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• Jan 19, 2022

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

  

  Sphinxes already made their 4e debut on the Monster Manual, and the MM2 gives us an additional variant.

  The Lore of the Sphinx Mystery

  All sphinxes have a common origin as sacred guardian beasts, as described in the Monster Manual entry, but not all of them are exactly alike. This stat block represents an individual with preferences and abilities different from those of the typical MM1 sphinx.

  All sphinxes have the ability to propose challenges that help separate intruders from visitors who have a right to be at the places they guard. Riddles are a classic but are far from the only option, and the MM1 entry made some effort to stress that part. Here, though, we go the other way.

  The Sphinx Mystery is an individual who’s way into riddles. She doesn’t just use them as her basic authentication scheme: she also uses them as weapons in the middle of an actual fight. She likes riddle games so much that she might just choose to keep playing rather than fighting with lethal intent, if her opponents can keep the game fun for her.

  Intruders who can’t answer those riddles are in real trouble, though, because they do real damage and are as sticky as warlock curses.

  The Numbers

  The Sphinx Mystery is a Level 19 Brute with 224 HP. Despite being a regular, she still has an action point. This might be an editorial error, but it’s fun so I’d keep it. She also has low-light vision, and moves at ground and air speeds of 6.

  Most of her attacks are part of the standard lion beast arsenal. The likely fight-opener is a a Terrifying Roar (encounter) that targets Fortitude, deals thunder damage, pushes 5 squares, and knocks prone. Her basic attack are Ancient Claws that do heavy damage, and she can also use a Bite of Ages that deals light damage, knocks prone, and immobilizes with the weight of history (save ends).

  As a minor action, the Mystery can use Riddle Me This (Ranged 10). This is an at-will ability that represents the sphinx compelling someone to solve a riddle. This “hits” automatically, and dazes the target until the riddle is answered or until the encounter ends. Answering the riddle requires spending a minor action and succeeding at a DC 25 History check. Anyone can attempt the test on their turn, not just the affected PC.

  If the targetted PC doesn’t attempt to solve the riddle on their turn, they take 2d8 psychic damage at the end of that turn. They also take this damage if someone else answers the riddle for them. This damage is light, but about in line with the amount of “traditional” ongoing damage an effect at this level would cause.

  Note that the target will be dazed, which means that if they attempt to answer the riddle, that’s the only thing they can do on their turn. So it might be better to let an unaffected buddy answer it and eat a single instance of that psychic damage.

  The Mystery’s last attack is the amusingly named Corrective Maul, which is a claw attack that does even more damage and recharges whenever anyone fails to answer one of her riddles.

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  The riddle mechanic is awesome! It makes the sphinx very controllery despite her being a Brute. Since the riddle is ranged, you’ll want to delay her entry into melee combat a bit until she can apply it to every PC. As a regular monster, the sphinx will always be found alongside a few buddies, so they can help with that.

  The sample encounter is level 16: 2 nothic cacklers, 2 savage minotaurs, and a sphinx mystery. This is either an evil sphinx running with other assorted marauders, or a more traditional guardian who has managed to recruit several would-be intruders to her service through riddles and bets.

• Jan 16, 2022

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 2: Slaughterstone Construct

  I think Slaughterstone Constructs first appeared on the D&D Miniatures game in late 3e. Their naming style marks them as a construct created after the “(Material) Golem” namespace had been mostly exhausted.

  The Lore

  The approach to an underground dwarf fortress usually consists of a number of narrow tunnels, and that’s where most of the fighting happens when these places are attacked. Tunnel fighting is a nasty affair, particularly when it’s two large armies going at it. No place to run, no place to hide. Each inch of ground is bought with lives, and when you advance you step on the bodies of foe and friend alike.

  Slaughterstone Constructs are the dwarven answer to this problem. They’re defensive siege engines built for the singular purpose of making sure the only ones who die are the invaders. Their intended usage is that you set them loose on a tunel and watch them run through it while turning everyone inside into chunky salsa. Their extreme toughness and strength means not many armies can stand up to them even in a more open field.

  Creating a proper slaughterstone construct is quite difficult. To sculpt the body, you need a solid block of stone upon which the blood of a hero has been shed. Even if you have that stone, only the very best dwarf artificers can turn it into a construct. You’ll only find these things defending the largest and wealthiest dwarven kingdoms, or other places that have good relationships with them.

