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Let's Read the Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Dragon of Tyr
The Dragon of Tyr, making a dapper pose for the camera. This entry appeared among the monsters, right where you’d find standard dragons in another monster book. I thought this was odd, because he’s the only dragon in Athas and also one of its more important “personages”, so why isn’t he in that section?
The answer, I suspect, is because to be in the Personages section the character has to be someone who could be a potential ally to the PCs, and the Dragon of Tyr is not someone any party of PCs should be allying with. Instead, he’s the final boss of Dark Sun.
Nevertheless I’m talking about him here, because he is an important personage and knowing his story gives a lot of context for the sorcerer-kings you’ll also find in this section.
The Lore
Everyone in Athas knows and fears the Dragon of Tyr. This great and terrible monster comes in from somewhere on the other side of the Sea of Silt every once in a while, and demands a huge tribute of treasure and slaves. Even the sorcerer-kings fear him, and so they scramble to meet his demands. Once that’s done, the Dragon flies home with his loot, leaving the region alone until his next appearance.
All of this is common knowledge. Only the sorcerer-kings themselves know the full story: the Dragon was once one of them. His original name was Borys the Butcher, and like his colleagues he was one of the fifteen secret apprentices of Rajaat the Sorcerer.
You see, arcane magic on Athas is a truly unnatural phenomenon, a flaw that slipped into the world when the primordials defeated the gods way back when Athas was still green. Rajaat was the first mortal to discover and master arcane magic. He was also the first to learn that you could pull more power from the life around you to cast bigger spells - in other words, the first defiler.
Rajaat taught dozens of pupils, but he only taught the secret of defiling to his inner circle of fifteen secret apprentices. For Rajaat was a major asshole, and when he felt his Champions were ready, he ordered them to go out on a worldwide genocidal rampage to cleanse Athas of all the species he deemed “impure”. So much defiling magic was flung around in those wars that Athas’ previously green ecosystem was completely destroyed, starting the world’s transformation into the desert it is today.
In time, even the Champions became convinced that all of this was a bit too much. Led by Borys, they turned on their master and managed to imprison him in a pocket dimension outside of time and space. Once Rajaat was out of the picture, the former Champions quickly conquered or built city-states in one of the last habitable regions of Athas, setting themselves up as the Sorcerer-Kings.
By then, they knew that attaining the pinnacle of power as a defiler would lead to transformation into a dragon. Borys, who had taken it upon himself to guard Rajaat’s prison, successfully argued that the other Sorcerer-Kings should help him speedrun the transformation, since he’d need the power to contain their former master forever. And so they did.
The ritual for the final transformation required the sacrifice of every citizen of Ebe, the island city Borys ruled. Borys renamed the resulting hellish wasteland Ur Draxa, the City of Doom. The Dragon dwells in the ruins of Ur Draxa’s palace to this day, leaving the city only to collect his tributes.
The city itself is inhabited by a very large number of undead, and by the living slaves brought in as tribute. The city’s day to day operation is in the hands of the Dead Lords, a council of liches who serve the Dragon.
The Dragon keeps their soul vessels (the book uses the p-word here) hidden deep within his palace to ensure compliance. He is wise to do this, for the Lord Vizier who leads the council has his own agenda. He’s secretly researching a way to cross into the Astral Sea and escape Athas altogether, and often sends his personal minions out on missions to recover any bit of planar lore he hears about.
The Numbers
We get stats for the Dragon of Tyr and for the Lord Vizier in this entry. The two are completely different, of course, so we’ll cover all their traits in their respective entries.
The Dragon of Tyr
The only dragon in Athas is a Gargantuan Natural Magical Beast with the Dragon tag (obviously). He’s also a Level 33 Solo Controller with 1216 HP, Darkvision, ground and flight speeds of 10, and a teleport speed of 5. He can hover, too. His alignment is Chaotic Evil.
The Dragon’s Actions trait means old Borys doesn’t roll initiative at all. He has three whole turns per round at initiative counts 40, 30, and 20. He cannot delay or ready actions.
His basic attack is a massive Reach 4 Claw that damages and strips all necrotic and psychic resistance on a hit (save ends). His bite deals more or less the same damage and immobilizes (save ends), with a Slow aftereffect (save ends).
