Stacking penalties, solos, and . . . *sigh* sadness. :(

[Elric]

I also discussed Certain Justice with my players and we changed its duration to until the end of next turn from as long as you maintain the challenge.

Certain Justice is way too strong for an Encounter power (Paladin Champion of Order Paragon path in the PH). However, Paladins are a pretty weak class (Str Paladins have a particularly limited selection of powers), and need their awesome Paragon paths to stay competitive. The trouble is that Certain Justice is much too strong and completely changes the dynamics of fights involving elites/solos. This fight is an example of that.

Potential house rule:

Certain Justice (Champion of Order—Paladin Paragon Path Encounter 11): Change the second sentence to “If the target is marked by you, it is also weakened and dazed until the end of your next turn.” Change damage to [W] + Strength modifier.

Champion of Order—In Defense of Order (Feature, level 11): Change the first sentence to add: “When you are adjacent to the target of your divine challenge, the target provokes an opportunity attack from you if it shifts or makes an attack that does not include you as a target.”

Reasoning: Certain Justice is too powerful as written, and completely changes the dynamics of fights against solos. Changing its effect to until the end of the next turn greatly weakens the power, so adding to damage seems fair. Changing In Defense of Order so that the target also provokes opportunity attacks on a shift makes this feature stronger and more thematic, and helps compensate for the change to Certain Justice.

 

[Nebulous]

I doubt it, my advice would be to construct all monsters yourself as a proper challange to your party. (But then I would say that because that is what I actually do).

I sort of doubt it too. I mean, the new design paradigms will help some, but solo's don't have the best ability to resist a concentrated onslaught of 5 or 6 powers, especially from experienced gamers. House Rules like ones listed in this thread will go a LONG way toward making them memorable fights. Solos should really have lots of ways of breaking the rules that players come to expect. And giving them some allies at the same time, that's crucial i think. Everyone walloping on a single foe and dumping all their Dailies in succession can just be devastating, which can also equal Not Exciting.

 

[Akaiku]

Certain Justice (Champion of Order—Paladin Paragon Path Encounter 11): Change the second sentence to “If the target is marked by you, it is also weakened and dazed until the end of your next turn.” Change damage to [W] + Strength modifier.

You could also change it to be you lose the effect if you do not end your turn adjacent to the foe. There are a ton of ways most solos can make that happen, so it adds something interesting to it. Plus, at least it's not the hospitaleer. That one is just mean to aoe solos.

 

[eriktheguy]

An equal level solo is a medium encounter for a party. It shouldn't be too much of a threat, use most of their resources, or threaten them too much. At least two levels higher for a challenge is good. Also, if the dragon is in mostly open terrain and all the players can reach/attack it in the first few rounds, you're doing the fight wrong. Smart solos like dragons should use terrain, traps, minions etc to fight parties. As they venture through its layer, it blasts its breath weapon at them through holes in the wall from hidden passages. When they battle it, they cant get flanking because of the way the terrain is set up. It flies to a higher ledge in the cave to recover/hide/attack from a distance. It pushes a party down a slope and then moves in to kill the unlucky member one-on-one. By the time the others catch up, they are already down a character, and the dragon is hiding and waiting to use its breath weapon.

A battle with a dragon could last an entire session and deplete the characters of most of their resources, potentially even killing one or two of them. Solos are terrific fun when played right. But any solo will die in a few turns if they are standing alone in the middle of a flat, open room.

 

[Saeviomagy]

In my games, we're working with a rough house rule of typing penalties:
Power: A penalty inflicted by a power (e.g. Illusionary Ambush)
Mark: A mark
Feat: A penalty inflicted by a feat (e.g. Psychic Lock)
Item: Item inflicted penalties

So far, this scheme has worked pretty well to make sure that the Bard (Vicious Mockery), the Wizard (Illusionary Ambush), and the Paladin (Enfeebling Strike) aren't all stacking penalties on the marked creature.

I kind of figured on categorising as follows:

1. Penalties from conditions: mark, blind etc. It also includes cover and concealment.

2. Penalties from anything else: psychic lock, rattling attacks etc

Characters are never forced to take penalty-applying attacks, or even to place them all on a single creature.