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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 3: Dread Warrior
Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
Common zombies are mindless beasts who fight in a clumsy, instinctual way. Dread warriors are… still mindless, but the ritual that creates them also imbues them with more refined combat skills.
The main purpose of a dread warrior is to act as a guard and protector. Their creation binds them to their master, whom they are compelled to protect and obey. When a dread warrior’s master dies, their reaction is a bit unpredictable. Some lose their animating force and drop lifelessly to the ground, others go berserk.
Instead of being bound to a person, they can be bound to an item instead, protecting it from theft and damage even after their creator passes away. Liches might use this to bind a troop of dread warriors to their soul receptacle, for example.
The Numbers
Dread Warriors are Medium Natural Animates with the Undead keyword. They have low-light vision and a natural speed of 6, modified by armor. They have a signature traits: Eyes of Undeath allows the warrior’s master to see and hear anything the creature sees and hears. It also allows the master to speak through it. There’s no range limit! This makes them excellent emissaries, decoys, or security “cameras”.
Individual warriors have additional traits related to their training and intended function.
Dread Protector
Your basic security model. Some necromancers like to fill their lairs with these things so that they always have the reassuring presence of a bodyguard no matter which room they are in. One does get used to the smell eventually.
Dread Protectors are Level 3 Soldiers with 47 HP. They wear heavy armor and wield greataxes. Their speed is 5.
Aside from Eyes Undeath, they also have a Shield of Undeath aura (1). If their master is inside this aura, they only take half damage from melee and ranged attacks. The protector does not take the other half of this damage, making this a very good power.
The greataxe marks on a hit, and though the protector doesn’t have any other abilities that make use of the mark it does make it harder to attack the master. Instead of moving normally they can use Protector’s Call to teleport their speed to square adjacent to the master. This makes it very hard for PCs to isolate them.
Dread Protectors will seek to always stay adjacent to their master and keep the most dangerous melee opponent marked. The best tactic for dealing with them is to hit them with close or area attacks. These will target both them and their master, ignoring both the mark penalty and Shield of Undeath.
Dread Marauder
This lightly armored warrior wields a short sword and a bow. It’s not any smarter than the other dread warriors, but Eyes of Undeath still makes it a superb scout since the master can see what it sees and order it from afar. If they die out there, it’s no great loss - the master knows what they need to know by that point.
Dread Marauders are Level 5 Skirmishers with 53 HP and speed 6. They deal extra damage when they have Combat Advantage, and In the Master’s Defense gives them combat advantage against anyone adjacent to their master.
The sword and bow give them both melee and ranged basic attacks, and Skirmish Strike allows them to shift 3 squares before making either one.
So aside from being good scouts, dread marauders also serve as good deterrents against melee PCs, since those PCs will be exposed to stronger attacks from the marauder as long as they remain adjacent to the master.
Dread Archers
These warriors are meant to act as sniper platforms and fire support for the master, and to man the ramparts of the master’s fortress. They’re Level 6 Artillery with 57 HP and speed 6. Their gear is similar to the marauder’s.
As artillery monsters, their bow attack is more accurate than the sword. Once per encounter they can make an arcing volley area attack.
Their greatest powers are their custom passive trait and reaction, however! Channel of Undeath allows the master to make implement attacks as if they occupied the archer’s square, as long as they can see the archer. And when the master hits with an attack, the archer can use the Sustained Attack reaction to make an immediate bow attack.
I am unsure whether I’d allow the master to “see” the archer through Eyes of Undeath, but I’d definitely allow them so see the archer through a telescope!
Dread Guardian
This is a more powerful version of the dread protector, a Level 7 Soldier with 79 HP. It’s equipped with heavy armor, a shield, a sword, and a bow.
Both the bow and sword attacks mark on a hit, and this time the protector can make a sword attack as an opportunity action when a marked enemy attacks the master.
Final Impressions
“Zombie warriors” are almost as classic as “skeleton warriors” in the dungeon fantasy genre, so I think these are pretty nifty. They’re also awesome mechanically, because Eyes of Undeath and the other passives allow for a lot if interesting underhanded tricks.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 3: Dragon, Volcanic
Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
Volcanic dragons were created by Vezzuvu, the Living Mountain. The petitioners who approached this primordial were angry. You see, dragons were made in Io’s image, but Io’s demise proved he was weak. Therefore, these dragons thought, they were weak, and this realization felt like an insult to them.
