Andropinis, who looks like a regal old wizard when he's not trying to kill you.

The Lore

Andropinis is the Sorcerer-King who rules the city of Balic. His official title is Dictator, and his city has a lot of Greek and Roman elements as we saw in the other thread.

Here, the book says that Balic is clean, orderly, and mostly run along democratic lines. Its templars, called praetors here, are elected to their posts. Andropinis himself has an excellent reputation among his population, and encourages the region’s tradition of ancestral worship and primal magic, resulting in a remarkably fertile kingdom by Athasian standards.

Of course, the reasons for all of this are quite selfish. Andropinis has mystically tied himself to the land and its ancestral spirits, and he teaches his disciples to do the same. He encourages his people to love the land and tend to it using primal magic because it increases his own power and makes the area ripe for defiling. And obviously there’s never going to be elections for Dictator if he has anything to say about it.

His magical ties to the land form the basis of Andropinis’ power, and he also seems to be pursuing a more traditional draconic ascension path as a defiler. While he normally looks like a strong human in late middle age, when angry his features take on a reptilian cast, with golden scales appearing here and there.

The Numbers

Here we get stats for the man himself and some of the allies he is likely to surround himself with. We’ll look at them in order of level.

Legionnaire Vestige

This is one of those spirits venerated as Balic’s civic heroes. Andropinis can summon them and order them around. It’s a Medium Shadow Animate and a Level 21 Minion Soldier with a ground speed of 6, a Flight speed of 5, Darkvision, and immunity to immobilization. Them being Animates instead of Humanoids makes me think the average Balic citizen is being misled about their true nature.

Anyway, every vestige has a Guarded Creature chosen when they enter the fight, usually their summoner or creator. They fight with Shade Spears that deal a bit of damage and mark the target until the vestige is defeated or the encounter ends, whichever comes first. Yes, they can have multiple marked targets if they last long enough.

If a marked enemy attacks the vestige’s guarded creature, the vestige teleports to space adjacent to their guarded creature as an interrupt, and grants the guarded creature +4 to all defenses against the attack. If the attack misses, the vestige drops to 0 HP. They’re jumping in front of the attack, essentially, so they’ll want to mark as many enemies as possible to better defend their charge.

High Praetor

An example of the highest-ranking templars of Balic, those chosen to stand by their Dictator’s side. It’s a Level 22 Soldier with the Leader tag and 211 HP. Their ground speed is 7, and they have a teleport speed of 5.

They’re equipped like cliche Roman legionnaires, and their basic attack is a short sword that deals increased damage on opportunity attacks. They can use it in a Face Cut attack, which deals standard damage and dazes for a turn.

They attack at range with eldritch javelins that deal force damage and slow (save ends). Once per encounter they can upgrade this to an Entrapping Javelin, which deals extra force damage and immobilizes (save ends).

Their High Praetor Assault maneuver lets them throw an Eldritch Javelin and then charge. This also summons a legionnaire vestige, and lets the praetor determine its guarded creature.

The praetor’s soldierly skill is Prateor’s Mark, which lets them mark an enemy within 20 squares for a turn with a minor action. Marked enemies grant combat advantage when not adjacent to the praeto, and take 15 psychic damage if they make an attack that doesn’t target the praetor. So unlike most soldier monsters, high prateors want to be far away from enemies they mark.

Andropinis, Sorcerer-King

The Dictator of Balic is a Level 25 Elite Controller (Leader) with 468 HP, a ground speed of 8, a flight speed of 5, darkvision, and blindsight 2. The fact that he’s an Elite instead of a Solo means he will have a sizable honor guard made up of high praetors and epic-level mages when you fight him. The more allies he has, the more dangerous he is, even beyond the usual encounter maths.

Andropinis’ ties to his city and the surrounding region manifest in several ways. One of them is the Dictator’s Concord, an aura (10) that gives a +2 bonus to saves for all allies inside, and allows them to save against charm, fear, and stunning effects even if they would not normally allow saves.

His Wound Pact lets him automatically deal psychic damage to anyone who damages him while he is already bloodied.

His basic melee attack is with a Pact Dagger, which damages and knocks prone on a hit. The first time Andropinis takes damage before the end of his next turn, the target takes 10 damage and is slowed (save ends).

At range, he can use psychic powers to inflict Overwhelming Memories on a target, dealing psychic damage and sliding them 3 squares.

Aggression Pact lets him use one of the two basic attacks above and let one ally he can see make a free basic attack. Land Pact attacks enemies in a Close Burst 3, deals untyped damage, and slows (save ends). While any target is slowed by the power, Andropinis has Regeneration 15. Land Pact also causes 4 Legionnaire Vestiges to appear in the area, with Andropinis as their guarded creature. It recharges when he is first bloodied.

Andropinis can also use Transposition (move) to switch places with an ally within 10 squares, and Dictator’s Authority (minor) to let an ally take a whole standard action right then and there. This, fortunately, only recharges when he’s first bloodied.

Finally, if Andropinis ever starts his turn without any allies within 10 squares, a legionnaire vestige automatically appears within 10 squares, with him as the guarded creature.

Final Impressions

Andropinis might outwardly seem to be one of the least bad sorcerer-kings, and a good propspect for an alliance against his peers. Of course, Balic being inspired by Greece and Rome means that it’s an enthusiastic practitioner of slavery. Those nifty civil rights are for citizens, and then only if Andropinis isn’t angry at them. And when the chips are down Andropinis would not hesitate to drain his whole kingdom of life in order to protect himself.