Good Morning, All:

Recently, I'd heard that the latest Monster Manual for 4E, MM3, increased the base damage that monsters deal with their attacks. Being the curious sort, I looked at the numbers and felt that the effort was pretty good, but not quite as far as I would go. Having completed an analysis of Swords & Wizardry damage by hit dice a few months back, I decided to take the same approach and create my own 4E damage table. I also spent a few minutes exercising my Google Fu, and came up with a few other adjustments to make 4E combat proceed more quickly. (4E's slow combat resolution is one of my biggest gripes abou the system.) I then pulled all that research together to come up with the following rules. Rather than let this sit languidly on my desktop and go unused, I've decided to put my notes here on my blog in the hopes that someone else may also find them useful. If I ever do run a 4E game of my own, my players should know that these are the rules I'll be using.

Flynn's Accumulated 4E Combat Changes

Adjust Monster Hitpoints
All monster HPs are halved.

Adjust Monster Damage
The following damage table is designed to shift the damage that monsters deal into a range that leads to quicker combat resolution. While a monster's damage goes up, the reduction in their hitpoints reduces the number of attacks that land (because they die sooner), which in turn results in roughly equivalent damage being dealt to the PCs by the end of the encounter.

Table: 4E Damage By Level

Lvl	A	B	C	D	E
1	4	1d6+2	1d8+2	2d6+2	2d8+5
2	4	1d6+3	1d8+3	2d6+4	2d8+8
3	5	1d6+4	1d8+5	2d6+6	2d8+10
4	5	1d6+5	1d8+6	2d6+7	2d8+13
5	6	1d6+6	1d8+7	2d6+9	2d8+15
6	7	1d8+6	2d6+6	2d8+9	3d6+16
7	7	1d8+7	2d6+8	2d8+10	3d6+18
8	8	1d8+8	2d6+9	2d8+12	3d6+21
9	9	1d8+9	2d6+10	2d8+14	3d6+24
10	9	1d8+10	2d6+12	2d8+16	3d6+26
11	10	2d6+9	2d8+11	3d6+15	3d8+26
12	11	2d6+10	2d8+12	3d6+17	3d8+28
13	11	2d6+11	2d8+13	3d6+19	3d8+31
14	12	2d6+12	2d8+15	3d6+21	3d8+34
15	13	2d6+13	2d8+16	3d6+22	3d8+36
16	13	2d8+12	3d6+15	3d8+21	4d6+39
17	14	2d8+13	3d6+17	3d8+23	4d6+41
18	14	2d8+14	3d6+18	3d8+24	4d6+44
19	15	2d8+15	3d6+19	3d8+26	4d6+46
20	16	2d8+16	3d6+20	3d8+28	4d6+49
21	16	3d6+15	3d8+19	4d6+30	4d8+48
22	17	3d6+16	3d8+20	4d6+31	4d8+50
23	18	3d6+17	3d8+21	4d6+33	4d8+53
24	18	3d6+18	3d8+23	4d6+35	4d8+55
25	19	3d6+19	3d8+24	4d6+36	4d8+58
26	20	3d8+17	4d6+25	4d8+34	6d6+57
27	20	3d8+18	4d6+26	4d8+36	6d6+60
28	21	3d8+19	4d6+28	4d8+38	6d6+63
29	22	3d8+20	4d6+29	4d8+39	6d6+65
30	22	3d8+21	4d6+30	4d8+41	6d6+68

Note: Each damage column should be used as follows.

• Column A damage should be used for Minions.
• Column B damage should be used for normal Multiple Targets damage.
• Column C damage should be used for normal Single Target damage.
• Column D damage should be used for a Brute's Single Target damage, or for limited Recharge (5-6) powers.
• Column E damage should be used for limited Recharge (6)/Bloodied/Encounter/Death powers, or for a Brute's limited powers.

Additional Abilities For Solos

Solo creatures also receive the following bonus abilities:

Antihero (Free action)
When dazed, this creature instead loses its next minor action and grants combat advantage. When stunned, this creature instead loses its next standard action and grants combat advantage.

Heroslayer
While this creature is marked, it gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls and a +5 (or +10 if it’s a level 21+ monster) bonus to damage rolls against the creature that marked it.

Hope This Helps,
Flynn