What Have We Done About Solos?

[CapnZapp]

Nothing. But nothing prevents all the attacks from being on one target either.

And considering how much damage it can do a single target, it's usually pretty dumb not to just shred one guy.

I thought a Hydra would be pretty dumb?

Having your monsters act recklessly can add a lot of fun to a fight (and combat the grind too, as mentioned by Stalker0). In other words: drop the competitive thinking here. Your Hydra isn't there to "win", it's there to entertain the players.

 

[Goumindong]

Nothing. But nothing prevents all the attacks from being on one target either.

And considering how much damage it can do a single target, it's usually pretty dumb not to just shred one guy.

The bonus damage seems to imply that the creature is going to want to try to hit as many enemies as it can two times per round. Its going to start out with a rampage[to inflict save ends damage on everyone], then its going to attack everyone twice[unless they provoked, then once]

Unless its marked, then it would gang up on the marked guy.

 

[Runestar]

I thought a Hydra would be pretty dumb?

Having your monsters act recklessly can add a lot of fun to a fight (and combat the grind too, as mentioned by Stalker0). In other words: drop the competitive thinking here. Your Hydra isn't there to "win", it's there to entertain the players.

Isn't that the reason behind giving them multiple attacks?

While the hydra could theoretically make 5-8 attacks in a given round (possibly more with AP), it is highly unlikely that it will actually hit with all of them, unless your player's AC is really low, or the DM got very lucky with his dice. Maybe half will hit, the rest will miss, so actual/expected damage ends up being much lower than anticipated.

Just another incentive to optimize your character better.

 

[Pale Jackal]

Having your monsters act recklessly can add a lot of fun to a fight (and combat the grind too, as mentioned by Stalker0). In other words: drop the competitive thinking here. Your Hydra isn't there to "win", it's there to entertain the players.

A very good point. Alternately, you can throw some ability on top of the hydra to encourage it to attack multiple targets or to charge past the defender and get into the back ranks. The Salamander Firetail's Trail of Fire looks fun in that regard: standard move action, but everyone adjacent to it's move takes 10 fire damage. You don't want to over-use this type of mechanic, but for a solo, it seems perfectly appropriate.

 

[keterys]

I totally agree the hydra would be a better level 20 solo if it had, say, something to move its enemies if they pin it down in a zone, or some way (any at all) to deal with a flying ranged attacker, or even just a ranged attacker.

The 'if 2 hit do 10 extra damage' would potentially encourage it to split its attacks around, but its chance to hit isn't _that_ good so it doesn't actually make sense to do so. It makes sense for it to tear up one foe at a time. I would love if it had some incentive to attack multiple creatures - like if its 'attack everyone in range' attack were much worth using.

Give it a stomp that pushes 2 in a close burst 2, a minor action 1/round close blast breath weapon (ongoing poison? blinds?) maybe that makes it hit with one less head on its many bites attack, and make its close-ish attack more effective than its 'I destroy one enemy' attack...

And give it something, anything, to deal with ranged. Reaction to spit poison that blinds? Dunno.

 

[SlyFlourish]

"Maybe some solo fights can instead be 5 separate creatures that are bound together: like legs, head, and tail of a dragon all having separate stats. It would give you milestones in the fight, as taking down legs or a tail would be tangible achievement, which solo encounters in general lack. As you're bashing away at 500 hit points, the only dent you put into it is the "bloodied" title."

I had this image of Loki at the end of Ghouls and Ghosts. Big huge body with independent arms, legs, and head.

Game Fiend at the most excellent At Will website talked about running a single huge guy as three encounters with skill challenges built in. Imagine battling a single primordial in a single huge fight. I thought that sounded awesome.

 

[Dionysos]

To make existing solos truly as dangerous as 5 monsters of their level, most would have to be almost completely rewritten. While this is a laudable goal, I simply dont have the free time to do this. As a quick-and-dirty solution for the campaign that I DM, I am reducing their hit points and XP value to 3/5 of the current total, and filling in the extra xp in the encounter budget with more backup monsters.

Most solos are not as dangerous as five monsters, but they do generally function well enough as "elite-and-a-half". This little fix of mine just treats them as such in every way.

 

[Flipguarder]

There's a certain amount of dangerousness/power that comes from having more than one monster on the field.This varies incredibly due to different abilities and roles. it also makes it unreasonably difficult to make 1 solo = to 5 regular monsters. Unless a Solo monster can make more versions of itself or summon or something like that, I just change every "solo" in the MM to "boss" in my head and just assume he has a few friends.

 

[James McMurray]

There's a certain amount of dangerousness/power that comes from having more than one monster on the field.This varies incredibly due to different abilities and roles. it also makes it unreasonably difficult to make 1 solo = to 5 regular monsters. Unless a Solo monster can make more versions of itself or summon or something like that, I just change every "solo" in the MM to "boss" in my head and just assume he has a few friends.

Off the top of my head only Tiamat seems really capable of being a solo and still being an interesting fight. But she's more like 5 monsters in a single body.

 

[MrAlgothi]

I totally agree the hydra would be a better level 20 solo if it had, say, something to move its enemies if they pin it down in a zone, or some way (any at all) to deal with a flying ranged attacker, or even just a ranged attacker.

The 'if 2 hit do 10 extra damage' would potentially encourage it to split its attacks around, but its chance to hit isn't _that_ good so it doesn't actually make sense to do so. It makes sense for it to tear up one foe at a time. I would love if it had some incentive to attack multiple creatures - like if its 'attack everyone in range' attack were much worth using.

Give it a stomp that pushes 2 in a close burst 2, a minor action 1/round close blast breath weapon (ongoing poison? blinds?) maybe that makes it hit with one less head on its many bites attack, and make its close-ish attack more effective than its 'I destroy one enemy' attack...

And give it something, anything, to deal with ranged. Reaction to spit poison that blinds? Dunno.

Personally, I would add a new ability. Should the hydra hit with two attacks on a single character. The Hydra can fling said character X Squares, and the target lands prone unless it can succeed an acrobatics check. Alternatively, the Hydra could fling the target at another character in range, making a Str vs Ref attack. If hit, both targets take damage and are prone.

This gives the hydra a range attack, shift the battle and not get pinned down, and allow it to use its Threatening Reach more.