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• Oct 28, 2022

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 3: Star Spawn

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the other.

  Star Spawn made their debut in the Monster Manual 2 along with a pretty awesome chunk of lore that’s also tied to star pact warlocks and the Far Realm. You can see it all on the link. This entry adds a bit more lore, new star spawn, and a surprise epic boss!

  The Lore

  The lore in this entry confirms some of the most terrible questions we had in the MM2. Yes, if you travel far enough in space you do end up in the Far Realm. Yes, there are things watching across this divide, and some of them are perceived by the people of the middle world as stars. And yes, some of them have hostile designs upon the world.

  Allabar, the Opener of the Way, is one of these, and it travels across the universe inciting its fellow stars to send their spawn into the world. Its wanderings are not random, but filled with terrible purpose. Some warlocks claim Allabar and its allies are at war with the world itself, and they call this the Forgotten War because it’s much less noticeable than the Dawn War was but no less significant.

  The Numbers

  The star spawn presented here are all mid-to-high epic tier threats, making them a lot stronger than the paragon-tier spawn from the MM2. All of them have the aberrant origin and possess darkvision, but the specifics vary a lot between individual stat blocks.

  Spawn of Ulban

  

  Ulban is a blue-white star whose intense glow affects mortal minds, disrupting their cognition and robbing them of the ability to recognize danger. Ulban’s influence starts ill-thought rebellions and prevents divinations of any sort from working. Its spawn fall to the earth as meteors, and their presence makes mortals unable to distinguish friend from foe. They also break the “no tentacles” streak for this type of monster, as you can see in the illustration.

  Spawn of Ulban are Medium Aberrant Humanoids, and Level 26 Controllers with 241 HP. They have a speed of 8. They’re immune to domination, and every time they’re iht by a power that would dominate them, they dominate the attacker instead! And this is a (save ends) condition even if the one from the attack wasn’t.

  The spawn’s basic attack is the Bluefire Strike (vs. Reflex), which causes both cold and fire damage, and dazes for a turn. It can also use a Touch of Strife (vs. Will) instead, dealing psychic damage and forcing the target to make a melee or ranged basic attack against a creature of the spawn’s choice. When it hits with either of these attacks, it can apply a Psychic Boost as a free action, dealing an extra chunk of psychic damage. This recharges every time the spawn takes psychic damage, so while it’s not resistant to this damage type you still don’t want to use it against the spawn.

  Less often, the spawn can produce a Ripple of Betrayal (close burst 1 vs. Will, recharge 5+) which deals psychic damage and dominates those it hits (save ends).

  As a minor action, the spawn can use Far Realm Reflection to form an eldritch bond with a creature it can see. Whenever that creature shifts, the spawn can immediately shift an equal number of squares. This lasts until the end of the encounter, or until the spawn switches targets by using the power again. An excellent power to use on an ally that can shift long distances, or even on a PC that can do the same.

  The Spawn of Ulban wants to get in close and stay there, since its attacks are all melee or close bursts. It’s extremely effective against parties with lots of psionic PCs, or against those that have lots of Essentials martial characters. The best way to fight it is to keep your distance and hit it with non-psychic, non-dominating attacks.

  Emissary of Caiphon

  

  Caiphon is a purple star that can always be found near the horizon, sometimes even during the day. It presents itself as a helpful guide star, but will sometimes betray those who rely on it, leading them down tragic paths.

  The Emissary of Caiphon is often employed in these betrayals. It’s the most human-looking of all star spawn, and it mimics the tactics of its patrons by posing as a guide or a prophet. Its “wise and helpful” advice usually leads to a lot suffering and death.

  The Emissary is a Medium Aberrant Humanoid, and a Level 28 Controller with the Leader tag and 257 HP. It projects an Aura of Ruin (2) that inflicts a -2 penalty to saves, and whenever it’s hit by an attack that would blind it, it blinds the attacker instead (save ends).

