4e Custom Level 4 Solo (PEACH)

[Sipex]

For this weekend's campaign I've made my own solo + minions for the big battle at the end of it. I'm going to have a party of 5-6 PCs with 3 confirmed strikers (it's our first game but I know the guys can play).

Anywho, I'm not sure how balanced this is. I based the stats off other similar monsters but not the powers.

Let me know what you think.

Berrian the warped - Level 4 Solo Brute
Init +3
HP: 134 Bloodied: 67
AC: 18; FORT: 20; REF 16; WILL 17
Action Points 2, +2 towards saving throws
Speed 4, 8 when bloodied
Threatening Reach 2
> Bludgeon (At-will; Std Action) Melee Reach 2
+7 vs AC; 1d12+6 damage.
> Evil Eyes (At-will; Min Action) Special
Immediately spawn 3 detached eye minions with 3 sq of Berrian. Eye minions act on initiative 20.
> Whirlwind Frenzy (Recharge 5/6; Std Action) Close Burst 2
All creatures within burst; Make a Bludgeon attack vs each target. If hit, make a second attack vs the target.
Secondary Attack: +5 vs Fort; Tgt is dazed (SE)
> Corrupt Glare (Immediate Reaction) When hit by a ranged or area attack.
Area Burst 2 centered on the target;
+5 vs Will; 1d10 psychic damage
> Bloody Mess (When First Bloodied)
Close Burst 3; All Enemies; All targets take 1d10+6 fire damage and are weakened until the end of your next turn.
Berrian Immediately uses Running Rampage
> Running Rampage (Std; Enc; Recharge 5/6) After Bloodied Only
Move up to 8 sq without provoking OAs. Make a Bludgeon attack vs each enemy you pass adjacent to. Max 1 attack per enemy.
> Action Charge (Special)
When Berrian uses an Action Point, as his action he may use Running Rampage or Whirlwind Frenzy regardless if it's charged or not.
> Unrestrainable (When bloodied; Immediate Reaction)
If Berrian is affected by Immobilised, Restrained or Slowed status effects he immediately removes the effect and immediately uses Running Rampage, free of charge.

Tactics:
Berrian will use Whirlwind Frenzy if it is charged and at least two enemies are within range, if not Berrian will attempt to move within range of 2 enemies first. Otherwise he'll use Bludgeon against one foe within range.

When Berrian becomes bloodied he gains a speed of 8, gains immunity to immobilised/restrained/slow and immediately uses Running Rampage, striking as many different targets as possible.

He will reserve his action points for when he is bloodied and then use either Whirlwind Frenzy or Running Rampage with them, whichever will net him the highest number of targets Whirlwind Frenzy will take precidence if tied.

Every round possible Berrian will spawn more Detached Eye Minions up to a maximum of 12 minons on the field at once.

Detached Eye Minion - Level 4 Minion
Init +0
HP 1; Missed attacks don't damage minions
AC 16; FORT 12; REF 12; WILL 15
Fly (hover) 8
> Tentacles (Std; At-will)
+9 vs AC; 4 damage & target is grabbed until escape.
> Restricting Tentacles (Grabbed Target; Immediate Interrupt)
When target attacks Berrian
+6 vs FORT; 4 damage & target takes -4 to the attack roll of the offending attack.

Tactics:
Detached eye minions will hurl themselves at tactically appropriate targets using Tentacles in an attempt to grab the target. Once it has a hold of an enemy it will use Restricting Tentacles whenever the enemy makes an attack which includes Berrian.

[Garryl]

Rolling initiative 8 times per round (Evil Eyes on both the minor and move actions) can be a bit tedious. Isn't there some precedent to have spawned minions act on some fixed initiative count related to their master's? You could use that. It might be a good idea to limit the number of summoned Detached Eyes, too. With as many as he can summon, they can easily overwhelm a party in and of themselves. If he does nothing but summon and blows both action points, Berrian can have 32 minions within the first 2 rounds. Heck, if his recharge powers are recharging, summoning another 4 Eyes is probably better than using a standard action on a Bludgeon attack.

Is the maximum of 12 minions on the field at once part of the rules for summoning minions, or is it just a suggestion for Berrian's tactics?

[Nu]

There is precedent for having them act on an initiative right after the solo. I might do that in opposition to having to roll a new initiative every time a new one is summoned. Or perhaps assign them to specific initiative counts, like 20, 15, 10, and 5.

In any case, I'm not sure I like the monster summoning 4 minions at-will as a minor action. Perhaps it should be limited to summoning up to a maximum of 4, with a summon replacing lost eyes rather than growing a swarm of new ones.

Also, minions have monster classes now, so perhaps they should be minion soldiers, given their abilities.

This seems to be a solo in the style of old solos, which had no resistance to status effects. When you say you've based the stats off of similar monsters, try to look at more recent monsters from the Monster Manual 3 and Dark Sun Creature Catalog onwards. The MM1/MM2 era monsters are generally considered weak, and solos in particular have serious issues with being stunned or blinded or the like.

[Sipex]

Good points.

I'll make a single initiative count pre-session for the eyes (like 20) and that'll just be the init count for 'all eyes go at this time'.

The limit was an arbitrary thing added afterwards, I don't intend to play Berrian summoning more than 8 minions a round (although most rounds I'll have him summoning 4). I may reduce that number though, maybe make it 3 for one summon that way he summons up to 6 in a round (to match the number of party members if they don't control the situation).

I'll cap it though so he can only have a maximum out at any one time, 6 might be nice. That's 2 summonings and makes life difficult for the players if they don't keep on top of things.

I did base him off the MM1 solos as that's the only book I had at the time but I adjusted his damage and health using the quick fix rules (-33% health +33% damage), I will take a look at the MM3 solos however.

Giving Berrian no resistances was intentional however, as I'm currently parodying the video game dynamic for the campaign. Berrian is sort of the 'first boss' so he's easier to trump with a bit of thinking and proper application of powers/status effects.

One thing I really really want to make sure is this doesn't become a grind. I want the PCs feeling threatened during the entire encounter. I'm hoping the number of high target attacks, threatening reach and the minions will help that but I'm not sure.

edit: However you bring to light slow and immobilisation. The whole second half of the battle is supposed to feel different from the first (with Berrian dashing around making attacks and forcing the party to chase him around instead of slowly lumbering). I'll make him immune to slow/immobilised/restrained once he's blooded.

[Nu]

I'm not sure if making him totally immune to such effects is such a good idea, as it tends to shortchange players who have those powers and make them feel like a good part of their build is useless. There is a careful balance to be maintained in that regard.

Instead, perhaps you could make it so that he ignores immobilizing and restraining effects when he uses running rampage while bloodied. As long as you specify that he moves 8 squares as part of the action he'll ignore slowed effects by default anyway.

As an example for how I picture solos that do not completely ignore status effects but are less crippled by them, I hope you'll forgive a bit of self-advertisement as I show you one of my own monsters (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12061240&postcount=18) (my players don't click this link, you know who you are).