Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast

Like Angels, Archons in 4e are significantly different from the monsters bearing the same name in earlier editions. In most of those they used to be Lawful Good angels, but here they are elemental creatures who made up the bulk of the Primordial armies during their war with the gods.

Back at the start of the Dawn War, the Primordials primarily used giants and titanic elemental beasts against the gods. These were powerful but few in number, and so effectiveness against the countless angels and exarchs of the divine host was limited. Eventually the Primordials would learn to forge archons from “raw” elementals, putting both sides on a more even footing.

Archons are militaristic and well-versed in tactics despite being Chaotic Evil, which can easily be explained by two important traits of 4e’s alignment system: 1) “chaos” here means ruin instead of randomness and 2) Chaotic Evil is the alignment of Team Primordial, and these beings are definitely still on Team Primordial. These days they can be found serving as muscle for a variety of similarly-disposed elemental beings, or protecting sites of importance to the imprisoned primordials.

Like Angels, Archons are paragon-tier monsters. The Monster Manual presents fire and ice archons, but also says there are a bunch of other types. Earth and Air are obvious, but you also have more “exotic” types like Slime, Storm, and Crystal. A typical archon force is composed of a jumble of different archon types, though without strong leadership they’re prone to infighting.

The Monster Vault text further stresses their leadership skill and tactical prowess, and pictures them as less prone to infighting than what the Monster Manual said. It contains four Archon stat blocks: Earth, Fire, Water and Ice.

Archons generally look like humanoids sculpted out of their element, wearing fancy (and spiky) military gear.

Fire Archons

Fire Archons are quite fast at Speed 8, are immune to disease and poison, and have Resist 30 Fire. That last bit means you can theoretically pull a Dark Schneider on them and prove your awesomeness by killing them with fire. Also of note is the fact that none of them are particularly vulnerable to cold.

Fire Archon Emberguard

This dude is a Level 12 Brute clad in plate and wielding a greataxe. They have 151 HP and somewhat subpar non-armor defenses. They have an aura that causes fire damage to anyone adjacent to them. Their attacks appear to suffer from some editorial issues, as they’re even less accurate they than should be by the early monster math. In any case, they have a basic axe strike that does a combination of physical and fire damage with the High Crit property, and a Recharge 3-6 version that also causes ongoing fire damage.

I addition to fixing their accuracy and damage, I’d suggest just adding the ongoing fire damage to their basic melee attack.

Fire Archon Blazesteel

These Level 19 Soldiers are the shock troopers of the primordial armies, and can also be found working for efreets and fire titans. They have 182 HP, and their Will is substantially weaker than their other defenses. Blazesteels (weird name) fight with flaming scimitars that deal physical and fire damage and mark enemies they hit. They don’t have any powers that exploit the mark, but they do get to make two attacks and deal extra fire damage against enemies that grant them combat advantage. This means they do well in a team that includes skirmishers who are good at flanking.

Oh, and they blow up once bloodied and once again when dead, catching everyone in a Close Burst 2 in the ensuing conflagration and dealing ongoing fire damage.

Fire Archon Ash Disciple

The ash disciple is a Level 20 Artillery archon, who is a bit odd in that all its ranged attacks are encounter powers. There’s a Rain of Fire that deals ongoing damage (or half damage on a miss); a Flame Wave that pushes and deals 10 ongoing fire damage; and a Cinder Burst that blinds. It’s only at-will ability is a funky teleport that makes it appear out of a nearby fire creature (like another fire archon).

Once its encounter powers are gone, the ash disciple will have to join the melee with its weak fists, and be content in the knowledge that it will blow up when it dies with an explosion similar to its Cinder Burst. This will happen fairly fast, because as an artillery monster the flame disciple has only 150 HP.

I’d strongly consider adding an at-will single-target ranged attack to this monster.

Monster Vault Fire Archon

Being the sole fire archon in the Monster Vault, it doesn’t have a fancy name. It’s a level 13 skirmisher with 130HP and only Resist 20 fire, which leads me to think we can lower the resistance of the MM archons to that level. Also unlike the MM archons, this one is vulnerable to cold: taking cold damage prevents it from shifting for a turn.

It attacks with a scimitar that does fire damage, can shift up to half its speed as a move action, and has a Blaze Step encounter power where it shifts its whole speed and leaves a trail of fire on the ground. This trail deals 10 fire damage to whoever crosses it and lasts until the end of the fight.

