Posts
-
Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Cadaver Collector
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
I’m pretty sure I saw these in a 3e supplement somewhere, but there’s a nifty bonus stat block here that ties them to the Nentir Vale.
The Lore
Cadaver Collectors are specialized constructs first built by ancient necromancers to provide them with a supply of corpses. Their metal-plated bodies are covered in long spikes that they use to impale collected corpses for transport and delivery. They were commonly sent to “clear” battlefields after a battle had ended.
Like many other constructs they’re pretty good at performing the job they were designed for and at following instructions related to it, but they can’t do anything else well. This is why no one sent them to fight in those battles. They only follow the orders of their current master, or those of a person who also serves that master.
The original recipe for cadaver collectors was repeatedly lost and rediscovered over the ages. No one in the Nentir Vale knows how to build one in our narrative present, but there are several old ones still around in the wild. Many of them are located somewhere within the Witchlight Fens, a swampy region in the south-central Vale.
When a collector’s master dies it will usually fulfill the last order it was given and then stand by waiting for more. If someone happens to die in their assigned area in the meantime, they will dutifully go out to collect the bodies. If someone manages to convince the collector they work for the collector’s master, the creature will obey their orders.
After enough time waiting for orders that never come, their programming might mutate a bit, giving them a bit more initiative. Some collectors decide to go looking for a new master to serve. Others decide to broaden their mission parameters and consider living creatures valid targets for collection.
There’s a hobgoblin necromancer named Gokof living in the Witchlight Fens who is unusually skilled at convincing ancient cadaver collectors to work for him. He’s nominally a member of the Daggerburg goblin tribe but spends most of his time away from them and in the company of his collectors and undead servants. He rarely has more than two collectors working for him at any one time, but never seems to have trouble finding more to replace them.
The Numbers
We get two stat blocks here, one for a cadaver collector and one for Gokof.
Cadaver Collector
These constructs are Large Natural Animates and Level 9 Elite Soldiers with 200 HP and a speed of 8. They’re immune to charm, disease, and poison, and have Resist Lightning 10. They are somewhat weak to thunder damage: whenever they take thunder damage, they become slowed (save ends).
Collectors attack with Slams that deal physical damage and grab on a hit (escape DC 20). They can grab one Large creature or up to four Small creatures at once. As an elite it can perform Double Slams.
The collector can also spend its action to Impale a grabbed creature. This deals massive damage, pulls them into the collector’s space, restrains them, and inflicts 10 ongoing damage (save ends all). When the collector moves, the creature is pulled along, and when the effect ends, the creature reappears in an adjacent space.
You might have noticed that there’s a limit to how many creatures a collector can grab, but not to how many it can impale. It’s not going to matter much in practice, because it’s highly unlikely a collector will impale the whole party at once. However, if it ever becomes relevant I’m inclined to say their impaling limit is the same as the one for grabs. A fully loaded collector would have four Medium cadavers impaled and another four grabbed. And would probably have more than the two arms depicted in the illustration.
Finally, the collector can Trample once per encounter like the big chungus it is. The rules are as usual: it moves its speed and can cross enemy spaces while doing so, making an attack that deals heavy physical damage and knocks prone against every enemy whose space they cross.
Collectors fight by pretty much applying their programming to the PCs. Grab impale, repeat. When fully loaded, trample to retreat.
Gokof, Hobgoblin Necromancer
Gokof is a Level 9 Controller (Leader). He has speed 6 and low-light vision from being a hobgoblin. He wields a Staff as both weapon and implement, and has an array of necromantic spells at his disposal.
His basic ranged attack is a Necrotic Ray that deals necrotic damage on a hit and slows for a turn as an effect. Anything that happens “as an effect” always happens, regardless of whether the attack hits or not! Less often (recharge 5+) he can cast Sapping Tendrils as a ranged area attack. This is not selective, and on a hit it deals necrotic damage, immobilizes, and inflicts ongoing necrotic damage (save ends).
Instead of casting a spell, Gokof can use Command Animate to order an animate ally to make a melee basic attack as a free action. Cadaver collectors are animates, of course, and so are a lot of undead.