  Nearly all of the Emissary’s powers mess with the saving throw mechanic, but it lacks the ability to inflict (save ends) conditions by itself. Be sure to pair it with plenty of monsters who can do that!

  Its basic attack is a Touch of Despair that deals light physical damage and inflicts an extra 20 damage the first time the target fails a save before the start of the emissary next turn. It’s nifty, but it’s for emercencies only. The creature prefers to stay far away and use its ranged attacks.

  Blinded By Greed (ranged 10 vs. Will) deals light psychic damage, slides the target 2 squares, and forces them to make a melee basic attack against a target of the emissary’s choice (“Give me that! It’s mine!”).

  Blinded By Need (ranged 10 vs. Will) deals standard psychic damage, and allows the emissary to choose one of the target’s allies. For the next turn, the target is marked by that ally, and everyone except the chosen ally is invisible to the target. This doesn’t force the target and the ally to fight each other, but it makes it hard for either of them to do anything else.

  As minor actions, the emissary can use Deceptive Veil to disguise itself as a Medium or Small humanoid, with a DC 40 for people to see through the illusion. It can also target someone with an Invocation of Calamity (ranged 5 vs. Will), which on a hit makes the target fail all of their saves during the next turn.

  For triggered actions, it has the same Psionic Boost as the Spawn of Ulban, this time applying to tis Blinded By Need/Greed powers. And when it dies, Foretelling the Doom targets an enemy suffering from a (save ends) condition and inflicts a -5 penalty on all saves against it until one succeeds.

  Serpent of Nihal

  

  Nihal, the Serpent Star, is a reddish celestial body that can’t stay still. It travels a random snaking route around the point it was supposed to occupy in the sky according to all standard calculations. That’s why it received this epithet.

  The Serpents of Nihal first came through the world shortly before the fall of the ancient empire of Az-Kiral, which dedicated itself to the worship of Zehir. Its leaders grew ever more ambitious and soon they craved more power than the snake god was willing to offer. So they sought out a new source of Snek Power, and found it in Nihal. They opened a portal to the star thinking they would be able to access this power. What happened instead was that countless Serpents of Nihal poured through, and destroyed the empire in a matter of days. They still wander the known cosmos today, and I guess sometimes Allabar opens new rifts to let more through.

  Serpents are Medium Aberrant Beasts, and Level 29 Minion Lurkers with a ground speed of 7. They’re only partially present in reality, and keep blinking in and out.

  This means that, despite being minions, they have Resist 20 to all damage. Yes, even untyped. You need to deal 21 or more damage with one strike to take them out. It’s not that hard for late epic PCs, but it’s also not 100% guaranteed, so they have more staying power than your typical minion.

  Serpents attack with mindbites, which deal psychic damage and can interfere with concentration and psionic power usage: if 2 or more of the serpent’s allies are adjacent to the target, the bite deals extra damage and prevents the target from spending action points or power points (save ends).

  If an enemy misses the serpent, it can Depart Reality, removing itself from play for a turn an re-appearing in adjacent to an enemy within 20 squares of its original location. It can also do this exact same thing when it rolls initiative with the Sudden Reality Warp ability.

  Allabar, Opener of the Way

  

  Yup, you read that right. This is not a star spawn, it’s a star. Allabar is here to serve as the end boss for a campaign focused on the Forgotten War, which would likely feature the PCs facing and unraveling the plans of increasingly powerful aberrant creatures and star spawn until Allabar itself decides to personally kill them. As the lore implies, Allabar is not the only eldritch star who wants to mess with the world, but it’s the most consciously malicious one and it acts as instigator and enabler to the others. Eliminating Allabar would effectively end the threat posed by its fellows and their respective star spawn.

  Putting the lore in astronomical terms would make Allabar similar to a rogue planet, a planet without a star that moves across the universe. The similarity is only superficial, of course, because pretty much nothing else about the Opener of the Way is in any way scientific.

