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• Apr 5, 2022

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 2: Xorn

  

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

  I see xorns in my copy of the AD&D 1st Edition monster manual, so they date from at least that far back. This is their 4e debut, and they’re the last monster in the book.

  The Lore

  Xorns are earth elementals native to the Elemental Chaos, but they long ago spread to the deep subterranean tunnels and caverns of the world. Their three-lobed radial symmetry makes them seem quite bizarre to natives of the world.

  Xorns can swim through rock and earth as if it was water, and must feed on certain rare metals and gems. They’re sapient, and will often bargain with other people, aiding in their mining or smelting efforts in exchange for their “food”. It seems they’re not very concerned with much beyond their own survival, so they’ll happily ally with creatures of all dispositions, from dwarves and galeb dhur to duergar and fire giants.

  Xorns found in the wild are likely to be drawn to the gems and magic items carried by PCs. The PCs might be able to negotiate with them and avoid a fight… but some less scrupulous xorns tend to use these negotiations to help set ambushes.

  The Numbers

  We get two stat blocks here, but they’re very similar, so I’ll discuss the first one and then note how the second one differs from it.

  Xorn

  The basic model is a Medium Elemental Magical Beast (Earth), and a Level 9 Skirmisher with 102 HP. Its senses include darkvision and all-around vision, which prevents it from being flanked. It has a relatively low ground speed of 5, and a burrow speed of 5 that’s enhanced by the Earth Glide ability. It allows the xorn to burrow through solid rock as if it was loose earth, using its full burrow speed at all times.

  The xorn’s basic attack is a Claw, and Triple Strike allows it to make three of those against different targets. If there’s only one foe in range, it will use its Earthy Maw instead since it does about double the damage of a claw strike.

  As a minor action, the xorn can Submerge, partially burying itself and gaining a +2 bonus to AC until it moves. When it’s missed by a melee attack, it can retreat, burrowing its speed as a reaction.

  In a fight, a xorn will jump from inside a wall or floor, submerge for the AC bonus, and claw or bite the party’s squishies. If a missed attack doesn’t make the creature retreat automatically, it will do so on its next turn so it can repeat this pattern. Earth Glide makes it extremely mobile despite its poor speed, particularly in an underground environment.

  Diadmondhide Xorn

  This is an older or simply well-fed specimen, who lives in a place of the Elemental Chaos where its preferred food is more plentiful. Its hide glitters with the minerals it has ingested.

  Diamondhide xorns are Large in size, and are Level 16 Skirmishers with 160 HP. They have all the same attacks and abilties as the basic xorn, with bigger numbers. They also have a new attack named Undermine (recharge 5+) in which the xorn burrows its speed and attacks a creature it passes under. This targets Reflex, does heavy damage, and restrains the target (save ends).

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  The sample encounter is level 9, and consists of a pair of xorns in cahoots with a troop of duergar.

  I’m happy to see xorns here. Their weird looks make them an iconic D&D monster in my mind. A nice way to close the book.

• Mar 29, 2022

  On Exalted Martial Arts

  There’s this post on Mailanka’s Musings that talks about two different ways of modeling martial arts in RPGs. The first is something he calls “Move-Based”, and the second “Skill-Based”.

  Move-based martial arts is how most RPGs in the 90’s did it. You bought a style, and that gave you access to a series of “moves” that were essentially special powers with individual rules for what they did. Some systems made you buy each individual move as well, usually as a way to model your progression in the style - advanced practitioners know more moves. Your move set is as or more important than your raw skill level.

  Skill-based martial arts are what GURPS does. Everyone uses the same skills to fight, and knowing one style or another is mostly a matter of flavor with a few minor mechanical bonuses thrown in. What really matters are your skill levels: people with different style familiarities but similar skill levels are equally effective. The same applies to someone who “knows” a style and someone who just has the combat skills.

  Move-based rules might allow you to emulate some classic kung-fu stories that are all about how some styles are objectively superior to others, or how there’s a secret style or ultimate technique that’s jealously guarded by a cranky old master. Skill-based rules are closer to Bruce Lee’s philosophy, or modern views of martial arts in general, where individual skill is more important and the “ultimate power” is learning from multiple sources and combining everything into something that works for you.

