A brohg holding two boulders ready to throw. Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast.

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The Lore

This entry goes on and on about how stupid brohgs are, but I think that’s terribly unfair to them. They’re some of the nicest people we’ve met in this reading so far.

These four-armed giant-kin wander the wastes in small nomadic bands that occasionally cross paths to trade gossip and partners. They’re extremely skilled at surviving the environment in Athas, taking only what they need and leaving little trace of their passage. Their strong primal magic tradition helps them with this.

Of course, being both big and relatively peaceful makes them frequent targets for the many odious slaver organizations in this setting, so they often end up captured and put to work as heavy laborers, muscle, or gladiators. Enslaved brohg who manage to break free often seek employment as mercenaries.

Brohgs have both an innate ability to sense arcane magic, and an intense cultural distrust of it, as they associate all arcane magic with defiling and believe it to be cursed. Very rarely, a brohg will be born with innate arcane potential (like a PC sorcerer). These individuals end up exiled from their communities, as they’re believed to be hosts to “evil spirits” and destined to bring disaster. Left to fend for themselves with no support, they often end up creating a self-fulfilling prophecy scenario and becoming cruel defilers.

The Numbers

Brohgs are Large Natural Humanoids with the Giant tag. They move at a relatively slow speed of 6, and have low-light vision. They have four arms and are ambidexterous, but that doesn’t translate into a specific trait in their stat blocks - each one has different abilities related to training.

Brohg Hurler

Hurlers are civilians without a lot of combat training, but they get by just fine by throwing stuff really far away, be that stuff boulders or enemies. They’re Level 10 Artillery with 82 HP.

Their basic Reach 2 Slam attack lets them grab the target on a hit, which is hilarious because they can then use Hurl Away to throw them 10 squares at another creature, further damaging the “ammunition” as an effect and making a ranged attack against the second target. For rules purposes, this counts as a push that leaves the hurled creature adjacent to the second target.

If no one’s stupid enough to get within arm’s reach of a hurler, they can hurl a rock instead, which does similar damage, pushes the target 2 squares, and knocks it prone.

Brohg Warrior

This is what a trained brohg combatant looks like. When a brohg community is under attack, warriors step up to cover their retreat. This could also represent an enslaved or mercenary brohg working for someone else. Warriors are armed with 2 spears, a shield, and a hand kept free to throw rocks. They’re Level 10 Elite Soldiers with 212 HP.

They can attack with a spear that marks for a turn or a thrown rock that knocks prone, and Double Attack lets them do that twice in an action in any combination.

Their Brohg Taunt ability is a minor action that lets them mark everyone in a Close Burst 2, and recharges when they’re bloodied. If a marked enemy within 2 squares moves, the brohg can use Battle Alacrity to get a free attack on them that does light damage and lets then shift 1 square.

Brohg Renegade

One of those banished sorcerers who went all in on defiling magic, and now wanders alone or at the head of a villainous band, plotting to increase his power. The Renegade is a Level 13 Solo Controller with 512 HP.

This defiler knows an Arcane Secret that lets them roll saves against daze or stun effects both at the start and end of its turn, even if that effect doesn’t allow a save (i.e., by having a fixed duration instead). Its dagger basic attack is a minor action that does normal damage, and a little bit of extra force damage if the target doesn’t end their next turn at least two squares away from the renegade.

Its standard actions are all spells.

  • Entropy Belt (ranged 10 vs. will) targets one to three creatures, dealing psychic damage and pushing 3 squares on a hit.

  • Defiling Vortex (close burst 3 vs. Fort, recharges when bloodied) deals no damage on a hit, but instead knocks targets prone and weakens then (save ends). Missed enemies take necrotic damage. At the end of all this, the renegade gains 5 temp HP for every target it hit with the power.

  • Defiling Blast (close blast 5 vs. Ref, recharge 5+) does necrotic damage and dazes (save ends). The renegade gains a +4 to all damage while any target remains dazed by this power.

And as it suits a solo, we also get a ton of triggered actions. The renegade has the same Variable Resistance as a demon, usable 2 times per encounter. To refresh our memories: the value of this resistance is 10, and when the renegade takes elemental damage it can switch the resistance to resist that damage type as a free action, up to the encounter limit, when the resistance retains its final type.

If an enemy hits the renegade while granting combat advantage to it, the renegade can cast a Wrath Sphere (close burst 1 vs. Fort) against that enemy, dealing force damage and pushing it 2 squares on a hit. And when the renegade is first bloodied, Bloodied Defiling triggers to let it immediately recharge and use Defiling Blast again.

That’s a lot of stuff, but that’s a solo for you. Almost dragon-like, this one.

Encounters and Final Impressions

Free broghs have no reason to quarrel with PCs unless provoked, and if that happens the warriors will cover the retreat of the rest of the group while hurlers help from further away. They might also keep several of the hardy beasts described in this book, and they might help in a fight too.

Enslaved or mercenary individuals might be found in mixed sapient encounter groups. Renegade defilers will often be leading such a villain group. A single renegade is a nice “welcome to paragon tier” boss fight. One plus some lieutenants makes for a nice set piece battle for mid-paragon heroes.

I like their mechanics and I like parts of their lore, but as I already mentioned I don’t like the way the book keeps saying how brohgs are stupid and simple-minded, and how it manages to make them superstitious despite living in a D&D world and having their own working magical tradition. Distrusting arcane magic in Dark Sun is sensible, but having the brohgs do it because they falsely believe it’s a curse from evil spirits is a step too far in my opinion.