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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Gorgon
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
In Greek mythology, the Gorgons are a trio of sisters whose bodies were partly composed of snakes and whose visage could turn people to stone. Medusa was one of the Gorgons (the other were Stheno and Euryale). If you say the word “Gorgon” to anyone, they’ll probably think of Medusa, unless they’re D&D players.
D&D uses the word “Medusa” as a species name for the snake-haired ladies, and “Gorgon” for these carapaced cows with a poison breath. They, in turn, are based on a monster from medieval European folklore whose poison gas came out of the other end. They appear only on the Monster Manual.
The Lore
There isn’t much to go on here. Gorgons are elemental beasts known for their foul temper and deadly breath weapons. In the wild they roam in small herds of 3-7 individuals made up of one bull and his harem of cows. Young males acquire a herd by challenging and defeating its current bull. Those who fail at this roam alone or in pairs and are likely even more aggressive than usual.
Taming gorgons is quite hard, but it happens. Those who most often succed at it are other elemental creatures, particularly giants.
The Numbers
Gorgons are Large Elemental Beasts whose signature traits are Truesight and a complete immunity to forced movement and being knocked prone. They also have a breath weapon of some sort, though its effect varies with the stat block.
Iron Gorgon
This is the one that’s closest to the “classic” D&D gorgon of editions past. It’s a Level 11 Soldier with 120 HP and the common traits listed above. It has the Earth keyword, runs at Speed 6 with Earth Walk, and is immune to petrification.
The iron gorgon’s basic attack is a Gore, though I imagine it will most often Trample instead. This allows it to move its speed, go through enemy spaces, and perform an attack against any enemy whose space they go through. This is a little weaker than the gore but will likely target multiple PCs. The movement draws opportunity attacks as normal.
Ocasionally, the iron gorgon will perform an Earthshaking Charge (recharge 5-6), which does more damage than the basic attack and pushes a Medium or smaller target 3 squares, also knocking it prone.
Finally, it can use the Petrifying Breath that made it famous (Close blast 3 vs. Fortitude; recharge 6). It does poison damage, dazes and slows (save ends). This worsens to immobilized on the first failed saved, and to permanent petrification on the second. Other gorgons are immune to this breath weapon, which means they don’t have to worry about friendly fire when you fight the whole herd.
Storm Gorgon
Explicitly called out as the favorite herd animal of storm titans, the mighty storm gorgon is a Level 26 Skirmisher with 248 HP and all traits listed above. To them it adds a Tempest’s Fury aura (size 5) that does 20 lightning damage to anyone caught inside, which is impressive even for an epic creature. It also has 20 lightning and thunder resistance, runs at Speed 8 and flies at Speed 10 with hover capability.
Its basic gore attack does a mix of physical and thunder damage, and also always pushes the target 2 squares and knocks it prone on a hit. It can use that as part of a Mobile Melee Attack where it moves its speed without drawing opportunity attacks and makes an attack at any point in this movement. They can also Trample like iron gorgons if they want to spread the hurt more widely.
Their breath is a storm (Close Blast 5 vs. Fortitude), which does a whole bunch of lignthing and thunder damage but doesn’t have any riders.
Sample Encounter and Final Impressions
The sample encounter here is level 27: 2 storm gorgons, 1 storm titan, and 2 dragonborn champions. I imagine this is a lord taking a walk with his favored pets and their minders. Yes, the Dragonborn Champions are pet minders - anyone less tough would be killed by those storm auras.
Confusing naming conventions aside, I quite like these deadly bovines. They’re in dire need of a damage fix, of course, and I would probably shift the conditions on the iron gorgon’s petrifying breath around. Something like slowed -> immobilized and dazed -> petrified.
How about some fan-made gorgon lore? I imagine they’re native to the Elemental Chaos, and were brought to the world by the giants way back when. Wild specimens can be found in both planes, descended from escaped members of giant herds who went back to nature.