  Note that the blood requirement doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice a hero on the stone block. You could cut the stone from a cave or tunnel where that hero has fought. Alternatively, if your GM likes this sort of technically correct solution you could get yourself a brand new stone block and ask a certified war hero to prick their finger and let a drop of blood fall on it. Neither of these methods is easy (heroes don’t grow on trees!) but they’re far more ethical than sapient sacrifice.

  If you have neither a master artisan nor a source of heroic blood but you still want your blender tank, you can pay a middling craftsdwarf for a knockoff that’s less reliable but still pretty strong.

  The Numbers

  We get three varieties of slaughterstone constructs here. Two “genuine” models and a knockoff. All of them are Large Natural Animates with the Construct keyword. They have darkvision, a ground speed of 6, and the ability to squeeze into Medium passages without any penalties and without granting combat advantage. They’re immune to poison, disease, and sleep.

  Their Int is 1, the worst possible score, but you don’t need more than that when your only two functions are “walk forward” and “kill”. They probably respond to commands of equivalent complexity like “stop killing” and “go back to your garage”.

  Slaughterstone Eviscerator

  

  Eviscerators are armed with a large number of whirling scythe blades, and look a bit like super-edgy stone mantids. They’re Level 18 Brutes with 212 HP. The blades never stop moving, and to model that they have a Whirling Blades aura (2) that deals 10 damage to anyone caught inside.

  As weapons, those blades are are Reach 2 and have the High Crit property. Their basic attack deals heavy damage to a single target, and they can also be used in a Whirling Bladestorm (recharge 6+) that hits everyone in a Close Burst 2 for average damage. This makes them as dangerous in the open as in a tunnel.

  Slaughterstone Hammerer

  

  These are more robust than eviscerators and mount stone hammers instead of blades. Once they reach you, it’s really hard to get away from them. Hammerers are Level 25 Soldiers with 233 HP.

  They project a Thunder Step aura (2) that slows those caught inside. The hammers can be used in two different attacks: a basic Slam that deals average damage and knocks prone, and a Hammerstrike that deals the same damage and dazes (save ends).

  None of the hammerer’s skills mark enemies, but if you use them properly enemies will have no option but to attack the hammerer anyway.

  Slaughterstone Slicer

  This is our “knockoff”, described as a less powerful version of a genuine eviscerator. It’s a Level 11 Elite Brute with 276 HP.

  Slicers have pretty much the same attacks and traits as eviscerators, with smaller numbers due to the level difference. Their Bladestorm is supposed to be an encounter power that recharges when the slicer is first bloodied, despite the “at-will” tag on it.

  They also have a tendency to malfunction, becoming dazed for a turn after they either deal or take a critical hit.

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  Fourth Edition’s combat rules make these constructs even more dangerous than the lore indicates. Both the lore and the rules say a construct “plugs” a tunnel and prevents enemies from passing through. The rules also say that allies may freely move and attack through each others’ spaces.

  This means slaughterstone constructs pair really well with artillery monsters, and with controllers that have good ranged attacks. They’re also pretty good with skirmishers who can dart forward, attack, and move behind the construct again. Even if they can’t do all that in the same turn, their exposure to the PCs is still reduced.

  Our example encounters are:

  • Level 11: 1 duergar blasphemer, 2 duergar fleshtearers, 1 slaughterstone slicers. Looks like it’s not just dwarves who build these.

  • Level 18: 2 Eldritch Giants, 1 Nothic Mindblight, 2 Slaughterstone Eviscerators. Maybe they conquered a dwarf fortress and stole the constructs?

  • Level 25: 1 Beholder Eye of Chaos, 1 Oni Thunderer, 3 Slaughterstone Hammerers. This is the “strong artillery”, “mobile skirmisher” setup I mentioned, in its epic incarnation. You think you’re safe because the corridor is 6 squares wide, and then you see three constructs side by side blocking all of it.

• Jan 5, 2022

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

  This article is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.

  Slaads already made their 4e debut in the first Monster Manual, and you can check out the post I wrote on them here. This MM2 entry brings us a lower-level, less-popular slaad type and an alternate mechanic for the horrific slaad spawning cycle.

  Flux Slaad

  

  Flux slaads seem to be the runts of the slaad family. They’re weaker and stupider than their relatives, they can’t spawn, and their chaotic mutations are at best a mixed blessing. Still, being weaker actually means they might have an easier time slipping through a dimensional crack into the world, which they love because it allows them to lord it over creatures even weaker than them.

