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The 4e Solo Thread
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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6244939" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>[MENTION=1165](Psi)SeveredHead[/MENTION]</p><p>Absolutely, the staged boss monster is a great way to make solos more interesting. I've done that three times now (cranium rat hive mind, red dragon, dragon mage) and it worked great...only downside is they were insanely long fights that easily took a full 3-4 hour session! They were fun tense sessions though...just I think me and my players' stamina for focused combat-oriented play caps out at 2 hours.</p><p></p><p>In general I like simplicity of design because I think it frees the DM's brain space and thus makes for quicker fights. OTOH I find nearly all of the "official" solos don't have enough powers/things going on to stay interesting for a long combat. I'm interested in ways to reconcile these two issues...maybe by making design moves that kill several birds with one stone? </p><p></p><p>I'm in the process of making a solo brute for an upcoming adventure...basically it's a big bad werewolf that will be encountered with other lower-level standard werewolves and some dire wolf minions. Thus I'm not going to be using the 3-stage boss as that would be overkill, but I am looking at ways to make it an interesting challenge that doesn't require a page+ long stat block.</p><p></p><p>I keep coming back to this: provide interesting decisions/dilemmas for the PCs. For example, save ends effects tend to be not so interesting and easily forgotten in the heat of combat...I'm curious is the effects were much more serious but there were steps the PCs could take to prevent the horrible fate...sort of a "save...and then die" model <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 6244939, member: 20323"] [MENTION=1165](Psi)SeveredHead[/MENTION] Absolutely, the staged boss monster is a great way to make solos more interesting. I've done that three times now (cranium rat hive mind, red dragon, dragon mage) and it worked great...only downside is they were insanely long fights that easily took a full 3-4 hour session! They were fun tense sessions though...just I think me and my players' stamina for focused combat-oriented play caps out at 2 hours. In general I like simplicity of design because I think it frees the DM's brain space and thus makes for quicker fights. OTOH I find nearly all of the "official" solos don't have enough powers/things going on to stay interesting for a long combat. I'm interested in ways to reconcile these two issues...maybe by making design moves that kill several birds with one stone? I'm in the process of making a solo brute for an upcoming adventure...basically it's a big bad werewolf that will be encountered with other lower-level standard werewolves and some dire wolf minions. Thus I'm not going to be using the 3-stage boss as that would be overkill, but I am looking at ways to make it an interesting challenge that doesn't require a page+ long stat block. I keep coming back to this: provide interesting decisions/dilemmas for the PCs. For example, save ends effects tend to be not so interesting and easily forgotten in the heat of combat...I'm curious is the effects were much more serious but there were steps the PCs could take to prevent the horrible fate...sort of a "save...and then die" model ;) [/QUOTE]
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