Let’s Read the 4e Monster Manual 2: Star Spawn

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Though the Warlock class was introduced late in D&D 3.x, it was Fourth Edition that really made it shine. In addition to the infernal warlocks of the previous edition, the Player’s Handbook also gave us fey and star pact warlocks. Different pacts provided different mechanical and lore flavor, and made the class approachable to people who didn’t want to play someone who had literally sold their soul to the devil.

Fey warlocks were an immediate hit because they tied to the lore of the Feywild, which was awesome from the start. You get your powers from David Bowie’s Goblin King, what’s not to love about that?

While I personally loved star warlocks, their lore required a certain previous familiarity with “cthulhoid” narratives that was by no means universal among D&D players. I mean, in this one-shot I GMed shortly after acquiring the books I had a player who honestly believed they were supposed to be New Agey astrologers¹.

The reason I’m talking about PC warlocks in a Monster Manual reading is that those paragraphs provide the context you need to understand why the Wish Upon a Star article from Dragon #366 was such a big deal. While it was mostly focused on adding more options for star warlocks, it also included the first concrete bit of lore on the “pact entities” for star warlocks. More information about them would be added in subsequent books, and in the Monster Manual 2 they get an entry for monsters themed after them.

The Lore

Most people in 4e’s implied setting don’t think too hard about the stars in the night sky. To many they’re just pretty lights. Amateur astronomers can point out constellations and identify a few specific stars by name.

True scholars of the stars know about the other constellations. They know that some of those stars have fallen under the influence of certain powerful entities, who use them to gaze at the world from across the infinite void. Their gazes might be filled with fury, with hunger, or with emotions unfathomable to feeble mortal minds. When you speak their true names, they listen, and might even answer. Opinions differ as to whether that is a good or a bad thing.

These stellar entities are usually associated with the Far Realm. Traditional lore about the Far Realm says it’s a separate plane of existence, so according to that it could be that these entities are using their stars as windows to our plane. But this also raises an alternate, scarier possibility: maybe the “Far Realm” isn’t a separate plane at all. Maybe it’s just what you find if you travel far enough into the void.

Not every star is the avatar of an eldritch alien being, though some star warlocks have recurring nightmares where every star in the sky opens up to reveal an eye staring at them.

Most of the information on the known eldritch stars comes from a scroll known as The Revelations of Melech, which is the sort of rare sanity-blasting tome that should be very familiar to Call of Cthulhu players. It has the same in-world status the Demonomicon of Iggwilv (which lists demons) or the Codex of Betrayal (devils).

And now we get into the lore contained in the MM2. The most learned students of the sky know of an orange star named Allabar, The Opener of the Way. Allabar only appears when the world is about to enter a time of great turmoil, be it a great war, a mighty ritual, or something similar. It races across the sky in a seemingly random trajectory that passes by one or more of the other “special” stars. When this happens, the way is opened for that star to release a Star Spawn into the world.

Star Spawn are the anthropomorphic personifications of a specific star’s will. Once they enter the world, they seek to enact that will. Some stay for only as long as the conjunction with Allabar lasts, other can remain indefinitely or until defeated. Some are solitary, others gather cults and minions around themselves. Regardless of their specific MOs, star spawn tend to be pretty evil from a mortal’s point of view.

No one knows for sure how or why this whole process happens. Is Allabar a natural phenomenon of the void, or a sapient being with designs of its own? Is there a rhyme or reason to its wanderings? The warlock Thulzar claimed to have charted every star spawn incursion since the fall of Bael Turath and found a pattern, but he vanished along with his tower and all his notes after a starless night, leaving only a glassy crater behind.

The Monster Manual 2 contains three Star Spawn in this entry, and we’ll look a bit more into their specific lore and the lore of their star in their sections.

The Numbers

Star Spawn are Aberrant Humanoids. The first one in this entry is Medium, all others are Large. All of them have Darkvision, a ground speed of 6, and communicate using telepathy with a range of 10 squares. Everything else about them varies per stat block.

Herald of Hadar

Morinbund Hadar used to be the brightest star in the sky. During the tribulations that led to the fall of Bael Turath, it flared up into a burning brand visible even during the day. Afterwards, it faded to a barely visible red ember. Hadar’s dying gasps send its heralds into the world so they can harvest life energy and delay its inevitable end.

The only Medium star spawn in this entry, heralds of Hadar look almost human save for their glowing eyes and hostility to all forms of life, which they attempt to drain. They’re Level 15 Brutes with 180 HP.

Heralds use their Hungry Claws to fight, and they can make two basic attacks with a single action. Once per encounter they can step it up and use Feeding Frenzy to make up to three attacks (though no more than two on the same target). Their life-force drain is the Breath of a Dying Star, a Close Blast 5 encounter power that targets Reflex, does good damage, and prevents targets from regaining HP and spending healing surges (save ends). I imagine the claw attacks drain life as well, but that’s probably just represented as part of their damage.

Whenever someone spends a healing surge within 5 squares of the herald, Hadar’s Hunger allows it to react in a variety of ways. Choose one whenever this triggers: shift 3 squares closer to the triggering creature; make a basic attack; regain the use of an encounter power; gain +2 to attacks for a turn.

It looks like the Herald will want to focus most of its attacks on a single PC, but will use the Breath on the others. That way it will leave someone still able to spend healing surges so it can recharge its powers. Despite their “berserk” fighting style, heralds are still sapient and capable of making alliances of convenience with other creatures.

