Wookeh over at Awesome Gaming has an interesting idea, one that does bear merit and further consideration I think. To sum up the idea here and I recommend you visit the link to see the entire thing, the idea is to add a minor Skill Challenge to certain monsters, specifically solo aka boss monsters.
The idea is based on the very common thought that 4e limits combat and is spammy (again how is this different from earlier editions where there was just a ‘I roll to hit’) with repeated attacks and that 4E’s creatures have too many hit points and take too long to kill. But I’ve done that discussion several times now so I won’t do it again. Much.
So to mechanically/statically add new options when fighting Solo’s the folks at Awesome Gaming have a thought to add a simple ‘skill challenge’ to bosses to allow you those options. As an example of my own:
Easily Distracted – Bluff DC 25, Intimidate DC 25, Diplomacy DC 25, Athletics DC 22 – 6 successes before 3 failures.
Effect: The first two melee attacks made before the end of the creatures next turn are at +2 to hit and deal an extra 2d6 damage and cause ongoing damage 5 (bleeding save ends).
And this skill challenge would be tacked onto say a Hill Giant solo boss that is the end fight for a humanoid tribe kind of encounter series.
Where this might backfire though is the players wanting to do this kind of thing on every hill giant or worse on every encounter afterwards. So before implementing something like this you’d have to be very upfront that SOME boss fights have unique things about them. Perhaps have an Insight or Perception to allow the players the chance to pick up on the fact that the creature has a little ‘something something’ about it. Â Knowledge based checks would work as well of course, Arcana, Religion, Nature, Dungeoneering, Streetwise etc. Whatever makes the most sense for your creature/world.
A snipped from the article.
3.5e introduced the flood of classes and races that we are all (I’m sure) familiar with. Each had a few unique mechanics, and each added it’s own subtle layer to combat. Psionics would add an aspect to combat that fighters and wizards didn’t have. Swordsages too. Each splatbook added a few new feats, classes, and thus a new dimension to combat.
4e, many complain, is designed to codify combat into a series of a similar actions. Your at-will, encounter and daily powers limit your character’s capabilities, and thus your ability to be creative in combat.
In 3.5e, a tavern brawl might include kicking tables over, striking enemies with chairs, throwing mugs of ale (hopefully empty!), climbing under tables, hiding behind the bar, putting out torches to escape, and many more creative options. In 4e, you can Cleave or you can Reaping Strike. It feels like the game has had a lot of options sucked out.
Now, any good 4e advocate will tell you that it’s nothing like that at all – in fact, they’ve properly set out damage according to level with a handy table in the DMG!
But something about powers smacks of “you’re limited to using this, except in special casesâ€. And it’s at least partially true – powers will suffice for most combats.
But the encounters I’d like to focus on are the epic ones – the ones where you’re meant to think outside of the box. Solo encounters are the “boss fights†of 4e. They’re meant to be hard. The potential for a TPK is meant to be an ever-present concern. And detractors from 4e point out that solo encounters are long, often monotonous as characters drop all their daily and encounter powers, then rinse-repeat at-will powers until one side dies.
This blog post is about proposing a new mechanic for solo encounters, inspired by computer games and novels.
