The Three Act Goblin

[moxcamel]

Hey all. I just read the Angry DM's 4-part series on making solo monsters tougher by turning them into a 3-part act. The article is here and definitely worth a read.

In a nutshell, he recommends taking a solo monster and re-designing it into 3 parts. Each stage has 1/3 the hit points of the normal solo monster, only the 3rd stage is treated as bloodied, and once each of the first 2 stages has dropped to zero hit points, you replace it with the next stage of that solo. The key is that all ongoing effects disappear with the first stage, and you have the freedom of setting up new powers, etc.

There are a couple advantages of this. The first is that you don't get into a situation where the party has completely locked your solo down and it just becomes a pinata fest. The second is that you inject a little more personality into the mob. For example, in the first act you might have the monster setup to be a little cocky, then when he drops into his act 2 build he realizes the party is a threat drops any finesse in favor of dealing out more raw damage, and then in act 3 he's acting more like a cornered beast and maybe his powers shift to more controlling so he can try to escape. Ideally, your 2nd stage is the most dangerous stage, and the party should get a feeling that it's winning during the 3rd stage.

Anyway, I've just started a new 1st level campaign, and really wanted to not only try the 3-act solo monster out, but also wanted to build a 1st level solo encounter out of it. I think a solo encounter at 1st level will be a fun surprise for the party, and when it starts shifting tactics I think they'll enjoy it even more.

So for my base, I'm thinking of a solo goblin. In his first act personna, I want him to be a little cocky and self-assured. I'll base him off the Goblin Warrior, so he'll use Goblin tactics to jump around the battlefield, sort of taunting the party as he hurls javelins at them. Once they drop him to zero, he turns into the stage 2 solo, and now he's angry. He's no longer a skirmisher, but a brute. He pulls out his club and just starts laying out damage. In his 3rd stage, I want him to be worn down, a little scared (he's a solo, but he's still a Goblin) and acting more defensively.

So I thought I'd solicit some input from others and see if anyone has any suggestions of powers or other thoughts, especially the final stage, which I still haven't quite worked out. The party consists of 6 players in this case, so he's going to be a tad tougher than a normal 5-party solo. Thoughts?

 

[Camelot]

Sounds fun! Maybe he has smoke bombs that he pulls out in the end to try to escape. Make sure during the earlier stages to give him a few immediate interrupts and reactions that trigger when he is hit to let him get in more attacks each round, especially since it doesn't sound like he'll be using area attacks.

 

[Azarin]

I like your idea. I would suggest looking at your encounter as a movie scene. Then build your mechanics around that. This way you can have an encounter that runs how you would picture it in your mind, without letting the mechanics run the battle.

 

[Pistonrage]

would like to see the write-up

 

[Mesh Hong]

It sounds like you are building a specific creature for a specific encounter. My advice in this case is to think about the encounter as a whole, try and base power options around interacting with the terrain and scenery.

Low level solos can be difficult to design in general due to the PCs frailty to concentrated attack. For instance you generally want a solo to have a standard attack that includes 2 to 3 attacks (eg double attack), and a combination of minor attacks, auras and triggered actions. At level 1 this is more than slightly problematic because you cannot reasonably expect a single PC defender to take that sort of punishment. There is an almost invisble line between dishing out an exciting but reasonable amount of damage and killing a PC before he or the rest of the party can react.

Another potential problem you will have to think about is the relatively small amount of HPs a level 1 solo has when weighed against a 6 PC group concentrating fire.

From memory I think a level 1 solo will have about 120 HPs, lets just say that your 6 PC group all hit in the first round and each deal 10 damage. That 60 damage will take your solo straight past Stage 1 and half way into Stage 2 (assuming each of your creatures stages has 40 HPs)

What I am saying here is that you might not have that much time to define each stage of the creature. I have designed quite a few multi staged solos and they can work really well, but they can cause a few design issues which need to be carefully considered.

There is nothing quite as dissapointing for a DM as seeing a creature not able to use a sizable chunk of the powers you spent time designing.

Anyway I look forward to seeing your design, if you need any more advice there are quite a few of us here who will be happy to help.

 

[the Jester]

Staged bosses always strike me as being very "videogamey", if you know what I mean. I certainly wouldn't make all solos that way, although once in a while, maybe.

 

[moxcamel]

It sounds like you are building a specific creature for a specific encounter. My advice in this case is to think about the encounter as a whole, try and base power options around interacting with the terrain and scenery.

I do have a specific encounter in mind, but I'm not really looking to build him for a specialized encounter. Especially for a first level monster, he'll be pretty generic, if you can consider a 1st level solo generic.

