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• Jul 25, 2019

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Cambion

  

  I clearly remember Cambions existed in third edition, though I don’t know if they date from earlier than that. They’re only statted up in the Monster Manual.

  Cambions are the offspring of devils and “depraved or unwitting” mortals. This wording is interesting because it specifically excludes violent rape. The mortal in question is either aware and willing, or being seduced by a “beautiful stranger” who later vanishes in the night. It fits the devil idiom in 4e.

  It appears Cambions are usually raised by the mother, either in the World or in the Nine Hells. In either case they’re evil and vicious from childhood, taking on the worst traits of both parent species. I guess it’s technically possible for there to be a non-evil cambion, but the ones in the book aren’t them.

  Cambions look like red-skinned humans with wings and horns. The book presents us with two varieties. They’re both Medium Immortal Humanoids (devil). The “devil” keyword marks them as official devils, and has a few rules attached: devils breathe and eat, but do not sleep. They are however not immune to sleep effects.

  Cambion Hellsword

  This guy is a Level 8 Brute with 106 HP. He has darkvision, resist 10 fire, speed 6, and a flight speed of 8 (clumsy). The “clumsy” keyword means he takes a -4 penalty to attacks and defenses while flying, so he only uses the wings to go from point A to point B. He wears mail and carries a flaming greatsword.

  The hellsword’s basic attack is, well, the hell-sword which does physical damage and ongoing fire damage. When he charges he can make a sword attack against every enemy in range, and gains 5 temporary HP whenever he bloodies an enemy or reduces them to 0 HP.

  The hellsword fights like a bowling ball, charging groups of enemies and then focusing on whoever is closer to being bloodied or taken out.

  Cambion Hellfire Magus

  This gal is Level 18 Artillery, and is all about setting things on fire. She possesses the same darkvision and speed as the hellsword, but her fire resistance is 15.

  Her basic melee attack is with a quarterstaff, and as usual for artillery monsters it’s useless. Her main at-will attack is the Hellfire Ray, which targets Reflex, does fire damage, and knocks prone on hit. She can also use Soulscorch, an area attack that also targets reflex, and does both immediate and ongoing fire damage. That one recharges on a 5-6.

  The hellfire magus also has a passive Soul Mantle power, which gives her +4 to AC and Reflex against ranged attacks.

  Her tactics are simple: keep away and shoot fire. Her traits make it both desirable and difficult for PCs to close to melee with her.

  Encounters

  Predictably, Cambions can be found hanging out with devils or with the sort of evil being who likes to hang out with devils. The suggested encounters are:

  • Level 8, four hellswords and a succubus. One happy family?

  • Level 18, 2 hellfire magi, a rakshasa noble, and 2 rockfire dreadnought elementals. A rajah and his advisors plus some summoned muscle.

  Final Thoughts

  Back in the 3e days it took me the longest time to figure out what made cambions different from tieflings. Both are descended from devils, right? Apparently the difference was that cambions were direct offspring, while tieflings were who knows how many generations removed from their fiendish ancestor. In 4e, of course, tieflings are humans mutated by a diabolic pact their distant ancestors made.

  If you want to make a custom cambion, their “signature” traits are the devil keyword, the fire resistance, and the wings with their clumsy flight speed. Their attack powers seem to show a strong tendency towards fire, but there’s no specific fire power all cambions have.

  Story-wise, I’d say people don’t really summon cambions despite them having the devil keyword. Rather, cambions arrive at a place by themselves and tempt other people into diabolism.

• Jul 22, 2019

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Bullete

  

  Bullettes, or Land Sharks, have been a part of D&D since the very beginning. As legend has it, Gary Gygax got the inspiration for them from a cheap plastic “dinosaur” toy he had lying around. They look like a cross between a rhino and a mole with, yes, a bullet-shaped head. Their bodies are covered in tough plates.

  They’re on both the Monster Manual and Monster Vault: the MM has a normal Bullete and a Dire Bullette. The Vault updates these two and adds a Young Bullette. If you have the Monster Vault you can safely use only its versions of the monster without missing anything. The lore below is combined from both books, with the Vault containing the most detail.

  In 4e, land sharks are naturally occurring predators. They’re both always hungry and dumb as a bag of hammers. The creatures will arrive at a region, eat everything that moves, and move on in search of more food. When this happens near a human settlement, the usual response from the humans is to pull up stakes and move away.

  Bullettes hunt by detecting prey with their tremorsense and bursting out the ground with great force underneath the chosen victims. They’ll try to eat anything smaller than themselves, and to fight anything larger out of sheer orneriness. These beasts are solitary, but might “accidentally” become part of an encounter with other monsters by bursting out of the ground mid-fight and trying to eat everyone.