While storm gorgons (below) are explicitly called out as being a favorite of storm titans, I imagine hill giants would be just as fond of iron gorgons. Those groups who grow adept at gorgon ranching have less reason to raid neighboring settlements for food. Their territories might be full of giant-sized statues left over from the process of becoming adept at gorgon-ranching too.
You know who else might be good at herding gorgons? The githzerai. They’d have to be if they use animal products at all. Normal cattle would have trouble surviving in the Elemental Chaos.
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'Superheavy' Melee Weapons in GURPS
Over- and undersized weapons are a popular trope for fantasy and fantasy-adjacent stories. Those giants and pixies need something to fight with, and human-scale warriors with huge swords is a itself a popular genre trope.
GURPS already has a pretty good set of cinematic rules for representing these. The best source of these is the Scaling Weapons and Armor section found in GURPS Low-Tech Companion 2: Weapons and Warriors. GURPS Dungeon Fantasy uses a limited subset of those in DF1 and 3.
However, there are a few other tropes that mess around with weapon weights in a supernatural way. Let’s take a look at how to represent them in GURPS.
Superheavy Weapons
This is a melee weapon that’s the same size as its mundane counterpart, but it’s a lot heavier. It’s probably made out of a non-standard material, which depending on the weapon might be a fruit of superscience or magic. Such weapons are usually built for legendarily strong wielders! The increased weight not only makes the weapons more deadly, but also allows its owner to employ their full strength when fighting.
To model these weapons, use the Scaling Weapons and Armor rules, with a few modifications:
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Either pick a final weight for the weapon, or note the strength of its intended wielder if you already know that.
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Go to page 21 of Low-Tech Companion 2, and pick the line whose “Typical User ST” column most closely matches that of the wielder.
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If you started with the weight, divide final weight by the “base” weight of the weapon and pick the line whose Weight column is closest to the result.
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Modify the weapon’s Damage, required ST, Weight and base cost as written in LTC2. Do not modify Reach or SM.
And there you have it! And yes, you can combine this with normal weapon scaling to make a weapon whose weight is abnormally large for its size. In that case, two extra steps apply after completing the procedure above:
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Multiply the weapon’s Reach by the value in the table row corresponding to the SM of the intended wielder.
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Cost is the higher of the weapon’s final modified cost, or the cost of a standard SM 0 weapon.
Example 1: We’re making a super-strong martial artist character and we want him to use an iron quarterstaff that’s ten times heavier than the wooden variety. Looking at the table on LTC2 p. 21, we see that the closest multiplier is 12.25, for the SM+3 line.
After applying the modified process above, we end up with a weapon that has the following qualities: Damage sw+7 cr or thr+7 cr; Reach 1, 2; Parry +2; Cost $122,50; Weight 20kg (40 lbs); ST 25. So our hero would need at least ST 25 to properly wield such a weapon.
Example 2: We’re making a pixie barbarian using Dungeon Fantasy rules. Her ST is 13, which is legendary for a people whose SM is -6 and whose typical ST score is 5. We want her to wield a weapon that’s superheavy for a pixie.
The chosen base weapon is a Dueling Halberd. We use the SM -6 row in the table for the halberd’s Reach multiplier, and the SM -2 row for everything else. Our resulting halberd will weight only a quarter of the human version, but it will be 25 times heavier than a “standard” pixie polearm, and weight more than its wielder! Since its modified cost of $30 is lower than its base cost of $150, it costs the same as a full-sized halberd.
The final stats are: Damage sw+2 cut or sw+2 imp or thr+2 imp; Reach C; Parry 0U or 0; Cost $150; Weight 1.25kg (2.5 lbs); ST 6++. Note that our super-strong pixie can wield this halberd one-handed without it becoming unready.
Magically Attuned Weapons
This trope is popular in the Exalted roleplaying game. Magic weapons in that setting are based both on some tales of classical mythology and on modern media such as action anime and certain video games. The heroes who wield these weapons “attune their essence” to them, which makes the weapons feel like they have normal weight to their owners, while still being superheavy to everyone else - particularly their targets.