  Flux slaads who slip into the world often end up conquering bullywug tribes and setting themselves up as their god-kings. Finding one of these on the throne instead of the usual “slightly stronger frog-dude” can be an interesting experience for cocky PCs.

  The Numbers

  Flux Slaads are Medium Elemental Humanoids, and Level 9 Skirmishers with 98 HP. They have low-light vision, a ground speed of 7, and a teleport speed of 2.

  They fight with their claws. They can use those in a Flux Rage maneuver that allows them to shift 2 squares and attack everyone they pass by during this movement. This recharges when they’re first bloodied. When they take damage from an attack, they can shift 1 square as a reaction.

  Nothing special so far, but now we come to the part that gives these slaads their names. Slaad Vulnerability Shift should really have a name that includes the word “flux” in it. This trait makes the slaad start out with random vulnerability determined by a d6 roll: (1) cold, (2) fire, (3) lightning, (4) necrotic, (5) psychic, (6) thunder. The slaad has Vulnerability 10 to that damage type, but Resistance 5 to all the other table entries. Every time the slaad takes damage from its current weakness, you roll the die again and determine a new weakness.

  Slaad Spawn

  

  Most slaads reproduce by infecting victims with a disease called Chaos Phage, which causes slad tadpoles to gestate within the victim’s flesh. The tadpole grows and eventually erupts from its host, running away to mature elsewhere. This was covered in the MM entry for Slaads.

  A few of them are instead infected with a mutant strain of chaos phage, which produces embryos in their own flesh. These slaads are covered in gross giant boils that pop when they’re wounded, spawning miniature versions of themselves. These spawn are both almost mindless and extremely aggressive, so they often get used as weapons by their “parents”. Should they survive the circumstances of their birth, the spawn develop quickly and begin exhibiting powers similar to those of an adult within days.

  The Numbers

  Spawn are Small Elemental Humanoids, and Level 17 Minion Skirmishers. They have low-light vision, a running speed of 5, and a teleport speed of 3. They attack with bites and can also pounce using a Chaotic Slam. On a hit, they damage and knock down the target. On a miss, they explode, dealing a bit of damage in a Close Burst 1.

  We also get stats for an elite template named Slaad Spawner, which can be applied to any Large-sized regular slaad. This is turns the slaad into an elite monster, and adds a Spawn Slaad reaction power that creates a new slaad spawn whenever the spawner is hit by an attack. The new spawn appears adjacent to the spawner, and acts right after the spawner’s action. The template is unusual in that it doesn’t add additional HP to the regular monster. It does bring a new minion into play every round, so maybe they thought this was enough to make up for their lower HP. The spawner is worth double the experience of the original slaad, but the spawned minions aren’t worth any.

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  The flux slaad is kinda meh aside from its “weakness roulette” mechanic. The roulette is interesting, but your party needs a lot of damage types (or a lot of lucky d6 rolls) to keep it spinning. Otherwise it’s going to stop on a type they can’t use, which means the slaad becomes resistant to the types they can. At least you can always beat it up using physical damage, which means martial types can end up being more effective against it than the casters.

  Perhaps you could build a “puzzle boss” that had the same mechanic, plus some way for the party to influence the result of the d6 roll.

  Slaad spawn and the Spawner template bring another flavor of body horror to a slaad fight. Since it seems spawn mature even faster than tadpoles, a spawner presents an even nastier apocalyptic scenario than a normal slaad. It also presents the GM with an excuse to throw lots of de-leveled slaads against a heroic tier party, since those could be “immature” slaads that have grown past the spawn stage but not developer all the way yet.

  Our two sample encounters are:

  • Level 8: A death shard, 3 flux slaads, and 2 slaad tadpoles. Likely brought to the world by a small Elemental or Abyssal rift.

  • Level 17: 2 blue slaads, 1 green slaad, 8 slaad spawn. The blues and green are likely minding their little siblings and doing a typical slaad job of it. Note that the spawn are worth XP in this encounter, since they’re not “produced” by an on-site spawner.

• Dec 23, 2021

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

  

  The first Monster Manual already included plenty of skeletons, so this time we just get a couple more of them. The basic lore remains the same and you can see it in the link above.

  Bonecrusher Skeleton

  A Large-sized skeleton that used to belong to an ogre, minotaur, oni, or similar creature. Not having to haul all that flesh around makes it surprisingly fast for its size.