  Allabar is presented here as a Gargantuan Aberrant Animate. Those who feel even Gargantuan is too small for a planetary entity might instead say this is an avatar of Allabar, the thing it sends through a portal to personally fight the PCs. When it dies, the star winks out from the sky. Or you can take a page from Atropus in Elder Evils, and have the actual body of Allabar be the dungeon/battlefield on which you fight its avatar.

  Anyway, Allabar is a Level 30 Solo Soldier with 1100 HP. It has ground and flight speeds of 6, with Hover. As a planet, it projects a Gravity Well that acts as a 20-square wide aura. This plus its Gargantuan size pretty much mean it covers the entire battle map. Anyone who starts their turn inside the field gets pulled a variable number of squares depending on how much HP Allabar currently has. It starts at 1 square, and doubles for every 25% of its HP that are missing (at 25% or less total HP, it’s 8 squares).

  Being covered with eyes, Allabar has All-Around Vision, and can’t be flanked. Its Bloodied Fury also gives it an extra standard action per turn while it’s bloodied, even when it’s dazed.

  In combat, the Opener of the Way projects Reach 4 Tentacles to attack, which deal light physical damage and restrain for a turn on a hit. It can use them in a Triple Attack to strike three times in a standard action, and it can enhance a tentacle attack with a Psionic Boost similar to that of the star spawn in this entry. Aside from the boost recharging when Allabar takes psychic damage, it also recharges when the star succeeds with its Devour Body attack. This Close Burst 1 vs. Fortitude targets creatures who are at 0 HP or lower. On a hit, it kills the target and pulls it inside Allabar. It can target dead allies, but it’s also excellent for making PCs exercise those “when you die” abilities they surely have by now.

  Another very interesting attack is Wrath of the Forsaken World (close blast 5 vs. Fortitude, recharge 5+), which deals psychic damage and causes each target to sprout a hostile tentacle (save ends). While the tentacle is there, it deals an automatic 20 damage to any target that ends their turn within 2 squares of the victim.

  As a minor action, you know, no big deal, the Opener can use Unravel Essence (melee 4 vs. Fortitude), which inflicts 20 ongoing damage on a hit (save ends). On the first failed save, this increases to 25. On the second, the target also becomes weakened and insubstantial. On the third, the target drops to 0 HP if its HP was still positive. A successful save at any point halts the process and clears all related conditions. This recharges whenever there are no creatures affected by it.

  And finally, when someone hits Allabar with an attack, it can cause Psychic Feedback as a reaction, automatically dazing the attacker (save ends).

  Allabar is very intelligent and will work to maximize its advantages, abusing its flight and superior reach, and focusing fire make them drop to 0 HP quickly so they can be devoured. And if your level 30 PCs are cocky because this end boss is “only” level 30, add a few Emissaries of Caiphon to make it impossible for them to pass the many saves imposed by the Opener of the Way.

  Final Impressions

  The awesome continues! This entry does return to the old standby of “tentacles”, but the monsters are still pretty evocative and their mechanics interesting. Allabar reminds me of Atropus, from Elder Evils, but it’s has more of an aberrant/psychic theme instead of Atropus’ undead/necrotic leanings.

  The Opener of the Way is the fourth and last epic boss to be found in this book. The previous ones were Imix, Lolth, and Ogrémoch.

• Oct 24, 2022

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 3: Spider

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.

  Not only have monstrous spiders been in the game since the beginning, they’ve been on every monster book we read so far. The MM3 is no exception in this case.

  The Monsters

  Looks like the Web Walk trait was a Monster Vault innovation. The spiders in the MM3 don’t have it, but it would make sense for them to do so. They do already use fixed math, like the other monsters in this book.

  All spiders here have a climb speed equal to their ground speed, with the Spider Climb keyword to signal that they can also walk on ceilings. They also have Tremorsense 5.