  Personally, I prefer skill-based rules, largely due to my exposure to GURPS Martial Arts for Fourth edition. Everything it introduces can be done by someone who isn’t using the style rules. It covers styles from the whole world without treating any of them as inherently superior, and it acknowledges that basically any organized system of fighting counts as a “style”. The “generic swings” other systems describe as the standard form of fighting only happen if you’re completely untrained.

  Given this preference, it comes as no surprise that I have a few weirdly specific hangups about how Exalted handles its martial arts. Let’s talk about them!

  Exalted’s Martial Arts

  Exalted’s whole system is entirely move-based. Every PC has a large set of “Charms” that are usually linked to skills, and represent magic techniques they can use to enhance uses of that skill. Getting to the maximum possible skill level is trivial, and it’s your Charms that make the difference when going against similarly supernatural opposition. This goes even for non-combat skills, though the fighty bits tend to take up a lot of attention.

  Martial Arts are part of this system, but the game still takes pains to make them extra-special, even as it struggles to explain what makes them different from standard combat powers. Exalted First Edition had a separate Martial Arts skill, whose associated Charms were structured as “Martial Arts Styles”. They didn’t really “mix” with charms of other skills. As a result, a lot of each style’s Charms end up duplicating the effect of basic combat Charms in different ways.

  Second Edition merged “standard” unarmed combat and Martial Arts, and made it a little easier to mix and match charms from a few different styles. Third Edition doubled down on the original position and made it so each style had its own separate skill, thus coming full circle on the ‘martial arts cost more because they are exotic and special’ trope.

  How I’d Do It

  Had I been writing these rules, I’d probably take them in a different direction entirely, and more towards the way GURPS sees things. There would be no Martial Arts skill. Each style is associated with a single standard combat skill, and consists of exactly three Charms representing its advanced or iconic techniques. The basic stuff is already covered by the standard skill and standard Charms.

  For the Charms I’d reuse the “lotus” metaphor, so they would be the Root, Bulb and Blossom Charms. You learn them in this order. Each has the previous one as a prerequisite, and probably an increasing Essence score. They’re meant to be combined with the standard Charms for that skill, relying on them for the basic dice-adding mechanics and such. If you know Charms of multiple styles you can explicitly combine them as long as the combination is otherwise rules-legal.

  Everyone who learns to fight is a martial artist, even if they never pick up style Charms. Every martial artist ultimately develops their own personal style by learning from as many sources as possible and keeping what works for them. And you can certainly describe the way your kung-fu looks as being a certain style even if you don’t have the Charms.

  Example: Snake Style

  I didn’t originally plan on doing this, but what the heck, let’s go! Snake Style has traditionally been the main corebook style, so let’s see how it would look in this format.

  Let’s see what the lore says about it: it’s a style focused on speed and precision, aiming to take down better armed and armored opponents before they have time to act. It uses two-fingered strikes to hit pressure points and exposed tendons. Masters of the style can “pierce through armor”, “paralyze opponents with pressure point strikes”, and “deliver poisonous Essence through their fingertips”.

  The choice of what to keep in our new format is pretty easy - each of the things masters of the style can do references a specific Charm. We want those. All the others increase basic numbers in different ways and can be replaced by standard charms from Brawl and other trees. Want to dodge like a snake? Take Dodge Charms. Want the “tough scales” effect? Take Resistance.

  So our new Snake Style is an unarmed style linked to Brawl. Our Root Charm is Crippling Pressure Point Strike (Ex3 p. 428). Our Bulb Charm is Armor-Penetrating Fang Strike. Our Blossom Charm is Essence Venom Strike. Their skill level and Essence prerequisites remain the same, but read Brawl in place of Martial Arts.

  This is a quick and dirty sketch, and some additional work would be required. Essence Venom Strike needs to be rewritten a bit, since half of its effects reference Charms we’ve eliminated. We might also want to rewrite some of the base Brawl charms, though I haven’t looked at them in much depth.

• Mar 8, 2022

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 2: Wood Woad

  

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

  I think I remember seeing mention of Wood Woads in AD&D somewhere, but I couldn’t find them in my books. This is their 4e debut.

  The Lore

  Wood Woads are fey creatures distantly related to dryads. Like dryads, they devoutly protect the natural environment of their home region. Unlike dryads, they all look male and have absolutely zero chill.

