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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Athasian Terrain
We’re done with monsters for now, and we’re getting into a section about terrain.
Terrain is as important a building block for a fun encounters as the monsters that make it up, and this section has some uniquely Dark and Sunny examples for you to add to your battlemaps.
Barbed Cacti
Even when they don’t uproot themselves to hunt you down, Athasian cacti can still be dangerous. These specimens have sharp spines that break off and stay stuck to you. Lines of barbed cactus squares can be used to cordon off some areas of the battlefield, and provide an excellent barrier for artillery monsters to hide behind.
Entering a square of barbed cacti deals 3 damage and inflices -2 to attack rolls (save ends).
Brambleweed
Like barbed cacti, but worse. Brambleweed grows in sprawling thickets that can thrive even in defiled areas, because they can use the blood or corpses of captured creatures as nourishment. Some defilers plant them intentionally as defensive measures in their lairs.
A creature that ends their turn in a brambleweed square is restrained until the end of their next turn. A creature that starts their turn there (which they will if they were restrained) takes 5/tier damage.
Defiled Terrain
This is a more varied category describing several possibilities for what might remain behind after a major act of defiling. It can be used as pre-existing terrain in an area what was subject to defiling in the past, or you can place it in the middle of the fight after someone uses Arcane Defiling or an equivalent power.
Ash Field
These are the remains of plant life caught in a defiling field. Sometimes the wind causes them to pool in terrain depressions to form areas of Settled Ash, which can act as a terrain feature.
Someone who’s adjacent to a square of settled ash can make an Athletics test to raise a cloud of it, which functions as a blast attack vs. Fortitude that blinds for a turn on a hit.
Black Sand
The residue of defiling mixed in with the local soil. People standing on black sand only regain half the normal amount of HP from healing effects. Wasn’t there an entire geographical region covered in the stuff?
Dead Magic
Areas that have lost so much to defiling that they have nothing left to give. Anyone standing on dead magic squares takes a -5 penalty to attack with arcane or primal powers, and is barred from using Arcane Defiling.
The book recommends being careful with dead magic areas, particularly if there are a lot of arcane and primal PCs in the party. Usually only very powerful defilers are capable of creating them.
Sickening Heat
This is either a mystical side effect of defiling, or it could just be a natural consequence of killing all that plant cover. Creatures ending their turn on these squares are weakened for a turn.
This terrain can do a number on your party’s strikers, and monsters who have the ability to inflict forced movement simply love it.
Glimmering Mirage
Mundane mirages are the effect of heat haze in the distance. These ones are more than that: they’re illusions crafted by malicious primal spirits. In addition to luring travelers, they persist once they get closer, and can conceal all kinds of danger behinds their alluring façades.
Glimmering mirages form walls 4 or more squares long. They block line of sight, and give concealment against ranged attacks to anyone standing adjacent to them. At the end of every turn, you roll a d6 for each mirage. A 1 means it’s gone, a 6 means it moves 5 squares, and other results mean it stays put.
Lightning Pillar
Literally a pillar of congealed lightning, probably created due to the area’s proximity to an “electric” region of the Elemental Chaos. PCs and enemies might be able to use their Arcana, Nature, or Religion skills to “hack” such a pillar and make it deliver a lightning strike to a chosen target.
Mudflats
These are natural areas where underground water surfaces a bit and mixes with the soil, creating an area that is both dusty and sludgy at the same time. Inland mudflats are the next best thing to oases, and draw many animals and people who learn to extract water from them.
Particularly thick mud flats are difficult terrain, and can contain mud sink squares representing deeper areas. Creatures standing adjacent to those can be pushed into them, which will immobilize them (save ends), with a slow after-effect due to the clinging mud (also save ends). Voluntarily or accidentally stepping into one would have the same effect.
Psychic Reservoirs
Fragile purple crystals that grow in psychically charged areas sheltered from the winds, these can be tapped by psionic characters to boost their attacks. It takes a minor action to tap into an adjacent crystal, which makes it crumble to dust. If the character uses power points, they gain 1 bonus point that lasts until the end of the encounter. Otherwise they gain +5 to their next damage roll from a psionic power.