  Ambush Spider

  Sometimes you have to go back to basics, and you can’t get any more basic than this. These Medium natural spiders behave much like mundane trapdoor spiders, using webs to camouflage their hidey-holes and charging out of them to bite and inject venom into their prey. As Level 2 Lurkers with 28 HP, they’re likely the first giant spider any group of adventures is going to face. I’m surprised something like this only showed up in the MM3. Their speed is a breezy 8.

  The spider’s Camouflage trait allows it to hide when it has only partial cover or concealment. Its basic attack is a bite, but it turns into a Venomous Bite if made against a creature the spider is hidden from. This does the same damage and can be used in a charge. It also slows the target and inflicts 5 ongoing poison damage (save ends). This worsens to immobilized after the first failed save.

  Spiderling

  Spiderlings are immature giant spiders, merely Small in size. This is a generic stat block that can be used to represent youngsters of any of the spider species presented here or elsewhere. They’re Level 4 Minion Skirmishers with Speed 6 and a basic bite attack.

  The attack deals only 2 poison damage, but it also gives poison vulnerability 5 to the target for a turn. If the target is already vulnerable to poison their vulnerability increases by 2 instead. This means that multiple spiderling bites on the same victim add up very fast, particularly if the adults join in at the end. You can vary their level based on the expected level of the adult specimens.

  Feyspitter Spider

  This spider native to the Feywild produces a venom laced with psychedelic fairy-tale qualities. Aside from the usual physiological damage, it also forces its victims to dance uncontrolably! Over time, feyspitter hunting grounds come to look like clearings where the vegetation has been stomped flat by all the dancers.

  Feyspitters are Medium Fey Beasts and Level 7 Controllers with 80 HP and a Speed of 6. Their bite deals physical damage and inflicts 5 ongoing poison damage (save ends). Each time the victim fails a save, the spider can slide them 3 squares.

  They can also use Poison Spittle to spray their venom in a Close Blast 3. This deams 10 ongoing poison damage on everyone it hits, with the same sliding effect on each failed save. Finally, if hit in melee, feyspitters can use a Fey Leap (recharge 5+) to teleport 3 squares as an interrupt. Yes, this means they can jump out of melee range and negate any damage.

  Lolth’s Reaver

  Another epic level spider directly associated with Lolth. These spiders don’t exist in the wild. Instead, they’re bred by Lolth’s worshippers and fed the blood of elves, eladrin and angels from an early age. Their upbringing makes them sapient and Chaotic Evil. They commonly serve as mounts for Abyssal Drow, and can also be found as pets and guardians in Lolth’s mightiest temples elsewhere in the universe.

  Reavers are Large Elemental Beasts with the Mount and Spider keywords. They’re Level 25 Brutes with 287 HP. They have a ground speed of 8, but their Climb speed is only 6. Their mount trait is Web Saddle, which prevents their rider from being involuntarily dismounted by forced movement. I never even knew this was a possibility for anyone else, so I find this very interesting. Enough PCs have easy access to forced movement that staying mounted might very well be a problem for an enemy rider in most situations. Not here, though.

  Reavers fight with their extremely venomous bites, which deal light physical damage and inflict 20 ongoing poison damage (save ends). They can shoot Grasping Threads at range, which deal no damage but pull the target 5 squares and restrain them (save ends). Each failed saving throw causes the reaver to pull the target an additional 5 squares. There is no hard limit on the number of targets that can be restrained in this way.

  Once per encounter the reaver can perform a Web Leap, jumping 8 squares without provoking opportunity attacks and spreaying a Close Blast 3 with sticky webs when they land. This does heavy physical damage, knocks its targets prone, and prevents them from standing up (save ends).

  Spider Webs

  This is not a monster, but a side box with example terrain features based on spider webs. All of the spiders in this entry and most of the ones in previous books are web-spinners, so these should see heavy usage in arachnid-themed dungeons.

