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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elric" data-source="post: 4811170" data-attributes="member: 1139">Here’s my take on modifying Orcus (MM, pg 206), taking into account MM2’s changes to solo design guidelines.  With a little work, Orcus can become a more interesting and dangerous opponent, while staying true to the basics and the theme of his MM version. Thoughts appreciated.1) Reduce HP from 1,525 to 1,320; Change Bloodied from 762 to 660.Reduce AC by 2, Fort/Ref/Will by 3.  This gives AC 46; Fortitude 48; Reflex 43, Will 46Start by changing Orcus to give him -20% HP and -2 to defenses according to MM2’s design guidelines.  I’ve subtracted a little more from F/R/W because even with -2, they’d be well above the 12+level average recommended in the DMG (pg 184). In accord with the change in solo design, HP for a solo=[(level+1)*8+Con]*4 (in MM1, solos at Paragon/Epic have *5 here instead of *4).  This would equal 1,220 HP.  I’ve added 100 to this because the solo HP formula is independent of role, but as a Brute Orcus has 1 lower AC than baseline AC of 14+level (after my above change to his defenses; note that this is 1 higher than typical Brute AC); otherwise, he wouldn’t gain anything for this AC loss.  2) Increase the Wand of Orcus’s damage by 2d12 to 4d12+12 damage (plus 1d12 necrotic damage, as before).  Increase Tail Lash’s damage by 2d8 to 4d8+12 damage.  Add “Special: While Orcus is bloodied, Tail Lash becomes a minor action, usable once a round (it’s no longer an immediate reaction).”I increased the number of damage dice on Orcus’s at-will attacks by 2 each.  Tail Lash changing to a minor action when Orcus is bloodied means that Orcus doesn’t have to move around to ensure he can use it every round, and it increases the amount of damage he can deal to a single foe.  The article <a href="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd%2F4alum%2F2009May" target="_blank">D&D Alumni: Demogorgon</a> says that to modify Orcus in accord with MM2’s solo guidelines, reduce his HP by 20%, give him -2 defenses, and increase his damage while bloodied by 50%.  This seems insufficient.  On the approximation that Orcus spends half his time bloodied, this amounts to +25% damage, which could compensate for -20% HP (on the further approximation that monster damage dealt per encounter is proportional to fight length, and fight length is proportional to monster HP, this works out to the same average damage per encounter), but not -2 to defenses as well.  So I’ve done more than just increase Orcus’s damage by 25% (higher level MM1 monsters seem low on damage in the first place).  3) Add to Aura of Death: “While Orcus is bloodied, enemies in the aura regain only half the normal amount of hit points when they would regain hit points.”Bloodying Orcus should be a big deal.  The change to Orcus’s Aura of Death lets you know that it is.  A DM should allow a monster Knowledge check, DC 35 Arcana, to give the party at least a clue that they should use healing abilities before he’s bloodied.  Something like: “It is said that when Orcus is injured, his anger can rip out the souls of his enemies.”4) Touch of Death: Change from recharge 6 to: “recharges when first blooded.”Change the miss effect to: “Miss: The target takes necrotic damage equal to its bloodied value.  This cannot reduce the target below 0 HP.” Making Touch of Death an encounter power with an automatic recharge prevents Orcus from getting lucky and recharging it several times, or getting unlucky and never recharging it.  Normally, recharge powers are fine, but this is such a strong attack that the number of times it recharges will have significant impact on the fight.  As written, Orcus would sometimes prefer missing with Touch of Death to hitting, so I changed it so this is no longer the case.5) Change Necrotic Burst: Close Burst 10; targets enemies; +38 vs. Fortitude; 2d12+12 necrotic damage, and all undead in the burst regain 20 hit points.  As written, Orcus could accidentally kill most of his undead minions when he uses this power, because if they don’t have necrotic resistance this power’s average damage exceeds the HP that undead regain.  Oops!  This isn’t just a theoretical concern; the undead level 26 Couatl Mockery minion in Open Grave (pg 185) has no necrotic resistance.  6) Add: Implacable Foe: Whenever an attack or effect imposes a condition (defined on page 277 of the PH), besides marked, Orcus can make a saving throw (without his usual +5 saving throw bonus) to be unaffected by that condition, even against an effect that doesn’t normally allow a save.Implacable Foe is an important change.  Orcus gains Implacable Foe because of issues about the effectiveness of status effects when used on solos.  See the discussion <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/254080-solos-status-effects-house-rule.html" target="_blank">here</a> the basic issue is that since a solo has the offense of multiple normal monsters, a power that takes away a round of a solo’s offense can be too strong.</blockquote>

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