Rocky Badlands
These regions are too rough to support permanent settlements, so they’ll mostly feature as ambush sites. They’re filled with teetering stone pillars that can be pushed onto enemies.
Salt Flats
These bone-dry regions are a hassle to fight in, as salt will inevitably get in the wounds and make them sting like hell. They’re also filled with loose salt piles that work a lot like the Settled Ash hazard above, except that they also slow the target if it was bloodied.
Sandy Wastes
What most people think of when they hear “desert”. They can contain 3x3-square Small Dunes that anyone might use as a hiding or ambush spot, even if they can’t normally burrow.
Silt Pools
They work a lot like mud flats, except there’s no water, just very fine dust. Usually filled with difficult terrain, and with deep silt spots that restrain (save ends) anyone who falls or gets pushed into them.
Slipsand
Sandy areas where some magical or psionic effect caused a significant amount of tiny glass crystals to be mixed in with the sand. They’re slippery and sharp, requiring an Athletics check from any who enters them to avoid falling prone and taking damage.
Tree of Life
These extremely rare plants are imbued with a much greater than usual amount of vital energy, which enables them to resist and even recover from defiling attempts given enough time. Ironically, this makes them extremely valued by sorcerer-kings and other powerful and rich defilers, which cultivate them for use as batteries.
I think earlier editions kept a more or less precise list of the remaining trees of life in Athas - they were that rare. In this edition, I believe their number is less restricted, but the most likely place you’re going to find one is still in the “boss room” for these defilers.
Trees of life emit a 5-square aura. Creatures within always regain the maximum possible HP from variable healing effects, and have a +5 to perform divination rituals.
Whenever someone performs Arcane Defiling inside the aura, or use some other necrotic power that damages one of their allies, the tree takes the damage instead. Trees have 500 HP and Vulnerable 10 Necrotic, and die when they hit 0. They regenerate 5 HP per hour.
Z’Tal Horde
A much funnier and more mundane piece of terrain! Z’tals are tiny, slimy, stinky lizard-bug-things that gather in very large swarms. They’re relatively harmless, but still a bother.
A z’tall horde fills one or more squares, which are difficult terrain. Someone who ends their movement in such a square takes 5/tier poison damage from the stink. Someone who starts their turn in a horde square must roll a save before taking any other actions. A failure means they fall prone because of the slippery slime. A close or area attack that deals at least 1 point of damage will automatically disperse a horde square with no roll required.
They’re sometimes bred as living security measures, but a horde of these annoying scavengers might naturally form around the corpse of any large creature.
Next Up
Hazards! What, you thought these were the hazards?
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Sunwarped Monster
This is your one stop shop for generating horribly mutated varieties of standard monsters. The name “Sunwarped” comes from the belief that these mutations are caused by Athas’ scorching sun, but there are many different causes. These creatures might have been exposed to concentrated psionic energy, lived for too long in defiled areas, or been victims of terrible experiments.
The Pristine Tower is also a prime source of mutated monstrosities, altering any who linger near it for too long. To hear people talk about it, it was the only such source in previous editions, but now it’s just one more among many.
Sunwarped creatures are obviously misshapen when compared to typical specimens. They might be exceedingly assymetrical, have extra limbs or eyes, and so on. These descriptors give me a kind of “science fantasy” vibe, because they match what you would expect radiation to do in 50s-style atomic horror tales.
Anyway, sunwarped creatures get a +2 to Endurance, and might also get one or two Sunwarped Traits in addition to their extra theme powers. These traits usually give it an extra bonus in one area and a small penalty in another. There is a table here with some examples, but the GM is free to come up with others.
So a creature might get digging claws that give it climb and burrow speeds equal to its base speed, but also reduce that base speed by 1. Or uneven eyes that give it all-around vision but inflict a -3 penalty to ranged and area attacks. Or something that gives +1 to one defense and -1 to another.
