Troubleshoot my monsters

[Rechan]

One reason these encounters are a little tougher is because I increased the power of PCs via houserules.

EVERYONE is considered to have a 20 in every stat for purposes of attacking only (thus, they have a base +5 to an attack, before weapon proficiencies). EVERYONE gets a free racial feat. EVERYONE gets a chance per round to recharge MISSED encounter/daily powers (IF they do not use any effects/Miss effects from their daily powers).

So they have a good chance of hitting, and are pretty much always going to hit at least once with their Encounter/Daily powers. They're fairly powerful, offensively speaking.

Thus, I feel a little justified to hit them fairly hard.

And what is your 6th player? A controller I guess, but is it a wizard or an invoker?

The sixth character is a Hybrid Invoker]Cleric. His invoker powers are Divine Bolts and Thunder of Judgment, so no blasts/bursts, but multiple target attacks. (His cleric powers are Astral Seal and Beacon of Hope, so a "Weaken all enemies" daily and a -2 to Defenses AW is going to move things along well).

While there is no dedicated controller, there are multiple characters with secondary controller roles.

The paladin is a Dragonborn, so we have a close blast.
The barbarian is a Thunderborn barbarian, so he has multiple blasts (one of which is an AW).
The fighter is a Tempest, so two-target attacks are a given.

 

[Mesh Hong]

One reason these encounters are a little tougher is because I increased the power of PCs via houserules.

EVERYONE is considered to have a 20 in every stat for purposes of attacking only (thus, they have a base +5 to an attack, before weapon proficiencies). EVERYONE gets a free racial feat. EVERYONE gets a chance per round to recharge MISSED encounter/daily powers (IF they do not use any effects/Miss effects from their daily powers).

So they have a good chance of hitting, and are pretty much always going to hit at least once with their Encounter/Daily powers. They're fairly powerful, offensively speaking.

Thus, I feel a little justified to hit them fairly hard.

Thats fairly important information right there! This changes things quite a lot because, as you say, the PCs are going to be able to hit pretty consistantly and with six of them they can drop creatures very quickly with focused fire. (My own campaign has 6 PCs and they can be horrifically efficient at times, which is why I started designing my own creatures in the first place).

With this new information I am reasonably tempted to say that the creatures look OK as originally designed. If any PC is reduced to 0 HPs then the others do have a good chance of making heal checks to stabalise them before death.

Also as you say, if the PCs have been boosted, it is only fair to have the creatures weighted towards the top end of legal damage, and to be honest even if I think some of the damages are too high for a standard group they are still inside what I consider legal by the monster creation rules and other creatures of the same general level.

General points:

1: Some of the powers are not written clearly enough for anyone other than yourself to properly understand. If a power is 1 target within burst 10 then that is what the power should state. Sometimes I just add "this power does not provoke opportunity attacks" to the description to keep things simple.

2: Personally I am very careful about ongoing damage from low level creatures. Maybe I am a bit soft but it is not until a creature is level 5 until I feel 100% confident about giving it a power with ongoing 5 damage. Of course in you own game, with your own rules a little ongoing 5 damage might be perfectly reasonable, thats a call that only you can make though really.

Specific points:

1: I would increase the HPs of the Herald of Winter from 100 to 124 (about 80% of expected), I don't think you will have any grind issues with all your PCs having maximum attack bonus.

2: Freeze Breath - needs to be clearer

Freeze Breath (Immediate Reaction, when damaged by ranged attack, recharge 5, 6) Close Burst 5
+6 vs. Fort; 1d6+3 cold damage, target takes ongoing 5 cold damage (save ends)

Freeze Breath (immediate reaction, recharge ) - cold, when
damaged by a ranged attack
When damaged by a ranged attack Herald may make the following attack
against its aggressor; range 5; does not provoke opportunity attacks;
attack + 6 vs. Fortitude; 1d6+3 cold damage; on hit target takes 5
ongoing cold damage (save ends)

3: Crimson Caltrops - I still feel that 2 damage is fairer than 5 because it is each square that they move into and the area is difficult terrain. So melee characters are paying a 2 HP tax every round to attack the creature, (assuming the creature keeps shifting one square back).

4: Rod of Furious Ice - see general note 2. I think you might be able to get away with 5 ongoing damage.

5: Evil Eye - needs to be clearer.

Evil Eye: (Minor, AW) Clsoe Burst 10
+6 vs. Will; 1d6+3 necrotic damage, and target receives -2 to all defenses until end of Gaze's next turn.