Low level solos can be difficult to design in general due to the PCs frailty to concentrated attack. For instance you generally want a solo to have a standard attack that includes 2 to 3 attacks (eg double attack), and a combination of minor attacks, auras and triggered actions. At level 1 this is more than slightly problematic because you cannot reasonably expect a single PC defender to take that sort of punishment. There is an almost invisble line between dishing out an exciting but reasonable amount of damage and killing a PC before he or the rest of the party can react.

Yep, completely agreed. It's a tricky proposition, which is why it interests me. There's some finesse involved with creating such a low-level solo, but I think (well...hope) it's doable.

From memory I think a level 1 solo will have about 120 HPs, lets just say that your 6 PC group all hit in the first round and each deal 10 damage. That 60 damage will take your solo straight past Stage 1 and half way into Stage 2 (assuming each of your creatures stages has 40 HPs)

What I am saying here is that you might not have that much time to define each stage of the creature. I have designed quite a few multi staged solos and they can work really well, but they can cause a few design issues which need to be carefully considered.

Damage doesn't carry over to the next stage, so if they take him down to 10 hit points on one round, and the next round they dish out 30 more, he starts stage 2 at full hit points. It's slightly unfair to the players I suppose, but I don't think it's too unfair, especially considering the players get 5-6 actions to the solo's one.

There is nothing quite as dissapointing for a DM as seeing a creature not able to use a sizable chunk of the powers you spent time designing.

Exactly. The problem with a normal solo is that you usually get only the first round to pop off your really cool powers. After that, it often turns into a mob of adventurers beating on a pinata until the candy comes out. With this method, you get at least 3 opportunities to unleash the coolness. Or at least that's the theory. It's completely untried by me, and even the writer of the original article says he's still working out the kinks. So who knows.

Anyway I look forward to seeing your design, if you need any more advice there are quite a few of us here who will be happy to help.

Thanks. I'll post a link to some stat blocks when I've designed the initial 'prototype.'

 

[moxcamel]

Staged bosses always strike me as being very "videogamey", if you know what I mean. I certainly wouldn't make all solos that way, although once in a while, maybe.

I think if the boss appears to the players as 'staged,' then the designer and/or DM is doing something wrong. In the example of the goblin boss, the DM lets the players know that he's kind of cocky, hopping around, taunting the characters, hurling javelins at them. But then the PCs start laying out some heat, which makes the goblin boss angry, so he drops all attempts at finesse and just starts swinging. And then a bit later, when he's taken even more of a beating, he realizes that the situation is very bad. He reverts to his goblin nature, starts desperately trying to change the situation just enough to where he can make a quick get-away, and so becomes less damaging and maybe a bit more controllerish. At no point should the players ever get the sense that he's morphing into something different. It's the same boss, he's just adapting to the situation over time.

 

[the Jester]

I think if the boss appears to the players as 'staged,' then the designer and/or DM is doing something wrong. In the example of the goblin boss, the DM lets the players know that he's kind of cocky, hopping around, taunting the characters, hurling javelins at them. But then the PCs start laying out some heat, which makes the goblin boss angry, so he drops all attempts at finesse and just starts swinging. And then a bit later, when he's taken even more of a beating, he realizes that the situation is very bad. He reverts to his goblin nature, starts desperately trying to change the situation just enough to where he can make a quick get-away, and so becomes less damaging and maybe a bit more controllerish. At no point should the players ever get the sense that he's morphing into something different. It's the same boss, he's just adapting to the situation over time.

Actually, that's a very cool approach. I like it. If I do staged bosses, that's definitely the approach I'd take.

 

[Quickleaf]

...In his 3rd stage, I want him to be worn down, a little scared (he's a solo, but he's still a Goblin) and acting more defensively.

So I thought I'd solicit some input from others and see if anyone has any suggestions of powers or other thoughts, especially the final stage, which I still haven't quite worked out...

So the PCs get to see that underneath that scary warchief exterior he's just a shifty goblin at heart?

What if he has some sort of reverse marking mechanic? Every time he is hit, the attacker gets a "goblin chief's mark" until they spend an entire round without attacking him.

Maybe the "goblin chief's mark" means different things at stage 1, 2, and 3. So at stage 3 he's cautious about those bearing his mark cause they've been dishing out the most damage consistently, so he gets a bonus to defenses and a pumped up "goblin shift" feature in regards to them.

Basically, anything where the same mechanic carries across to different phases of the solo. Even though he'll be performing differently, the underlying feel is still that of the goblin warchief.