  These hazards have variable DCs and attack rolls based on their level, which should be similar to that of the overall encounter. The more badass the spider, the more badass its webs.

  Web Sheets are nearly invisible vertical webs, usually placed across passages and corridors. Spotting them requires a Perception test against the hard DC for their level. When someone enters their space, they attack the victim’s Reflex and immobilize them (save ends). A close or area fire attack destroys the whole web, a melee fire attack destroys one square of it.

  Cobwebs are thick and opaque sheets of webbing covering walls, floors, and ceilings. Spiders use these for concealment, hiding behind them until it’s time to burst out and strike. They provide total concealment, and spiders can usually perceive enemies through them using tremorsense. They might also count as difficult terrain.

  Final Impressions

  We’re starting to repeat ourselves a bit with all these spiders, but it’s nice to see a low-level example. I also really liked the Feyspitter for its dancing venom.

• Oct 23, 2022

  The Orchard of Time

  I had an interesting dream recently that gave me what I think is a neat idea for a dungeon location: The Orchard of Time.

  History

  It’s started out as your standard divine orchard, a bit like the Garden of the Hesperides. It was owned and operated by a powerful spirit or minor deity, and its trees gave fruit that ranged from “mundane but high-quality” to “outright miraculous” the further in you went. If you got to the very center, you could harvest the Peaches of Immortality or something equally awesome.

  Something happened to the Orchard’s original owners and they left, abandoning the place. Monstrous fauna from the surrounding regions moved in and either overwhelmed the previous guardians or entered some sort of symbiosis with them. These new monsters found ample food in the trees of the Orchard, whose energies mutated them to be larger and stronger.

  One day, a powerful arch-wizard found the Orchard’s location and decided to go for the Peaches. This extremely arrogant individual was sure he would succeed where all others have failed. After all, the others weren’t him! He armed himself with his best spells and his best magic items, and teleported to the Orchard’s entrance (can’t teleport into it from outside). Then he boldly strode past the gate, and cast his most powerful magic.

  This was a custom spell that would stop time everywhere in the Orchard except for an area five meters or so in radius around the wizard himself. The idea was that, with time stoped, the archmage could just walk up to the really good trees in the center while dodging the place’s many inhabitants. If he needed to remove any of them, he could bring them into the “active time” circle and use his other magic to handle them one individual or small group at a time.

  Of course, the wizard’s hubris got the better of him at exactly the worst time. Maybe he had miscalculated when creating the spell, or maybe he made a critical error when casting it. The fact is that our wizard just kinda… exploded, leaving behind only his ornate metal staff.

  Ironically, the spell itself worked exactly as planned. Even better in fact, as the same error that deleted our wizard made it last forever. It’s centered on the wizard’s staff, which stands planted on the ground just inside the Orchard’s entrance gate.

  Layout and Hazards

  The Orchard is located in a hidden valley and is bordered by tall forested mountains. The climate can range from temperate to tropical depending on what kind of fruit you want it to contain. As mentioned above, vestigial divine wards prevent people from finding it with divination or from teleporting into it from outside. It can still be found via good old-fashioned research, as its location is recorded in ancient religious texts and in the unfortunate wizard’s own notes. The wizard has also helpfully dispelled any magical defenses that prevented people from just walking through the main gate.

  The Orchard of Time was a little overgrown from its period of abandonment, but still retains its characteristic layout. There are many trees but they’re spaced far apart. Cobbled paths wind their way among them. Grass and other wild plants reach up to a human’s knees between the trees and paths. This space used to be taken up by a lawn and flower beds, but these have been overwhelmed by native plants.