Evil Eye (minor, at will) - necrotic
Burst 10; 1 creature inside burst; attack +6 vs. Will; 1d6+3 necrotic
damage; on hit target takes a -2 penalty to all defences until the end of
Gaze's next turn

6: Frigid Grasp - needs to be clearer.

Frigid Grasp (Standard, E) Range 10
+6 vs. Will; 1d10+3 cold damage. Target is slid 5 squares to ally; ally can make a basic attack with a +2.

Frigid Grasp (standard, encounter) - cold
Range 10; attack +6 vs. Will; 1d10+3 cold damage; on hit slide target up to 5 squares, if the target ends this slide adjacent to at least one ally then one of its allies makes a basic attack against the target (Gaze's choice).

7: Chilling Aura - I would stick with 3 damage and drop the aura to 1 square. Or because you are not using a lot of them keep the Aura 2 and drop the damage to 2.

8: Ice Reaper - Yeah, I wasn't thinking enough, it shouldn't apply to aura damage. But there is just enough ambiguity that someone could make that mistake. As this is for use against level 1 PCs I would specify that the bonus damage is only with its Frozen Flail attack.

As an aside: against level 7 PCs I used some level 5 minions once that exploded on death for burst 1 1d6+4 damage (+daze) and level 5 skirmishers burst 2 1d6+4 damage (+daze) - these are still talked about by group now at level 20 as being horribly overpowered!

Anyway I think this will give you an idea of where I rate the balance of these creatures for your specific use. i.e. Fine - go get'em.

 

[Rechan]

Thanks a lot. I'll report back after things come out.

And yes, I'll be clearer next time. It's one of those "You forget to put it in there because you know how you are going to use it".

 

[Mesh Hong]

And yes, I'll be clearer next time. It's one of those "You forget to put it in there because you know how you are going to use it".

Yes, I am sometimes guilty of this myself when creating monsters for my own use.

I always try to be a lot clearer when posting something, to remove any ambiguity.

By the way I havn't said how much I like the concept of frozen creatures thawed by winter spirits. Its a good'un.

My PCs recently teleported into the ruined "Temple of Blasphamous Death" where in ancient history the Raven Queen killed the then God of Winter and took her power. The temple was exiled to the shadowfell after the fact. Not that they knew that when they arrived and had to deal with the spirits that eternally linger there.... They are now bravely venturing into the edge of Orcus's realm through the "Canyons of Desolation" to find out what he's been up to in the "Canyon of Bones". <insert complicated and ambiguous plot>

 

[Rechan]

Thanks, MH. If you're curious, my campaign.

 

[the Jester]

These look pretty cool, though I'd reduce the Evil Eye to minor 1/round. Also, i'd increase the solo's hit points some. Freeze breath looks fine to me; but these guys might be just a little complicated due to their number of options.

Oh yeah- I agree that you should specify that Ice Reaver only applies to melee attacks, not the aura (or, imho, the burst power).

 

[Rechan]

I increased the Solo's HP to 150.

The PCs pretty much tore the hell out of all the encounters. They stomped the first two. Namely because they focus fired.

The Solo wasn't ever in a real good position to use his powers except with one good Wave of Ice. He managed to bring the Assassin to -2 HP, but everyone else was fairly OK.

Partly because the players just KEPT ROLLING CRITS. At least 3 crits per encounter.

Only a single archer managed to hit with his encounter, also.

 

[the Jester]

Oh boy do I know how that is.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Partly because the players just KEPT ROLLING CRITS. At least 3 crits per encounter.

Those pesky do gooder PCs with their massive damage!

Last session the cleric in my party critted 3 creatures with the same attack, then critted against one of the same creatures the next turn.

The group (level 20) in the next encouner managed to completely embarass a level 24 elite Fomorion. The poor creature was stunned, knocked prone, dazed and weakened, then weakened (taking a few crits on the way). The Fomorion only got to make 3 attacks (and that included using its action point).

Ah well, thems the breaks. It isn't easy being a monster.

Only a single archer managed to hit with his encounter, also.

Good old encounter powers, you give them a good name and make them dangerous. Then you describe the attack showing off your clever name and inspiring a moment of dread in your players....then it misses by a long way, making the creature look like a fool.

I usually end up feeling sorry for any monster that inadvertantly crosses paths with my PCs. And BBEG's really never understand where it all went wrong for them.......