He can also use wider swipes to perform the Raking Claws attack, attacking all enemies in a Close Blast 4 for slightly less damage than the single-target version and also sliding them 2 squares on a hit.
That’s it for physical attacks. Now for the spells and psychic powers, because of course he has both!
The Dragon’s Defiling is a hazard all on its own, targetting all creatures in a Close Burst 5 and dealing necrotic damage on a hit. He can use the energy gathered with this to cast Defiling Death (ranged 10), dealing heavy necrotic damage and ongoing 20 necrotic damage to the target (save ends). After the first failed save, the ongoing damage increases to 30!
The Dragon of Tyr starts the fight with Defiling Death charged, and once it’s cast he must hit with Dragon’s Defiling to recharge the attack.
Once the Dragon is bloodied, he can use his Breath of Shredding Sand, attacking all creatures in a Close Blast 20 and dealing the same amount of damage as the bite on a hit, half on a miss. Fortunately this is an encounter power and doesn’t recharge.
Finally, if the PCs manage to surround Borys, he can use a Telekinetic Pulse (encounter), a Close Burst 5 that deals the same damage as the bite, pushes its targets 5 squares, and knocks them prone. On a miss, it deals half damage and pushes 3 squares.
The Dragon can use his move action on a Psionic Uplift, automatically pushing every adjacent enemy 2 squares and flying his Speed + 2 (i.e, 12 squares). If an enemy ends its movement within 4 squares of the Dragon, he can hit them with his Lashing Tail as a reaction, dealing the same damage as the claw and knocking them prone. And when the dragon is first bloodied, Telekinetic Pulse recharges and he can use it immediately as a free action.
The physical attacks all target AC, the necrotic and tekekinetic ones all target Fortitude, and the sand breath targets Reflex. As the most powerful arcane caster in the whole world, you can say he knows pretty much every ritual in the game for use outside of combat.
The Lord Vizier
This is the oldest and most powerful lich among the council of Dead Lords, which makes him their leader. Ostensibly, he un-lives to serve his master the Dragon, but as we saw he’s also privately looking for a way off this dying rock. He is a Medium Natural Humanoid with the Undead tag, and Level 26 Elite Artillery. He has Speed 6, and Darkvision. He’s immune to diseases like all undead, and has Resist 15 Necrotic and Resist 10 Poison. His alignment is Evil.
The Lord Vizier has a Necrotic Aura (5) that deals 10 necrotic damage to anyone who enters it or starts their turn inside. Like all liches, he’s Indestructible while his soul vessel remains intact: when reduced to 0 HP, his body and possessions become dust and reform within 1d10 days near the vessel.
He wields the Dead Lord’s Scepter, and his basic attack is to bonk someone with it, dealing lightning-and-necrotic damage. His basic ranged attack is the Grasp of the Dead spell (range 20 vs. Fortitude), which deals necrotic damage and lets one undead creature adjacent to the target make a free melee basic attack. If the attack hits, the creature marks the target for a turn.
He can also cast a Plume of Death (area 2 within 10 vs. Fortitude, recharge 5+), a fireball-sized spell that deals acid-and-necrotic damage and summons a Vizier’s Skeleton on a square within the burst.
As a move action, the Lord can draw on his secret knowledge and perform a brief Planar Displacement, teleporting 15 squares and leaving a brand-new Vizier’s Skeleton in the origin square.
Vizier’s Skeleton
These sophisticated undead minions are constantly produced by the Lord Vizier’s special attacks, and he will probably have a whole bunch of them on hand when the fight starts in addition to some powerful non-minion undead. They’re Medium Natural Animates (undead) and Level 26 Minion Brutes who fight with Deadflame Swords that do fire-and-necrotic damage, and can shoot Chill Shards (Ranged 10) to do cold-and-necrotic damage.
Encounters and Final Impressions
When met outside his city, the Dragon is always alone and on a specific mission. He will usually completely ignore most people who have nothing to do with his goal, believing they are beneath his notice. Of course, if those people are stupid enough to pick a fight with him, he is only too glad to oblige, completely confident of his victory and with good reason.
If he is attacked in Ur Draxa, I imagine the Dead Lords would join the fight too. Better bring an army or ten.
