Solo Monster Design Tips Article

[Upper_Krust]

Hey all!

I posted up a list of problems and possible solutions for the design of solo monsters. Curious to hear any thoughts on the matter...good points, bad points, stuff I missed?

Article: Solo Monster Design Eternity Publishing

I also had a stab at revising Orcus for 4th Edition...

Article: Orcus Revisited Eternity Publishing

 

[webrunner]

For boss encounters recently I've thought about bosses from video games: shooters, platformers, rpgs... the entire encounter is part of the boss.

Some ones I use in different fights:
- The monster is actually made up of individually targetable parts that let the players switch targets and play strategically. In one case, it even counted as three monsters: but they shared one health pool.
- The monster has more than one "stage" of elite-level HP. So the entire battle tactics change on bloodied.
- Entire areas of the map become dangerous at various parts.

Some examples I did recently:

- A mechanical hand which has three initatives per turn. Each finger has an ability - it can use those initiatives on different fingers. The players could, if they wnated to, disable individual fingers in order to prevent certain attacks. It also had a "slam" move it did at bloodied and could give up it's actions to grab someone.

- Three golems.. one did ranged attacks and had vunerable: melee resistance: ranged/area, one did melee attacks and had vunerable: ranged and resistance: melee, and one did nothing and was resistance: all. At 1/4 hp, they ddi an attack that hit everyone betweenthem at the time (which after the first time it happened made them VERY consious as to their positions and the monsters) and each one switched 'modes'. The three golems shared one solo-sized health pool.

- A mad scientist with ranged attacks and some good mobility, revealling himself as being a crazed warforged afterwards with claws that let him climb on the wall and pounce on people. The entire fight's dynamic changed when he become such a ridiculous powerful melee combatant that could move around on the ceiling... he even had a minor action to hit everyone around him.

- A kobold pikeman on a griffon, while they were on top of a train engine. It did swooping attacks, as well as a move that tried to pull the players off with a big chained spear. The fighter beat the strength check and ended up pulling the griffon down into melee range- it was pretty damn epic.


Some other boss encounters I had didn't really count as solos (just 'boss effects' like a charge counter until everyone dies based on the remaining chanting wizards, or a series of 1on1 tournament fights)

 

[Upper_Krust]

Howdy webrunner!

For boss encounters recently I've thought about bosses from video games: shooters, platformers, rpgs... the entire encounter is part of the boss.

Absolutely. I just saw some youtube clip of a Dragon Age 2 boss who is a bit like a fat Ogre with a second torso (this one human sized) growing out of his neck. When the creature is bloodied, the top half splits off and runs about, then reattaches itself.

Some ones I use in different fights:
- The monster is actually made up of individually targetable parts that let the players switch targets and play strategically. In one case, it even counted as three monsters: but they shared one health pool.

- What about enemy minions that are demon possessed. If you kill one, you release the demon inside which is a Standard rank monster. So with these minions milling about the place you have to be careful not to kill them...or at least not to kill too many.

- The monster has more than one "stage" of elite-level HP. So the entire battle tactics change on bloodied.

Often wondered why people don't combine two different Elites as bosses more often.

- A storm giant that explodes when killed, turning into a thunderblast cyclone.
- A two-headed lich whose heads each detach and become a greater flameskull when his body is destroyed.

- Entire areas of the map become dangerous at various parts.

- I've been thinking of an elevator platform battle where the elevator tilts in various directions and thus everyone on it is slid a certain number of squares. PCs that slide 'off' the elevator (say 8x8 squares) can grab hold of the edge (taking two standard actions to climb back on, another PC can help them). Throw in some flying monsters attacking the PCs (attacks against those clinging to the edge of the platform are automatic critical hits) and it could be fun watching them sweat.

Some examples I did recently:

- A mechanical hand which has three initatives per turn. Each finger has an ability - it can use those initiatives on different fingers. The players could, if they wnated to, disable individual fingers in order to prevent certain attacks. It also had a "slam" move it did at bloodied and could give up it's actions to grab someone.