Maw of Acamar

If Hadar is dying, Acamar is already dead. This corpse-star is a black void that devours everything that passes by it, even other stars and their light. Its hunger is endless and without a purpose other than consumption itself. The Maws of Acamar are avatars of that hunger, living gateways through which the dead star can extend its ruinous grasp to the world. Unlike the other Spawn, they come to the world under their own power, for even The Opener of the Way avoids passing too close to Acamar.

Maws are Level 15 Controllers with 145 HP. Where Heralds of Hadar fight with berserk intensity, Maws of Acamar just kinda stroll around the battlefield and let the constant effects of their presence do the work for them.

The gravitational field of their black hole progenitor is expressed as an aura (5) named Hungry Star. Anyone inside who wishes to move away from the Maw must pay 3 movement points per square instead of the usual 1. Even if they do it’s futile because the Maw can use Corpse Star’s Grip (Close Burst 5 vs. Fortitude; minor action) to pull them 3 squares.

The destructive part of that gravitational pull is expressed as 2 different attacks, both of which inflict ongoing damage instead of instant wounds. Devouring Star is a Close Burst 3 attack targetting Fortitude that inflicts 10 ongoing damage; Devouring Touch is a focused Reach 2 version that inflicts 15 ongoing damage on a single target. In both cases the Destroyer of Life passive trait prevents adjacent enemies from shedding all of that damage with a single save. The save only reduces the total damage by 5.

Yes, it’s possible to meet multiple Maws at once. They love to surround foes and tear them apart by pulling them in several directions at once. I’d probably make them immune to each other’s attacks, but that’s wouldn’t be the case for any other ally. Anything and anyone who stands too close to a Maw is going to be sucked in. If you pair them with other monsters, they would do well to stay away from their “buddy”.

Scion of Gibbeth

Gibbeth is a cursed green sun which gestates at its core an unknowable being. Warlocks and the like say that this being will only show its true face at the end of the world, and this will send the tattered remains of the universe into inescapable madness.

Scions of Gibbeth are shards of this green star, providing a little taste of what is to come. No two people who see one can agree on its appearance, save to say it is horrible. Perhaps its true form is literally incomprehensible to mortal minds, and the varied appearances described are a result of the people in question instinctively trying to cope with this.

These abominations wander the world pursuing their enigmatic goals. They tend to attack any living creature that draws too close, but they tolerate the presence of worshippers and cultists.

Scions are Level 17 Controllers with 163 HP. Their abilities work at range and are designed to keep PCs away. They’re surrounded by an Aura of Revulsion with size 10, enough to cover most of the battlefield. Creatures inside can’t target the Scion with melee or ranged attacks unless it’s the enemy nearest to them.

Its basic attack are vanilla Slams, but the others make up for it. Mind-Splintering Gaze (range 20) deals light psychic damage and dominates (save ends); Gibbeth’s Baleful Glare does the same damage and slides the target 2 squares.

That sets up the Scion’s basic tactics: stay well away from the PCs and dominate them, gently nudging them away when they attempt to close. If they do manage to close, there’s a couple more tricks available to the creature. Offering to Gibbeth gives it a +2 attack bonus for a turn whenever a PC spends a healing surge within 2 squares of it; and Revelation of Gibbeth is a burst 5 that triggers when the Scion dies. This glimpse of its true form acts as an attack against Will. Affected targets are Dazed, and must spend their sole action charging or making a basic attack against their nearest ally. This is a save ends condition, so even if the dead Scion was the last monster on the board, the party might still need to contend with the effect for a few rounds until everyone makes their save.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

I love all of this star lore! It feels so new, you know? It’s “cthulhoid” without actually involving the Cthulhu Mythos and this is a big entry about aberrant monsters that doesn’t contain a single tentacle anywhere in it. It’s also scarier in places than even the traditional fiend lore. “There’s a place in a different plane that’s full of evil fire” doesn’t quite have the same visceral kick as “each star opens to reveal an eye and they’re all looking at you”.

I even think it’s cool that Hadar’s and Acamar’s basic descriptions are the result of taking a real astronomical entity and running it through a Lovecraft and/or Death Metal translator filter. A red supergiant is “ancient and dying, gasping for breath as it tries to prolong its doomed existence”. A black hole is a Corpse Star!

I don’t think they ever officially added Atropus from Elder Evils to the star “pantheon”, but he’s a perfect fit. “The World Born Dead orbits The Corpse Star!”, cries the mad warlock as invisible star spawn tear him limb from limb in broad daylight.

The only place where I think this entry stumbles a bit is the sample encounters. The lore of the star spawn is cool but it makes them stand a bit apart from the more traditional D&D monsters, so it feels strange to see them paired with those same monsters. You might need to reskin some of those monsters to make them more star-aspected.

We have two encounters:

Level 13: A Herald of Hadar teams up with a Beholder Eye of Flame and 2 Battle Wight Commanders. A classic front-line and artillery formation.
Level 13: A Maw of Acamar is accompanied by 2 hook horrors and 2 mind flayer infiltrators. Here you want the others to form a perimeter around the Maw and try to keep the PCs boxed in.

There were also mechanical reasons for why they didn’t become as popular, but these have been more extensively discussed elsewhere and don’t quite fit a monster-focused post. ↩