Re: #1: Tweaking The Young Black Dragon and the Fen Hydra
A very good idea for a column.
As for the advice itself, however, I feel you are both too conservative and too "fiddly".
Don't make recommendations that does not have a significant impact; that's just a strain on the DM's memory capacity.
Generally, you seem to fall into the "solo means alone" trap that really make me wish WotC had used another term for their "double-elite" monster type.
Much better to pitch the party against a relatively low-level Solo (say, of equal level to the party) and boost him with minions and regulars than to use a relatively high-level Solo (say, of four or five levels higher than the party) and use it alone. '
Abilities like "Call Minions" are great; that's showing us DMs how to open up to entirely new powers that aren't merely boosting existing ones. And it shows that to really shine, a Solo should not be encountered alone.
More great ideas like that, and I'm looking forward to future installments of this series!
Personally though, one of your main foci, that of solving the oversized party, comes across as a bit unfortunate in how I'm getting the impression (I might be wrong) "you don't need to fix the Solo unless you have 6+ adventurers in your group" which of course is not the case.
Many Solos need fixin' (meaning some serious buffing) even in an undersized party. And to make your column as generally useful as possible, I'd hope for future installments to first offer advice that are generally applicable; only then adding some extra thoughts on the oversized party...
Re: #1: Tweaking The Young Black Dragon and the Fen Hydra
I enjoyed this column. I didn't entirely understand how you determined what needed to be changed and by how much though. Are you using rules of thumb, playtests, or are you simply going for what looks right?
Also, I don't know if the new SRD and RPGnet's policies allow for this, but it would be great if you could provide full updated statistics for the monsters you tweak.
Re: #1: Tweaking The Young Black Dragon and the Fen Hydra
Thanks for your kind words. To answer some questions:
Many DMs use photocopies or the like of the pages from the MM they're using, to speed up play; changing a few numbers is more an issue of scratching out one thing and writing in another. At least, I use such tricks, gives me a better chance to keep track of all the fiddly +1 next round, -2 to hit this round, slowed save ends stuff that comes up.
I don't exactly fall into the 'solo means alone' trap, in my opinion...for both solos, I suggest adding an endless supply of monsters (either minions for the dragon, or vines for the hydra), after all. That said, the idea of one huge monster, able to take on a group of heroes, should at least be possible AND fun, in my opinion; most of my proposed fixes are for the solos in general, I only add a few paragraphs to buff up the things against the 'large party' possibility.
Most of these ideas are coming from my own campaign (7 players at the table...no wizard, for obvious reasons), and seeing stuff happen there (eg, a half dozen dailies unloaded at once into a blinded monster) that might be a bit more than what the designers originally intended. While I mention particular monsters, the articles hopefully give ideas to DMs on how they might build their encounters in a more balanced and interesting way for their own campaigns, even with other monsters.
Re: #1: Tweaking The Young Black Dragon and the Fen Hydra
Quote:
Originally Posted by Goldenboy
and seeing stuff happen there (eg, a half dozen dailies unloaded at once into a blinded monster) that might be a bit more than what the designers originally intended.
Well, then your column is perhaps targeted more towards that niche of players.
Certainly a solo isn't broken just because it croaks when it has to eat seven dailies.
I mean, the problem isn't play balance, it is the number of players.
I'm hesitant to discuss any particulars, because I don't feel solutions targeted towards seven-player parties make for very useful general advice, but perhaps you should generally just take two solos and mash them together?
That is, take a solo, add all the powers of a second solo (possibly a copy of the first one) - but obviously not adding hp, attack bonuses or defenses - and run with that.
I mean, you're running a seven man party! Regardless of what WotC tries to tell you, that's gotta break down any attempt at following the standard monster guidelines.
Re: #1: Tweaking The Young Black Dragon and the Fen Hydra
In the main forum listing, this article shows up as "Tweaking the Young Black..."
This sounds entirely different than the actual content of the article. Just wanted to point that out.
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Re: #1: Tweaking The Young Black Dragon and the Fen Hydra
I can't help but be a little confused as what you're trying to say here, since at no point does the article address specifically a 7 man party (in fact, the word 'seven' does not appear anywhere in the article, and '7' only appears as part of '17').
Instead, the article addresses general balance issues with a particular pair of monsters, suggests ways to fix them to make them into more amusing fights, and also suggests ways to build encounters, sometimes in light of the suggested changes. After that, some suggestions for adjusting the monster for dealing with a larger, or smaller, than the 'standard' five man party is given. But no, this article isn't about 7 man (or woman!) parties in particular, just no way to take that from a reading of it.
Perhaps I'm just completely misunderstanding what you're trying to do here? If there's a particular 7 man party and monster you've having issues with, feel free to PM me and I'll be happy to help any way I can.
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