This means that characters wielding these weapons don’t have to be generically super-strong, and that the ability to handle one weapon doesn’t give them the ability to wield others.
To create such a weapon, use the same process outlined above for “superheavy” weapons. Attunement is represented by a new advantage, which the weapon’s owner must purchase in order to use it.
Attunement (Variable Cost)
You’re attuned to a specific magical weapon which is super-heavy, oversized, or both. You can wield it just as if it was a normal-sized weapon, though its targets will still feel the full weight of your blows.
To calculate the cost of this advantage, subtract your actual ST from the weapon’s minimum ST and multiply it by 1.6, rounding up. Add 1 to the total if the weapon is also oversized.
Attunement in no way “protects” your weapon! If it’s permanently lost or destroyed, you lose all the points invested in it.
Details: This is just enough levels of Lifting and Striking ST with the limitation “Only for this weapon” (-80%) to cover the difference between the character’s ST score and the minimum ST for the weapon. The extra point for oversized weapons is a specialized version of the Giant Weapons perk that removes all penalties due to size difference, but only works for that single weapon.
Example: If the Iron Staff from the previous section was a magic artifact in the style described here, a reedy ST 8 hero could attune to it by paying 28 character points. 25 - 8 is 17, which multiplied by 1,6 gives us 27,5, which is then rounded up. This allows the hero to fight with the Staff as if he had ST 25, and to ignore its great weight when carrying it, but he’ll still be ST 8 for all other purposes.
“Whomsoever wields this hammer, should he be worthy…”
The third and final special weapon covered in this article are those powerful magical artifacts that only allow those they deem worthy to even lift them. Thor’s hammer from the Marvel comics and movies is a famous example.
Lifting and using these weapons is not a matter of muscle mass, but of moral strength. When you touch them, they judge you! If you pass that judgment, then you can lift and wield the weapon as if it was a normal specimen of its kind.
You don’t actually need to make these weapons superheavy or oversized. Instead, they look for certain traits in a prospective wielder. Those who have these traits are worthy. Those who don’t can’t even lift the weapon, even if they’re the strongest being in the universe muscle-wise. I generally consider this to be a story effect and wouldn’t try to put a price tag on it.
A weapon like movie-Mjolnir might look for one or more virtues along the lines of Honesty, Selfless, Charitable and so on. An evil weapon would instead look for Bloodlust or Sadism. They would of course also avoid traits opposite to those they like.
If the weapon in question is also superheavy or oversized, then it could grant worthy wielders the ST to use it, similar to how Attunement works, at no cost to the wielder. If you’re writing up the weapon as a character, this would be a benefficial Affliction granting the Attunement advantage described in the previous section of this article. Simplify its cost by having it grant a number of levels of ST equal to the minimum needed to wield the weapon regardless of the wielder’s current ST.
Example: The Iron Staff belonged to the Monkey King! Though it will shun Bloodthirsty, Callous, Greedy or Sadistic individuals, it will deem worthy anyone who shows its former master’s heroic spirit, martial prowess, or love of mischief. Anyone with at least two of Selfless, a Code of Honor or Higher Purpose to fight evil, Trained by a Master, Curious, or Trickster could be deemed worthy and be considered to have ST 25 when wielding the staff.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Bugbears
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
Like the other goblinoids, bugbears have been in the game since the beginning, when they were the most powerful of the “proper” humanoids at 3+1 HD. The next step up from them were ogres, who occupied that nebulous area between “humanoid” and “giant”.
The Lore
As we’ve already seen, bugbears are the biggest and strongest members of their “family”, and tend to organize into small roving bands when by themselves. They can also be found living alongside goblin communities, which they rule through fear and frequent beatings.
Bugbears are quite violent and prefer actions to words, which means they never talk with people they can beat up instead. To get a bugbear to negotiate you have to show them there’s a clear and obvious advantage to doing so. That could be because you’re too tough to bully, or because working with you will bring them more rewards in the long run. They tend to fit into hobgoblin-led forces as elite shock troops or commandos. Yes, bugbears can be surprisingly sneaky despite their bulk and predilection for direct violence.