I like this one. A simple monster that feels fiery and skirmisher-y.

Ice Archons

Like fire archons, but with ice. Speed 6 with ice walk, immune to disease and poison, and with Resist 30 to cold.

Ice Archon Hailscourge

A plate-clad icy ninja who hops around throwing ice shuriken. Level 16 artillery. It can throw two of those shuriken on its turn, or it can conjure a Recharge 5-6 hailstorm that has a variable area burst radius and does half damage on a miss. If a PC tries to tag it with a ranged, close, or area attack it can summon an ice shield once per encounter that will negate 20 damage from that attack.

Simple but interesting. The only thing preventing it from being cool are the usual math issues and the archon-specific editing problems. Be sure to correct for those if you want to use it.

Ice Archon Rimehammer

A level 19 Soldier who fights like a Brute. His huge ice maul slows on a hit, and deals extra damage to slowed targets. Its most soldierly trait is an aura that freees the ground around it and makes it difficult terrain to enemies.

I feel the rimehammer would work best as a brute, since its arsenal is pretty similar to that of the Aboleth Lasher, who is a brute. In fact I’d say the rimehammer is less dangerous than the lasher, despite being 2 levels higher.

Ice Archon Frostshaper

Like Elsa, but evil. A Level 20 Controller (Leader), it has a large aura that gives Regeneration 10 to any cold creature inside and turns the ground into difficult terrain for enemies. Its basic melee attack is an ice blade that does cold damage, and it throws ice javelins that slow for a turn. It also has an Icy Burst area attack that slows on a hit but still does half damage on a hit, and recharges whenever the frostshaper hits with a melee attack.

This suggests its strategy should be to mostly fight in melee and use bursts to interfere with more distant fighting.

Monster Vault Ice Archon

This level 13 soldier has 135 HP, a cold resistance of only 20, and takes a -2 penalty to all defenses for a turn when hit with fire damage. It attacks with an mace that does cold damage on a hit and applies a mark to everyone within 2 squares whether it hits or not. If a marked enemy tries to flout the mark (i.e, make an attack that doesn’t include the archon as a target) it gets smacked with an attack that does cold damage and weakens.

Now that’s a proper soldier monster.

Other Monster Vault Archons

Earth Archon

This level 12 brute has 149 HP, earth walk, tremorsense, and is immune to petrification in addition to the usual disease and poison. If it takes thunder damage, it’s slowed for a turn.

It attacks with a stone warhamer for Brute damage, and has a powerful Avalanche charge that does more damage and knocks the target prone even on a miss. This last one recharges once it’s bloodied.

Water Archon

A level 14 controller with 140 HP, a swim speed, and 20 acid resistance. It’s slowed for a turn if it takes cold damage.

Its staff slows the target for a turn on a hit, and it also has an at-will Whirlpool power that can hit everyone on a Close Burst 3 and slide them up to 3 squares. It’s an hilarious way to mess up the party’s carefully orchestrated formation.

Archon Encounters

There’s only one Monster Manual section with suggested encounters for all archons. The general theme is “pair fire archons with other fire monsters” and “pair ice archons with other ice monsters”.

I say it might be more interesting to mix up the elements, and have a mixed-archon force face the PCs. That way it will be harder for them to protect against all the types of elemental damage involved. The Monster Vault bears this out with its presentation of a multi-element sentai team of similar levels. There are no “suggested encounter” sections in the MV, but it’s obvious you’re supposed to meet all four of its archons together.

Final Impressions

I find archons to be serviceable minions of the Primordials in concept, but the Monster Manual batch seems to suffer from issues beyond those that can be explained by early monster math. All of their attacks are too inaccurate, and they generally work in a somewhat odd manner (like the ash disciple lacking an at-will ranged attack). I’m guessing these were some of the first monsters written for Fourth Edition.

Comparing the archons from both books side by side makes the MM ones seem particularly janky, since the Monster Vault gives us a well-oiled elemental sentai team where each archon has a very simple stat block that nevertheless showcases what its role is supposed to be all about.

The one thing I prefer in the MM archons is their lack of vulnerability to their opposiing element. It makes sense that they wouldn’t be vulnerable to each other if they’re meant to work together, and it lets you spring a little “gotcha” moment on PCs who think they’re clever for thinking fire pokemon are weak against ice.