The Lord Vizier generally obeys the Dragon’s every order and kills whoever he wants dead. I wonder if he can be met in friendlier terms when following his own agenda. Epic PCs would make perfect agents for recovering that lost lore without the Dragon noticing.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Personages of Athas
You’d normally expect a monster book to end right after the “Zombie” entry, but we’re only at the two-third mark on this one. We’re now entering the section on the “Personages of Athas”.
The book has a really short intro for it, explaining that it takes a lot of skill and luck to survive for long in this world, and that this is a sample of people who managed to do exactly that and are therefore remarkable.
The difference between the entries in this section and the ones in the monster section are not mechanical. As far as I can understand, every entry in this section concerns one or more specific individuals. And while I haven’t read every entry yet, I also suspect the book doesn’t expect them to automatically be your enemies. They could be entirely neutral to your goals, or they might even be potential allies. While one of these things is also often true about the monster entries, both should be true for everyone in this section.
I think this is why the Dragon of Tyr was in the monster section. He is a specific individual, but he’s also the “final boss” of Dark Sun. By default, he’s not particularly interested in making new alliances and no PC party who isn’t completely rotten to the core would think of allying with him for real.
The Sorcerer-Kings, however, are in the Personages section, because I imagine PCs might want to form temporary alliances with some of them against the others. We’ll also see a bunch of much lower level randos.
As I stated in an earlier post, I decided to move the Dragon’s description to this section as I consider him to be more of a Personage than a monster. So we’ll start with him on the next post.
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Let's Read the 4e Creature Catalog: Zombie
This is similar to a zombie, but it seems to be a repurposed picture of another creature. The Lore
Zombies in Athas have the same origin as zombies in every other D&D world: they’re created either intentionally by necromancy, or accidentally from dead bodies left for long enough in areas exposed to strong necrotic energies.
In Athas that means areas touched by the Gray, the Darker and Sunnier version of the Shadowfell. Any bodies left in these places have a high chance of rising as zombies. As the natural environment in these areas tends to be particularly harsh as well, they can do interesting things to these bodies before they rise.
The most common of those is that by the time the body rises its flesh is long gone due to the actions of predators and scouring winds, so you get a skeleton instead. But some places like the ones named below can preserve the flesh of a corpse, giving enough time to rise as a Darker and Sunnier Zombie with extra powers.
The Numbers
The zombies described in this entry are Natural Humanoids, which I think is an error because every other zombie is a Natural Animate. In any case, they have the Undead tag and the usual immunity to poison and disease and resistance to necrotic damage. They also tend to be faster than standard zombie varieties (which still exist in Athas!).
Salt Zombie
These are created from the big necrotic zone in the Salt Meres. They tend to lie beneath the salt flats, erupting out of the ground when they sense living beings walking the surface. They probably look dried out and mummified.
Salt Zombies are Level 1 Soldiers with 28 HP and a ground speed of 6. Their necrotic resistance is 5 and they have Vulnerable 5 to Radiant damage. Their basic claws damage and grab on a hit, but their Salt Feast attack is usually more effective: it does the same damage and also grabs, but the target has a -4 penalty to escape the grab and takes another 5 damage every time they fail. And of course, the zombie can also keep attacking the grabbed target either way.
They also suffer from the Zombie Weakness that afflicts a lot of standard zombies, and so are instantly destroyed when someone scores a critical hit on them.
Black Reaver Zombies
There originate from the Black Sands region. Legend has it that an ancient act of defiling magic summoned these sands into the region, and that they drained the souls of everyone they touched. There’s a creepy deserted city at its center, which was presumably the target of this magical WMD. Modern Athasians tend to give it a wide berth, and anyone who dies here will probably rise as one of these zombies.
Black Reavers are Level 5 Lurkers with 51 HP and a zippy ground speed of 7. They’re blind, and so have the corresponding tag and are immune to blinding and gaze attacks, perceiving the world through their Blindsight 10. Their necrotic resistant is 10, and while they don’t take extra damage from radiant damage it does prevent them from using their Shadow Burst power for a turn, basically defanging them for that time.