  Not only do wood woads attack would-be despoilers of nature with murderous intent, they tend to blame each new intruder for the crimes of all the previous ones. So even if you’re careful with the environment and try to approach them peacefully, they’ll still try to kill you because some fool cut a tree down years ago and managed to run away.

  Wood woads tend to ally with other sworn protectors of nature, like dryads, centaurs and some elves or other fey. So I guess you could still deal with them peacefully if you manage to approach those allies first and get them to vouch for you, or have them act as intermediaries.

  The Numbers

  We get a single Wood Woad stat block. It’s a Medium Fey Humanoid with the Plant keyword, and a Level 8 Soldier with 92 HP. It has trained Perception, and a ground speed of 5.

  Wood Woads wield wooden shields and clubs. Their basic attack is the club, which does average damage and has no special effects. They can channel magic through it to inflict Nature’s Judgment (recharge 6+, Reliable) on a target. This is an attack that does more damage than the basic club, immobilizes, and inflicts ongoing physical damage on the target. When the target takes this ongoing damage, the closest fey or plant ally of the wood woad heals the same amount of HP.

  The Reliable keyword means this power isn’t used up if the attack misses. The wood woad can keep trying to use it until it hits someone, and only them will it need to make recharge rolls. This attack becomes more useful if all of the wood woad’s allies are either plants or fey.

  Once per encounter it can also curse someone with Nature’s Mystery as a minor action. This inflicts a -2 penalty on all of the target’s attacks, defenses, and saves. The save to end this effect has an additional -5 penalty unless the target can succeed at a DC 20 Nature check before rolling it. Guess this spell has a loophole somewhere.

  This is different from the sphinx ability we saw earlier in this Let’s Read, because no one else can make the Nature test in the target’s place. This makes Nature’s Mystery an excellent ability to use on most defenders, since they tend to have low-to-middling Wisdom and no training in Nature. Wardens are the big exception to this.

  Targets affected by this Nature’s Mystery are also prime targets for Nature’s Judgment. Make sure to surround them with plant and fey monsters after they get hit.

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  We get two sample encounters:

  • Level 8: Two dryads, two vine horror spellfiends, 2 wood woads. Did the vine horror manage to convince the fey it’s part of the local natural environment?

  • Level 9: 1 Gnome Entropist, 1 Satyr Piper, 1 Shambling Mound, 3 Wood Woads. I guess the gnome is a actually a druid using the entropist stat block.

  I like the feel of the mechanics on this one, but the lore is once again a bit uninspiring. It’s another humanoid fey plant that’s fanatical about protecting nature, just like dryads and treants. I guess they can round out the cast when you want to focus a game on a faction of such beings, but we already have a lot of other possible creatures that belong there as well (satyrs, centaurs, elven druids, and so on).

  If you want to use the wood woad stat block but don’t want to say they’re a completely separate species, just say they’re small treants instead.

• Mar 8, 2022

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 2: Winter Wolf

  

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

  The Monster Manual already gave us wolves normal and dire, and it also gave us worgs. Now the Monster Manual 2 continues to climb the wolf power ladder. I first remember seeing Winter Wolves in the 3e monster books, but I’m pretty sure they’ve been around longer than that.

  The Lore

  If I tried to explain how all of these monsters fit together I suppose I’d say it all starts with the Sons of the Spirit Wolf. The Great Spirit Wolf is a godlike primal spirit, and his progeny wander the world forever trying to satisfy their endless hunger. I guess they’re more or less equivalent to the various wolf spirits worshipped by the Uratha from Werewolf: The Forsaken, only not nearly as nice.

  These primal spirits probably had descendants themselves, which would be your “standard” winter wolves. These fit above worgs in the Wolf Power Ladder. They’re a bit smaller than worgs, but are much deadlier, much smarter, and just as evil. They also have ice powers.

  At some point a primordial entity of ice and cold might have taken a look at the Sons of the Spirit Wolf and thought hey, I want me some of that. So it developed a process where it takes the living heart of an elemental blizzard and fashions a Rime Hound out of it. Unlike the creatures they are modeled after, Rime Hounds are entirely made of ice. Their creators give them as gifts to loyal servants and worshippers.