Vezzuvu promised that if the dragons bathed in the boiling magma of his domain, their weak flesh would be burned away and replaced with a truly strong body. His petitioners obeyed and dove in. The survivors became volcanic dragons.
All was well with the volcanics for a time, but then their old pride and sense of entitlement began to gnaw at them again. Where their new bodies truly stronger? Had they been given all the power they were promised, all the power they surely deserved? When they concluded they hadn’t, they turned on their former master and went their own way. Their history from this point on is filled with instances of volcanic dragons allying with servants of either the gods or the primordials for a time, only to betray them a short time later. In our narrative present, everyone knows an alliance with these beasts is likely to end in sudden but inevitable betrayal.
A typical volcanic dragon’s temperament is like that of a red, but worse. They make a show of craving treasure and rulership over a territory, but what they truly crave is destruction. In other words, volcanic dragons love burning stuff, especially flesh. It makes them feel good. They like the company of other fire-elemental beings with similar dispositions, but any alliance they make is temporary at best. They live inside volcanoes and on other similar burning landscapes.
The Numbers
Since Volcanic Dragons follow the same general format of the other catastrophics you could argue they are right about getting a bad deal from Vezzuvus. They’re Elemental Magical Beasts with the Dragon and Fire keywords, Darkvision, and a Clumsy Flight speed equal to their ground speed.
Volcanic Dragon Wyrmling
Wyrmlings are Medium Level 5 Brutes with 77 HP and Speed 6. They’re surrounded by an aura (1) of Noxious Fumes that deals 3 poison damage to enemies who end their turns inside.
The dragon’s basic bite and claw are weaker than those of most brutes, but the bite inflicts ongoing fire damage and the claws strip the target of all fire resistance until the start of the dragon’s next turn. As usual wyrmling fury allows it to use both attacks in the same action while bloodied. Use the claw first!
When hit by a fire attack, the wyrmling uses a Sudden Flare as a reaction, causing each enemy inside the dragon’s aura to take 5 fire damage.
Young Volcanic Dragon
Young’uns are Large Level 10 Elite Brutes with 264 HP and speed 8. They have all the same attacks as the wyrmling, but their Wyrmling Fury upgrades to a full Double Attack. Their numbers are also bigger, of course, and they gain two new attacks.
Growing Heat is their “disaster” ability. When activated with a minor action, it makes their Noxious Fumes aura grow to size 3, then to size 5 on the next turn, and then explode in the turn after that. This explosion targets Reflex and deals both immediate and ongoing fire damage. After it resolves the dragon’s aura shrinks to its original size and the power recharges.
The dragon can also create a Lava Vent, an Area Burst 1 zone that lasts until the end of the encounter and deals 5 fire damage to anyone who enters or starts their turn there. This recharges once the dragon is first bloodied, so each dragon in the fight can create 2 vents total.
Other Age Categories
Adults are Level 15 Elite Brutes with 363 HP, and have all the same abilities of a young dragon with bigger numbers.
Elders are Huge Level 20 Elite Brutes with 468 HP, and likewise have all the same abilities.
Ancients are Huge Level 25 Elite Brutes with 574 HP. They have all the same abilities as elders and are also able to create a Fiery Fissure in addition to the lava vents. This works like a temporary wall of fire (and it’s a wall 6 pattern) that deals 20 fire damage to anyone who tries to touch or cross it. It only lasts for a turn but it’s a minor action and a recharge 5+ attack instead of an encounter power.
Final Impressions
Volcanic dragons might be weaker than traditional ones, but they’re much better at subverting expectations. Typical PCs might see that it’s a fire monster and load up on fire resistance effects, only to realize the dragon’s aura deals poison damage and it can remove fire resistance with its claws. Also, the bulk of the damage from its basic attacks is untyped, further limiting the usefulness of fire resistance.
Lore-wise, paranoia and entitlement seem to be their strongest personality traits. They’re hard to deal with because they always feel they’re not getting their due. Even when a deal is fair and happens as promised, they’ll probably feel the other party got one over on them.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 3: Dragon, Earthquake
Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
Earthquake dragons were created by Balcoth, the Groaning King. The petitioners who approached this Earth primordial were terrified by the death of Io, and were willing to swear loyalty to anyone who could protect them. Balcoth agreed, and fulfilled his promise by swallowing the dragons up and keeping them inside his furnace-like belly, where they “cooked” and were changed by his essence.
