Community

The level 4 solo worth 875 is only a level 2 encounter for a six person group of level three. So the solo was in fact an easy encounter by design. The solo's make him more challenging but they should keep PCs away from him and flank casters who have the ability to daze. If the casters are surrounded they don't have time to daze people.

He still gets one action which he could use to attack. You could also give the solo an attack where he makes a double attack. Many creatures have an ability. So even if they do daze the solo he can still use an action to make a few attacks and deal lots of damage.

The solo does get a +5 bonus to saving throws and they are made at the end of the solo's turn. All though the dazed effect in question was not one that ends by save but one that ends at the end of the attackers next turn.

If he was constantly hit by the attacks that caused daze then his defense may have been too low or the players are just good at rolling dice. Remember a solo gets a +2 bonus to three defenses. The solo seems like a brute (already low defenses), and dim witted (so likely low intelligence, wisdom, and charisma). If this is the case then give him a high charisma to boost the will defense.

I noticed you have three strikers in you group and strikers are designed to kill an enemy quick. If the three strikers are able to focus on an enemy they could take it down quicker than the other three are able to. With three strikers in the group it would be more difficult for them to fight a large amount of creatures.

In the future, especially considering you've made the monster, I'd add a power or two that takes advantage of its weaknesses. For example, my DM today was testing the theory of a level 1 solo, but one of the major problems with it was its ability to be knocked prone, which had a key relevence in the fight.

So, in response to this, when he uses this monster in the future, it was suggested that the mob be given something to do when he's affected by the status affect. For instance,

Heavyweight (Immediate Reaction; recharge 4 5 6)
When bossmob falls prone, all creatures within burst 2 of bossmob immediately make a saving throw or fall prone.

It is to that end that if you find yourself using a creature that's particularly vulnerable to one tactic that your players use, or correctly utilize, it may not be that the system itself is broken, but that the solo simply isn't designed to handle that. it's more than possible that 875 XP was not enough for the encounter, because keep in mind, solo or not, that is a strictly easy encounter. It's not difficult for a decent party of competant players to take lhalf a level above them, and given your party seems to be hip to tactical goodness, throw some big beefy solo at him and give him some kind of unique coolness and see how they fare with it.

It is a problem plaguing the 1 BBEG vs a 4-5 member party scenario that has existed since 3e. Essentially, you are out-numbering the foe in terms of actions at a 5-to-1 ratio. It is simply all too easy to find some way of chain-disabling it while piling on the damage. Basically the pitfalls of putting all your eggs into one basket.

A good solo should have decent defenses and have some kind of defensive ability to dodge or avoid rather annoying daily powers which gives every party member +5 to hit him (with combat advantage rogue was hitting on a 2 ). Giving them two attacks a round is a good idea, also attacks that cover an area like burst 1 or 2 to hit everyone beating on it. A free attack on a circumstance once a round is another decent approach as well as minor actions that may daze or whatever a PC for one round. To make a solo memorble give it a really nasty parting attack, nothings better than King Rat the III dropping two party members. Than as the elf ranger starts laughing, his tail shoots out from the well they were fighting him in grabs him by the leg and he goes down too.

One thing to think about is that most (maybe all) solos have two to three basic attacks and one power that allows them to use each attack as a standard action. A white dragon has an ability to make two claw attacks and if it hits with both, on the same target, the dragon can also make a bite attack. You could also give it a power that is an immediate reaction to an effect/attack that causes daze. It can be something like a free attack or something. Or give the monster a defense bonus on certain type of will attacks.