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Solo monsters haven't really been fixed, a true solo needs to have multiple immediate interrupts, with the base line ability to negate daze, stun, and criticals on an 11-20 when they happen. That will fix up the current system in play and allow solo monsters to be solo monsters. That along with the system in place in MM2 should rebalance the current sway of power that this game is steadily ramping to.
(PC's doing 260+ damage in a round in paragon tier due to crits is simply unacceptable without a way to control how a monster can receive critical's.)
I'm fine with the potential for damage to be there, but the only way to counter paragon and very soon epic level characters without removing their ability to do anything via control monsters is to simply change the way current monster defenses work.
I run a lot of specials, heck I helped Marshall and run the special at Gen Con this year, and the feedback I have received is, players want to have their actions, not have every ability removed because its the only way to stop them from doing anything.
Simply change the format around, let the monsters have better ways to mitigate what the players do while allowing them the ability to do their turns and I think a lot of players will be much more pleased. Because as it stands, tricked out tables have a 50% chance to roll through things without breaking a sweat due to massive damage, initiative rolls etc, or they die because of immobilization, dazed, prone, being thrown out continuously.
Just some feedback on the entire state of combat / solo monster thing for you wotc type people to mull over.

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Bigfluffylemon wrote:

It's a tough balance, though. Give the monster an ability to shake off daze, stun, etc., and the warlock player who's invested a lot in single target control sulks.

And I'd never have a 'negate crits on an 11-20' thing. Crits are great, and no-one wants to be told that the natural 20 doesn't crit. That's not fun.

No easy solution, really. The best one, IMO, is to build encounters featuring lower level solos + grunts. Individual solos equal to party level are rarely a threat.

PS 260+ damage on a crit? Really? That must involve some serious cheese; given that most CharOp rubbish is highly item dependent, I wouldn't have thought that much would show up in LFR, at least not until epic.

My cleric this weekend with the right feats, did a 4w attack that critted for a 140+ damage, then followed it up with a basic attack due to a feat, recharged a monsters ability that it then used, it made me bloodied, and I used a daily item to get two free basic attacks which I used. (Mind you my free attacks were doing 2w due to a stonekeepers utility) Then with my action point I hit with a 3 weapon power. So all around with one crit and 5 hits due to circumstance I did over 300+ points of damage at paragon.

I've also seen a paragon ranger hit for over 200 damage with a single power usage and a crit.

So yes, if PC paragon paths can allow for crit reduction, giving higher level paragon monsters crit reduction isn't too bad. It has to be something along those lines or else you'll see solo monsters with heroic tier paralyth's, or other creatures with severe character control powers to balance the power spread.

So yes, I'd thoroughly recommendthat whenever a solo monster gets critted, they can roll 11-20 to negate the crit, if they are hit with a stun, daze, or unconscious effect to have a free 11-20 to negate that ability. But thats it.

But, this solution is much better (understanding players get unhappy when they crit, or daze an oppenent, but they get more unhappy when they start their turn, dazed, prone, immobilized, taking ongoing damage, and restrained - which is where this will go as the only way to slow down high paragon, low epic level characters.)

Monster defenses have to be changed, but not in a way that will tpk lower end, less optimized characters. This situation presents a unique way of not adding additional damage options like the mm2 provides, without increasing the over all effectiveness of a solo monster. It just now has a better chance of not simply melting agaisnt the cheese table, while still providing the same level of challenge for a un-cheesed table.

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