You see, their basic bite does a relatively weak mix of physical and necrotic damage, so they really need the extra necrotic damage from attacking a target that couldn’t see them at the start of their turn in order to be a threat to equivalent-level PCs. And the most likely way for them to get that bonus is Shadow Burst (recharge 4+), a move action that lets them teleport 5 squares and create a Burst 1 zone that blinds everyone inside around their arrival point. This zone lasts for a turn.
When using these in an encounter, you might want to add plenty of vision-blocking terrain to the battle map, like ruined buildings or big rocks. A zombie without Shadow Burst could still get that damage bonus if it was behind such terrain before charging out and attacking, something its high Speed would help with. Darkness also helps, but not as much since PCs are likely to have many options for lighting up the place.
Feasting Zombie
This one appears in the Forest Ridge where halflings live. Halflings who catch terminal diseases are not eaten when they die, for obvious reasons. Instead, they’re buried, which is believed to return them to nature’s embrace. This alternate funerary practice is less effective at preventing them from rising as zombies when conditions are right.
Feasting zombies are Small, since they originate from halflings, and they’re Level 6 Minion Brutes with Speed 5. They bite, and when they die they perform a Clamping Bite Death Chomp, which does the same damage as the bite attack and also slows (save ends) because the dead zombie doesn’t let go until you pry it off.
Cinder Zombies
These were killed and preserved by fire. This could be because they lived in some of the volcanic islands in the Sea of Silt, of because their village was torched by raiders. They’re charred instead of rotten, and therefore smell of burned meat. They’re also quite strong.
Cinder Zombies are Level 12 Soldiers with 121 HP and Speed 5. They have Resist Necrotic 15, Resist Fire 10, and Vulnerable Radiant 5. They project an aura of Burning Embers that deal 10 fire damage to any enemy who leaves the aura, giving them an incentive to remain close. They pummel enemies with their Fists of Cinder that do a mix of physical and fire damage. If an enemy within their aura makes an attack that doesn’t target them, the zombie uses Punishing Sparks on them to deal a bit of fire damage on a hit. When the creature is first bloodied, it releases a Choking Cloud that attacks the Fortitude of enemies in a Close Burst 3. On a hit it deals poison damage and prevents them from spending healing surges (save ends). On a miss it deals half damage and prevents surge expenditure for a turn.
Encounters and Final Impressions
While the four zombie types presented here are new, they’re still zombies. You use them in the same way you use standard zombies which, again, exist on Athas. I think I like the cinder zombies the most, as they have an interesting Defender Aura-like setup and fire zombies make sense in non-Athas settings too.
While three of the four zombies presented here are strongly associated with their specific home regions, there’s nothing preventing an enterprising villain from importing them to wherever their lair is, or from somehow replicating the process of their creation in a lab.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Wight
A wight posing in a threatening manner. The Lore
Athasian wights are, at their root, pretty much the same as standard ones: undead whose soulless bodies are animated by a scrap of animus (or will) the dead person left behind. However, their description here goes on to say that wights were driven to complete some kind of mission or achieve an important goal when they died, and the “will” that animates them is an obsession with fulfilling that task. It also gives them an eternal hunger for life force, and robs them of the capacity to feel anything but hatred, grief, and frustration.
You can technically exorcize a wight by fulfilling its task. This is extremely difficult at best, and it’s often impossible. Wights are not exactly willing to give detailed interviews about the circumstances of their death. Even if the PCs can discover those many of the creatures have been dead for so long that all people and places involved are simply gone. This will probably force the PCs to resort to the second most effective anti-wight strategy: extreme violence.
For a wight to be truly destroyed, its body must be obliterated. A popular tactic is to dismember and then burn their corpses. Not doing this means the creature will restore itself and return eventually.
The Numbers
The Wights presented here are Medium Natural Humanoids with the Undead keyword, and a bunch of traditional undead traits: Darkvision, immunity to disease and poison, 10 resistance to necrotic damage, and and 5 or 10 vulnerability to Radiant.
These wights tend to lack the default ability to eat your healing surges, but they gain other individualized tricks in its place.
Wight Thrall
These are the exception to the wight lore I described above because they’re already living their best unlife. Their obsession was to serve their beloved master for all eternity, and that’s exactly what they’re doing.