One interesting bit of lore in the MM is that bugbears like to decapitate their enemies in honor of Hruggek, a culture hero and exarch of Bane who was known for doing that. That’s quite the feat given that their preferred weapon is the morningstar.
The Numbers
We only get a total of four bugbear statblocks, two in each book. They’re Medium Natural Humanoids with low-light vision and Speed 6. All of them also have training in Stealth. Their signature abilities vary per book.
In the MM they have Predatory Eye, a minor-action encounter power that gives them a small damage bonus in the next attack they make with combat advantage. In other words, it’s a crappier Sneak Attack that only works once per encounter.
In the MV this was replaced with the much better Bushwhack, which gives them a +4 attack bonus against creatures that have no adjacent allies. If you use MM bugbears, I suggest you replace their Predatory Eye with Bushwhack in addition to any other changes.
Bugbear Thug (MV)
This Level 4 Brute has 65 HP and all common traits for MV bugbears. It fights with a morningstar whose basic attack has built-in “sneak attack” bonus damage, and carries 2 handaxes it can throw while it closes the gap with the PCs.
Simple and effective! If attacking an isolated PC from ambush, the thug can start the fight with a bang, though unlike a full lurker it will not seek to hide again once that happens.
Bugbear Warrior (MM)
This Level 5 Brute has 76 HP and all common traits for MM bugbears. It’s likely an earlier version of the Thug. It also fights with a morningstar.
To go with its weak Predatory Eye ability, the warrior has an encounter power named Skullthumper. This requires combat advantage and is a morningstar attack that also knocks the target prone and dazes them (save ends).
I’m guessing it’s also meant to combine these two abilities for that first strike from ambush. To update it, level a bugbear thug up to 5 and give it Skullthumper.
Bugbear Backstabber (MV)
This Level 5 Skirmisher has 63 HP and all MV bugbear traits. It fights with a greatsword, widely known as a good backstabbin’ weapon. It also carries 4 handaxes for throwing.
In addition to Bushwhack, this bugbear is also an Expert Ambusher, which gives it a damage bonus when it attacks from hiding. And as an at-will move action it can employ Stealthy Positioning to shift its speed and make a Stealth check to hide if it ends behind cover.
These monsters want to ambush the party in a place with lots of cover. They’ll charge from hiding, hit with the sword while benefitting from Expert Ambusher, and will immediately use Stealthy Positioning to move back into hiding and do it again next turn. They’re skirmishers because they can do this every turn, instead of alternating like a lurker.
Bugbear Strangler (MM)
These Level 6 Lurkers have 82 HP and were the cause of some early battles in the edition war.
They fight with a morningstar but keep a rope garrote in reserve. When they have CA against a target, they can Strangle it (Melee 1 vs. Reflex). A hit does some damage and grabs the target until they escape. The strangler can use its subsequent standard actions to automatically deal the same damage to the target.
If someone attacks their AC or Reflex then while they have a victim grabbed in this way, they can use Body Shield (recharge 4-6) as an interrupt to have the attack target the victim instead.
This was what caused those battles, since the Strangler was published as a preview ahead of the game and it was one of the first instances of a “custom” 4e monster ability people had laid their eyes on. We already saw several monsters who can do something like this, but since bugbears are relatively “mundane” it led to some 3.x diehards complaining that there should be feat chains and such that allowed a PC to do the same.
Final Impressions
While only one of the stat blocks depicts an actual lurker, they’re all well-provided with abilities that allow them to attack from ambush to good effect. Forget goblins, bugbears are the real sneaky gits here.
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Let's Read The 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Golem
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
Golems have been in the game since the beginning. They became so popular that they ended up giving rise to the whole construct taxonomy as more things that were like them were published to capitalize on the hype.
The word itself comes from the myth of the Golem of Prague. Here, golems are present in both books.
The Lore
Like in pretty much every edition of D&D, golems are humanoid constructs created by powerful spellcasters or masters of secret lore. They faithfully obey their creator’s orders and tirelessly follow the last commnand they received if the creator is not around.