  The Numbers

  All the creatures in this entry are Magical Beasts. Winter wolves are Natural, and the others are Elemental. They all have low-light vision and a ground speed of 8 with Ice Walk, which means they ignore cold-themed difficult terrain. Sons of the Spirit Wolf have Resist Cold 30, all the others have Resist Cold 20.

  Their powers are a combination of the usual wolfy bites and takedowns with a suite of frost breath weapons and the like, but the specifics vary with each stat block. Their Int scores are in the average human range. We’ll look at them by order of level.

  Winter Wolf

  Winter Wolves are Medium, and are Level 14 Skirmishers with 141 HP. They attack with bites that deal bonus cold damage, and deal about double damage to prone targets. They can get people prone with a Takedown, a charge attack that’s stronger than the basic bite and knocks the target prone on a hit.

  If a winter wolf is adjacent to a prone target it can use Drag, an at-will minor action that allows the wolf to shift 1 square and pull the prone victim along with it. It’s more than smart enough to use this to put the victim in a position to be surrounded by its wolf buddies.

  Finally, winter wolves can use a Freezing Breath (recharge 5+), a Close Blast 5 that targets Reflex and deals cold damage (half on a miss). This attack’s damage is smaller than the wolf’s cold resistance, so a pack of winter wolves is going to try to get the party all bunched up and then hit them with multiple blasts.

  Winter Wolf Snowfang

  Snowfangs are Level 16 Lurkers with 124 HP, representing the sort of wily wolf that keeps out of sight and nips at your heels until you’re too weak to fight back. Rather than relying on takedowns, it tries to freeze its victims.

  Their bites do bonus cold damage, and are stronger against victims who are taking ongoing cold damage. Their Frigid Breath works like that of the standard winter wolf with an added ongoing cold damage rider.

  The snowfang’s lurker-y ability is Snow Zephyr, a reaction that triggers when it gets damaged and turns it into a whirlwind of snow. This causes the snowfang to become insubstantial, and to gain the ability to shift its speed as a move action. In this form it can only attack with Frigid Breath, which also causes it to revert to wolf form. It can also revert voluntarily as a minor action.

  These powers allow snowfangs to act as very effective harriers: they charge in, use Freezing Breath, and fight until damaged. Then they shift away in Snow Zephyr form, and vanish for a while. Then they come back, perhaps even still in zephyr form, use Freezing Breath again, and repeat the process. You could use them like this as persistent foes who refuse to have a stand-up fight to the last, and who pop up to make opportunistic attacks in the middle of other encounters.

  Rime Hounds

  These knockoff winter wolves are quite well-made! They’re Huge in size, and are Level 17 Elite Skirmishers with 332 HP. They have the Earth, Cold, and Mount keywords, so they’re appropriate mounts for ice giants!

  They have Reach 2 Bite and Takedown attacks identical to those of a winter wolf, with bigger numbers. They have the same Drag ability as well. Instead of a Freezing Breath, they have Frost Storm, a Close Burst 3 that targets Fortitude and deals cold damage (half on a miss). This creates a zone of frozen difficult terrain that lasts for a turn.

  Finally, their “elite multi-attack” power is actually a reaction: Ice Spikes which extend whenever the hound or its rider are missed by an enemy melee attack. This acts as a free attack on the triggering enemy.

  Son of the Spirit Wolf

  These Large wolfy demigods are Level 26 Elite Skirmishers with 486 HP. Their surrounded by an aura (1) named Everfrost Coat, which deals 10 cold damage to enemies who enter it. Enemies damaged by the aura can’t make opportunity attacks for a turn, which allows this wolf to freely disengage from most PCs.

  Their Reach 2 bites do the usual physical/cold damage mix and grab the target on a hit. They can then use Drag Away to either shift 1 square or move their speed while pulling the victim along. They can also use Rending Jaws (recharge 5+) against the grabbed victim, a much stronger attack than the basic bite that also pushes the target 5 squares and knocks them prone as the wolf ends the grab and flings the victim away.

  There’s nothing in the text forbidding the wolf from using normal bites on other enemies while it has a victim grabbed. You are of course free to forbid it since it only has one mouth… but what if it doesn’t? What if this is a vaguely wolf-shaped ball of dark spirit stuff instead of being just a big wolf? What if it can grow extra mouths to bite people with? Maybe it’s not canon, but it’s metal as fuck.