All of these changes are situational, and their effectiveness depends entirely on the monster they get applied to. A Brute with no ranged attacks will find those uneven eyes to be a pure bonus, while an extra limb that aids in grappling would be wasted on an artillery monster. While you can min-max and only give monsters traits that increase their power, you can also do the opposite to show how random these mutations can be.
Attack Powers
The split is pretty clear in this theme - attack powers either deal damage or apply debuffs to others.
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Breath of the Blazing Sun probably has this name because almost no one in Athas would know what radiation is. It’s a Close Blast 4 vs. Fortitude that blinds its targets and makes them vulnerable to radiant and fire damage (save ends both).
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Burning Blood will make xenomorph fans happy, as it represents a high-pressure jet of hazardous blood spraying out when the creature is hit. This is a reaction that makes a Close Blast 3 attack vs. Reflex, and inflicts ongoing acid + fire damage (save ends).
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Ravaging Fury is a free action encounter power, meaning it can be used in the creature’s own turn without spending actions. Once this is used, if the creature hits with its next attack it will immediately gain an action point that it can use before the end of its next turn.
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Sticky Hide makes the monster be constantly covered in goo. Any enemy that hits the creature with a melee attack is subject to an attack vs. their Reflex, and if that hits the weapon used on the attack gets yanked out of their hands and and sticks to the monster’s slimy coating. Recovery is automatic but requires staying adjacent to the monster and spending a standard action.
Utility Powers
These heal of buff the creature itself.
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Enraged Growth makes the monster grow one size category when first bloodied! It pushes anyone adjacent to make room, and gains 10 temporary HP/tier. This gets more awesome when you apply it to a monster that is already big.
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Feast on Flesh causes the creature’s melee basic attack to give it 5/tier temporary HP on a hit as it consumes some of the target’s flesh. The book itself says that while you’d expect to see this only for bite attacks, you can add it to any attack and come up with a suitably freaky explanation for why it works.
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Misshapen Body means the creature’s important anatomical bits are not where you’d expect them to be, so it can roll a d20 when it takes a critical hit, downgrading it to a normal hit on a result of 10+. These are the same mechanics of a normal save, but since they’re written out in full I guess it means it doesn’t count as a save, so wouldn’t get general save bonuses such as those of an elite or solo.
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You can also make such misshapen creatures Steady-Footed, letting them also roll actual saves against falling prone because their weird shape ends up being more stable.
Impressions
I get a very strong “atomic horror” vibe from this theme, except it’s happening in a setting where people don’t know about radiation, and so the mutations get blamed on other causes.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Psionic Adept
As we all know by now, psychic powers are very common in Athas. Anyone might have some, even if that’s not their main specialty. For PCs, this is implemented as a couple of character themes (Noble Adept and Wilder).
For NPCs and monsters, we have the Psionic Adept theme presented here. You can add this to a non-psionic monster to make it more controller-ish.
Psionic Adepts gain a +2 to either either Diplomacy and Intimidate (force of personality!) or to Insight and Perception (sixth sense!).
Attack Powers
Following the usual design strategy of adding new abilities that work “around” established attacks, we get a collection of powers that hinder and debuff enemies. All of the ones that require attack rolls target Will.
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Blind the Mind’s Eye (recharge 5+) is a ranged attack that makes the creature invisible to the target (save ends). This ends when the creature attacks the target. Lurkers can use this to enable their big attacks, while others can use it as a way to ease pressure on themselves.
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Empathic Wall (recharge 6+) creates a 12-square wall that lasts a turn. It blocks line of sight. People can cross it, but its squares are difficult terrain, and anyone inside them is lightly obscured.
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Mantle of the Mind (encounter) is a close burst 4 that attacks will and prevents affected targets from targeting the creature with their attacks (save ends).
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Mental Marionette (encounter) is a sustainable domination power. It dominates for a turn on a hit, but can be sustained with standard actions to let the creature repeat the attack against the same target, potentially prolonging the domination. On a miss, it dazes for a turn. It’s a little weaker than a fire-and-forget (save ends) power, because it eats up standard actions.
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Three variants of Psionic Augmentation that add a little extra something when the creature hits with a melee basic attack. One deals extra psychic damage, the other dazes for a turn, and the third one inflicts ongoing psychic damage.
