Need review on Solo Ooze - did I get this right?

[Brasswatchman]

Hey - So I'm still trying to figure out how to make monsters for 4e, so even though this one is a pretty by-the-book adaptation, I'd appreciate it if you could all take a look at this and make sure I got it right. Basically, I've just made the MM's ochre jelly into a solo rather than an elite here; added in an aura and the engulf power; and upped it to Level 4 in terms of XP only (without upping HP, attacks, damages or anything else) to compensate for the extra powers. Does everything look okay? Thanks.

OOZE BOSS; Level 4 Solo Brute [XP 875]
Large aberrant magical beast (blind, ooze)
Initiative +0; Senses- Perception +2, blindsight 10, tremorsense 10
Poison Aura - aura 1; an enemy that ends its turn in this area takes 2 poison damage (Engulfed creatures are immune to this aura; see engulf below).
HP 172; Bloodied 86; see also split below.
AC 18; Fortitude 16; Reflex 14; Will 14
Resist: 5 poison; Immune gaze
Action Points: 1
Str 13 (+2); Con 11 (+1); Dex 8 (+0); Int 1 (-4); Wis 12 (+2); Cha 1 (-4)
Speed 4
Slam (standard; at-will) * Poison: +8 v. AC; 2d6+1 damage; on-going 5 poison damage (save ends).
Engulf (standard; at-will) * Poison: The ooze attacks one or two Medium or smaller targets; +8 v. Reflex (automatically hits an immobilized target). On a hit, the target is grabbed and pulled into the ooze's space; the target is dazed and takes ongoing 10 poison damage until it escapes the grab. A creature that escapes the grab shifts to a square of its choosing adjacent to the ooze. The ooze can move normally while creatures are engulfed within it.
Split (when first bloodied; encounter): The ooze splits into two, each with hit points equal to one-half its current hit points. Effects applied to the original ooze do not apply to the second one.

 

[ricardo440]

A few things:
1) it should have 2 action points as a Solo
2) it should have +5 to its saves as a Solo
It needs more attacks or it will become irrelevant. It needs something like a retalitory strike so whenever it is hit it can fight back, or an attack that hits everything next to it...
You should also give it some sort of minor action that it can do something with.

 

[Guyanthalas]

I agree with having more attacks. I'm a big fan of Solo's having recharge abilities as well. There is something nicely ominous about rolling for recharge on a powerful attack and saying "well, that's recharged" just audible enough for the players to take notice.

I haven't really crunched the numbers, but it looks like its doing a LOT of poison damage to melee characters. Especially since it can theortically take out (eat) two defenders in one hit.

 

[the Jester]

Hey - So I'm still trying to figure out how to make monsters for 4e, so even though this one is a pretty by-the-book adaptation, I'd appreciate it if you could all take a look at this and make sure I got it right. Basically, I've just made the MM's ochre jelly into a solo rather than an elite here; added in an aura and the engulf power; and upped it to Level 4 in terms of XP only (without upping HP, attacks, damages or anything else) to compensate for the extra powers. Does everything look okay? Thanks.

Why'd you do that?

A level 4 solo should have extra powers. You should increase the attacks, hp, etc. as well. So it should have double the hps of a solo as well as the added attacks and stuff.

Remember, a solo needs to be as effective as 5 normal monsters of its level.

I'd make the aura do 5 damage when moving into or starting your turn in it; 2 hp for a 4th level monster is pretty much nothing. I'd also add some kind of immediate interrupt or reaction when it gets hit, and maybe another attack that only requires a minor action. As it stands, this thing is nowhere near the power level of a level 4 solo, because it can't do enough stuff each round- it's still got an elite monster's number of actions.