Once per encounter, when an enemy within 5 squares of Gokof regains HP, the necromancer can use Dark Healing to automatically deal them a chunk of necrotic damage and recover 24 HP himself.
Final Impressions
If you think about it, the existence of cadaver collectors shows that necromancy in D&D requires an ideological commitment to the spread of undeath. These constructs are more powerful and have a less ethically questionable nature than most “servant” undead. They also take more skill to build, but their original builders clearly had that skill. And yet chose to task their constructs with collecting corpses for turning into zombies.
I like the addition of Gokof to this entry. It helps establish a concrete situation where cadaver collectors appear in the Nentir Vale. It’s also an example of how a less “ideological” necromancer would come to control these creatures. This is more than even most other setting-specific monster books do. Those usually just say “these monsters exist in this setting”.
-
Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Boggle
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
Boggles have been in the game since 1st Edition, when they appeared on the Monster Manual II. This is their 4e debut.
The Lore
Boggles are mischievous humanoid fey. They’ve been around a very long time, and are actually the common ancestors to both banderhobbs and mundane goblins! They love playing cruel pranks on others, and move from the Feywild to the world every time they find a fey crossing. The world’s mortals are so much more easily fooled than the jaded fey of their home plane!
These creatures are naturally sneaky and have some capacity to bend space. It’s common for a child to complain to their parents about a “bogeyman” who keeps lurking just out of sight and disappears when looked at. Parents dismiss that as a childhood fantasy right up until the boggle strikes. Common pranks include spoiling milk, tying shoelaces together, setting clothes on fire, and all the stuff you might have read in old real-world myths about the Fair Folk. At the most cruel end that does include switching infants for swaddled animals or just plain snatching children away. There are also some adventurer-specific pranks like disassembling armor and hiding the pieces, or swapping brand new or magic weapons for old and rusty replacements.
For all their cruelty, boggles are cowards, preferring to do their spying and sabotage through those mini-portals they can create. They get nervous and anxious when near other people, and this causes them to sweat profusely. Boggle sweat is a very distinctive substance, viscous and slippery like grease. It’s resistant to fire, though. Traces of it are often confirmation that boggles are acting in a location.
Sometimes, stronger or smarter creatures manage to coerce boggles into working for them. Left to their own devices, they associate only with each other.
The Numbers
Boggles are an early-Heroic threat suitable for introducing PCs to the more fairy-tale side of fey opposition. They’re Small Fey Humanoids with ground and climb speeds of 6, and darkvision. They also have Fire Resistance 5 from their weird sweat.
Their signature traits are Dimensional Window, which allows them to make “remote” Thievery checks against creatures up to 10 squares away; and Dimension Hop, a move action that lets them teleport up to 3 squares. Even tough they’re small, boggles have a long melee reach, because they hit you through a tiny portal. All of their individual powers are also based around this ability to create small dimensional windows.
Boggle Sight Stealer
This is a Level 3 Lurker with 37 HP. Its basic attack is a Reach 2 claw, and its favorite move is the Peek-a-Boo Trick a Range 10 attack that targets Reflex. It does no damage, but it lets the boggle pull the target to a space within 2 squares of it and to grab them. The target is blinded until the grab ends, either by the target beating its escape DC of 13, or by the boggle being more than 2 squares away from the target.
While the boggle is grabbing a victim, it can use a Neck Bite on them. This attacks Reflex and deals heavy physical damage, half on a miss. If the victim escapes the grab, the boggle can attack it with Face Rip as a reaction, automatically dealing a bit of physical damage and allowing the boggle to teleport 3 squares.
Sight Stealers work very well against controllers and ranged strikers, particularly if they have buddies that can keep the other PCs away from them.
Boggle Blink Trickster
Blink Tricksters are Level 4 Artillery with 43 HP. They’re the only artillery monster I’ve seen that lacks a ranged attack! Instead, their basic claw has a, well, boggling Reach of 10, and enjoys the increased accuracy usually given to ranged attacks from artillery monsters. This is an interesting implementation because it means they’re not actually weak in melee and need not fear opportunity attacks as much.
