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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Guardian
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
I remember first reading about Shield Guardians in 3e, which is when you start getting a lot of new constructs that are not golems. I’m not sure if they appeared earlier than that or not. Guardians appear only on the MM here.
The Lore
A Guardian is a type of construct more specialized than a golem: it’s meant to act as a bodyguard. They’re smarter and more flexible than golems at this task, and easier to create. Unlike a golem, guardians are made of multiple materials: metal, wood, and stone. Every guardian is linked to an amulet that gets created alongside itself, and considers the holder of that amulet to be its master.
Guardians are good at detecting and intercepting threats to their master, and will also obey the master’s orders about as well as a generic golem. They can also be “programmed” to perform certain actions at specific times or when a specified condition is met.
When a guardian’s master dies it will keep performing its last orders, until someone else claims the amulet and becomes their new master.
The Numbers
We get two different stat blocks here. Both are Large Natural Animates with the Construct keyword, darkvision and Perception training. They’re also immune to charm, disease, fear, poison and sleep, which makes them sturdier than most golems in those areas.
Shield Guardian
The classic model is a Level 14 Soldier with 138 HP and all traits listed above. It walks at a plodding speed of 4 and attacks with Reach 2 Slams.
The main feature of a shield guardian is the Shield Other aura. It has a 2-square radius, and as long as the master is within it gives the master a +2 bonus to all defenses. The guardian also absorbs half the damage taken by the master while inside the aura.
The main job of a shield guardian is to stick close to its master, and punch any enemy who comes close. It’s equipped to do that and little else, but it’s good at its job.
Battle Guardian
Battle Guardians are the sort of bodyguard that runs out to engage the master’s enemies and cover their escape. They’re Level 17 Controllers with 163 HP and the common traits listed above. Their speed is a much more respectable 8.
The battle guardian’s basic slam does damage and immobilizes on a hit (save ends). While it remains adjacent to its master, the master’s movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.
If an enemy ends the movement portion of a charge within 8 squares of the guardian (which will happen if they try to charge the master, for example), the guardian can use Block Charge as an interrupt. This is basically a counter-charge, taking place before the enemy can actually attack. If the battle guardian’s slam hits the enemy, they’re also knocked prone.
Sample Encounter and Final Impressions
The sample encounter is level 14: 1 shield guardian, 1 githzerai mindmage, and 4 gray slaads. The githzerai is obviously the master here, and it’s either a villain who consorts with slaads or a potential ally who is fighting the slads when the PCs meet them and has to be talked down before they’ll see the PCs as allies.
Guardians are OK, I suppose. Mechanically they do their jobs as designed, increasing the survivability of their master.
Narratively, they might seem a bit redundant given how crowded the design space is these days. It makes sense that artificers and wizards would come up with several different ways to make a loyal construct, given that they all want one and none of them is fond of sharing secrets. Having a huge variety of constructs detracts from their uniqueness while shining the spotlight on the idiosyncrasies of their creators, so it’s up to you which way you want to go.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Grimlock
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
Grimlocks appeared in a Monster Manual for the first time in AD&D 2nd Edition, though it’s likely they appeared in a 1e or earlier supplement before that. I’m pretty sure they’re inspired by the Morlocks from H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine. Here they’re only on the MM.
The Lore
It seems like every “civilized” surface people has a more brutal “deep” counterpart in the Underdark. Elves have drow, dwarves have duergar, and so on. I’ve seen it argued that grimlocks are the equivalent of humans, though their dramatic role is a lot closer to that of your typical Angry Humanoid like an orc or gnoll.
Anyway, grimlocks are a humanoid people who apparently evolved in the Underdark. They have no eyes, and perceive the world through their keen senses of hearing and smell. Some sonar might also be involved here.
Grimlocks are quite strong, and their society has a Stone Age level of technology. As it’s unfortunately quite common for D&D, they’re described as stupid, savage cannibals who have a particular taste for human flesh and an Evil alignment.
That’s already quite enough to make them hostile to any given PC group, but there’s more! Grimlocks are surrounded by lots of powerful, technologically advanced evil empires, which means they often end up as slaves to drow, duergar, mind flayers, and so on. So you might end up fighting a grimlock horde either because they’re servants of the Big Bad, or just because they’re hungry.
The bit I like the most here is the statement that grimlocks evolved in the Underdark. That would make them one of the only sapient species native to the place - most others came either from the surface or from the Far Realm, as did much of the wildlife.
The Numbers
Grimlocks are Medium Natural Humanoids, which corroborates the evolution bit. Their signature traits are Blindsight 10, and the Blind keyword. This makes them immune to sight-based effects, and allows them to fight normally in full darkness or against invisible opponents.
They have no other special tricks, relying on “hard fighting” instead.