  All bullettes here have darkvision, tremorsense 20, a ground speed of 6 and a burrow speed of 6. When they burrow or emerge from the ground, the squares where the transision happened become difficult terrain. The longer a fight against a bullette goes on, the more messed up the surrounding terrain becomes.

  Young Bullette

  The young bullette still hasn’t fully developed the boundless stamina of an adult specimen. It’s a Medium Natural Beast and a Level 7 Lurker with 68 HP.

  Their basic attack is a somewhat weak bite, which becomes a lot more damaging when used as part of the Snapping Jaws power. To use it, the monster must be underground. It burrows up to its speed and emerges adjacent to an opponent, making a much more damaging bite attack as it does so. This doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.

  The youngling can them disengage with Submerge in Earth, an at-will standard action which allows it to shift one square, burrow up to its speed, and recharge Snapping Jaws.

  This strong-bite/disengage/strong-bite pattern is what makes the Young Bullette a lurker. It’s not trying to hide from you, it just needs a little run-up to properly tear your head off.

  Bullette

  The classic model, a fully developed specimen. It’s a Large Natural Beast, and a Level 9 Elite Skirmisher with 200 HP.

  The adult Bullette’s basic bite is a lot stronger than that of the youngling, and does extra damage to prone targets. It can optionally jump up to 5 squares before using it, without provoking opportunity attacks. Climbing a tree will not save you!

  If it’s underground, it can use Rising Burst, burrowing up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks and attacking on a Close Burst 2 when it emerges. This is a little less damaging than the single-target bite but still does half damage on a miss.

  All of the three attacks above are at-will standard actions!

  As a move action, it can use Earth Furrow, which allows it to burrow its speed at a depth of 1 square (again without provoking OAs). If it passes beneath an enemy space, it makes an attack against the enemy’s Fortitude, which does no damage but knocks the enemy prone on a hit.

  All of these abilities can come together to make an impressive alpha strike: Earth Furrow to enter the fight while knocking people around, and then a Rising Burst followed by an Action Point-fueled Leaping Bite. “A bullette bursts from the ground and catches 25 feet of air with the wizard in its mouth!”

  The Monster Manual version is pretty much the same, but buggier. Slightly lower damage, oddly lower accuracy, and it forces you to reference the rules for standing long jumps to figure out how far it leaps. MM bullettes can also use a Second Wind once per encounter, which recovers 51 HP and gives them a temporary defense boost.

  Second Wind on monsters is an early mechanic that quickly fell out of favor with players and designers. It’s pretty much just a more convoluted form of giving monsters an extra 25% HP, and generally only serves to make fights last longer.

  Dire Bullette

  Every natural predator has a dire version. The bullette is a natural predator. Therefore, it has a dire version. This nightmare is a Huge Natural Beast, a Level 18 Elite Skirmisher with 350 HP. Its ground and burrow speed are 8.

  It fights exactly like the “common” bullette, with increased damage appropriate to its level. Its leaping bite allows it to leap 7 squares instead of just 5, and the Rising Burst has a radius of 3 instead of 2.

  Being Huge, it’s likely to make the whole battlemap into difficult terrain before the PCs manage to slay it.

  The MM version even has similar differences! As with the common bullette, you don’t lose anything by using the MV version at all times.

  Encounters And Thoughts

  The suggested encounter in the MM is level 9, a bullette intruding on a fight with a group of 3 trolls.

  A bullette is kind of a one-note monster. However, it plays that note very well indeed. I like it!

• Jul 2, 2019

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Boneclaw

  

  Here’s another monster I never heard of, though I’m almost sure they come from a previous edition. They’re on the Monster Manual only.

  Like Bodaks, Boneclaws are constructed undead that don’t occur naturally. Lots of necromantically inclined villains (liches, Orcus priests and the like) use them as guards and assassins. Creating one involves building a body from corpse parts and binding an evil soul into it through magic. The result is a Large Shadow Animate (undead), with variable-length talons that can reach 10 feet in length at maximum extension.

  The ritual for creating a boneclaw is one of those “secrets” that keeps being stolen and traded away all the time. Some people say it was first developed by Vecna himself, though the true authors are a coven of hags led by the night hag Grigwartha. Her version of it used the corpse of an ogre and the soul of an oni, but others have adapted it for different “raw materials”. Grigwartha frequently traded the ritual for favors from other necromancers, so if you want your current villain to have access to boneclaws you don’t need any special explanation for it.