In addition to the standard traits discussed above, blink tricksters can use a Double Diversion Trick to attack twice in one action. This recharges when they’re first bloodied. And if they’re damaged by a melee attack, they can dimension hop as a reaction once per encounter.
Boggle Chase Trickster
Chase tricksters are Level 4 Skirmishers with 53 HP. Their claws have a more typical reach of 2, and they have a couple of interesting movement powers.
Foot-Snare Trick is a minor action that can target an enemy flanked by the boggle. It has an automatic effect: if the target moves more than 3 squares on their next turn, they end that movement prone. This won’t do much good against defenders, but it can ruin the plans of mobile strikers.
Chase Trick is a reaction that triggers when the boggle is missed by a melee attack. It can shift up to 3 squares and pull the attacker along with it. This represents the creature tricking the attacker into chasing them, so the pull does provoke opportunity attacks! If the attacker ends this movement without taking damage, they can make a free attack against the boggle. The power recharges when the boggle is first bloodied. It’s only worth using if the boggle has plenty of other buddles hanging out nearby.
Boggle Body Snatcher
This is a Level 5 Controller with 61 HP. It has all standard boggle traits including a Reach 2 claw attack. Its special move is Body Snatch (recharge 4+). It’s a non-damaging attacks that dominates on a hit (save ends)! Until the target saves against this, the boggle is removed from play, and the target gains a +2 bonus to hit and damage. When the effect ends the boggle returns to play within 5 squares of the target.
In other words, this thing works exactly like a Jockey from Left 4 Dead 2, riding the victim and directing their movement. It’s also extra-sweaty: once per round as a minor action it can leave a Boggle Sweat Stain on the ground. Each stain occupies a square and lasts until the end of the encounter. Whenever a non-boggle enters a sweat-stained square, they automatically fall prone.
Final Impressions
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. I like these creatures! Their lore gives them a proper fairy-tale monster feel, and their mechanics are flavorful and interesting. My favorite is the Reach 10 melee attack from the blink trickster, with the body snatcher’s sweat stains a close second.
-
Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Bloodfire Ooze
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
I’m not sure if these are from a specific adventure or if they’re original. This is the first time I saw them. They are mostly generic monsters, but there’s a couple of Vale-specific hooks here.
The Lore
Bloodfire oozes are created by evil rituals which mix the blood of sacrificial victims with the blood of demons. The resulting creatures emit dangerous levels of heat and like most oozes are always on the hunt for more organic material to digest. They are able to recognize and avoid attacking their creator, and if fed regularly are tame enough to be used as guards. They’re usually placed near stone and metal traps or paired with other creatures that have a high resistance to fire.
Bloodfire uses are rumored to prowl the Temple of the Yellow Skull in the Ogrefist Hills area, and some of them were also found by dwarven miners under Nenlast in the Old Hills. The latter were stored inside a giant iron statue of a demon, and spilled out when the miners began dismantling it.
The Numbers
Bloodfire Oozes are Large Elemental Beasts with the Ooze keyword, and level 7 elite brutes with 196 HP. They project a Bloodfire Aura (2) that deals 10 fire damage to any creature caught inside, and their Demonic Fire fire makes all of their fire damage ignore the first 10 points of fire resistance possessed by the target. As oozes, they suffer none of the usual penalties for squeezing through tiny spaces. They are immune to fire and vulnerable 10 to cold.
The oozes attacks are the traditional slam (this time dealing fire damage) and a Fiery Eruption (recharge 5+) that attacks all creatures in a Close Blast 3 to deal light fire damage and ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends).
The ooze can also form faces on its surface, usually the faces of the victims sacrificed to make it. These spew a Sulphuric Breath as a minor action once per round, attacking all creatures in a Close Blast 3 and dealing poison damage.
When the ooze is first bloodied, it immediately recharges Fiery Eruption and uses it as a reaction.
Many of the monsters we saw through our readings have selective auras and area attacks. The bloodfire ooze does not, which limits the selection of allied monsters. Unless you want lots of, er, friendly fire to happen in your encounter you need something with more than 10 fire resistance, and immunity is preferred. As mentioned above, the most likely encounter is a pair of oozes plus a hazard or two in the battlefield.