In what way could they disable individual fingers? How big was the hand?

- Three golems.. one did ranged attacks and had vunerable: melee resistance: ranged/area, one did melee attacks and had vunerable: ranged and resistance: melee, and one did nothing and was resistance: all. At 1/4 hp, they ddi an attack that hit everyone betweenthem at the time (which after the first time it happened made them VERY consious as to their positions and the monsters) and each one switched 'modes'. The three golems shared one solo-sized health pool.

I like that, very cool.

- A mad scientist with ranged attacks and some good mobility, revealling himself as being a crazed warforged afterwards with claws that let him climb on the wall and pounce on people. The entire fight's dynamic changed when he become such a ridiculous powerful melee combatant that could move around on the ceiling... he even had a minor action to hit everyone around him.

Just given me an idea for a Warforged Mechagodzilla.

- A kobold pikeman on a griffon, while they were on top of a train engine. It did swooping attacks, as well as a move that tried to pull the players off with a big chained spear. The fighter beat the strength check and ended up pulling the griffon down into melee range- it was pretty damn epic.

Fantastic, although what the heck happened if a PC was knocked off the train?

Some other boss encounters I had didn't really count as solos (just 'boss effects' like a charge counter until everyone dies based on the remaining chanting wizards, or a series of 1on1 tournament fights)

I suppose in tournament style you can be a bit more deadly.

 

[webrunner]

Howdy webrunner!



Absolutely. I just saw some youtube clip of a Dragon Age 2 boss who is a bit like a fat Ogre with a second torso (this one human sized) growing out of his neck. When the creature is bloodied, the top half splits off and runs about, then reattaches itself.



- What about enemy minions that are demon possessed. If you kill one, you release the demon inside which is a Standard rank monster. So with these minions milling about the place you have to be careful not to kill them...or at least not to kill too many.

I'd be afraid of the party wizard going nova on the whole room with fire shroud and ending up with a giant pile of monsters.

Often wondered why people don't combine two different Elites as bosses more often.

- A storm giant that explodes when killed, turning into a thunderblast cyclone.
- A two-headed lich whose heads each detach and become a greater flameskull when his body is destroyed.

You have to be careful and make sure that the elites have solo-level attacks and traits and stuff, multi-attack actions, etc.

- I've been thinking of an elevator platform battle where the elevator tilts in various directions and thus everyone on it is slid a certain number of squares. PCs that slide 'off' the elevator (say 8x8 squares) can grab hold of the edge (taking two standard actions to climb back on, another PC can help them). Throw in some flying monsters attacking the PCs (attacks against those clinging to the edge of the platform are automatic critical hits) and it could be fun watching them sweat.

On some of the earlier fights on the train I had a bar go by every few turns so everyone had to drop prone or get bonked.

Actually I've tried to have every fight have some sort of thing.. one fight I had was on conveyor belts, another had movable mirrors and a laser, another was on a speeding land cart being pursued by two more land carts (which moved around different directions each turn in relation to each other).

Basically every fight should have something in it that sets it apart from "Here is a room full of goblins roll for initative you have killed the goblins you find a bag of gold there is an exit to the north."

In what way could they disable individual fingers? How big was the hand?

When attacking the hand they could choose to target the whole hand or just a finger. Targeting a finger did half damage to the actual HP but a certain amount of damage disabled the finger for the turn.

I like that, very cool.



Just given me an idea for a Warforged Mechagodzilla.



Fantastic, although what the heck happened if a PC was knocked off the train?

Falling off the side = saving through. Success = prone at the edge, failure = hanging off the side. Then it was climb checks- they'd have to fail like, 3 or 4 to fall all the way because they were on top of the train and there were places they could grab on the way down.

I suppose in tournament style you can be a bit more deadly.

The tournament was an interesting experiment in showing off some interesting one-off character ideas. I also had one of the tournament people from one of the characters' pasts. (I think I posted about it on the forums somewhere)

 

[Kannon]

More of a question than a comment, but it's something I've not really been able to get a decent handle on.

