Playtesting the Laughing Lambchop Lizard

I want to say up front that if anyone has used the laughing lambchop lizard sample encounter as written on a low level 4e party, I'm really sorry if I wiped your party out (and I probably did).

During hiatus I'm revisiting the WWtH monsters and trying them out in actual 4e combat encounters. So far I've done a beelion test and a doppelganger freak test. I ran the sample encounter for the laughing lambchop lizard last week (this post is late because I've been dreading how much rework the monster was going to need). The party is still:
A goliath warden
A gnome bard
A longtooth shifter ranger
A deva invoker

The sample encounter for the laughing lambchop lizard is 4 regular lizards and 2 lizards of lightning. Again, the map was Dwarven Outpost from the Miniatures Game Starter Set. This time the monsters were inside the ruined outpost building and the PCs were coming across the bridge toward it. The party heard the lizards and the ranger managed to sneak up and get a look at them without alerting them.

The ranger used her surprise round to fire arrows at the lizards, but then the lizards won initiative and swarmed her. Before I even rolled the first attack I realized that letting each of the six lizards catch her with a lethal shock would result in instant nasty electrical death. So the first change to the lizards, before they rolled their first attack, was to remove the lethal shock power from the plain laughing lambchop lizards. As a result, most of the lizards didn't attack this round, but moved into better positions. The party moved closer and got in a few hits.

In round 2, one lizard of lightning had the ranger and warden in range for a lethal shock, while the other moved into position to catch the entire party. I quickly realized that adding an attack bonus and damage for each lizard in the burst would spell instant TPK, so lethal shock was toned back to only add bonuses for other lizards of lightning in the burst. Even with that nerf, since the ranger was hit by two bursts she was going to die instantly, so the 2d8 damage per lizard was nerfed to 1d8. The ranger went down anyway, but at least wasn't instantly dead.

With lethal shock nerfed and spent, the rest of the fight was pretty dull, mostly because I forgot to use the cheshire fade power so my lizards never pulled back when damaged like they were supposed to. I think I'll make that one "when bloodied" so there's no question of when to use it. I'm also changing the plain lizards from lurkers to soldiers since they no longer have a big boom attack and their job will be to shield the artillery lightning lizards.

Updated stat blocks:

Level 1 Soldier Laughing Lambchop Lizard Small natural magical beast XP 100 Initiative +5 Senses Perception +1 HP 29; Bloodied 14 AC 17; Fortitude 12, Reflex 14, Will 12 Immunities Resist 10 lightning Speed 7, climb 5 Bite (standard; at-will) +6 vs. AC; 1d10 damage. Sideburn Flare (move; at-will) • Fear +4 vs. Will; the target is immobilized until the end of the laughing lambchop lizard's next turn. Annoy the Weak The laughing lambchop lizard possesses the cat's abnormal talent for finding out who, in a group, will be most annoyed by its presence and targeting that person. The DM should feel free to use all available knowledge of the party members' weaknesses and defense numbers to decide who will be most vulnerable to its attacks, and attack that PC. Cheshire Fade (free, when first bloodied; encounter) The laughing lambchop lizard disappears except for its grin, shifts 4 squares and turns invisible until it attacks or until the end of its next turn. Align. Unaligned Lang. Common Skills Stealth +8 Str 10 (0) Dex 16 (+3) Wis 13 (+1) Con 13 (+1) Int 7 (--2) Cha 12 (+1) Equipment --- Tactics A laughing lambchop lizard will seek out enemies with low Will defenses and exploit their vulnerability to sideburn flare. Source Weekly What the Heck Created with DungeonMastering.com's DM Tools

Level 2 Artillery Laughing Lambchop Lizard ... of Lightning Small natural magical beast XP 125 Initiative +4 Senses Perception +3 HP 32; Bloodied 16 AC 14; Fortitude 14, Reflex 15, Will 14 Immunities Resist 10 lightning Speed 7, climb 5 Bite (standard; at-will) +9 vs. AC; 1d10 damage. Sideburn Flare (move; at-will) • Fear +6 vs. Will; the target is immobilized (save ends). Directed Shock (standard; at-will) • Lightning Ranged 10; +8 vs. Fortitude; 2d6 + 3 lightning damage. Lethal Shock (standard; recharge 6) • Lightning Close burst 5; laughing lambchop lizards are immune; +1 (+1 for each other laughing lambchop lizard ... of lightning in the burst) vs. Reflex; 1d8 lightning damage (+1d8 for each other laughing lambchop lizard ... of lightning in the burst). Annoy the Weak (standard; at-will) The laughing lambchop lizard possesses the cat's abnormal talent for finding out who, in a group, will be most annoyed by its presence and targeting that person. The DM should feel free to use all available knowledge of the party members' weaknesses and defense numbers to decide who will be most vulnerable to its attacks, and attack that PC. Cheshire Fade (free, when first bloodied; encounter) The laughing lambchop lizard disappears except for its grin, shifts 4 squares and turns invisible until it attacks or until the end of its next turn. Align. Unaligned Lang. Common Skills Stealth +8 Str 10 (+1) Dex 17 (+4) Wis 14 (+3) Con 14 (+3) Int 7 (--1) Cha 12 (+2) Equipment --- Tactics A laughing lambchop lizard ... of lightning will target enemies with low Fortitude defenses with directed shock. If forced into close combat it uses the same tactics as a laughing lambchop lizard. Source Weekly What the Heck Created with DungeonMastering.com's DM Tools