Final Impression
One more ooze type. They’re thematic for infernal or abyssal cults, and might be a nice surprise to spring on players who load up on acid resistance when they hear the word “ooze”.
For added fun, you should run with the demon statue idea and stick a pair of these things inside that one statue from the 1e PHB cover, making them jump out as soon as the PCs pry out its gemstone yes.
-
Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Blackfang Gnolls
This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
The Blackfang gnolls first appeared as one of the antagonist groups in the Thunderspire Labyrinth adventure. Here we get stats for Blackfang-specific variants which combined with the MV could allow you to run that adventure with updated stats.
Region: The Old Hills
The Old Hills take up part of the central and northeast regions of the Vale, and have this name because they were the first area settled by the Nerathi. Its main “points of light” are the dwarf hold of Hammerfast at its center and the human settlement of Nenlast way up in the northeast corner. The Fiveleague House inn near Hammerfast is a popular rest stop for travelers.
Also in this area is Thunderspire, a tall isolated mountain whose peaks are eternally shrouded in storms. It contains the entrance to a vast series of underground ruins that used to belong to the ancient minotaur empire of Saruun Khel. Go through that portal and a little ways into the underground, and you’ll find the Seven-Pillared Hall, a community run by the Mages of Saruun, a cabal who’s interested in profiting from trade between the people of the surface and the Underdark. They enforce diplomatic neutrality within the Hall, but there’s enough intrigue and backstabbing down here that it doesn’t quite count as a “point of light”.
The Hall is described in detail in the Thunderspire Labyrinth adventure. This book assumes it hasn’t happened yet.
The Lore
The Blackfang are a tribe of Yeenoghu-worshipping gnolls who live in the Old Hills area of the Vale. They get this name from their distinctive fangs, which are black and much longer than what is typical for gnolls. They frequently attack travelers going through the area, with the aim of capturing people to enslave and/or eat.
Even Hammerfast fears them, because it’s already lost too many warriors trying to hunt them down. The Blackfang lair in complex tunnel warrens under the Old Hills and avoid traveling overland whenever they can, preferring to use the ancient tunnels of Saruun Khel to move about and to only emerge just before they strike.
Recently, Blackfang expeditions into the Saruun Khel ruins uncovered an ancient temple known as the Well of Demons. The Well was dedicated to Baphomet, but the Blackfang chieftain Maldrick Scarmaker locked himself inside in order to rededicate it to Yeennoghu. While he’s in there, the Blackfang are effectively leaderless and much less organized. However, it seems Scarmaker is close to finishing his task, as the Well has started spitting forth demonic spirits that possess certain members of the Blackfang. They call this the Butcher’s Blessing, and it basically makes them into demons, giving them mutations like wings and barbed tails. These “blessed” gnolls now seek to consume the souls of their victims, and not just their flesh.
Stopping the depredations of the Blackfang could be a good hook for the Thunderspire Labyrinth adventure, which is itself quite sandboxy.
The Numbers
The Blackfang are gnolls, so they’re Medium Natural Humanoids and their signature ability is Pack Attack, giving them a +5 damage bonus against targets adjacent to two or more of their allies. We see several group-specific stat blocks below, and they combine well with the more generic gnoll stats presented in other books.
Blackfang Feaster
This one bites, and it doesn’t brush its teeth. Feasters are Level 6 Brutes with 89 HP and Speed 7. Their basic attack is a Ravening Bite that deals poison damage and slows (save ends). Against bloodied creatures they can skip straight to the Devour part, dealing heavy physical damage and knocking prone on a hit.
Simple but effective, particularly if you take Pack Attack into account.
Blackfang Gravedigger
Gravediggers illustrate the Blackfang preference for underground travel and tactics. They’re Level 5 Lurkers with 48 HP. Their ground speed is 6 with Earth Walk, and they have a burrow speed of 2.
