Monsters with half HP and double damage

[VCSP]

To expedite the encounters, I'm thinking about reducing the monsters' HP in half and double the damage of their attacks.

I don't think will be too dangerous the increase in damage, but my players are really concerned!

Do you think these changes will really help to speed up the fights? And is it worth the risk?

 

[Mentat55]

To speed up combat in my PBP games, I have used +33% damage/-25% HP to all monsters. I have found that this increases monster damage sufficiently to get the players' attentions. And combat in the paragon tier rarely stretches beyond 6 rounds.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

In pure theory, the less extreme ones (such as the first reply to the thread) would probably work better. Yes, half survival time but double damage should average the same total damage over a long period of time, but keep in mind a few things:

• It'll make combats more swingy
• Minions get all the benefit with none of the downside (they die in one hit anyway)
• Novas are MUCH more effective (both for monster and PC)
• Damage is a little over-emphasized in usefulness (you're effectively doubling the combat-effectiveness of damage)
• Focused fire is THAT much more effective, on both sides of the screen, thus it's easier for things to go down in one round.
  • That might also worsen the "yo-yo" effect of getting KO'd, getting healed, then getting KO'd again, then healed again, etc...

Basically, it'll work, though less extreme options are a little safer. Either way, combat won't be super fast, but it'll be faster. If you want faster combat, older editions (pre-3rd) seem to work better IMO.

 

[the Jester]

Having run double damage dice, half hp monsters myself, I say go for it- for some of the monsters, some of the time, not all of the monsters all of the time. They make for an interesting variant (and doing this is a great tool for tweaking combat in 4e), but one of the strengths of 4e is the ability to make combats that play differently (eg. solo vs. minion vs. standard monsters).

If you do this, I think it's best to leave minion damage alone.

 

[DracoSuave]

Ahem. Houserules thread. Cough.

 

[babinro]

I've done this quite a bit. As I get higher in the tiers towards epic I've made this almost the norm. To my suprise, battles don't yet feel swingy as a result. At least not in the TPK kind of way. There are definitely times where the monsters get grouped up and AOE'd to death really quickly.

I highly recommend this houserule though. Personally I only keep particularly important players at full health be it notable villains, commanders and the like. I've found it better to use mutliple solo monsters at 1/2 health double damage as well. They still live a long time, and it makes the battles much more 'boss' like IMO.

Keeping Minions unchanged is advisable. The thing with minions is you can always just run more of them if you want to make up for the lack of damage.

 

[bbjore]

I've been doing this for over a year now, and it has proven to be very effective in our game. Almost every encounter last exactly 6 rounds, and it's allowed us to fit at least one if not two extra combat encounters in our sessions which are always short on time. I did do some things to balance it though. Minions only do 50% damage, their lifespans are so short that the increase doesn't become unfair, but it does allow them to be a threat rather than glorified difficult terrain.
The most important change, however, is that I do not double the damage on encounter or daily powers, as even if the monsters had longer life spans they wouldn't get to use them more than once. Recharge powers, on the other hand, usually have double the chance to recharge, to compensate for the monster's shorter lifespan. I'm also careful about doubling the added damage certain skirmishers and the like do (sneak attack...). I found these changes were necessary to prevent certain monsters from dropping a PC in two hits.
My player's really like it.
They know the rules ahead of time, so they avoid choosing powers and abilities designed for longer combat (regeneration, DR, & the like), which are drastically reduced in usefulness, and focus their characters on increasing their usefulness for the sort of encounters we run.
It's been quite fun, as now, because combat is so brutal, they have developed into a very coordinated team, with a good sense of how and when to nova. Seeing them recognize that an encounter is a serious threat and then respond with tactics that are equally vicious has been one of my favorite experiences as a DM. My players, for their part, really enjoy the increased encounter speed and tension because they are more dangerous. I've also found that the increase damage has made my leaders, who were less experienced players, really start to feel like they're a valued part of the team.
If you're looking for a faster & more dangerous game, I'd definitely say go for it. Just start small with encounters of the PCs level and give your PCs time to adjust before really trying to take it to them with some more dangerous monsters. Since the change, we have yet to see a TPK, but have had numerous really tense fights, where the PCs actually felt like they were threatened instead of slogs they felt sure to win we had before the change.

 

[Starfox]

The problem of slow fights seems to come and go over levels. I used top do this, but around level 13 or so, it no longer felt as needed as it was. Now, at level 20, it once again feels like I need this rule.

A problem I've noted is with monsters who damage themselves - Dominate or the Rogue power Bloody Path. I decided in the end not to double those, in effect halving both player and monster hp.