  This entry has only a single variety, appropriately named Boneclaw. It’s a Level 14 Soldier with 136 HP and the usual undead traits of immunity to disease and poison plus Resist 20 necrotic and Vulnerable 5 Radiant. It’s far from mindless, with Int 10 and an Evil disposition. It speaks Common, and runs at you with Speed 8.

  The boneclaw attacks with its claws (duh), which have Reach 3 and Threatening Reach. If a boneclaw hits someone with an opportunity attack, it can make another opportunity attack against the same target in the same turn. A nasty surprise to people who think they’re safe after the first one.

  When bloodied, it lets out a Necrotic Pulse in a Close Burst 10, healing undead allies by 10 points and damaging living enemies by the same amount.

  A relatively simple yet flavorful monster, whose flavor is further enhanced by whomever you partner it with. The sample encounter is level 14, a lich and its complement of bodyguards: two boneclaws and a shield guardian.

  If you want to build a custom boneclaw, an assassin version that’s a Lurker or Skirmisher instead of a Soldier might be appropriate. Other than the undead resistances, the signature trait here seems to be the long Reach on the claws and doing something necrotic when it’s bloodied.

• Jun 26, 2019

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Bodak

  

  A D&D original, the bodak first appeared in AD&D if I’m not mistaken. They were one of the many high-level undead that resulted when someone really evil died, with the specific type of evil generating different monsters. They’ve always looked like Grey aliens with oblong heads and narrow, empty eyes.

  Here, they keep the look, but have a different origin: when a Nightwalker kills someone, it can ritually transform the slain creature’s corpse and spirit into a bodak servant. Therefore, bodaks can be found either hanging around nightwalkers, or running missions for their masters along with other undead.

  Bodaks are Evil and not very smart, so the occasional free bodak is more likely to find itself a lair where it can ocasionally kill passers-by than to hatch complicated evil schemes of its own.

  This Monster Manual entry gives us two different bodaks: the Skulk and the Reaver. There are no bodaks in the Monster Vault.

  Bodak Skulk

  From the looks of it, this is the classic model. A level 16 Lurker, with Int 6 and 124 HP, the skulk has darkvision and an Agonizing Gaze aura: anyone in its radius (5 squares) who makes a ranged or melee attack against the bodak takes 5 necrotic damage before the attack, and a -2 penalty to the roll. This is both a gaze and a fear effect, and doesn’t affect people doing close or area attacks, so wizards take note!

  As expected, this is a Medium Shadow Humanoid (undead). This is not the first undead monster we see in this Let’s Read, but I haven’t explained the keyword before. It’s pretty much like you’d expect: undead don’t breathe or sleep, aren’t affected by anything that specifically targets living creatures and are affected by anything that targets undead.

  The Skulk moves at speed 6. It’s immune to disease and poison, and has Resist 15 necrotic. It’s also Vulnerable 5 to radiant damage, and if it takes radiant damage it can’t weaken anyone with its basic attack for a turn.

  The Bodak Skulk attacks with a slam that does a mix of physical and necrotic damage, and also weakens the target for a turn. Once per encounter it can focus its gaze on a single target, attacking their Fortitude: if this hits a weakened PC, the PC is immediately reduced to 0 HP. This is pretty serious, but it’s not quite instant death like in previous editions. If the target is not weakened, they take necrotic damage and lose a healing surge (this edition’s equivalent of negative levels).

  Finally, as an at-will standard action, the creature can turn invisible, insubstantial and gain phasing. In this state it can do nothing but move, and can return to physicality as a free action.

  This thing is going to follow the party invisibly while waiting for a chance to attack, then will reveal itself right next to a vulnerable character, weaken then with the slam and fix its gaze on them on its next turn. It will likely do all of this as the party is hit by a group of less subtle undead.

  The skulk’s big Lurker Attack is the death gaze - once that’s expended, it becomes a somewhat more fragile skirmisher. Early edition damage issues make it quite weak in direct combat, and fixing those would go a long way to make as threatening as its level indicates.

  Bodak Reaver

  The Bodak Reaver is the Skulk’s smarter, braver cousin. Another Medium Shadow Humanoid (undead), the reaver is a Level 18 Soldier with Int 10 and 175 HP, wearing plate and wielding a greataxe.

  It has pretty much the same resistances and vulnerabilities as the Bodak Skulk, except its necrotic resistance is a little higher at 20. Its basic greataxe attack does a mix of physical and necrotic damage, and both dazes and weakens on a hit. Since the text of the vulnerability is the same, I’m going to assume this still dazes even when it can’t weaken, and that this is the main way in which it fulfills its soldierly function.

