Level 8 PCs pound my Level 12 Solo

[Storminator]

Yesterday's game brought my PCs into conflict with a 12th level Solo - the Deathbringer Dracolich.

Despite the recent loss of 2 strikers, they managed to wail on it pretty hard. I played it a little carelessly, since the fighting part wasn't actually the goal of the encounter, and a pretty good list of dailies flew out, and all the action points were used. But the group apparently can hit like a ton of bricks if they have to.

The encounter was the afterlife transition of the 2 dead strikers. The Keeper manifested as the dracolich (what else?), and The Forgotten One as a tentacled horror, and the two of them fought over the possession of the dead souls. Our "heroes" managed to push both souls into The Forgotten One's cave and out of the Keeper's jars.

But no need to hold back on some higher level foes now. . .

PS

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Are you using the updated monster damage ala mm3?

And yes higher level Pcs can both dish it out and take it. My level 25 games last session saw the 'defender' critting for over 100 points of damage ...6 times!

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[Storminator]

Are you using the updated monster damage ala mm3?

And yes higher level Pcs can both dish it out and take it. My level 25 games last session saw the 'defender' critting for over 100 points of damage ...6 times!

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk

It was a Monster Vault monster, so it should have the new damage.

My monster had other interests besides killing the PCs. Had it been more serious it would have moved more and spent more time pushing the defender around (which it could have done every round if it wasn't using that power to try and accomplish its other goals)

PS

 

[Upper_Krust]

How many PCs were there Storminator?

 

[Storminator]

How many PCs were there Storminator?

Six. Two of them weren't really involved in the fight (one was trying to run, the other was trying to join the Dracolich)

PS

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Storminator!

Six. Two of them weren't really involved in the fight (one was trying to run, the other was trying to join the Dracolich)

Okay, thanks.

In the adventure portion of my Vampire Bestiary I have a Wendigo Behemoth (Level 11 Solo Brute) as the culmination for an adventure for suggested Levels 5-6 (although they would be Levels 6-7 by the time they faced it).

Its a tough encounter (and meant to be) so I built-in an escape clause (whereby the chambers doorways are too small for the imprisoned wendigo and it would have to spend a few rounds bashing through them if thy fled.

But your report makes me feel a little less concerned for the PCs well-being. You always want it to be challenging without resulting in a TPK.

 

[Uller]

At 3500 xp and 6 pcs its a level 10 or 11 encounter. Difficult but if they have lots of dailies and action points not terribly so.

 

[keterys]

There's a pretty big difference in that encounter if you're mean about it, than having it be distracted.

It can weaken hit or miss with its breath, dominate a _lot_ and do 15 psychic when it misses with that attack, and its OA does solid damage (hint, dominated PCs tend to provoke a lot)

A group of 11s should tear through it, but only 4 L8s shoulda been torn apart if you were actually trying. OTOH, it is nice to know how tough folks are

 

[pemerton]

I don't use that many solos, but run a lot of over-EL encounters. Recently, the PCs in my game took on the following sequence of encounters without an extended rest:

*Comp 2 L14 skill challenge (as a result of which each PC lost one encounter power until their next extended rest);

*L17 combat;

*L15 combat;

*L7 combat;

*L13 combat;

*L15 combat;

*Comp 1 L14 skill challenge;

*L16 combat;

*L14 combat;

*L13 combat;

*Comp 1 L15 skill challenge;

*L16 combat (the L15 solo was defeated by being pushed over a bridge down a waterfall);

*L15 combat (the solo returned later in the night, having survived the fall and climbed back up).​

The PCs started this day at 14th level, and finished it at 15th.

Admittedly some of the encounters involved waves/split opposition rather than a unified force; but equally, in some of the encounter the PCs were split and couldn't bring all their power to bear simultaneously or in a co-ordinated fashion.

I continue to find 4e PCs very resilient.

 

[Storminator]

There's a pretty big difference in that encounter if you're mean about it, than having it be distracted.

It can weaken hit or miss with its breath, dominate a _lot_ and do 15 psychic when it misses with that attack, and its OA does solid damage (hint, dominated PCs tend to provoke a lot)

A group of 11s should tear through it, but only 4 L8s shoulda been torn apart if you were actually trying. OTOH, it is nice to know how tough folks are

I think the biggest thing was I basically ignored the PCs while they kept piling on damage. Had I been more interested in winning the fight, I would have pushed the paladin away instead of just sucking his radiant damage, and I would have moved away from the warpriest at least once after he activated his radiant damage aura. I was actually dishing the damage pretty respectably. Also, if you're solo, how do you get the Domination to create OAs? You can't take them on your own turn, right? If there were other creatures, sure.

UK, you might want to test out that encounter of yours. Over-leveled solo brutes can dish out a bunch of damage. Even with controller damage and other tasks I dropped a PC.

PS