression I got that didn't quite work for me is how quick individual monsters go down. This isn't a problem if I have 3-4 of the same monster running around, but after our ranger brought a monster to bloodied in a single shot, I had to quickly cram in as many of his fun abilities as I could. Anyone else get a feeling that 1/2 HP might be a touch too low? Maybe 3/4?

Mm, no. A half-hp elite usually lasts at least 2 rounds, plenty of time to spend an AP and use 2 encounter powers and an at-will. Very occasionally PCs take one down fast, but that's fine by me.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=6678017]Trit One-Ear[/MENTION]
Wait so you halved the HP of your elites in the 2 elite battle ? Or do you mean a different fight?

My guideline for small encounter groups (1 or 2 monsters) is to leave the HP of brutes and elites unchanged, but to change all other standard monsters to 50% HP. However, if the setup of the encounter doesn't allow for focus fire or the whole party being involved in the fight, then I probably would halve the HP of elites and brutes.*

* Although if it was a "bypass the sentries" situation I might minionize the sentry monsters on the spot to allow for one shot kills by non-strikers. Though my "minions" have 4 + 1/ 2 levels HP.

If you have several hard-biting striker type PCs who work well together then yes 1/2 HP might seem low. And you might need to adjust HP accordingly. With a "classic" 5-player party a 50% reduction felt about right.