Shorkan
2009-06-23, 07:02 AM
The rest of my party and I think the 4e monsters are build way too defensive. The combats take too long, and start to feel sluggish after a while. They start fun, but after a couple of rounds the monsters have used all their recharge abilities and we have used our encounter (and in hard combats also our daily) abilities and it starts to feel like a grind. My DM just sort of doubles their attack and halves their HP, but he does this a bit random and without too much thought. We are almost done with our campaign though, and I am planning to DM the next one, and I'd like to come up with a more balanced way of making monsters more aggressive.
It is obviously far from linear: the PCs daily and encounter powers probably have a bigger influence than the monsters recharge and encounter powers, and the shorter the combats the more influence they have. Therefore I should not half the monster's HP if I double their damage, but probably divide it by about 1.8 or so to make it balanced (just a rough guess).
Also, if a monster mind controls a player, I think I should double that player's damage for the duration of the mind control. If the monster's attack do double damage, then the damage the monster inflicts with the mind controll should also be doubled.
I am still at a loss about what to do with healing though. Perhaps I should multiply it with 1.8, because in a way the damage from PCs is also multiplied with that (the damage from the PCs has 1.8 times as much effect as normal, because the mobs HP is divided by that).
Or perhaps I should double it, because healing is supposed to compensate some of the damage the monsters do, and that damage is doubled.
Or maybe I shouldn't change healing at all. Healing is only half as effective then, but keeping a player alive causes the monster to die 1.8 times as fast as normal. Or actually, that doesn't fully compensate the first effect I mentioned in the previous sentence. Should I apply both calculations then? Multiply with 2 and divide by 1.8? I don't know.
Another issue is Crowd Control. Keeping a monster crowd controlled now has a much greater impact, because you prevent twice as much damage with it. Many CC effects only last one turn or are safe ends, so I really wouldn't know what to do about that.
I know it's impossible to fully balance it, but then again, the MM isn't perfectly balanced either, and I am willing to make the game a bit less balanced if it means quicker and more exciting combats. I'd like it to be as balanced as possible though, and any help with this would certainly be appreciated.
It is obviously far from linear: the PCs daily and encounter powers probably have a bigger influence than the monsters recharge and encounter powers, and the shorter the combats the more influence they have. Therefore I should not half the monster's HP if I double their damage, but probably divide it by about 1.8 or so to make it balanced (just a rough guess).
Also, if a monster mind controls a player, I think I should double that player's damage for the duration of the mind control. If the monster's attack do double damage, then the damage the monster inflicts with the mind controll should also be doubled.
I am still at a loss about what to do with healing though. Perhaps I should multiply it with 1.8, because in a way the damage from PCs is also multiplied with that (the damage from the PCs has 1.8 times as much effect as normal, because the mobs HP is divided by that).
Or perhaps I should double it, because healing is supposed to compensate some of the damage the monsters do, and that damage is doubled.
Or maybe I shouldn't change healing at all. Healing is only half as effective then, but keeping a player alive causes the monster to die 1.8 times as fast as normal. Or actually, that doesn't fully compensate the first effect I mentioned in the previous sentence. Should I apply both calculations then? Multiply with 2 and divide by 1.8? I don't know.
Another issue is Crowd Control. Keeping a monster crowd controlled now has a much greater impact, because you prevent twice as much damage with it. Many CC effects only last one turn or are safe ends, so I really wouldn't know what to do about that.
I know it's impossible to fully balance it, but then again, the MM isn't perfectly balanced either, and I am willing to make the game a bit less balanced if it means quicker and more exciting combats. I'd like it to be as balanced as possible though, and any help with this would certainly be appreciated.