4th Edition player characters are a stout bunch. With thousands of magical items and thousands of possible powers, there is an incredible array of possibilities for PCs. If your players are particularly adapt at choosing just the right combinations of powers, feats, paragon paths, and items, we poor DMs can find it harder and harder to challenge them. Today we’re going to look at a D&D houserule for “4th Edition, Hard Mode”. Essentially we’re going to up the threat to players without increasing the duration of battles.
The following three rules can be used individually or all together to create a great challenge for your players. This is a flexible, behind-the-screen, system that can be used for a campaign, an adventure, a single battle, or even a single creature. Use it, throw it away, and use it again later however you wish. Let’s dig into the rules:
+1W When Bloodied
If you’ve read up about 4th edition on any of the forums or around the web, you’ve heard of the Grind – that point in a battle where the PCs know they’re going to win, the monster knows its going to die, and both know it’s going to take another five rounds to make it happen. There are a few ways to avoid the grind, but one way to make the monster a bit more dangerous and interesting is to up the damage it puts out when bloodied. Essentially, a creature with this ability becomes a bit more dangerous when the chips are down. This is a subtle change and won’t be overtly noticed by the PCs unless you spell it out with some good “the orc chieftain roars out and strikes with bloody revenge!” style flavor text.
1/2 Level to Damage
A more direct way to increase the threat of your monsters is to add 1/2 their level to damage. This will end up scaling quite a bit higher so use it sparingly. This extra damage will carve through temporary hitpoints, damage resistance, and a lot of the free healing characters get at higher levels. You may not want to give this damage to all of your creatures or you’re bound to see a game that’s a lot harder than normal. Instead, give it to your favorite creatures who are expected to really dish out the damage. This works very well for solo creatures, for example.
Resist Dazes and Stuns
Speaking of solos, these guys will often need some special help to avoid dazes and stuns. Consider giving your favorite solo monsters a boost with the following ability:
Unstoppable Villain: When stunned, this creature instead loses a standard action this round. When dazed, this creature instead loses a minor action this round.
This ensures the threat of this solo will stay high and give them more actions than they would normally get when typically dazed and stunned.
Many groups may never have a need for these house rules. Sometimes the combinations just work out fine. Other times, however, a DM may find their tools to scare the players a bit thin. These three simple rules can help solve that problem. Give them a try on your next boss and see how they work out.
Damn, Mike. I ‘m glad I subscribe to your RSS feed. These are some good articles.
I have been using “hard mode” for a while now– my formula is monster attacks do extra damage equal to (level – 4) / 2 since the lower levels of play are hard enough for even experienced players. I also subtract 1 hp per level from monsters (2hp level/elites, 4hp/level solos) to avoid the grind.
And this is why I keep coming back here. This is great stuff
Another option is to make your monsters Brutal1 or Brutal 2.
I like your suggestions, although tracking the extra math is a step I try to avoid. My method is to cut monster hit points in half (to cut down the grind) but double the hit point damage monsters cause (to increase the threat).
I have also been DMing “Hard & Fast” for over a year now: Monsters all have 1/3 less hit points; they always do an extra 1W damage; powers recharge on an extra step (i.e. a power that recharges on a 6, now recharges on a 5 or 6); and monsters only regen HALF of whatever amount it says in the MM. We have played over 150 games at all Tiers using this method. It’s tough – but it gets the blood boiling (and rarely have our battles lasted more than 30-40 minutes – even with Brutes or Solos). Out of 150 games, there have only been two PC deaths (who were later resurrected).
As a DM, I respectfully disagree with much of Hard Mode.
Adding damage, i.e. +1W while bloodied or +1/2 level, does not solve the Grind issue, as PCs will take just as long to kill the monster.
Resisting dazes and stuns is already built into the mechanics of solo monsters–they get a +5 saves, after all.
In both cases, my biggest reason for not using these mechanics in my game would be that they would arbitrarily reward and punish certain builds. In a world where bloodied monsters often hit for an extra 1[W] damage, a tiefling with the paragon feat Bloodthirsty is going to become a far tastier build. On the other hand, daze and stun are powerful effects, often requiring a character to “trade down” on damage, dealing only 1[W] instead of 2[W] or 3[W] in the hopes that an enemy can be stalled for a round.
Though I agree that the Grind should be addressed, I think these house rules have a negative impact on PC balance.
@Mario: Grind isn’t just the length of time to kill the monster. It’s the point where the monster is no longer going to be a threat to the PCs. So by upping damage when it’s bloodied, you make it a greater threat for a longer period of time.
One thing I’m confused though, is what Sly means by +1W. For instance, if the basic attack does 2d6+5, is that 1W another 2d6? Or is it 1d6?
What about an encounter power that does 4d10 damage…is +1W then 8d10? or another 1d10?
By 1w I meant one extra die of damage so 4d10 turns into 5d10.