Their basic attack is a bite, which they can use as part of a Snatch From Below maneuver. To use this, they must be burrowing and have no creature grabbed. It lets them burst up from the ground and make a bite attack ignoring cover and concealment. On a hit, they grab the target (escape DC 15), restraining it and inflicting 5 ongoing damage until the grab ends.
They pair well with enemies that can keep the other PCs’ attention elsewhere while they gnaw on a squishy victim.
Blackfang Howler
Howlers fight with whips and can imbue their howls with a bit of fear magic. They’re Level 7 Skirmishers with 77 HP and speed 7. Instead of moving normally, they can choose to Skulk, shifting up to 4 squares. This makes them hard to pin down.
The Whip is reach 2 and can be used in a Whip Trip maneuver, which deals a bit less damage than a basic attack and knocks the target prone. Their Howl of Dread is a minor action that attacks a Close Burst 3 and immobilizes on a hit. It recharges when they are first bloodied.
Blackfang Render
Renders specialize in fighting with their claws. They’re Level 8 Soldiers with 87 HP and Speed 7. Their Claws damage and mark for a turn on a hit. They can also use their Feral Grasp to deal light physical damage and grab a target (escape DC 16). Once they have grabbed someone, they can use Blinding Fury on the victim as a minor action, an attack dealing light physical damage and blinding (save ends) on a hit.
They have no specific abilities to punish someone who ignores the mark, so the default -2 attack penalty against other targets is the only deterrent there.
Blackfang Hyena Pack
A pack of hyenas! This is a Large Swarm made up of Medium creatures. It’s a Level 6 Brute with 85 HP. It has all the swarm traits: resistant to melee and ranged attacks, vulnerable to close and area attacks, can occupy other’s spaces and counts as difficult terrain for them, can squeeze into any opening wide enough for a single Medium creature.
The pack’s Swarm Attack aura (1) deals 5 damage to enemies caught inside, or 10 if there are at least two allies adjacent to the enemy. Their basic attack is a Bite that damages and immobilizes (save ends). The condition also ends if the pack is no longer adjacent to the target.
Maldrick Scarmaker
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. The leader of the Blackfang, fully enjoying the Butcher’s Blessing. PCs will likely fight him inside the Well of Demons. If the GM decides to advance time and say he succeeded in rededicating the temple, he could also be found at the head of a raiding party alongside his honor guard. The book also suggests using this stat block for his replacement if the group has already run through Thunderspire Labyrinth, but personally I’m not a fan of keeping the status quo the same in this way.
Anyway, Maldrick as presented here is Level 8 Elite Artillery with 148 HP. He’s more or less equivalent to a warlock, and though his powers have familiar names they’re all demonic in origin. He wields a mace as a weapon and a rod as an implement. The mace can make decent basic attacks, but like any warlock Maldrick will probably want to stay back and spam Eldritch Blast. He can also cast Dire Radiance to deal radiant damage and prevent enemies from closing (they take 10 extra radiant damage if they move closer to him in their next turn).
Once per encounter he can cast an Infernal Moon Curse at one or two creatures, dealing heavy poison damage and keeping them immobilized 5 feet off the ground for a turn. On a miss, this still deals half damage.
Like a PC warlock, Maldrick can use a minor action to place a Curse on an enemy, making all of this implement attacks deal 1d6 extra damage against it for a turn. This stacks with Pack Attack, obviously. If an enemy enters a square adjacent to him, he can use his Spined Tail to make an opportunity attack against them.
Final Impression
My final impression is the usual: a sarcastic “yay, more gnolls”. They are very useful if you intend to run Thunderspire Labyrinth with updated rules.
If you have already run that adventure, these stats can still work to represent Blackfang remnants, or gnolls from other tribes when combined with the more generic stat blocks. I’d probably say that after Maldrick’s death at the hands of the PCs, the remaining Blackfangs splinter into several mutually hostile bands led by “blessed” gnolls who used to be his lieutenants.
-
Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Bitterstrike
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
This our first example of a “concrete” dragon, where they take the generic information from the Monster Manuals and use it to make a specific atypical individual.