Balcoth would vomit up a few earthquake dragons when he needed their service. When the primordial was beheaded and slain during the Dawn War, the rest of his dragons escaped through the wound and into the world.
Generally speaking, Earthquake dragons are extremely into the whole “living disaster” thing. When they settle down somewhere, the surrounding region is soon wracked by tremors of increasing intensity and duration. The dragon feeds on the people killed by these tremors, and will sometimes destroy a city on purpose just because they can. They lair in the ruins for months, digesting their prey and enjoying the view of the ruins until they grow tired of them and fly away to look for another place to devastate.
Unlike their blizzard cousins, earthquakes are not team players. They’ll form temporary alliances with inedible creatures (mostly earth-themed), and can sometimes be bribed into service by mortals, but these arrangements never last long.
These dragons aren’t great fliers, but they can swim through earth and rock as if it was water. They hunt by suppressing their earthquake aura and stalking their prey from underground. When they attack, they make a spectacular entry and fight with all of their powers, though they usually retreat back underground rather than fighting to the death.
The Numbers
Earthquake Dragons follow the same general plan as Blizzards. They’re Elemental Magical Beasts with the Dragon and Earth keywords. They have Darkvision, Tremorsense, and both burrow and clumsy flight speeds that are about half of their ground speed.
Earthquake Dragon Wyrmling
This is a Medium Level 4 Soldier with 58 HP, representing the youngest dragon that can be a threat in combat. Their speed is 6 (burrow 2, clumsy flight 2). They project a Quaking Earth aura (1) with a very “soldierly” effect: if an enemy inside the aura makes an attack that doesn’t include the dragon as a target, the enemy falls prone and takes 5 damage.
The wyrmling’s bite and claw basic attacks do physical damage without riders, and Wyrmling Fury allows it to make both attacks in the same action while it’s bloodied.
Finally, they have a Sudden Quake ability that triggers when they’re knocked prone or subjected to forced movement. It knocks all enemies inside the dragon’s aura prone.
Young Earthquake Dragon
Young dragons are Large Level 9 Elite Soldiers with 206 HP. Their ground speed increases to 8, their burrow and flight speeds to 4. They have all the same abilities as a wyrmling, with bigger numbers. They replace Wyrmling Fury with a proper Double Attack and add two new powers.
Earthen Maw (recharge 6+) is a melee attack that does more damage than a basic bite and restains the target (save ends). After the first save the target is instead petrified! A save still ends this, but the target is entirely unable to act until they make that save.
Their “disaster” power is Rising Tremors, which follows the same pattern seen for blizzard dragons. When it’s activated with a minor action, it increases the dragon’s aura size to 3. At the end of the next turn, the aura increases again to 5. And at the end of the turn after that, the dragon makes a Close Burst 5 attack vs. Reflex. This one deals physical damage, knocks targets prone, and prevents them from standing back up (save ends). After the attack, the aura resets and this power recharges.
Other Age Categories
Adults are Level 14 Elite Soldiers with 288 HP, and have all the same abilities with bigger numbers.
Elders are Huge Level 19 Elite Soldiers with 374 HP, and again have all the same abilities with bigger numbers.
Ancients are Level 24 Elite Soldiers with 456 HP, and gain Threatening Reach 3. They once again have all the same abilities as younger dragons with bigger numbers.
Final Impressions
I’m surprised the dragons in this entry are still marked as Unaligned despite being a lot more actively destructive and cruel than blizzard dragons. I’d have thought “I exist to satisfy my twin urges to destroy and devour” would rate a Chaotic Evil alignment. Of course, you can go the other way and give them more flexible personalities and more varied motivations.
Mechanically, earthquake dragons are very good at knocking people down and keeping them down, so they pair really well with melee lurkers and skirmishers whose attacks are more powerful when they have combat advantage.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 3: Dragon, Blizzard
Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
Blizzard Dragons were created by Umboras, Lord of the Rimefire. The dragon petitioners who approached this primordial were the coldest-hearted among their number. Umboras took them to the coldest reaches of the Elemental Chaos and entombed them there for a year and a day while he worked his magic on them. When they emerged, they were blizzard dragons.