The process of creating a golem is quite involved and expensive. The body must be crafted to exacting specifications, a process that often involves hired artisans if the creator doesn’t have the skill themselves. The creator them performs a complex ritual upon the finished body, opening a small rift to the Elemental Chaos and pulling a bit of the same spark used by the gods and primordials to craft the world. This animating spark gives the golem motion and a desire to obey its creator, and nothing else in the way of personality.
There are several versions of the animating ritual. All require a sacrifice of treasure plus one of blood or spirit. The more evil the ritual, the less of the former and more of the latter it requires. The resulting golem itself, however, is always Unaligned.
While golems are not actually mindless, they’re not really people. A golem has the ability to understand its master’s orders perfectly, but it can’t speak or understand anyone else. It also employs very direct and physical approaches to fulfilling those orders. If a golem is given an order it can’t fulfill, it will either just stand there or rampage until told to stop. Never try to make your golem work as an accountant!
Golems really excel when used for their intended purpose, though. They never tire, never complain, never disobey, and last pretty much forever. They’re hard enough to make that their creators tend to be people who value those traits above all else. Maybe it’s a dwarf kingdom who needs eternal guardians for their treasure vaults. Maybe it’s a tyrannical wizard who wants absolutely loyal bodyguards who won’t flinch when ordered to dismember someone as an example. And so on.
The Numbers
The full Golem Lineup got quite large over the editions, but here we get a limited slice of it to start with. The MM contains flesh and stone golems; the MV has those two plus iron golems.
I imagine clay golems were left out of the MM because the Eidolons already filled the “divine construct” niche, and out of the MV because the Frankenstein-inspired Flesh Golem became more popular.
Most golems are Large Natural Animates with the Construct keyword. Constructs don’t need to breathe, eat or sleep and don’t count as living creatures, making them immune to effects that only target the living. All golems also have darkvision and though they move with Speed 6 they cannot shift. They tend to be Paragon-tier elite brutes. Everything else varies with the type of golem.
Flesh Golem (Both)
Flesh golems are inspired by Frankenstein’s monster, and built from corpse parts. This makes them look like large angry zombies, but they’re explicitly not undead. I don’t believe they decompose either.
They’re Level 12 Elite Brutes with 304 HP. Unlike all other golems, they are not immune to disease and poison. They fight with their fists and can perform two slams per action. When bloodied, they also make additional slam attacks against a random adjacent target as a reaction to being hit by an attack.
The golem’s other special attack is Golem Rampage, which allows it to move its Speed+2, pass through enemy squares, and make a slam attack against any enemy whose square they pass through. This provokes opportunity attacks as normal, and recharges on a 5-6.
The MV version has all of the same abilties with improved damage, and leans even harder on the Frankenstein story with two new passive traits. I suppose they’re also a callback to the extensive list of immunities and weird spell effects every golem had in previous editions.
Primal Fear causes it to run away from anyone who deals fire damage to it, moving up to its speed as a free action. If it can’t move at least half that distance it grants combat advantage for a turn instead. Life-Giving Jolt allows it to make a free basic attack when it takes lightning damage.
Use the MV version for its numbers, and feel free to remove the new passive traits if they don’t fit your needs.
Stone Golem (Both)
While flesh golems are the weaker variety, you can say stone golems are the most basic. They’re Level 17 Elite Brutes with 336 HP, and are immune to disease and poison.
They fight with slams, and can also make one or two of those per turn. They have the same Golem Rampage power as the flesh golem, and a Death Burst that triggers when they die. This explosion is a Close Burst 1 vs. AC doing physical damage from stone shrapnel, and causing the area to become difficult terrain “until cleared”.
Aside from fixing the damage bug, the versions in the two books are identical.
Iron Golem (MV)
Iron golems were the top of the golem ladder until the 3e Epic Level Handbook came along. It appears in 4e for the first time on the MM2. The iron golem is a Level 20 Elite Soldier with 386 HP. Like other non-flesh golems it’s immune to disease and poison.