The Lore
Once upon a time, a young white dragon came to the Nentir Vale. Making her lair inside the nothern Winterbole forest, she frequently flew out to hunt and to break things for fun, and eventually came to see the Vale as her own personal buffet and playground.
This lasted until the Tigerclaw barbarians who also lived in Winterbole decided to stand up to her. Their chief was the great hero Fangstrike, who dueled the dragon and manage to bury his war pick in her left eye. Wounded and humiliated, the dragon flew away and spent the next thirty years sulking.
The experience made her a cautious and vindictive. About nine months after Fangstrike died of old age, she came back to wreak havoc on the tribe, killing the chief’s surviving family and threatening the rest of the tribe with destruction unless they paid her an annual tribute of treasure and a high-status hostage. This how she came to be known by her current name of Bitterstrike.
Bitterstrike made the same ultimatum to every other group of sapients who made Winterbole their home: the Frost Witches, the Winterbole Treants, and the satyrs who made the evergreen forest their home. Pay tribute and send hostages, or die.
These days, Bitterstrike considers herself queen of Winterbole, and those annual hostages make up her court. She uses them as agents and servants, and has them keep an ear out for rumors and news from their original communities. If any of these news sounds like an insult or threat to her, Bitterstrike becomes obsessed with taking revenge on the offender.
Usually this takes the form of a direct strike by the dragon, but Bitterstrike is cautious enough to gather a posse of her vassals if she feels a solo attack doesn’t have good odds. Whether alone or at the head of a posse, Bitterstrike takes great pleasure in revenge and in the acquisition of more loot.
However, the dragon queen is nowhere near the genius she thinks she is, and her “vassals” view her more as a pawn than as a queen. Every single faction under her control manipulates her into advancing their own goals by telling her false information, and the Satyrs are in the habit of replacing the magic items in her hoard with cheap mundane copies.
PCs can come into conflict with Bitterstrike by trespassing into her hunting grounds or offending her directly. It might also happen that they piss off one of her “vassal” factions and they plant a few convenient rumors to sic her on the party. Depending on how powerful the party is, she might bring in a few elite vassals along for support.
The Numbers
We have stats for Bitterstrike herself and for the typical vassals or pets that might accompany her. A lot of these are based on other existing factions we’ll look at later, so you get a preview of what they can do right here.
All of the vassals have Resist Cold 5 and Ice Walk, both necessary for survival when hanging around Bitterstrike. All vassals and the dragon herself also have a custom encounter power named Bitter Vengeance, which triggers when an enemy within 5 squares hits them with an attack. As a free action, they deal 10 automatic cold damage to the enemy and push them 2 squares. Bitterstrike’s vengeance is more forceful and yeets the offender 7 squares instead. This makes them all perfect to fight on maps that include hazardous cold-based terrain like bodies of icy water or snow-covered pits.
Bitterstrike
The White Wyrm of Winterbole is a Level 10 Solo Brute with 520 HP, Resist Cold 10, a ground speed of 6 with Ice Walk, and a flight speed of 6. She’s actually the first MM3/MV-compatible adult white dragon we ran across in our readings, as the MV only contained Young and Elder examples. Though she only has one eye, that doesn’t affect her stats.
As a white dragon, she has an Action Recovery trait that automatically ends any dazing, stunning, or dominating effects on her when her turn ends, and Instinctive Rampage that gives her a free action at her initiative + 10 where she can move her speed, go through enemy spaces, and use a claw attack on any enemy whose space she moves through. She gains Resist 5 to all damage during this action, to better tank opportunity attacks. She also has a Savage Blood trait that makes her crit on a roll of 17-20 while bloodied.
Bitterstrike’s Reach 2 bite deals cold damage, half on a miss. Her Reach 2 claws can attack two different creatures with one action. Her Breath Weapon (recharge 5+) is a Close Blast 5 that deals cold damage and slows (save ends). On a miss it deals half damage and slows for a turn.
If a flanking enemy hits Bitterstrike she can react with a Tail Slap to damage and push them 5 squares. The first time she’s bloodied, Bloodied Breath allows her to recharge and immediately use her breath weapon.
Bitterstrike has Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 10. Every single one of her vassals listed below has higher mental stats than her.
