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<blockquote data-quote="Elric" data-source="post: 4883227" data-attributes="member: 1139"><p>If you are giving monsters 1/2 of their normal hit points, it would make sense for monsters to do around twice their normal damage. This is assuming that monsters are already balanced in terms of damage per encounter, encounter length in round is proportional to monster HP, and the problem is that it takes too long to run through that encounter. </p><p></p><p>A few other issues: One reason why monsters should get less than twice normal damage is that higher damage relative to hit points gives monsters more of a shot at winning a fight due to a series of rolls going their way. A reason why monsters should get more than twice normal damage is that PC power drops off over the course of a combat as they use up encounter powers and daily powers and switch to at-wills. So if the fight is shorter, PCs are relatively stronger than they used to be.</p><p></p><p>Similarly, changing monsters to have more damage and lower HP really encourages PCs who can "nova", expending resources to deal a lot of damage quickly. If monster HP goes down and monster damage goes up, a high nova party might breeze through encounters.</p><p></p><p>The DMG's normal damage expression guideline is approximately Damage= 6 + 0.6*level. This suggests that monster should get a significant bonus to damage from halving their hit points (if you're going to use the same number of monsters). Something like 5 + 0.5*level for most monsters, and even more for Brutes/the high damage attacks of Lurkers.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Elric, post: 4883227, member: 1139"] If you are giving monsters 1/2 of their normal hit points, it would make sense for monsters to do around twice their normal damage. This is assuming that monsters are already balanced in terms of damage per encounter, encounter length in round is proportional to monster HP, and the problem is that it takes too long to run through that encounter. A few other issues: One reason why monsters should get less than twice normal damage is that higher damage relative to hit points gives monsters more of a shot at winning a fight due to a series of rolls going their way. A reason why monsters should get more than twice normal damage is that PC power drops off over the course of a combat as they use up encounter powers and daily powers and switch to at-wills. So if the fight is shorter, PCs are relatively stronger than they used to be. Similarly, changing monsters to have more damage and lower HP really encourages PCs who can "nova", expending resources to deal a lot of damage quickly. If monster HP goes down and monster damage goes up, a high nova party might breeze through encounters. The DMG's normal damage expression guideline is approximately Damage= 6 + 0.6*level. This suggests that monster should get a significant bonus to damage from halving their hit points (if you're going to use the same number of monsters). Something like 5 + 0.5*level for most monsters, and even more for Brutes/the high damage attacks of Lurkers. [/QUOTE]
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