Iron golems are filled with a self-replenishing reservoir of chemical weapons! While they’re bloodied, these leak and work like an Aura 2 that deals poison damage to any creature that enters it or starts their turn inside.
Other elemental magic also has strange effects on them: they can shift 2 squares when they take fire damage for the first time in a turn (even though they can’t otherwise shift). When they’re hit with lightning, they’re also slowed for a turn.
An iron golem’s basic attack is an Iron Blade that does some pretty good damage and marks on a hit. It can Cleave to make this basic attack against two different targets. Its other main weapon is a breath weapon that uses those chemical weapons I mentioned. It’s a Close Blast 3 vs. Fortitude that deals a big chunk of poison damage and some quite respectable ongoing poison damage (save ends). It recharges on a 5-6.
When a creature marked by the golem and within 2 squares of it moves, the creature can use a Dazing Fist as a reaction (Melee 2 vs. Fortitude), which does no damage but dazes (save ends). And when the golem dies it detonates is poison gas reservoir, dealing immediate and ongoing poison damage in a Close Burst 3.
The MM2 iron golem is pretty much identical, though it suffers from the damage bug and lacks the special fire and lightning effects.
Sample Encounters and Final Impressions
There’s a single sample encounter here: Level 14, 2 flesh golems and a lamia. Lamias are one of those people who would have trouble hiring sapient bodyguards, but no shortage of raw material for flesh golems.
I don’t think I ever ran a fight against a golem but I like that they’re in the game. I also like that their description here doesn’t even pretend that someone could confuse a golem with a statue. They look pretty distinctive and are not subtle enough to stay still when an intruder enters the space they’re guarding.
A 4e golem is much less of a puzzle monster than it used to be in previous editions, where they had a blanket immunity to magic except for those exotic effects. 3e already poked some holes into that by making them only immune to spells that were affected by spell resistance, and 4e did away with it entirely. It’s understandable - pretty much anything an arcane or divine character can do against a monster is technically “magic”, so you don’t want to make half the party completely useless against golems. Also, spell resistance is not a thing in this edition.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Hobgoblins
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
Like other goblinoids, hobs have been in D&D since the beginning, where they used to fit right above Orcs in the Humanoid Power Ladder. Having 1+1 HD prevented them from being casually cleaved by OD&D fighters.
In 4e, as I’ve already discussed, they’re the most disciplined and militaristic of goblinoids, and likely to be in charge in any situation where the three types are working together. They produce their fair share of empire-building commanders, and can also be found working as mercenaries for any number of clients. Their discipline makes them the most reliable goblinoid mercenaries money can buy.
Once again we have seven hobgoblin stat blocks in the MM and four in the MV. Let’s look at them by order of level.
The Numbers
Hobgoblins are some of the monsters that changed the most between books, and this includes their standard traits. Both versions have Speed 6 and low-light vision, but the signature powers are pretty different.
Monster Manual hobgoblins have two such traits: Hobgoblin Resilience is a reaction that allows them to immediately make a save when hit by an effect a save can end. And Phalanx Soldier is a passive trait that gives them a +2 bonus to AC when adjacent to at least one other hobgoblin. All hobs have the first, and only warrior-types have the second.
You can probably see the problem here - these two traits make hobgoblins a lot harder to kill than their level would indicate. A fight against hobgoblins could drag on for a long time, particularly when the players are still inexperienced.
The signature trait for Monster Vault hobgoblins is Phalanx Movement, a move action that allows both the user and each ally in a Close Burst 1 to shift 1 square, as long as they all end up adjacent to each other. This allows a group of hobgoblins to slowly advance as a unit, with no gaps in their formation. Hobgoblin Resilience still makes an appearance in the MV stat blocks, but only once.
Hobgoblin Grunt (MM)
The rank and file of a hobgoblin army, these are Level 3 Skirmisher minions. They wear leather and wield a light shield and a longsword. They have Hobgoblin Resilience and Phalanx Soldier, but no other special tricks.
