Solo Monsters - More Powerful than Ever! [PEACH]

[Another_Poet]

J-Small and Drolyt, you both make excellent points in opposite directions. So, J-Small, you're right that if a DM uses this excessively or without restraint it's unfair and deadly. So should I add a bunch of stuff about how & when to use it? No, because as Drolyt rightly pointed out, people will use it in ways I can't predict or imagine and even in ways I don't like. I wrote a (hopefully) clearly-worded mechanic with some basic suggestions on how to implement it and that's about the best I can do. It probably will get abused by soem GMs, but hopefully it will also be used to good effect by many more.

Drolyt, your explanation about boss monsters makes plenty of sense to me. I see now the error of my ways You're right, it'll be slapped on many bosses just so they still feel "big bad". (And J-small, I really wish I had done this with "the Mutilator" and his wizard :P). Although for non-boss monsters I still think it has good uses. Adding 2 CR 8's instead of one makes sense, but adding 2 rare/mythical monsters takes some of the "rareness" and "mythicalness" out of it. 1 great wyrm dragon. 1 kraken. Heck, 1 pegasus at lower levels.

<excellent analysis of CR, XP, wealth and resources>

Totally good points. Well then I have to admit that this mechanic makes a large party work harder on CR X than a large party normally works on single-monster-CR-X (sweet, I did my job!) Perhaps as hard as a normal party has to work on single-monster-CR-X, though I'm doubtful. But you're right, in that case they should get the same XP as a smaller party.

I think that one thing any DM with a large party should realise is that they may need to adjust the XP curve. If you have 6 players you should be liberal with the bonus XP, or just give everyone a share-and-a-half. Doing so is a complete houserule - I'm not claiming it's in the books anywhere - but to keep them leveling at the "normal" rate (if that's what the group wants), it's what you need to do.

I think the big question a DM needs to ask, when using the mechanic I've proposed, is....

Does this monster adjustment make the solo monster as hard as it would be for a 4-person party? Or does it simply make it as hard as a multi-monster encounter of the same EL would be for my oversized party?

If the former, which I feel is unlikely, then add extra XP. If the latter, which seems more believable (the monster may have enough actions, but not enough hp's to equal a group of monsters, and it is limited in spells and SLAs because "full round" castings take up all of its turns) then the XP is fine as-is.

So, it depends on playtesting. :P

ap