Wight thralls have about as much initiative as your typical zombie, but they’re much better at following their master’s commands. If you find these, their master is likely nearby, either as a more powerful wight or as some other monster.
These creatures are Level 12 Minion Brutes with a speed of 7 and the standard traits mentioned above (except radiant vulnerability). Their Claws damage and have a life drain effect that’s modeled slightly differently: targets hit by the attack cannot gain temporary HP at all and recover 5 less HP from healing effects (save ends).
When destroyed by non-radiant damage, their Dark Passing ability restores 5 HP to a nearby undead ally.
Dune Runner Wight
This was an elf who died trying to deliver an important message or warning to their community. Every night they arise and try to complete the impossible run, only to appear back at the starting point when the sun rises. During the day, they terrorize nearby creatures to vent their frustration and slake their thirst.
Dune Runner Wights are level 12 Minion Skirmishers with 124 HP and the common traits mentioned above. Their claws have no effect beyond their decent damage, but they deal extra damage if the runner moved at least 4 squares before attacking, and can be used as part of a Mobile Melee Attack maneuver that lets the runner move its speed without and attack at any point during the move without provoking an opportunity attack from the target.
As a 1/round minor action, they can try to afflict someone with a Running Curse (ranged 5 vs. Will), which forces at target to move at least 4 squares on their turn or take a bit of psychic damage (save ends).
Oath Wight
These used to be inhabitants of one of Athas’ many ancient ruins, who were on the verge of completing an important task when their entire city was leveled by a sorcerous WMD of some kind. Maybe they were scholars nearing a research breakthrough, maybe they were thieves about to pull that big score… or maybe they were mothers undergoing childbirth. So there’s some nightmare fuel for ya. They’re Level 14 Elite Controllers with 140 HP and a speed of 6.
Their frustration with the futility of their task is so potent it leaks out, and can be used as a weapon. This aura of Inevitable Failure inflicts a -2 penalty to attacks, skill checks, and defenses to any non-dominated enemies inside.
The wight can dominate enemies with its Accursed Gaze (minor action, ranged 5 vs. Will), which dominates for a turn on a hit. It can also use the Frustration’s Fury encounter power, which attacks the Will of 2 nearby targets. On a hit, it reals psychic damage and forces the target to make a free melee basic attack (or a charge!) against another target of the wight’s choice. If this secondary attack misses, the target is dominated (save ends). A miss with the power deals half damage and dazes for a turn.
When Frustration’s Fury is unavailable, the wight uses its basic Rotting Touch, which does necrotic damage and prevents HP recovery for a turn.
If you were wondering why the wight has so little HP for an elite, it’s because reaching 0 HP triggers its Promised Return power, causing it to reappear with full HP near its last position at the start of its next turn.
Encounters and Final Impressions
The description of wights as the products of obsession that lingers beyond death is so cool that I’m tempted to make this the default description of wights in any game I run. The mechanics of the ones presented here are interesting and help bring them into the paragon tier.
Wights might very rarely work with the living if they can convince the creature they have similar goals, but they mostly hang out with other undead or with predatory beasts who don’t see them as food.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Thri-Kreen
A thri-kreen mantis warrior with a green carapace. The Lore
Thri-kreen are the famous mantis-people of Athas. A slightly more generic version of them appeared in the Monster Manual 3, and now we get more NPC stat blocks here and a playable version in the Campaign Guide. Unlike what happened to muls a few pages back, thri-kreen in the Creature Catalog are given a description that’s about as positive as the one for the playable version.
Thri-kreen have deep instinctual bonds of loyalty to their “clutch” and their “pack”. As the Campaign Guide explains, a clutch is a small group of at most six individuals to whom the thri-kreen feels closest, and a pack is an extended family composed of multiple clutches.
Traditionally a clutch is formed by individuals who hatched from their eggs at around the same time, but kreen can “adopt” other clutches over time if circumstances demand. For PCs, this means their adventuring party is their clutch. NPC kreen away from their homes will have similar arrangements with their ally groups.
Those ubiquitous asshole slavers like to steal Thri-kreen eggs so that their can exploit their bonding instinct, making them extremely loyal to their new masters.
