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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tequila Sunrise" data-source="post: 5868593" data-attributes="member: 40398">'Kay, play test report! ...for anyone interested.Playtest Monster: Solo Skirmisher. I chose the skirmisher role because of its average AC, its relative simplicity, and its ability to avoid encounter-long slugfests with the fighter.Playtest PCs: Invoker, Fighter, Ranger, Warlord. Stunlock PC powers are generic; encounter powers stun UENT, and dailies do lots o’ damage. (Remember, this simulates a DM’s worst case scenario-nightmare.)I’ve run six play tests so far: two ‘control’ tests with no stun powers, two UK-style tests with stuns, and two TS-style tests with stuns. I ran them all under the assumption that it was ‘the boss fight’ and that the PCs had saved all their daily resources. As a result, the PCs were never in any real danger.The UK-style solo did a lot of shifting and took Minor potshots at the PCs, but it was consistently and reliably denied its standard actions. Keeping the solo stunlocked was a two-man job, but the damage the PCs took was manageable and the fights were predictable. The TS-style solo didn’t have Minor attacks, but the stunning was a lot less reliable. So when it made that start-of-turn save, it created a much less predictable situation for the PCs.I could go into more depth, but I don’t think either anti-effect solution is really satisfying. I think my solution is headed in the right direction, but it needs work. From a design standpoint, solos really deserve start-of-turn saves and that +5 bonus. Because, as frustrating as it is for the player when a solo shrugs off an effect before it does its thing, solos still spend way too much time tied up with those effects. Solos are four-in-one opponents*, so they really should just shrug off ~75% of harmful effects. But that would be even more frustrating for players.*Well, mine are.So as much as I began disliking the D’karr solution:It’s looking more appealing, and I’m going to test a variant of it. A TS-style solo that can take damage -- say 1d6 per sub-tier -- to attempt a save at the start of its turn. The solo could take more damage to attempt more saves, but only one save per effect per turn. (In a real game, I’d let the player roll this damage.) Elites would have this option too, though of course they wouldn’t get the +5 bonus.</blockquote>

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