  This means that despite covering a very large area, the Orchard has excellent sight lines and a clearly navigable layout. You can see a good deal of its significant landmarks from the entrance gate and it’s impossible to get lost inside. These excellent sight lines work against intruders such as the PCs, because they allow the many, many monsters and guardians that live here to see them from far away. These creatures are all hostile, territorial, and generally incapable of dialogue either because they have animal intellect or because they’re some sort of construct. In the dream I had these monsters definitely included a variety of Rodents of Unusual Size. There are almost more monsters than there are fruit, and they all more or less converge on the location of any intruders they can perceive.

  Or they would, if time hadn’t stopped inside. The wizard’s staff is just inside the entrance, and it projects a field of “normal time” in a 5-meter radius around itself. Everything outside this bubble and inside the orchard’s outer walls is frozen in time, and has been for a long time (decades? centuries?).

  PCs who want to succeed where the arrogant wizard failed need to carry the staff with them. Getting close enough to a monster that it enters the “bubble” will unfreeze the creature, and it will imediately attack. There might be a route that allows them to avoid most of the creatures, but not all.

  In addition to the copious monsters, the permanent time stop might have created hazardous areas inside the Orchard, where space or time itself behave in harmful ways. These might be almost impossible to detect until they’re inside the active time bubble, which would make them reveal themselves in a dramatic fashion.

  Why go there?

  The most obvious reason to delve the Orchard of Time is to get its most awesome fruits from the big trees at the center, like the wizard wanted to do. The Orchard might also contain buildings of interest (such as libraries or treasure vaults), along with the bodies of ancient adventurers who tried to delve the place before the ill-fated wizard. Some of these might be legendary themselves, and have died carrying their equally legendary gear.

  A slightly alternate Orchard would have been invaded by the wizard while it was still operational! In this case it’s going to be in pristine condition, with all of its original guardians and security systems still in place. Even its owners will still be around, frozen in time like flies in amber. Freeing them is an excellent goal for more heroic sorts, or at least for sorts who need the specific help whose divine entities are able to provide.

  However, since those owners are frozen in time, they’re still going to be under the impression that they’re being invaded by a cheeky wizard. And look at you, carrying his staff around like that. Better talk fast!

• Oct 21, 2022

  Let's Read the Monster Manual 3: Spawn of Kyuss

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.

  The Spawn of Kyuss were introduced in the Age of Worms adventure path, originally published in Dungeon Magazine in 2005-2006, when it was run by Paizo. Some of Kyuss’ most powerful servants were reprinted in the Elder Evils supplement for 3.5e, and later got conversion stats in an early 4th edition web enhancement file. This means this is technically not the Spawn’s 4e debut, but it is the first time we get complete lore and lower-than-epic stats for them.

  The Lore

  In ancient times, Kyuss was a mortal magician and a charismatic cult leader, who led his followers to a remote jungle region in order to establish a base. There, he found ruins from an even more ancient pre-human civilization. With the knowledge he learned from those ruins, the cultist sacrificed his followers in a ritual to become a giant undead demigod whose body was made out of bright green worms. The Worm that Walks spent a long time imprisoned outside the world, but the prophecy of the Age of Worms foretells that he will return and devour the world in what is basically a worm-fueled zombie apocalypse.

  The Spawn of Kyuss are undead created by infecting corpses with worms plucked from his own body. They’re easily distinguished by the wriggling mass of green worms crawling all over them, inside and outside. They’re Kyuss’ agents in the world and their presence presages his return. Even if the Worm’s return is not imminent, these creatures might still be found performing some task that furthers their patron’s interests, whether by themselves or allied with cultists.

  The first Spawn were Kyuss’ original followers, sacrificed in that first ritual. Making new ones is a matter of performing a simple worm transplant from a spawn to an available body, living or dead. The ones listed here are not particularly smart, but it’s worth remembering that Larva Mages are also the spawn of Kyuss.

  The Numbers

  We get three varieties of Spawn here, all suitable as threats to Paragon-tier parties. They’re Medium Natural Animates with a Speed of 5 and Darkvision, plus the usual undead traits: immunity to disease and poison, a resistance to necrotic damage, and a vulnerability to radiant damage. They’re also vulnerable to fire - it burns the worms right up.