Thri-kreen packs prefer to hunt non-sapient creatures for food, but they will make exceptions in truly desperate times. They will fight with all their strenght to protect themselves from attacks by other people, but will almost never be the aggressors in such fights. Their spiritual leaders are known as desert talkers, and are responsible for maintaining their connection to the primal spirits of the desert and those of their ancestors. This gives them a very long genetic memory, stretching back to an ancient age where they had their own great empire.
The Numbers
These NPC thri-kreen are Medium Natural Humanoids with Low-Light Vision. The ones here have ground speeds between 6 and 7, slightly slower than the MM3 ones. Their signature ability remains Mantis Jump, an move-action encounter power that lets them jump their speed without provoking opportunity attacks. This is indeed different from the power PCs get.
We get three new stat blocks here, which can be mixed in with the ones from the MM3 without any extra work.
Thri-Kreen Bounder
These are less experienced hunters who are still learning the tricks of the trade by observing the pack’s veterans at work. They tend to be a little more skittish than those veterans. They’re Level 6 Minion Skirmishers with a ground speed of 6.
The Deft Dodger trait gives them +2 to defenses against ranged attacks, which helps them survive longer in a fight. They attack in melee with claws and at range with thrown Chatkchas, which are three-pointed throwing blades with Range 6/12.
Instead of Mantis Jump they have Mantis Bound, which lets them jump 3 squares without provoking opportunity attacks as a reaction to being missed by an attack.
Thri-Kreen Mauler
These are the veteran hunters, big and beefy thri-kreen who single out a quarry, jump on top of it, and tear it apart. They’re Level 8 Brutes with 105 HP and a speed of 6.
Their basic Claw attack is way too weak for a level 8 brute (average damage 9), but Mauler Frenzy (recharge 4+) lets them make two of those, three when bloodied. Mauler Leap lets them jump 6 squares and make two claw attacks with a +1 to attack and a +4 to damage, which definitely matches the formula. This recharges when they’re first bloodied.
If the mauler hits a bloodied target with their claws, they can use Pain Amplification against that rarget with a minor action, attacking their Fortitude. A hit causes the target to take ongoing 5 psychic damage (save ends).
If multiple claw attacks aren’t on the cards this turn, the mauler can use its Chatkchas at range, which do level-appropriate physical damage. Mantis Jump rounds out their arsenal.
While Maulers will try to avoid getting killed like any opponent, they don’t mind getting bloodied since it makes them stronger. They probably should try to open the fight with a Leap, get stuck in for a Frenzy or two, and then jump away for that second use of Mauler Leap once bloodied.
Thri-Kreen Mantis Warrior
Mantis Warriors are hunt leaders, highly skilled with both weapons and psychic powers. They’re Level 10 Elite Soldiers with 208 HP and a ground speed of 7.
They still have their Claws, and also carry a Gythka, a light polearm with a trident-like head on either end. Both do equivalent damage, but the gythka marks for a turn on a hit and does a blend of physical and psychic damage instead of just physical. They can also throw Chatkchas, though these are a bit weaker.
The Mantis Flurry ability allows the warrior to make a claw and a gythka attack, or to throw two chatkchas, with a single action.
Occasionally they can pull off a Springing Assault (recharge 5+): this lets them jump 4 squares, make a gythka attack, then jump another 3 and make another gythka attack. None of this movement provokes opportunity attacks.
Once per encounter they can perform a Mind Wrench, attacking the Will of all enemies in a Close Burst 2. On a hit this deals psychic damage and marks for a turn.
When an adjacent marked enemy moves, shifts, or makes an attack that doesn’t target the warrior, it can cause a Spasm as an interrupt. This is an attack against Will that does psychic damage on a hit, knocks the target prone, and slows them until the end of the warrior’s next turn.
Encounters and Final Impressions
These three stat blocks combined with the Ambusher, Scout, and Sand Talker from the MM3 will let you build a large variety of thri-kreen encounters. They can also be part of “found clutches”, AKA Mixed Groups of Humanoids, voluntarily or not.
I note that the MM3 Thri-Kreen are described as using “spears” and “shuriken”, which clearly correspond to the gythkas and chatkchas used by these ones. A simple find-and-replace of the names should work, as there is no mechanical difference between them in the stat blocks themselves.
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