Umboras had a specific goal in mind when he did this. He had been an ally of the winter goddess Khala, who shared with him the goal of freezing the world solid. However, the Raven Queen had just usurped Khala and claimed the domain of winter from her, so Umboras was out for revenge. He created blizzard dragons to help transport his troops to the Raven Queen’s new home of Letherna.
The Queen, however, was smarter than him. She retreated to the labyrinthine astral domain of Pandemonium, and used its twisty little passages (all alike) to separate Umboras from his main forces and lock him in one of the domain’s empty vaults. He’s still there!
The blizzard dragons scattered after their master was imprisoned. Some stayed in Pandemonium, some returned to the Elemental Chaos, some even went to the coldest places of the world. For obvious reasons, though, you’ll rarely find one of them in the Shadowfell.
Blizzard dragons don’t usually have grand plans of their own, and are usually content to freeze and sculpt their territories. However, they’re surprisingly good team players and can often be found allied to other creatures of compatible disposition, helping them achieve their goals. This varies from the usual frost giants and ice archons to liches or winter fey, depending on the individual. And they’re always down for breaking a primordial out of prison.
The Numbers
Blizzard dragons are Elemental Magical Beasts with the Cold and Dragon keywords. They have Darkvision, Ice Walk, and a clumsy flight speed. All of their attacks do cold damage, even the bites and claws.
Blizzard Dragon Wyrmling
Wyrmlings are Medium, making them the smallest dragons I’ve seen in my Let’s Read so far. They’re Level 2 Controllers with 38 HP. They have ground and air speeds of 6.
Yeah, that’s right, wyrmlings are regulars. This means they’ll almost always be found cooperating with a sizable group of other monsters. The most obvious candidates are their clutch-siblings, but they’re smart enough to strike an alliance with lots of other people.
They are surrounded by an aura (1) of Freezing Wind. Enemies that end their turn inside are slid 1 square. When hit by a cold attack, the wyrmling reacts with Sudden Flurry, immediately sliding all enemies inside its aura 1 square.
Their bite immobilizes, and their claws slide the target 1 square on a hit. While they’re bloodied, Wyrmling Fury allows them to spend an action to attack with both.
Young Blizzard Dragon
Young’uns grow to size Large, and become Level 7 Elite Controllers with 166 HP. Their speed increases to 8.
They have all of the wyrmling’s abilities with a few differences and additions. The simplest one is that Wyrmling Flurry is replaced by a standard Double Attack ability, and their claws slide 2 squares.
Unlike other dragons, blizzards don’t have a breath weapon. Instead, when they’re hit by a melee attack, a high-pressure blast of frozen liquid bursts forth from the wound. This is written as a reaction named Chill Rebuke, a Close Blast 5 vs. Fortitude. It deals cold damage and slows on a hit (save ends).
This is also where the “living disaster” mechanic kicks in. Here it’s an ability named Rising Winds. Once this is activated as a minor action, it causes the size of the dragon’s Freezing Wind aura to grow to 3. At the start of the dragon’s next turn, it automatically expands again, to 5. And at the start of the following turn, the dragon makes a Close Burst 5 attack vs. Fortitude, with a hit dealing cold damage, slowing, and blinding the targets. Once the attack is resolved, the aura returns to is initial size of 1 and Rising Winds recharges.
Adult/Elder Blizzard Dragon
Adults and elders are identical to young’uns, with bigger numbers. Adults are Level 12 Elite Controllers with 252 HP, and Elders are Level 17 with 338 HP.
Elders are Huge and can move at speed 10. They can slide enemies 3 squares with their claws and 2 squares with their auras. Their Rising Winds attack restrains instead of immobilizing.
Ancient Blizzard Dragon
Ancients are Huge in size, and are Level 22 Elite Controllers with 422 HP. They’re almost idendical to elders, with bigger numbers. They also have a new encounter power named Deep Freeze that works kinda like a breath weapon, though I guess it’s more of a high-pressure blood ejection, since the dragon must be bloodied to use it.