  All of the spawn here can also transmit the Touch of Kyuss, which is basically an infestation of evil supernatural worms. It’s treated as a Level 16 disease resisted with Endurance (DC 25 to improve or 20 to maintain). Stage 1 makes the victim regain only half hit points from spending healing surges, and causes them to rise as wretches of Kyuss if they die. Stage 2 causes them to lose 2 healing surges, and if they ever reach 0 surges they die and rise as Sons of Kyuss. Stage 3 cuts to the chase and kills the victim right away so it can rise as a Son.

  Son of Kyuss

  These things look like zombies at a first glance, but they’re sapient and much stronger. Their goal is to usually spread the “blessing” of Kyuss to as many living people as they can. Though they’re not exactly geniuses at Int 6, they can and will coordinate in order to accomplish it.

  Sons of Kyuss are Level 13 Brutes with 158 HP. They project a Fear of Worms aura which inflicts a -2 attack penalty to living creatures inside. Their basic attack is a Slam that damages and exposes the target to the Touch of Kyuss. It can also “shoot” Burrowing Worms in a Close Burst 1 (recharge 5+). A hit inflicts 10 ongoing damage, increasing to 15 on the first failed save and to 20 plus stun on the second. If someone dies from this they immediately rise as a wretch of Kyuss (see below). The wretch must be destroyed before the victim can be raised.

  Wretch of Kyuss

  An undead creature with a lower worm content than a full Son of Kyuss. It’s less sturdy but still quite dangerous and quite contagious, being a Level 13 Minion Brute. Its Slam deals light necrotic damage, and when it dies it bursts, inflicting necrotic damage in a Close Burst 1 and exposing anyone hit by this attack to the Touch of Kyuss.

  Herald of Kyuss

  These undead abomination were created from the bodies of angels sent by the gods to stop the Worm that Walks. They’re Medium Immortal Animates (undead), and have all the same traits as the other spawn. Also, they can fly at speed 6.

  The Herald is a Level 16 Artillery monster with 116 HP. They have the same Fear of Worms aura as the Son, plus a Writhing Host aura of the same size that deals 10 necrotic damage to enemies caught inside. All of their attacks expose the target to the Touch of Kyuss on a hit, making them the most contagious spawn of all.

  Their basic melee attack is a Rotting Caress that deals necrotic damage. They can attack at range by making Writhing Pronouncements that deal immediate and ongoing 5 necrotic damage. This worsens to 10 and a daze on the first failed save, and to 15 and a stun on the second (save ends). People killed by this turn into wretches of Kyuss, which must be destroyed before the victims can be raised.

  Once per encounter they can call an Eruption of Maggots that acts as a disgusting fireball-sized area attack. It deals immediate and ongoing necrotic damage, and also creates a damaging zone that lasts for the rest of the encounter.

  Final Impressions

  Ewwww. Kill these with fire as soon as possible. If your GM is re-enacting the Age of Worms campaign, you can expect to run into these things very often. Their main gimmick is all about infecting people with the Touch of Kyuss, so PCs can expect to stop and cast Remove Affliction more or less after every fight unless they’re under extreme time pressure. Stage 1 is already a major debuff, and staying at Stage 2 is a serious gamble.

• Oct 18, 2022

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 3: Slaad

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.

  Slaads have appeared in every 4e Monster Manual so far. This one gives us more exotic varieties.

  The Lore

  Basic slaad lore remains the same: technically sapient frog-like monsters from the Elemental Chaos with lolrandom minds and a propensity to implant eggs into other creatures. You can see the lore specific to each new variety in their descriptions below.

  The Monsters

  As a reminder, chaos phage is a level 16 disease that represents being implanted with a slaad egg. Stage 1 has no effect beyond this, stage 2 gives you a Will penalty and makes you attack randomly while bloodied, stage 3 means the embryo bursts out of your skull and kills you.