Utility Powers
These are a lot more clearly “utilities” than the ones for elemental creatures. They’re all encounter powers.
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Mental Bastion is an interrupt that gives a +4 to Will, potentially turning a hit into a miss.
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Open the Mind’s Eye gives blindsight 5 and all-around vision for a turn. The latter means the creature cannot be flanked.
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Oracular Empathy is a weird one. When an nearby ally of the creature is hit by an attack, the creature can use a reaction to switch its initiative order to be just after the attacker’s.
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Psionic Flight automatically pushes each adjacent enemy 1 square and lets the creature fly its speed.
Final Impressions
Pretty cool! It seems more thematically tight to me than Elementally Infused. Adding these powers to someone like an ogre would be a nice/nasty surprise.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Elementally-Infused Monster
Athas is a world particularly close to the Elemental Chaos, and so there are lots of places in it that are soaked in elemental energies of some kind. The creatures that inhabit these areas often end up elementally-infused.
The book suggests changing the creature’s origin to elemental if its mutations end up being inheritable, though that just affects the lore and so it’s just necessary if it will affect the game’s stories in some way.
The main mechanical thing you must decided about an elementally-infused creature is its element. All of its powers that deal damage have it written as “[damage type]” in the book, and you’re meant to replace that lacuna with a type corresponding to the creature’s associated elements: one of fire, acid, cold, thunder, or lightning (very very frightening!).
Not all of its attacks need to do the same type of damage. Multi-element elementals are a thing now, after all. And you might decide to make one or more of these attacks untyped, which would be common for an earth elemental whose rock-based attacks deal physical damage for example.
Elementally-infused creatures get +2 to Intimidate and Athletics.
Attack Powers
All of these powers deal damage of the type you chose above.
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There are two Elemental Auras, one that triggers when the monster is bloodied and damages enemies inside, and one that is always active and makes enemies vulnerable to your chosen element.
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Elemental Eruption causes an explosion when the monster is first bloodied, a close burst 2 that targets Reflex and deals elemental damage equal to the monster’s best basic attack.
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Elemental Manifestation converts the damage of all of the monster’s attacks to your chosen element.
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Elemental Persistence is recharge 5+ and inflicts 5/tier ongoing damage of the chosen type when the monster hits with a melee attack. It’s said to increase “damage output and entertainment value”.
Utility Powers
The most obvious here is Elemental Damage Resistance, which should be high enough for the monster to resist its own attacks (or I guess 5/tier if you don’t want to do math). If a monster’s attacks are untyped, you could give it variable resistance instead.
Nearly all of the others deal damage, proving that the “attack”/”utility” split is more of a guideline here.
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Elemental Dissipation lets the monster vanish from play for a turn and reform next to an enemy, dealing a bit of damage and making them grant combat advantage for another turn.
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Elemental Ground is a third aura variant, this time meant to keep enemies close. The aura’s radius becomes difficult terrain and enemies take damage when they leave it, instead of when they enter it.
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Elemental Step deals elemental damage to anyone who hits the monster with an opportunity attack while it moves.
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Elemental Transport lets the monster teleport between patches of hazardous terrain that deal damage of the chosen type. Clever!
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Mutable Body is appropriate for water-based or otherwise gooey monsters, and lets the creature count as one size smaller when squeezing through narrow openings.
Final Impressions
You want elemental damage? We got elemental damage! I like the design strategy of additional attack powers that modify and work around the monster’s usual attacks, and it works particularly well here.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Arena Bred Monster
What’s a Monster Theme? The concept was first introduced in Dungeon Master’s Guide 2, and it’s a way to give a set of monsters a shared look and feel. This involves changes to their mechanics and lore, but unlike monster templates from the DMG 1, it doesn’t change their “quality”. Regulars remain regulars, elites remain elites, and so on.
Monster themes end up being more flexible than templates, since the monster creation rules are good enough to handle any level or quality changes by themselves.