  Anyway, the thing’s last attack is a Black Ice Breath which is kind of a hybrid between the breaths of the other two varieties: big cold damage in a Close Blast 5, and it leaves a zone of frozen difficult terrain that lasts for the whole encounter. This is an encounter power that recharges when the wolf is first bloodied, just like dragon breath.

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  All the links between the different monsters here are purely my invention. Judging from the descriptions of the book alone, they don’t have anything in common other than being generally wintery and wolfy. The individual stat blocks have good mechanics, though.

  The sample encounter is level 14: a Chillfire Destroyer elemental and a pair of winter wolves being bossed around by a Beholder Eye of Frost.

• Mar 8, 2022

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 2: Witherling

  

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

  Witherlings feel like a new monster to me. They’re certainly new to 4e, making their debut in this book.

  The Lore

  Contrary to popular belief, those deranged cannibals who worship Yeenoghu don’t actually eat everyone they kill. Sometimes they raise their victims as undead abominations. This is a relatively new development, as the technique was only recently handed down from the demon lord to its cultists. They are both a new weapon in the war brewing between Yeenoghu and Orcus, and a way for the former to muscle in on the latter’s territory.

  The process to create a witherling involves replacing the corpse’s head with that of a hyena, and summoning the essence of a demon into the resulting piece of “art”. Gnolls and other Yeenoghu cultists prefer to do this to the corpses of their slain foes, not those of their own side. The result tends to be a lot faster, smarter and more versatile than that of your typical zombie.

  The Numbers

  All witherlings are Natural Animates with the Undead keyword. They have no particular resistances or vulnerabilities. Their signature trait is a lesser form of the gnoll Pack Attack, giving them a +2 damage bonus when two or more of their allies are adjacent to the target.

  Witherling

  The basic model is usually made from the corpse of a Small humanoid like a goblin, kobold, or halfling. It’s a Level 4 Skirmisher with 56 HP and a Speed of 8 (Climb 6).

  Witherling claws are a bit weak, but they slow on a hit (save ends) and the creature can make a Double Attack with them. It also deals extra damage when it has combat advantage. While bloodied, it can use Blood Dance to shift 2 squares instead of 1.

  Its final ability is a Sudden Leap that allows it to jump 4 squares and gain a +5 to AC against opportunity attacks during the jump. If an enemy misses the witherling with an opportunity attack while it’s jumping, the witherling gains combat advantage against that enemy.

  So these things will come at you en masse from the walls and the bottoms of pits, and use Sudden Leap to jump juuust a bit past the PCs and attack them from behind.

  Witherling Death Shrieker

  Made from the corpse of a Medium creature, the Death Shrieker is a Level 5 Controller with 65 HP and the Leader keyword. Its a bit slower with a ground speed of 6 and no climbing ability.

  Its claws are just a typical basic attack, but it shrieks do damage over a wide area (close blast 5). The most common one is the Thunder Shriek, which targets only enemies, does thunder damage, and pushes 2 squares. There’s also the Death Shriek (recharge 5+), which also targets only enemies and does untyped damage. Any undead ally adjacent to an enemy hit by this recovers 5 HP. There’s a note saying allies can only benefit from this once per round, so if you have multiple shriekers they should coordinate and stagger their screams.

  Witherling Horned Terror

  This one is Large, and made from a minotaur. Since Yeenoghu is also locked in eternal battle against Baphomet, they’re more common than you think. Minotaurs of all alignments hate these things, which is perfectly understandable.

  Horned Terrors are Level 8 Brutes with 107 HP and a ground speed of 7. They have a decent Claw attack, and can use their Horns to the same amount of damage and push the target 2 squares. They can also perform a Rampaging Charge (recharge 5+), which uses the horns to attack and allows them to make up to three additional attacks against different targets who happen to be in reach at the end point of the charge.

  Witherling Rabble

  This is a witherling whose creation process glitched out, producing an inferior specimen. I guess they’re stockpiled and sent out as a huge mob against enemies.

  This defective undead has the exact same attacks as a standard witherling, but is a Level 9 Minion Skirmisher.

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  Eh… I guess witherlings are okay mechanically, and they’re a nice addition to a campaign focused on battling Yeenoghu and evil gnolls, but they don’t do much for me personally.

  The sample encounters are different groups of gnolls with witherling support. One of them also has a cambion.

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