So Low Solos

I was talking with a friend that came into town recently, and we rolled around to Dungeons and Dragons and DMing like we always do. This time we started talking about solos and specifically dragons. We both love the idea of fighting big terrible creatures and the pride that a party feels when they best them, but we agreed that often these fights turn into overly long slogs.

The problem is that solos seem to have too many hit points. They run out of powers and so do the players, especially at low levels, long before the fight is over. I heard someone on the Dungeons and Dragons official podcast talking about this once and they seemed to agree. They suggested lowering the hit points but increasing the damage to compensate. I tried that but then the solos seemed over-powered. I did land on a solution though. I lower the hit points but raised the attack bonus. If I want it to be a quicker fight I will sometimes lower the defences as well. This way they're not invincible, but they stay devastating. Now they never miss, but they're more killable. The party has fun while the monster is doling out devastating powers and the fight is over before it gets tedious.

One quick side-note: if you want solo fights to move quickly, avoid the berbalang. The only powers the creature has feel boring and lengthen the fight. I ran him once and vowed never to use him again.