Over/underpowered Monsters?

[Jürgen Hubert]

Which monsters listed in the 4E MM are, in your opinion, too powerful or too weak for their level?

I'll start. In my short test one-shots, the one critter that was far too powerful for its level was the needlefang drake swarm. Its "pull down" power is devastatingly powerful, especially if the victim is unable to move before its next turn. Based on this, I'd make it a level 3 or even a level 4 monster...

 

[Monkey Boy]

Overpowered - Death jump spiders. We fought one along with some goblins. After the tank was hit for a ton of damage it became public enemy number one. We chased it down and blew all our action points so that it never got a second swing.

Underpowered - Minions. We tend to ignore them at the low levels we play. Their 3-4 damage doesn't rate as a real threat.

 

[SlyFlourish]

Lich and Deathknight

I played a battle last night with a lich and a death knight (level 24 and 25) against a party of four. They just didn't have any powers that really unleashed hell upon the party. I could see pretty early on that there was no way the lich or deathknight would do anything other than take damage until they died.

 

[Henry]

Overpowered - Death jump spiders. We fought one along with some goblins. After the tank was hit for a ton of damage it became public enemy number one. We chased it down and blew all our action points so that it never got a second swing.

Underpowered - Minions. We tend to ignore them at the low levels we play. Their 3-4 damage doesn't rate as a real threat.

My players learned never to let themselves be flanked by large groups of minions. Our group's ranger got separated from the rest and faced off against 6 minions that were each 2 levels lower than him, and an equal level mage by himself; despite his twin striking, the minions still had him down in three rounds, and were taking him to hang him from a yardarm on a pirate ship when he got lucky and rolled a nat 20 on his recovery check. Had he not recovered and played possum until the right moment, he would have been dead, dead, dead. The enemy mage really didn't contribute that much damage by itself - maybe 15 out of the 40 or so damage? Gang a bunch of human minions up (with their defense bonus for being adjacent), and their defenses are formidable enough that even a minion-killer like the ranger arein serious trouble.

 

[Jack99]

Great idea for a thread. Will return later and post my thoughts. Just subscribing to not forget it.