Grimlock Minion and Grimlock Follower
These are Minion Brutes, level 14 and 22 respectively. They fight with stone greataxes that do a bit more damage against bloodied targets, and otherwise hope to swarm their enemies with their huge numbers as minions often do.
You can expect to find large numbers of them in the service of some powerful Underdark villain, or if you end up raiding a grimlock settlement for some reason.
Grimlock Ambusher
A Level 11 Skirmisher with 110 HP, trained in Athletics and Endurance. It fights with a greataxe that has the High Critical property.
Its special move is the Offensive Shift, a reaction usable when an enemy moves within 2 squares and attacks an ally of the ambusher. It allows the creature to shift and make a basic attack against that enemy. This recharges when the ambusher is first bloodied.
Grimlock Berserker
This Level 13 Brute has 156 HP and seems to be visually indistinguishable from the ambusher above. It has training in the same skills.
The berserker fights with a greataxe as well, and in addition to its basic attack it can make a Power Attack that’s slightly less accurate and deals more damage. It can also make two basic attacks against a bloodied enemy.
When the berserker bloodies an enemy, it gains 10 temporary HP.
Sample Encounters and Final Impressions
The sample encounter is level 13: two berserkers, 2 hook horrors, and 1 mind flayer infiltrator who is likely the boss of this group.
I’m not really a fan of grimlocks. They fill a necessary role of mind flayer muscle but otherwise conform to all the usual Angry Humanoid stereotypes, with the words “murderous”, “savage”, “brute”, and so on appearing rather frequently as descriptors.
Mechanically they’re a bit weak, heavily affected by the damage bug due to being paragon-tier opponents. Even the berserker’s power attack falls short of what its basic damage output should be according to the new math. Fixing that is a priority if you want to use grimlocks as opposition.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Griffon
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
Another fantasy classic, these lion-eagle hybrids have a different spelling for their name in every source they appear in. D&D has always gone with “Griffon” and has featured them in its bestiaries since at least BECMI and AD&D 1st Edition. In Fourth Edition they appear only in the MM.
The Lore
A griffon is a large flying carnivore with the head, wings and foreclaws of a giant eagle, and the hindquarters of some non-flying beast. They’re strong enough to be used as flying mounts, though how easy they are to train depends on the exact variety you’re dealing with.
The most common variety is called simply a Griffon, and has a lion’s backside. They can’t be trained at all unless you start with a hatchling, but stories tell that some elves and eladrin can use magic to control them and ride them into battle. Griffon eggs fetch a high price on the open market (1000 GP) from people who want a shot at training them, or who think they have that eladrin magic figured out.
The ones you’re most likely to find as trained mounts are the Hippogriffs, who have horse backsides and a considerably more tractable temperament. This makes them the most common flying mount among the sapient people of the world. I’m pretty sure Nerath had whole regiments of hippogriff cavalry and that the practice survives in any post-imperial community of sufficient size.
Hippogriffs are brave enough that that they can readily be ridden into battle, and they actually breed true with normal horses as well as with each other. The offspring of a horse and a hippogriff will either be another hippogriff or a temperamental horse. They’re expensive enough to be a prime target for thieves, and there’s a thriving black market on young specimens.
Even the Elemental Chaos has its own griffon species in the form of the Rimefire Griffon, a formidable beast that the book describes as being sapient, unlike its natural cousins. It’s not exactly a genius at Int 4, but it still “allies” with ice archons or gets “pressed into service” by efreets instead of being “tamed”.
The Numbers
Griffons are Large Natural Beasts with the Mount keyword (the Rimefire Griffon is Elemental instead). They’re a bit slow on land, but are excellent fliers.
Hippogriff
The typical hippogriff is a Level 5 Skirmisher with 64 HP. It walks at speed 4 and flies at speed 10. Being a MM monster, it has a listed overland flight speed of 15, fast enough to outrun most dragons.
Its basic attack is a bite, and it can perform a Flyby Attack that works as expected: the hippogriff flies it speed, attacks at any point in the movement, and draws no opportunity attacks. It can also perform a Diving Overrun, a charge which does more damage than the bite, knocks the target prone on a hit, and lands the hippogriff adjacent to it.
As mounts, these creatures grant +1 to all of their riders’ defenses.
Hippogriff Dreadmount
An armored hippogriff that fights better on the ground. It’s a Level 5 Soldier with 66 HP and the same speed as the standard model.
Dreadmounts trade their usual agility for increased battlefield control. They fight with bites, and can do Wing Slams (Melee 1 vs. Reflex) against enemies who try to shift or move away from them. These attacks are interrupts, doing some damage and knocking enemies prone on a hit. They can’t be done while in the air.
Dreadmounts are also as stable as dwarves - they move 1 square less from forced movement effects, and can roll an immediate save to avoid being knocked prone.