  Like other diseases it’s not hard to remove with the right ritual, but the symptoms are severe enough that you’ll want to do it sooner rather than later. And as usual the ritual takes time and costs a bunch of healing surges, so it’s something that might add time pressure to a slaad focused adventure.

  Golden Slaad

  

  Slaads are mostly immune to the chaos storms that often rage through portions of the Elemental Chaos, which is why they like to follow these storms around. When one of these storms manages to affect a slaad, it can mutate it into a golden slaad. Golden Slaads are revered by their chromatic brethren, who follow them around as if they were a chaos storm themselves.

  Golden slaads are even more chaos-infused than their relatives, and can inject that raw chaos in any victims they bite. Their gold-colored forms are unstable, and if they’re wounded they became unable to sustain those forms, becoming quivering (but still dangerous!) piles of ooze.

  These creatures are Huge Elemental Humanoids and Level 20 Controllers with 193 HP. They have a ground speed of 8 and a teleport speed of 6, as well as low-light vision and an immunity to chaos phage (like all slaads).

  Their bite is reach 3 and deals physical damage, with a random rider depending on the result of the attack roll. If the roll is odd, it slides the target 3 squares. If it’s even, it dazes them for a turn.

  They can also emit Chaos Croaks in a Close Burst 5 (recharge 5+). This targets Will, does psychic damage, and has a random rider rolled on a d6 table:

  1. Target is teleported 1d6 squares in a random direction (rolled on a d8).

  2. Target makes a melee basic attack against a random creature adjacent to it.

  3. Target is stunned for a turn.

  4. Target is slowed (save ends).

  5. Target takes an extra 10 damage of a random elemental type rolled on a d10.

  6. Target is exposed to chaos phage, and if it was dazed by the slad it becomes stunned instead (save ends).

  When the slaad is first bloodied it suffers an Amniotic Transformation and becomes an ooze. It becomes unable to teleport and its speed drops to 4, but it gains a Corrosive Pseudopodia attack that can be used as an opportunity action against any adjacent enemy who moves or makes an attack. It deals minor acid damage and grabs the target on a hit. With a minor action, the slaad can sustian all of its grabs, deal acid damage to the victims, and regain 5 HP per grabbed victim. So the loss of speed isn’t that crippling, because the slaad now wants people to get adjacent to it. And it still retains the use of its other attacks!

  Putrid Slaad

  This is an undead slaad. While it’s most often created on purpose by powerful necromancers, it can also arise naturally when a slaad dies in the Abyss. These “natural” putrid slaads have a tendency to obey demon lords, so you bet Orcus loves them.

  The putrid slaad loses its ability to spread chaos phage, but it still fights very similarly to a living one. It will even eat its victims. The remains rot inside its non-functional guts, and then the monster vomits them when it attacks its next victims.

  Putrid Slaads are Large Elemental Animates (Undead), and Level 19 Brutes with 227 HP. Its basic Claw attack pulls the target 1 square, and Graping Claws allows it to make 2 of those with a single action. If both attacks hit, the slaad grabs the victim.

  Once the putrid slaad has grabbed someone, it will hit them with its Horrific Spew (recharge 6), which deals both immediate and ongoing acid and necrotic damage (save ends). The spew can also be used as a Close Blast 3 attack, but it has a +2 to-hit bonus when focused on the grabbed victim.

  The slaad can also cast aside its grabbed victim, pushing them 5 squares, dealing some automatic physical damage to the victim, and using it to make an area attack against anyone adjacent to the victim when it lands.

  Personal Impressions

  More slaads. As far as late-edition slaads go, these are pretty cool mechanically. Golden Slaads finally deliver the promised dose of pure chaos people expect when they first read the slaad’s basic lore, and putrid slaads have this cool cycle of grabbing people and tossing them aside, with an occasional dose of disgusting barf.

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