[RPG] How to tailor a Solo Monster for 1st level characters on D&D Next

dnd-5emonsters

I'm running my first campaign of D&D Next and I'm tailoring some custom monsters, and using some of the weakest from the Monster Manual from the Playtest (I'm using the October 2013 document).

I'm pretty new to all of this lethal style from older editions, considering that the lowest HP from my party is 8 and the highest 12, coming from 4e everything seems so hard now.

I want to add a solo monster in the end, but there are no indicators of which monster is a solo and who is an elite, I've even checked this document for help and I still don't get it:
http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20120723

All monsters seem to be able to kill any of my PCs in onnly one hit and I'm not sure how much HP a "boss" should have considering this factor… Any tips?

Best Answer

Next does not have monster roles or guidelines when building encounters like 4e does

There are no monster roles anymore, they do give levels, but like the XP value they aren't as hard a guideline as they would've been in 4e. In fact the only way to really gauge monster difficulty is look at its HP, AC, stats (because mods affect save rolls), damage output via attacks and spells, and the strength of its monster properties/abilities (immunity, resistance, special powers). All of the guidelines and tools you've come to expect in 4e no longer exist and nothing approaching them will exist in 5e until the DMG comes out in August.

My Suggestion

create a monster that has a nice HP pool and a multiattack power, but one that doesn't do too much damage so that you don't TPK the party if you get to go first. At low levels though, dying is very easy to do in Next, its almost unavoidable because of the influences that Next took from earlier editions of D&D.