There’s also a Hobgoblin Warrior that’s identical to the grunt, but is level 8.
Hobgoblin Archer (MM)
These are Level 3 Artillery with 39 HP. They have Hobgoblin Resilience, but no formation-related traits. Their gear is similar to the grunt’s with the addition of a longbow and quiver of arrows.
Their longsword attacks are nothing special; longbow attacks grant an ally within 5 squares of the target a +2 bonus to hit it on their next attack. The little “tactics” paragraph for archers says they have a Coordinated Fire trait, but that’s absent from the actual stat block. Not sure if it was ever added on errata or not.
Still, they do very well as support for melee combatants in addition to being a source of ranged damage themselves. With “coordinated fire” not being a thing, you should spread your archers out in a loose skirmish line beyond the reach of melee PCs.
Hobgoblin Soldier (MM)
Hobgoblin Soldiers are Level 3 Soldiers with 47 HP, and a very good case study of how Hobgoblin Resilience and Phalanx Soldier together can be frustrating.
Being soldiers, their AC is already higher than normal - in fact, at 20, it’s 1 point higher than the new math says it should be. Phalanx Soldier gives then another +2 on top of that when you have multiple adjacent hobgoblins (which you will always have). They’ll also outright ignore about half of the effects that require saves that are thrown their way.
They will usually be facing level 1-3 PCs, which will likely not be able to throw multiple save effects per round to overcome their resilience. And they’ll be as hard to hit with AC attacks as level 6 soldiers until there is one lone hobgoblin left. The party is in for a long fight.
Offensively, hob soldiers fight with flails. Their basic attack both marks and slows for a turn, and they can also perform a Formation Strike that does the same damage and allows them to shift 1 square to end up adjacent to another hobgoblin. So that fight is going to last even longer because the PCs will spend much of it slowed and will find it hard to knock the hobs out of formation.
You will most likely want to leave these guys out of your game entirely, and use Battle Guards in their stead.
Hobgoblin Battle Guard (MV)
This is the updated version of the Soldier above. It’s a Level 3 Soldier with 49 HP and most of the original’s frustrating features removed.
The flail attack still marks, but no longer slows. Hobgoblin Resilience is gone, and Phalanx Soldier has been replaced by Share Shield, an interrupt that grants an adjacent ally +2 to AC and Reflex against one attack that targets either of those two defenses. Being an interrupt, it will only work once per turn, so it can be overwhelmed by PCs without too much trouble. The Battle Guard gets Phalanx Movement as well.
So in the end you have a soldier-type that gets stronger when it’s in a tight formation with its fellow soldiers, but not so strong as to make the fight impossible or super-long. It’s also easier to disrupt that formation.
Hobgoblin Spear Soldier (MV)
A Level 3 Skirmisher with 48 HP, the spear soldier was made to complement the Battle Guard above. It wields a longspear and carries a sheaf of javelins.
You want to have a line of spear soldiers in formation behind a line of battle guards. All of them will advance together via Phalanx Movement. The spearhobs will throw those Range 20 javelins as the unit closes in, and once melee starts will attack with their Reach 2 spears from behind the safety of the battle guard shield wall. Yes, Share Shield works on allies behind the user. If a PC manages to get adjacent to one of them, they can shift 3 squares as a reaction.
Hobgoblin Beast Master (MV)
Beast masters are Level 3 Controllers (Leaders) with 47 HP. While goblins prefer to use their tamed beasts as mounts, these hobs are trained to wrangle a pack of attack animals. They wield a goad (works as a war pick) in one hand and a whip in the other.
Whenever a beast or magical beast ally adjacent to the beast master hits with an attack, it gains 5 temporary HP. The beast master’s goad is a basic attack. The whip does damage and knocks down on a hit, and can slide the target 1 square as an effect. It can also choose to give an attack order to an adjacent beast or magical beast ally, giving it a Lazy Warlord-style free basic attack.
The beast master has Phalanx Movement, which does work on its beasts since the ability doesn’t specify the affected allies must be hobgoblins.
