Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 sufimoru_dup May 08, 2009 7:20:30	I was wondering if anyone did anything to spice up their big baddies. Having just ended my paragon tier campaign, and about to start up a heroic tier, I'm trying to have one solo per session, with each solo being a unique "puzzle." I'll keep this trend as long as I can keep thinking of them. One idea is a page from Shadow of the Colossus. The enemy is colossal (har har), and will have resist all so high that even dailies will just scratch it. A player can climb up on to it, and expose a weak point. Any attacks made on that weak point actually are subject to vulnerabe rather than resist. A dragon in its cave can be pinned down with collapsing stalactites, allowing the players to simply get behind it and not have to worry about its breath, bite, or claws. A lumbering giant takes a turn just pulling back an arm to make its devastatingly strong club attack, resulting in opportunities to use decoys and total defense. A ghost appears at the beginning of its turn, and disappears at the end, but once the players begin to ready actions, it's quickly dealt with. A vicious fighter simply doesn't care who he's attacking, as long as he's drawing blood. By making use of forced movement effects, and potentially a controller's ability to get them to stay still, one can put weak enemies in front of him. In doing so, the fighter's bloodthrist is sated-- this turn-- and you get another enemy off the table. The basic idea is that if the party tries to brute force a solo, they will die. They'll have a couple of harsh rounds as they figure out just what the thing does, but once they've got the solution, it should be a cakewalk from there. And as I've no intention of reusing solos they've already fought, it should always be a new "puzzle."
#2 Qube May 08, 2009 7:39:47	I was wondering if anyone did anything to spice up their big baddies. for heroic tier I did: they needed a number of side quests (get the holy dagger, finish the ritual, ...) and then the party faces the BBEG ... with the difference that, instead of a lvl 10 soldier, it now was a lvl 20 minion (still quite good, but a single hit killed it: that was their price for finishing the side quests) ...
#3 bastard_dm May 08, 2009 10:22:44	I definitely think that interesting terrain features are especially important for a good solo fight. Otherwise, the party will just back the thing into a corner and beat it to death. From what I've seen, the best way to keep solo fights interesting is to try and include a trap (or two) or maybe a few other monsters, even if they're just minions. Obviously, this means you have to be able to spare the xp in the encounter's budget, which can be really hard to do with 3-4 players. As a result, although my games with 4-5 players tend to run more quickly and smoothly than those with 6, my solo encounters have generally been much more exciting when I have the extra xp to spend!