Wondering about how to design in an exploitable mechanic for a solo monster.

To clarify, I'm working on a sunwarped goliath solo (with minion backup) for a new Dark Sun 4e game. To put the fear of the arena in the ranged characters, I thought I might do something like have a recharge power that the solo "marks" the target with, then at the start of his next turn, charges and smacks the poor sucker, trampling the PCs that got in the way. That'd keep everyone moving, and open up some interesting tactics. It'd work with the whole, horribly mutated raging giant thing, too.

Looking through the books for ideas, I like the obsidian pillars for arena hazards, and planned on working those in, as well. That brings up the idea of trying to bait the giant angry thing into smashing into the obsidian pillars. And an explosion of red-hot glass all around.

But I'm not entirely sure how to write that ability up on the stat card.

 

[webrunner]

More of a question than a comment, but it's something I've not really been able to get a decent handle on.

Wondering about how to design in an exploitable mechanic for a solo monster.

To clarify, I'm working on a sunwarped goliath solo (with minion backup) for a new Dark Sun 4e game. To put the fear of the arena in the ranged characters, I thought I might do something like have a recharge power that the solo "marks" the target with, then at the start of his next turn, charges and smacks the poor sucker, trampling the PCs that got in the way. That'd keep everyone moving, and open up some interesting tactics. It'd work with the whole, horribly mutated raging giant thing, too.

Looking through the books for ideas, I like the obsidian pillars for arena hazards, and planned on working those in, as well. That brings up the idea of trying to bait the giant angry thing into smashing into the obsidian pillars. And an explosion of red-hot glass all around.

But I'm not entirely sure how to write that ability up on the stat card.

On the card the charge would be something like

Heedless Charge
The Goliath makes a charge attack to the marked target. He ignores blocking terrain and enemies when choosing a path. Any creatures moved through during the move are subject to the following attack: +whatever vs fortitude, 1dwhatever and push one square. If the Goliath hits blocking terrain, the move stops and the goliath takes X damage and is knocked prone.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Howdy webrunner!

I'd be afraid of the party wizard going nova on the whole room with fire shroud and ending up with a giant pile of monsters.

Lol! True. You would need to put the fear into the party in an earlier encounter where the slain minions become standard monsters.

Perhaps instead of killing them, if you perform an exorcism on them (2 simultaneously successful High DC religion checks) you can cure them. They only morph into demons if slain by non-evil aligned characters (hows that?).

You have to be careful and make sure that the elites have solo-level attacks and traits and stuff, multi-attack actions, etc.

My suggestion would be to treat two-adjoined Elites as worth two elites rather than a solo monster (for the purposes of EXP).

On some of the earlier fights on the train I had a bar go by every few turns so everyone had to drop prone or get bonked.

Thats a silver streak of genius!

Actually I've tried to have every fight have some sort of thing.. one fight I had was on conveyor belts, another had movable mirrors and a laser, another was on a speeding land cart being pursued by two more land carts (which moved around different directions each turn in relation to each other).

I've been working on a Mine Cart fight inspired by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for my new book (the Vampire Bestiary) which has an entry on the Thuggee.

Basically every fight should have something in it that sets it apart from "Here is a room full of goblins roll for initative you have killed the goblins you find a bag of gold there is an exit to the north."

About a year ago, I went off on a rant on the Bioware forums about how the monsters in Dragon Age were pants and that the encounters within the various 'dungeon' levels of the game were badly staged. Throughout the course of that thread I outlined a number of monster ideas and how to build dungeons around them. I'd actually really like to flesh those ideas out with 4th Edition sometime. The first was this Hurlock (ie. Goblin) based Dungeon whose leaders were ritually scarred by being dipped in molten (living) metal smelted from broken golems.

When attacking the hand they could choose to target the whole hand or just a finger. Targeting a finger did half damage to the actual HP but a certain amount of damage disabled the finger for the turn.

Ah, now I see. Thanks.