Hobgoblin Warcaster (MM)
A Level 3 Controller (Leader) with 46 HP, representing a wizard who specializes in electricity and force spells.
Warcasters carry staffs that do piddly damage as basic attacks, but which can be charged with electricity (Melee 1 vs. AC; recharge 4-6) to do respectable lightning damage and daze for a turn.
They can attack at range with force spells: Force Lure (Ranged 5 vs. Fortitude; recharge 5-6) does force damage and slides 3 squares on a hit; Force Pulse (Close Blast 5 vs. Reflex; Recharge 6) also does force damage, pushes 1 square and knocks targets down. On a miss, it does half damage with no riders.
The warcaster doesn’t get special bonuses from being in formation, but it benefits from Hobgoblin Resilience.
Hobgoblin Warmonger (MV)
This Level 4 Artillery (Leader) monster has 46 HP and is basically an upgraded version of the Archer we already saw. It uses a mace in melee and a longbow at range.
Its arrows do a fair bit of damage and cause the target to grant combat advantage for a turn, which is simpler and more powerful than the archer’s rider. It can also use a Battle Cry (Area burst 1 within 10 vs. Will) that has a somewhat complicated effect.
Each ally in the burst gets to charge or make a basic attack as a free action. If they hit, they gain 5 temporary HP. Each enemy in the burst is subject to an attack against their Will, and if hit must make a basic attack against a creature of the warmonger’s choosing. It yells “kill the wizard!” with such conviction even the PCs must make an effort not to follow the order! Less facetiously, this is likely some sort of Bane-powered charm, as it does have the charm keyword.
Unlike the archer, the warmonger has Phalanx Movement, meaning it can march in lockstep with its unit of bodyguards.
Hobgoblin Commander (Both)
A rare goblinoid stat block that has the same name in both books. Commanders are Level 5 Soldiers (Leaders) with 64 HP. They wear scale and wield heavy shields and spears.
The commander’s spear attacks mark for a turn. It also has a Lead from the Front trait which gives its allies +2 to attack and damage for a turn against anyone it hits with the spear.
While the commander lacks Phalanx Movement, it can issue orders for a Tactical Deployment (Close Burst 5; recharge 5-6; minor action) to allow allies in the burst to shift 3 squares. And it’s the sole MV hobgoblin to have Hobgoblin Resilience.
The older MM version is pretty much identical, except it has worse damage and can shift 1 square if it hits with an opportunity attack.
Hobgoblin Hand of Bane (MM)
Likely a powerful paladin of Bane. This is a Level 8 Elite Soldier with 184 HP. It wears plate, carries a heavy shield, and wields a flail.
This is the Flail of Dread, whose basic attacks mark for a turn and allow a secondary attack against Will. A hit on that one gives the target -2 to all defenses for the rest of the encounter or until the Hand of Bane dies. Yikes!
The flail can also be used in a Flail of Tyranny attack (recharge 6), which does more damage and stuns for a turn on a hit.
Bane’s Blessing gives the Hand a +4 to its damage rolls once it’s first bloodied, and it also has Hobgoblin Resilience. It lacks any formation-based tricks, though.
Final Impressions
The hobgoblin niche of being the “organized, militaristic” humanoids actually makes them the most reasonable of the bunch. That’s admitedly not a very high bar to clear in a “bunch” that includes gnolls and orcs, but it’s already something.
A given band of hobgoblins is likely to be pursuing an objective more complex than “kill everyone and raze every building”, and doesn’t need to be defeated with that same tactic. They’ll leave if you can prevent them from accomplishing their goals, and the truly reasonable among them will also leave if you manage to negotiate a nonviolent solution.
Heck, it’s not impossible for a paragon or epic party to hire themselves a company of hobgoblin mercs to help deal with a some aspect of a major threat. A morally risky move, but not an impossibility.
Eberron goes further on this by making them not actually villainous. Its human nations view the goblin kingdom of Darguun with suspicion, and it might become a real menace if the wrong clan ascends to power, but it’s at it root no better or worse than any other Khorvairian nation.
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