Monster (Leader) abilities

[PeelSeel2]

Here is one of the leader aura's that monsters can have in my campaign:

Leader Aura aura 10; Any minion in the aura gains an (encounter) save versus damage. Also, as long as the leader is alive, all minions in aura get +4 to hit, +4 to armor class.

Depending on how good the leader is changes some of those stats. I run a campaign with a lot of players and tend to like things that are slightly overpowered.

My theory of minions:
Because they go down quickly, they should have better chances to hit, and be harder to hit than the average monster.

 

[Fede]

What you mean with "(encounter) save versus damage"? That the first time a creature in the aura is hit it can negate the damage with a saving throw?

 

[the Jester]

+4 attack and AC is a huge bonus in 4e. (That's 8 levels worth of half-you-level-bonus for pcs to catch up with the bump the leader aura gives.)

 

[PeelSeel2]

What you mean with "(encounter) save versus damage"? That the first time a creature in the aura is hit it can negate the damage with a saving throw?

Yes, its an encounter save ability. I had a power where they got to save every time they took damage, and that got wonky.

+4 attack and AC is a huge bonus in 4e. (That's 8 levels worth of half-you-level-bonus for pcs to catch up with the bump the leader aura gives.)

Yes, it could be considered that way. At the same time, they are going to go down quick, and if they have an opportunity to hit, IMO, they should have a better than normal chance of hitting. And yes, that represents 8 levels of character advancement, but this is not character generation. That is not meant as snark. Monster generation and character generation are two totally separate entities with entirely separate design goals. They are the proverbial apple and orange comparison.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Here is one of the leader aura's that monsters can have in my campaign:

Leader Aura aura 10; Any minion in the aura gains an (encounter) save versus damage. Also, as long as the leader is alive, all minions in aura get +4 to hit, +4 to armor class.

Depending on how good the leader is changes some of those stats. I run a campaign with a lot of players and tend to like things that are slightly overpowered.

My theory of minions:
Because they go down quickly, they should have better chances to hit, and be harder to hit than the average monster.

I keep having to repeat the following phrase to myself: "an ability or power is only broken or overpowered if taken out of context, if a described ability or power works fine for the creator then, for that game it is perfectly acceptable"

Otherwise I would say it seems horribly unbalanced, especially if it was used in a lot of encounters. But who am I to say? I am sure that some people would find some of the things in my game equally unbalanced.

The minion encounter power "save to avoid damage", is interesting but might be a bit fiddly to remember (I assume you must use one type of token for a normal minion and another type when it has used its save).

On a similar note I once used a group of minions who constantly phased in and out of existance. If hit they rolled a dice, on odds they were hit as usual, on evens the attack missed. Needless to say the minions lasted longer than the standard mobs in the encounter. My assessment afterwards was that the ability was too strong and should have been roll 5 or 6 on a D6 to avoid the hit.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Obviously if it works in the OP's game then it is fine. I would think that a creature with +4 to AC would be nigh unhittable if it was a monster of near the party's level. Same with a +4 to hit, it is a LARGE bonus. Most monsters seem to be designed such that a PC of roughly their level requires a base die roll of close to 20 to hit and then with various bonuses you generally see to hit numbers in the 12-15 range. Monsters seem to need something similar, though it obviously can vary quite a bit. But assuming your average minion hits on say a 15, giving it a +4 is almost doubling its damage output.

Maybe that is appropriate for some situation, but I don't think I would build a monster with that high an aura bonus as a standard thing. It could easily be really unbalancing.