Treant Vassal
A Winterbole treant, patterned after a coniferous tree, serving as one of Bitterstrike’s vassals. It’s a Large Fey Magical Beast (plant) and a Level 8 Elite Soldier with 182 HP and a speed of 8 with Forest and Ice walk. It has Threatening Reach 2, and a Wooden Body trait that makes it take ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends) whenever it takes fire damage.
The treant’s basic attack is a Slam and it can Double Attack. It can also use a Bitterwind Blast that’s like a smaller version of Bitterstrike’s breath weapon. It recharges when the creature is first bloodied.
As an Essentials-style soldier, the Treant doesn’t mess with marks and can instead use Pounding Branches to attack any enemy in reach that makes an attack that doesn’t target it.
Satyr Vassal
This satyr is a Medium Fey Humanoid and Level 8 Elite Artillery with 136 HP and a speed of 6 with Ice Walk. As a bard-type, it’s surrounded by an aura (5) of Cold Wind Song that gives it +5 to defenses against attacks originating from outside the aura.
The satyr wants to stay really far away from its enemies, so it uses a Range 20 North Wind Bow to attack. A hit deals cold damage and pushes the target 3 squares. Once per encounter it can pull a Hanzo and fire a Diving Dragon Shot that hits an Area Burst 2 within 20 squares. This deals cold damage, half on a miss, and creates a zone that deals cold damage to any who end their turn inside until the end of the encounter. If forced into melee, it can use its horns to Gore, damaging the target and knocking it prone, which should allow for a quick escape to safer ranges.
Tigerclaw Vassal
This barbarian from the Tigerclaw tribe is a shifter who’s pretty much always in “shifted” mode. He’s a Level 8 Elite Skirmisher with 178 HP and Speed 6. His Charging Pounce trait gives him a 1d6 damage bonus on charge attacks and allows him to use its normal actions after charging. Usually a character can only use free actions after charging on their turn.
The barbarian fights with a Light Pick and can use it to make Double Attacks. Once per encounter he can make a special attack named Bitterstrike’s Slash which deals heavy cold damage and ongoing cold damage (save ends) on a hit. On a miss it slows and still inflicts the ongoing damage (save ends). If an enemy ends their move flanking the vassal, he can use Wild Instinct to shift 1 square or move its speed.
Frost Witch Vassal
This elf sent by the Frost Witches is the smartest vassal in the bunch. She’s a Level 10 Elite Controller with 204 HP and Speed 6. She emits a Chill Aura (1) that slows enemies caught inside.
The witch fights in melee with a Frost Touch that deals cold damage and slides 2 squares, and at range with an Icicle Shard that deals cold damage and immobilizes for a turn.
Her big finisher is a Hailstone Hex that deals cold and psychic damage. It also forces the target to grant combat advantage and inflicts ongoing cold damage (save ends both). While this effect persists, enemies of the witch that start their turn adjacent to the victim suffer 5 cold damage. In other words, it’s a miniature hailstone cloud following the victim around! This recharges when the witch is bloodied.
Wild Coldscale Drake
This is more of a pet than a vassal, as it’s a Medium Natural Beast and not sapient. You can use these to fill out a vassal encounter. It’s a Level 8 Lurker with 70 HP and Speed 8.
Coldscale drakes have Snow Camouflage that gives them partial concealment in any icy terrain, and deal an extra 4d6 damage to any target that cannot see them.
They need that boost because their bite is a little weak without it. Fortunately they can use their Snow Stalker ability when on icy terrain or within 10 squares of a white dragon to become invisible until after they make their next attack.
Final Impressions
Bitterstrike is a dangerous solo boss fight for a level 6 or 7 party. When facing more powerful PCs she will bring enough elite vassals and coldscale drakes to keep that level advantage. Most encounters against her should happen in the Winterbole region, which will give her and her vassals a big terrain advantage. Anyone level 5 or lower is seriously risking their lives by going too deep into the Winterbole forest.
Lore-wise, I like the dynamic of a somewhat stupid “queen” constantly manipulated by her much smarter vassals.
subscribe via RSS