This ability attacks enemies in a Close Burst 5, targetting Fortitude. A hit deals cold damage, immobilizes, and imposes a -5 penalty to Fortitude (save ends both). A miss deals half damage and imposes the same penalty for a single turn. All of the dragon’s non-basic attacks target Fortitude, so this penalty makes it a lot more dangerous while it lasts.
Final Impressions
Blizzard dragons feel like they slide into the exact same niche as white dragons, with a similar cold theme and a similarly unpleasant personality. Blizzards are smarter and not technically evil, but they still make for terrible neighbors.
Mechanically, they feel like dragons and like cold themed creatures without actually using any of the signature mechanics for either! This is a dragon that does not have a breath attack or a fear aura, and a cold creature that is not immune to cold. It’s fascinating!
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 3: Dragon, Catastrophic
I’ve talked a lot about dragons, and why I like their 4e implementation, over the course of these book readings. Sometimes it feels like no big D&D bestiary is complete without introducing a new dragon subtype.
The Monster Manual talked about the classic chromatics, which were then updated on the Monster Vault. You can see what I wrote about them here.
The Monster Manual 2 talked about the equally classic metallics, and you can read what I wrote about them here.
The Monster Manual 3 introduces the much less famous and much newer Catastrophic Dragons. I believe they are new to 4e, though they might also have shown up in some late supplement for a previous edition. You might already have noticed I’m a bit lazy when it comes to researching monster publication histories.
What I’m sure about is that these are the first 4e dragons that have the “correct” math from the start. They’re also notable for being generally weaker than chromatics and metallics despite the impressive name. Your typical catastrophic dragon is an Elite monster rather than a Solo.
The Lore
As we saw in previous articles about dragons, when the god Io was split in two during the Dawn War his followers also split along ideological lines based on which of the two new deities they preferred: Tiamat the greedy or Bahamut the just. I imagine the initial decision was easy for most of them.
For most, but not for all. Some of Io’s orphaned followers were gripped by fear when they saw how easily their lord had been slain, and they decided that the best way to survive would be to beseech the Primordials for protection and join their side of the Dawn War. These turncoats were transformed by the “blessings” of the Primordials into the first catastrophic dragons.
When the Primordials were defeated most surviving catastrophics scattered across the multiverse and turned to their own selfish purposes. The typical catastrophic in the present day is somewhat less formidable than a chromatic, but more outwardly destructive. They tend to live in extremely hostile environments that befit their individual natures, and from the point of view of surrounding civilians their behavior looks a lot like that of a natural disaster: they occasionally emerge to wreak havoc and destruction on people and their environment, and then return to their lairs for an unknown amount of time.
Legends and myths dating back to the Dawn War tell of catastrophic dragons of immense size and power, capable of sinking continents and destroying entire astral domains. No one knows whether these stories are true, and even the gods refuse to tell.
The Dragons
This entry is structured a lot like previous dragon entries, with each type of dragon presented getting stat blocks for all of its age categories. That’s about where it stops, though. Catastrophic dragons are more like personified natural disasters than like the traditional dragons we saw in previous books.
The ones we see here are clumsy fliers, and even lack the traditional breath weapon! Instead, they’re surrounded by an aura that’s like a miniature version of the disaster they embody. During a fight, this aura grows in size as time passes and then explodes in a, well, catastrophic manner before returning to its initial size and beginning the cycle anew.
Despite having bodies largely made up of elemental matter, these dragons lack any elemental resistances. Instead, damage of their associated type triggers a reaction ability that punishes the attacker in some form. I would however say that they are immune to environmental damage of their associated type even though that’s not made explicit in their stat blocks, because it just wouldn’t do for a blizzard dragon to die of frostbite.
The last major mechanical difference between these dragons and their predecessors is that catastrophics are Elites instead of Solos. Whether this is just bad luck or a punishment from the gods, it means that fights against them will include a bigger supporting cast of other monsters.
There are more age categories here than in the previous books: Wyrmling, Young, Adult, Elder and Ancient. Wyrmlings are Medium in size, and are regular monsters instead of Elites. Young’uns and Adults are Large, and the last two are Huge. I guess a wyrmling isn’t quite a “baby dragon”, but I’d still be a bit wary of placing them as enemies, as I commented earlier.
Despite their thematic link to natural disasters and their destructive demeanor, catastrophic dragons are typically Unaligned, which says interesting things about their mindset.
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