Anatomy of a Monster Theme
Each theme has a fairly involved presentation. You get some explanation for the lore attached to that theme and how it might modify a monster. Then a line about skill changes that might apply, and finally a big list of powers.
Those powers are divided between Attack Powers and Utility Powers - you pick one of each category to add to the monster’s stat block. Nothing else about its basic stats changes, unlike with a template. If you want those to change, you can use the standard monster creation and “editing” rules to change the monster’s level or quality.
Our First Theme: Arena Bred Monster
Blood sport arenas are the most popular entertainment in all city states, and monster fighting is one of its most popular modalities. It’s common to throw recently captured wild animals into the ring, but a monster that was specifically prepared for the spectacle is a much bigger draw. Animals are specifically bred for the role; people receive special training. And both might be further modified by magic or psionics, all in the service of providing a more brutal and spectacular fight.
Monsters with this theme get a +2 to Intimidate and a +2 to either Athletics or Acrobatics.
Attack Powers
Despite the name of this category, the powers here tend to avoid having specific attack or damage figures, to better enable them to apply to monsters of any level.
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Berserk Passage (recharge 5+) lets a monster make two basic attacks and shift half its speed at any moment in this sequence, passing through enemy spaces. It usually goes on monsters that have been made mad with hunger and pain before being dropped into the arena, though I supposed it could also be used to represent an agile duelist humanoid.
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Bleeding Attack is a triggered power that inficst 5/tier ongoing damage (save ends) when the monster bloodies a target. It might represent serrated weapons or claws. The book recommends making it (recharge 5+) for elites or solos; by default, it’s at-will.
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Brutal Flourish lets the monster make a free melee basic attack whenever it bloodies or defeats an enemy.
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Death Burst means the monster has been rigged to explode! This is visible to the PCs and should be described appropriately. This power is common for monsters that have received some sort of combat implant, but could be applied even without that. By default this happens when the monster hits 0 HP, but for elites and solos it could also happen when the monster is first bloodied, where it might be combined with some other change in its stats as those implanted bits fall off. The explosion is a Close Burst 2 with attack and damage figures appropriate to the monster’s level.
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Retaliating Stride (recharge 5+) is a move action that lets the monster move its speed and deal damage to any creature that hits it with an opportunity attack during this move. It can represent showy counterstrikes, or maybe something like implanted spikes.
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Attached Weapons are not written up like a power, but discussed in general terms inside a text box. Many arena monster handlers like to implant extra weapons on their charges through magic. This is an excuse for your to add extra attack powers that monsters of that type don’t normally have. For example, an artillery monster could receive implanted melee weapons that give it a stronger than usual melee attack, or a brute could get an unusually accurate ranged weapon. It’s common for these weapons to break or fall off when the monster is bloodied - and this can also be combined with Death Burst variants.
Utility Powers
These are generally the fruit of long experience in the arena, representing cunning, resilience, and luck.
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Intervening Armor represents an ability to leverage the normally useless piecemeal armor that covers gladiators by shifting so enemy attacks hit the tiny plates. It’s an Interrupt that gives +2 to AC or Reflex when the monster is hit by an attack targetting one of these defenses.
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Necessary Betrayal is for treacherous gits who developed the habit of abusing their teammates’ trust. If the monster is hit by a melee or ranged attack while adjacent to an ally, it can swap places with the ally as an interrupt, and have the ally take damage from the attack instead. You don’t compare the attack roll against the ally’s defenses - just apply the damage directly. This power cannot be nice even by accident.
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Shake it Off represents the ability to quickly recover one’s wits in a bout. Whenever subject to an effect that a save could possibly end, the monster can roll a save to end it as a reaction, even if this specific application cannot be ended with a save. (So it works against “dazed until the end of the next turn”, but not against “dead”).
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Turn the Tables is a defense against forced movement. If pushed, pulled, slid, or knocked prone, the creature can trigger this reaction to stand up (if prone) and shift 2 squares.
Final Impressions
I think it’s interesting how many of the powers here can be either applied to a berserk beast of a flashy humanoid fighter that uses finesse and agility, with the final mechanical result being the same.
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