Griffon
Classic griffons are Level 7 Brutes with 98 HP. They run with speed 6, and fly with speed 10.
Griffons fight with their claws, and they’re all about charging: charge attacks give them a +4 attack bonus instead of the usual +1. When acting as mounts, their charges allow them to make two claw attacks in addition to the rider’s attack.
When bloodied, griffons lose their shit: they become immune to fear, gain an extra move action, a +2 bonus to attacks, and a -2 penalty to defenses.
Rimefire Griffon
These are Level 20 Skirmishers with 186 HP. Their land speed is 5, and their flight speed 10. They have Resist 10 to both cold and fire.
Rimefire griffons have lion bits but fight more like hippogriffs, with a basic bite that does physical and cold damage and the same Flyby Attack power. They can also breathe fire (Close Blast 5 vs. Reflex), an attack that starts “uncharged” but recharges after the creature hits twice with a bite attack. When used as a mount, the rimefire griffon grants its elemental resistances to its rider.
The lore description for the fiery breath is fun: their bites absorb the target’s body heat, causing the creature’s prominent horn to glow red-hot. Once it stores up enough heat, it can release it as a blast.
Sample Encounters
The sample encounters emphasize the role of griffons as mounts:
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Level 5: a human mage and 2 human guards riding hippogriffs.
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Level 5: 3 warforged soldiers and their dreadmount-riding captain.
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Level 6: 2 eladrin fey knights on griffons.
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Level 20: 1 Ghaele of Winter riding a rimefire griffon, accompanied by a quartet of fire and ice archons.
I like them, particularly the emphasis on them being mounts. I get the feeling that investing in horses in D&D’s implied setting is a fool’s game. You have boar-riding dwarves, griffon-riding elves, human knights on hippogriffs, and I’m sure there’s a ridable drake somewhere. Warhorses are so last edition.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Grick
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
I remember seeing Gricks for the first time in 3.0, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they appear earlier than that. In this edition they’re only on the MM.
The Lore
In the previous post about Grells I complained that a lone grell was indistinguishable from any of the many other tentacled underground predators. Well, Gricks are one of those, and the main sources of my confusion. They even have tentacles, a beak, and a short name that starts with GR.
The main differences are that gricks are nonsapient and have worm-like bodies instead of being floating brains. They live in caves and in the upper reaches of the Underdark. There’s pretty much no chance for the PCs to have a nonviolent interaction with these beasts (aside from sneaking around them, I guess). Gricks are always either hungry and hunting, or hanging around their nests, which they protect with murderous ferocity.
I note they don’t seem to have a burrowing speed, so they either need to stick to premade caves and tunnels, or they burrow too slowly to make a difference in combat. When food turns scarce in the grick’s preferred environment, they’ll venture out to the surface to hunt at night, returning home before sunrise to avoid burning out their tiny cave-adapted eyes.
Gricks are pack hunters and have excellent instincts for surrounding their intended prey. They’re also really tough and hard to hurt. I wonder if bullettes and gricks prety on each other, like sperm whales and giant squid.
The Numbers
We get two stat blocks here.
Grick
The default model is a Medium Aberrant Beast and a Level 7 Brute with 96 HP. It has Resist 5 against all effects that target AC, moves with speed 6, and climbs with speed 4. It also has darkvision.
Its basic attack is a Tentacle Rake (Melee 1 vs. AC) that does both immediate and ongoing damage on a hit (save ends).
It also has a trait named Expert Flanker that grants it a +2 attack bonus against a target it’s flanking. That does stack with the standard +2 from combat advantage, for a total of +4.
Grick Alpha
A bigger, badder version leading a pack. It’s a Large Aberrant Beast and a Level 9 Brute (Leader) with 116 HP. It has the same damage resistance, senses, and climb speed as the base grick, but its ground speed is 7.
The tentacle rake attack is almost identical, but has Reach 2 and also grabs the target. The alpha can then use its standard actions to perform a Vicious Bite on the grabbed target, doing automatic damage that’s a bit weaker than that of the tentacles.
Why would it bother with that? Because it grants its allies a +2 attack bonus against the grabbed victim. So while being chewed on by the alpha, the hapless PC will also be attacked by the smaller gricks with a total bonus of +6: 2 from CA, 2 from Expert Flanker, and 2 from this ability.
Of course, the alpha is an Expert Flanker itself.
Sample Encounters
Gricks obviously don’t socialize with anyone outside their packs, but sometimes an opportunistic predator will join a grick fight hoping to score some scraps. They can also be enslaved by certain aberrant creatures, which seem to be the only ones that can make any use out of these ornery worms.
Thus we get our two sample encounters:
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Level 8: 1 grick alpha, 3 standard gricks, 2 dire stirges.
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Level 9: 2 alphas, 1 gibbering mouther, and a trio of foulspawn.
