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<blockquote data-quote="brainstorm" data-source="post: 5280792" data-attributes="member: 45712">eamon: As I have enough to do as a DM, my secondary goal is to prevent more work for myself.&nbsp; It is easier for me to change Stun than it is to put countermeasures into place for every BBEG I want to throw at the players.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;jamesmanhattan: This is a bit much for me.&nbsp; This would work for the PCs, but thinking of how it would impact my BBEGs, limiting them to a minor action would still be more limiting than I want.&nbsp; &nbsp;Last night, I pulled out my MM, MM2 and MM3 and looked at several of the BIG BADDIES and imagined how threatening they'd be when hit with the Stunned condition.&nbsp; It's amazing how that one condition really takes away the threat level of even the most powerful monsters, especially if it is a Stunned until end of next turn condition.&nbsp; Throw a Weakened condition on top of that and they become even less of a threat and practically a pushover.&nbsp;Now, here's an another alternative (trying to think out of the box here).&nbsp; Instead of changing the conditions, give each BBEG an extra series of actions based on their tier.&nbsp; Normally, a creature gets 1 series of actions consisting of 1 standard action, 1 move action and 1 minor action, unless their stat block specifies otherwise.&nbsp;&nbsp; Instead, I'd propose giving a BBEG (whatever creature/NPC the DM deems as the BOSS) a series of actions based on their tier.&nbsp; A Heroic Tier (level 1-10) BBEG would have 1 series of actions, as normal.&nbsp; A Paragon Tier (level 11-20) BBEG would have 2 series of actions (and thus 2 initiative counts per round) and an Epic Tier (level 21+) BBEG would have 3 series of actions (3 initiative counts per round).&nbsp; A Stunned condition that is imposed on a BBEG would lose 1 of their series of actions, so a Heroic Tier BBEG would still be affected normally, but a Paragon would still have 1 series of actions left and an Epic Tier BBEG would have 2 series of actions left while afflicted with the Stunned condition.&nbsp; So you don't nerf the player's power and at the same time you don't have a completely helpless BBEG.&nbsp;Example: The Boss 17th level dragon gets 2 series of actions per round, so they roll initiative twice and on their 1st initiative they get 1 Standard, 1 Move and 1 Minor action, then on their second initiative they get another Standard, Move and Minor action.&nbsp; But the dragon is hit by a power that leaves them Stunned.&nbsp; The effect on the dragon is that it loses one of the two series of actions they get per round.&nbsp;Thoughts?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="brainstorm, post: 5280792, member: 45712"] eamon: As I have enough to do as a DM, my secondary goal is to prevent more work for myself. It is easier for me to change Stun than it is to put countermeasures into place for every BBEG I want to throw at the players. jamesmanhattan: This is a bit much for me. This would work for the PCs, but thinking of how it would impact my BBEGs, limiting them to a minor action would still be more limiting than I want. Last night, I pulled out my MM, MM2 and MM3 and looked at several of the BIG BADDIES and imagined how threatening they'd be when hit with the Stunned condition. It's amazing how that one condition really takes away the threat level of even the most powerful monsters, especially if it is a Stunned until end of next turn condition. Throw a Weakened condition on top of that and they become even less of a threat and practically a pushover. Now, here's an another alternative (trying to think out of the box here). Instead of changing the conditions, give each BBEG an extra series of actions based on their tier. Normally, a creature gets 1 series of actions consisting of 1 standard action, 1 move action and 1 minor action, unless their stat block specifies otherwise. Instead, I'd propose giving a BBEG (whatever creature/NPC the DM deems as the BOSS) a series of actions based on their tier. A Heroic Tier (level 1-10) BBEG would have 1 series of actions, as normal. A Paragon Tier (level 11-20) BBEG would have 2 series of actions (and thus 2 initiative counts per round) and an Epic Tier (level 21+) BBEG would have 3 series of actions (3 initiative counts per round). A Stunned condition that is imposed on a BBEG would lose 1 of their series of actions, so a Heroic Tier BBEG would still be affected normally, but a Paragon would still have 1 series of actions left and an Epic Tier BBEG would have 2 series of actions left while afflicted with the Stunned condition. So you don't nerf the player's power and at the same time you don't have a completely helpless BBEG. Example: The Boss 17th level dragon gets 2 series of actions per round, so they roll initiative twice and on their 1st initiative they get 1 Standard, 1 Move and 1 Minor action, then on their second initiative they get another Standard, Move and Minor action. But the dragon is hit by a power that leaves them Stunned. The effect on the dragon is that it loses one of the two series of actions they get per round. Thoughts? [/QUOTE]

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