Solo Monsters and the Risk of Boredom

[Mengu]

- Monsters are supposed to be really stupid and make their lairs as enemy friendly as possible so they can be killed more easily.

This is absolutely the way it works. How else would Princess Leia be strangling Jabba if the restraining chain wasn't so conveniently long.

 

[Psychic Robot]

What are the underlying implications as you see them?

That Mearls can do wrong.

 

[Jonathan Drain]

Well theres a lot implications, but the first thing is further confirmation that Mearls shouldn't be in the job he's in. He's horrible.

- He has probably read some Drizzt books.

Mearls is the man who knows D&D third edition better than anyone I can think of. He played D&D under one of the authors of third edition, published a book deconstructing the rules (Iron Might), then published his own version of the game (Iron Heroes). He was hired by Wizards of the Coast after demonstrating better knowledge of D&D3 than its authors.

It's a disservice to the man's talent to write off his credibility as just some Forgotten Realms fan.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I have to question the assumption that a party faced with a tough solo encounter will blow there encounters and dailies early on, then grind it down with at-wills.

Wouldn't it make more sense to open with a leader daily that boosts the whole party for the rest of the encounter, then 'feel out' the foe with at-will attacks and use utilities and healing reactively to keep the party going. Then, as you've sussed out the solo's weaknesses, bloodied it (so you now know about what it'll take to kill it) and manuevered and used powers to give advantage to the heavy hitters, bust out the high-damage dailies towards the end? Seems more tactically sound - or at least, efficient - /and/ more dramatic.

 

[Psychic Robot]

I have to question the assumption that a party faced with a tough solo encounter will blow there encounters and dailies early on, then grind it down with at-wills.

Wouldn't it make more sense to open with a leader daily that boosts the whole party for the rest of the encounter, then 'feel out' the foe with at-will attacks and use utilities and healing reactively to keep the party going. Then, as you've sussed out the solo's weaknesses, bloodied it (so you now know about what it'll take to kill it) and manuevered and used powers to give advantage to the heavy hitters, bust out the high-damage dailies towards the end? Seems more tactically sound - or at least, efficient - /and/ more dramatic.

It still runs into the same problem.

 

[The Little Raven]

What are the underlying implications as you see them?

That Mearls wholeheartedly supports the DMG when it talks about using terrain features to make encounters more interesting by providing advantages (some of which can be turned into disadvantages), controlling movement, and opening up options that are not specific to any class or role.

 

[HeinorNY]

6. Make sure the solo encounter is an important piece of your story.
7. Make sure the characters are motivated to defeat the solo monster. 50% of the fun comes from the combat itself, 50% from mission accomplished.

 

[Tony Vargas]

It still runs into the same problem.

How so? If you use tactics and buffs to increase the chance of high-damage powers hitting, you'll do more damage overall than if you just toss out such powers with thier native hit probabilities early on, then grind away with at-wills. More damage equals fewer rounds of combat.

 

[Jack99]

I hate to bring WoW into this. But practically every WoW boss fight has some sort of gimmick. Even way back in the early 20s when you are fighting Arugal in SFK he teleports onto ledges etc. Archaedas (sp) in Uldaman has all those minions and brutes that help him.

So... if Solo=boss fight then copy the leader of the genre. Mix in minions, other monsters, and other "scripted" effects to keep the players on their toes. The environment in a lair designed for defense also ought to be a factor.

Then again, without strat videos and spoilers and no chance to "farm" the content so to speak you don't want the strategy to have to be super intricate to pull off.

Hmm, I wonder how much players would react to monsters rampaging at random hp intervals or enraging when hitting 10% of their max HP?

Might be fun.

 

[Grazzt]

It still runs into the same problem.

Yep. It does. A couple of higher level fights we've run using MM monsters turned into grind-fests. Didn't matter when the party blew their daily powers or encounter powers or whatever. And since they were one-off encounters, each time we ran them, the party came "fully loaded".