Final Impressions
I like their mechanics, but the lore doesn’t inspire me all that much. They work well enough as an incidental encounter for “natural cave” dungeons, I suppose.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Grell
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
Grells have been around since at least the 2e Monstrous Manual. In Fourth, they’re only on the MM, but they got an update in Dungeon 192.
The Lore
These beaked, tentacled brain-things live and hunt in the Underdark. Like a lot of monsters in this book they’re carnivores who don’t mind if their prey is sapient. Though blind, they perceive the world through their latent psychic powers.
Grells are sapient, but lone grells tend to lead a feral existence and behave pretty much like clever pretadors. Those tend to be exceptions, though. Grell most often organize themselves in hive-like colonies with dozens of individuals, led by the most intelligent and powerful among them. These colonies are expansionist, though they tend to see their territory more as a hunting ground than as any sort of empire. Grell colonies don’t go for subtle manipulation, either.
Grells have a venomous bite, and venomous spines on the tips of their tentacles. Their leaders are called Philosophers, and have stronger psychic powers on top of that.
One interesting fact added by the Dungeon update is that brains are poisonous to grells! They’ll eat every other bit of their victims, but will either discard the brains or keep them in reserve for trade if there’s a mind flayer colony near their territory.
The Numbers
Grells are Medium Aberrant Magical Beasts who lack eyes and thus are immune to gaze attacks. They have Blindsight 12 and fly with speed 6 (hover). A grounded grell is reduced to a ground speed of 1 (clumsy). They’re Evil, communicate via Deep Speech, and are trained in Stealth and Perception.
Grell
The basic model is a Level 7 Elite Soldier with 156 HP. Its basic attack is a Tentacle Rake (Melee 2 vs. AC) using those spines, and while it does the damage expected by the new math that’s only because the designers went with the “one double-damage attack” approach for this elite monster. In addition to doing damage, the tentacles slow the target and give it a -2 penalty to attacks (save ends both).
Instead of raking, the grell can attempt a Tentacle Grab (Melee 2 vs. Fortitude) which does a bit less damage than the rake and grabs the target. The grell can only grab one victim at a time, and enjoys a +2 bonus to AC while it’s grabbing someone.
As a 1/round minor action, the grell can use its Venomous Bite (vs. AC) against a grabbed victim, dealing a bit of physical damage and stunning them (save ends).
You can expect a grell to be able to keep one PC stunlocked and the rest of them slowed. The update gives them two attacks per turn, each of which can be a Tentacle Rake or a Tentacle Grab. They retain their stunning bite, but the stun also ends when the grab does in addition to being (save ends).
Grell Philosopher
Philosophers are Level 11 Elite Controllers with 224 HP. They have Resist 20 Lightning on top of the common grell’s traits. Their basic attack is still the tentacle rake, whose damage is only 1 point higher than that of a standard grell.
They have a ranged attack in the form of a Lightning Lance (Ranged 10 vs. Reflex) which does lightning damage and blinds (save ends). If there are a lot of PCs nearby they can instead use their Venomous Mind (Close Burst 3 vs. Will, enemies only) which does psychic damage and forces its victims to choose random targets for any melee attacks they make (save ends). I love these unique conditions.
Occasionally the philosopher will be able to cause a Psychic Storm (Area Burst 2 within 10 vs. Will; recharge 6) which does psychic damage and dazes (save ends). The storm lingers as a zone until the end of the encounter, dazing anyone caught within (save ends).
Psychic storm is always available at the beginning of the fight, so that’s going to be the opener almost every time. It’s not a “friendly” area, so some care is required in its placement. Venomous mind is an excellent power to use on the PCs stunlocked by the philosopher’s underlings.
The dungeon update left them pretty much identical, aside from the usual damage improvements.
Sample Encounter and Final Impressions
There’s one grell encounter here, which is level 11: a philosopher, 2 standard grells, and 4 troglodyte minions. The lore didn’t give me the impression grells would work alongside anyone else, but the troglodyte association here is interesting. This works as a good boss battle for level 8-9 characters.
I think grells are a lot more interesting when they’re in colonies. As lone feral predators they’re interchangeable with a lot of other tentacled Underdark beasties.
One thing I noticed is that 2e seems to have described them as having a higher level of technology: they worn spear-tips on their tentacles, used magic items, and the Lightning Lance was an actual weapon instead of a psychic power. I wonder how much stress this caused GMs whose players looted a bunch of +5 rings and rayguns from a group of grells. So in that way it’s a good thing that these things are no longer in the game. Still, if you’re looking for some treasure to assign to a grell encounter, these items might be a good inspiration.
2e used to also have Grell Patriarchs as the “tier” above Philosophers. Patriarchs were large sapient masses of flesh that acted as the core of spelljammer vessels. If you’re including spelljamming in your campaign you could bring them back.
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