  The Reaver’s Agonizing and Death Gazes are the same as the skulk’s. Bodaks gonna bodak.

  Finally, the reaver is a Death Drinker: if any living creature is reduced to 0 hit points within 5 squares of it, the reaver gains +1 to attacks for a turn, and 15 temporary HP. That’s not just PCs! If the reaver has living allies, their deaths will also make it stronger.

  Like the skulk, the Bodak Reaver is in major need of a damage update. Other than that I don’t see anything wrong with it.

  Encounters and Final Impressions

  The suggested encounter here is level 18, a bodak reaver and two slaugher wights commanded by a cambion hellfire magus.

  Overall, it seems 4e Bodaks aren’t going to fill a party with dread in the same way an old-school bodak would, since each of them can only mostly kill someone with a gaze once per fight. Of course, an all-bodak monster squad can still potentially kill the whole party with their gazes if they coordinate well, something which is already perfectly possible at Int 10.

  Making custom bodaks is doable: aside from being undead, their signature abilities are the Agonizing and Death gazes, and a melee attack that weakens. A memorable villain the party has faced in the past could be raised as a bodak and employed as a lieutenant by a necromancy-themed Big Bad.

• Jun 18, 2019

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Boar

  

  Boars are real animals, so you probably know what they look like already. Boar-hunting was a very prestigious and difficult endeavor in medieval times, since real-world wild boars are deadly opposition for someone armed with a spear.

  Still, the Monster Manual seems to think your typical PC party would have little trouble handling real-world boars, much like Asterix and Obelix. So it provides us with more extreme versions.

  These exist only on the Monster Manual - while the Monster Vault has an appendix on animals, it doesn’t contain boars.

  Dire Boar

  Like a real-world boar, but bigger, meaner, and spikier. It’s a Large Natural Beast (mount). Creatures with the “mount” keyword confer special abilities to their riders. Not all beasts that can serve as mounts have the keyword - only those who grant these abilities to their riders. Early rules for mounted combat stated that PCs had to have the Mounted Combat feat to benefit from these mount powers, and mount stat blocks usually stated that the rider also had to have a minimum level. All of this had been done away with by the time the MV came out.

  Indeed, dire boars can be domesticated as mounts, though even then they’re ill-tempered and tough to handle. They’re also the preferred mount for dwarven cavalry units. So yeah, dwarves have dire boar cavalry! It makes perfect sense when you think about it: the riders have a temper to match that of their mounts, and the mounts menace with spikes of bone.

  Rules-wise, dire boars are Level 6 Brutes, have 85 HP, and move with Speed 8. They attack by goring with their tusks, which does extra damage against a prone target. When the boar is reduced to 0 HP, it gores one last time as a free action.

  They’re also good at charging! A gore attack done as part of a charge does extra damage, pushes the target 2 squares and knocks them prone. So their preferred tactic is to charge someone and them gore them repeatedly while they’re down.

  If used as a mount, the boar gets to make a gore attack in addition to the rider’s attack when the duo charges. The way I understand it, this gore attack also gets the charge benefit I described above.

  Thunderfury Boar

  The platonic ideal of a badass boar, native to the Feywild. It’s even bigger, even meaner, and even spikier than a dire boar. This boar is a Large fey beast, no mount keyword. You can’t truly domesticate these beasts, but clever fey sometimes keep them captive and release them in the general direction of people they want dead. They have Int 5 but no languages. Whether this means they’re super-cunning animals or actually sapient is left as an exercise for the GM.

  The thunderfury boar is a Level 15 Brute with 182 HP and ground speed 8. It fights in much the same way as its cousing above, with goring charges followed by more goring, but it has a few differences aside from the increased damage. Its basic gore attack deals increased damage when the boar is bloodied, and its charges deal an extra 10 thunder damage on top of that. It also has an attack named Thunderfury, rechaging on 5-6, which from what I understand it is a big stomp that sends a shockwave around the boar. It’s a close burst 2 that targets Fort, does thunder damage and knocks prone. On a miss, it still deals half damage.

  Encounters and Final Impressions

  The suggested encounter is level 5, a dire boar and a party of 5 orc regulars (1 shaman, 4 berserkers). Having one of the berserkers ride the boar will give you the most bang for the buck when it comes to charging attacks.

  The most awesome thing for me here was the bit about dwarven boar cavalry. I’m really tempted to stat up a unit of level 6 dwarven knights riding dire boars. Beware the charge of the 15th Thundertusks!

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