Tips on Designing Encounters against Solo Monsters

[Camelot]

I want to run a campaign in which the characters are assassins searching for powerful monsters and villains to put down. They will face a lot of solo monsters (they're even called the Solo Slayers). Does anyone have any tips on designing encounters against solo monsters so that the battle is interesting and exciting instead of static rinse-and-repeating? Thanks!

 

[Shin Okada]

Even though Solo monsters are called solo, you still should not use them alone.

Encounter against a single strong monster tend to be boring. If you want to make encounters interesting, mix other monsters, of other roles preferably.

If you still don't like to include other monsters (for story reason and such), use traps, skill challenges and other obstacles in encounters against solo.

 

[sfedi]

Another good advice I saw was to make the Solo behave differently at different stages of the battle.

Looking at bosses fights in videogames should be a good way to know how to make an interesting encounter.

Anyway, the best way to go, I think, is to come up with an encounter, post it here for feedback, test it with your players, learn and repeat

 

[ValhallaGH]

Interesting terrain, circumstances, and environments make for interesting encounters.
For example, the slickly frozen deck of a ship, with ice-encased rigging being knocked down to impale combatants, and iceberg-filled waters to swallow all that fall into them, is a memorable encounter. It also suggests a wide variety of tactical options to both players and DMs (bull rush into the water, manuever under the mast to drop a main spar on them, use push / slide powers to send someone skating-sliding into a bad position, etc.). Bonus, it is thematically appropriate when fighting a White Dragon or Rhemorraz or Frost Giant King.

Similar options and ideas can be used for other encounters. And it doesn't have to be elemental; a fight during / after a cult ritual can feature a large (25+ ft across) iron chandelier that the party causes to slam into the blood-death angel-monster that the circle of bleeding cultists summoned, candle stands that they can use to set the decorative tapestries on fire, a big stained-glass window to shatter onto the creature or be flung through by the creature.


A good environment takes a solo encounter from forgettable to memorable. Make sure that both sides can use it to their advantage, explaining why the creature is there while still letting creative players shine like the stars their characters are.


Good Luck.

 

[fba827]

I can't add anything additional that other people haven't already said, but i think it all comes down to ...

1) look at the environment for the encounter, what can be added that will add a dynamic aspect to the location: traps, hazards, obstacles, dynamic terrain features

2) any additional creatures you can add to the mix, like minions. They don't need to be there at round 1, but can come a couple rounds later -- guards from the other room, or maybe the solo creature summons them (undead crawling out from beneath the ground, demons being teleported in by the solo creature, etc).

Item 1 is hard to say more about without knowing the type of environment.. ie. in a dungeon stuff like flame traps, or on a mountain rock slides, and so on.

Item 2 is hard to say anything thematically-appropriate without knowing the type of creature that is at center stage (i.e. a lich summoning undead would fit, or a dragon calling kobold minion guards from the next room, or a tarrasque summoning in devils, etc).

 

[Piratecat]

Consider giving some solo monsters two or three different initiatives and standard actions throughout the round. Keeps players on their toes.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I think the thing I would do sometimes is have them fight one monster with two, three or even four different forms

For example: (Three forms, though four would be better)

MMII Firebolg Moon Seer (Level 14 Controller)
No bloodied power, but could add one easily enough.
MMII Firebolg BloodBear (Level 15 Brute)

Damage 0-69 Seer unbloodied
Damage 70-140 Seer bloodied
Damage 141-260 Bloodbear unbloodied
Damage 261-380 Bloodbear bloodied.

Moving from a controller to a brute should change things up for the party a lot.

IC it could be something like losing control and letting the beast out, something the controller has shown hints of before.

 

[Starfox]

A group like this can't ignore creatures other than their main target - but they can try to keep them out of the fight. It sounds like your group would all be good at intrusion, so a major part of the adventure would be setting up the fight as they want it to be - which is preferably without anyone but their target involved. Make them fight for this, but don't make it impossible. If one or two party members are running interference, distracting other creatures, keeping doors blocked and such, the net effect on the solo fight is much the same as if there were more creatures involved in the fight in the first place.

 

[Jack99]

Some excellent advice in this thread. A couple of things I would add to the mix.

- Make sure the solo has a way to mitigate things like stun, dazed, sleep, helpless, can't attack etc, or you will find your solo completely sidetracked for most of the fight. Worth noting that this problem becomes increasingly bigger with level. The trick is of course to not just make it quasi-immune, and thus frustrating your players.

- Carefully consider how the solo can deal with the marks of a fighter, if your group has one. Nothing more frustrating than to have a solo locked down for the whole fight. Dynamic combats are FTW; tank&spank suck even more in D&D

- Number of attacks as PC noted is important, but just as important is the type of attack. A solo that has only melee attacks will invariably become boring, (especially coupled with a lockdown fighter) as the casters can just stand safely at the back and toss spells at it. If ranged attacks doesn't suit the solo monster at all, and it has no way of getting away from the fighter, then make sure that you add minions or other (regular) monsters that can get to the place where the casters are.

 

[ZzarkLinux]

I have some questions about solos.

In the DMG, 1 solo = 5 standard monsters.

- Is it possible to use a "solo" monster with only 3-4 PCs in the game?

- What about "using solos with other monsters / minions / traps"?
Can you still design this kind of encounter with only 3 - 4 PCs?