  This is a Large Natural Animate with the Undead keyword, and a Level 7 Soldier with 80 HP. It has all usual skeleton traits: darkvision, immunity to disease and poison, resist 10 necrotic, vulnerable 5 radiant. It runs at speed 8.

  The skeleton wields a Reach 2 greatclub, and it can use it to perform a Crushing Blow (reach 2; recharge 6+) that does more damage and knocks the target prone. Its superb agility is expressed as Threatening Reach 2.

  Skeletal Steed

  A horse skeleton that can act as a fearless and tireless mount, proving that mundane horses truly suck in 4e. Even a dead horse is better mount than a live one.

  Skeletal horses are Level 3 Skirmishers with 47 HP, darkvision, and immunity to disease and poison. They don’t have resistance to necrotic damage or vulnerability to radiant damage. Their ground speed of 8 and their fearless, untiring nature make them highly desired as mounts by people who don’t mind the whole skeleton thing.

  If forced to fight the skeletal steed uses kicks like a normal horse, and they can also perform them as part of a Mobile Melee Attack. You know the drill on this one: the steed moves its speed, makes an attack at any point along the way, and doesn’t draw opportunity attacks. It can also emit a Death Shriek (fear; close burst 3; recharge 5+) that does no damage and inflicts a -2 attack penalty (save ends).

  When used as a mount, the steed allows its rider to join in on the Mobile Melee Attack. Either the rider makes a basic attack while still allowing the steed to kick, or the steed gives up its attack to allow the rider to use a non-basic power.

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  These new skeleton types rise in much the same way as the other ones. Most often it’s because a necromancer intentionally animates them, but sometimes a freak accident with necrotic energy can cause them to rise up as well. In such cases, skeletal steeds tend to rise along with their former riders.

  We get two sample encounters here:

  • Level 5: 1 deathlock wight and 2 standard wights riding skeletal steeds. Ancient horsemen riding again.

  • Level 6: 1 orc eye of Gruumsh plus a zombie hulk and three bonecrusher skeletons. Orc necromancer and his undead ogres.

• Dec 17, 2021

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

  

  This article is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.

  Sharks are are real-world animals, and this Monster Manual 2 entry is their debut on D&D Fourth Edition. The Sahuagin entry from the first Monster Manual mentioned them a lot but that book didn’t have shark stats. The Monster Vault did have them, and we already looked at its take on sharks in the post linked above.

  There are many species of real-world sharks, with very varied looks and behavior. Rather than worry about any of that, the Monster Manual 2 gives us a fantastic species based on our worst fears about sharks. Witness the horrible might of the Fleshtearer Shark, the bullete of the sea!

  The Lore

  Fleshtearer sharks seem to be kinda modeled on the shark from Jaws. They’re big, they’re stupid, they’ll try to eat anything they can bite, and that can include boats. These sharks can thrive anywhere, I do mean anywhere: not only can you find them in oceans of any temperature, they sometimes live in rivers and lakes and even swim in the Underdark.

  Fleshtearers can live for hundreds of years and never stop growing, which can make those subterranean sharks even larger and stronger than the typical specimen presented in this entry.

  Sahuagin and kuo-toa usually steer clear of fleshtearer sharks because they’re too dangerous to tame, but sometimes a heroic trainer among them will manage the feat. In this case, the “tame” flesh-tearer is used in raids against large ships, eating anyone who falls overboard and biting holes in the hull.

  The Numbers

  Fleshtearer sharks are Large Natural Beasts with the Aquatic keyword. They’re Level 10 Brutes with 128 HP and low-light vision. They swim at speed 8, but can only flop around at speed 1 on land.

  The Aquatic keyword gives the shark a +2 attack bonus against non-aquatic opponents when both are in water, and it also has a custom Waterborne trait that stacks a +2 damage bonus on top of that.

  Their basic attack is of course a Bite, but they also have several special maneuvers. Lockjaw Charge is a charge attack that also grabs the target. Grabbed targets are vulnerable to the shark’s shredding teeth, which always hit and deal heavy damage.

  The shark has no special ability to pull a grabbed victim along when it moves, so it must use the standard rules for doing that (opposed Strength tests). It can also choose to stay in place while it chews into the victim with Shredding Teeth.

  A fleshtearer shark will lurk out of detection range until it picks a target (the tastiest-looking PC). It will then use Lockjaw charge on them, relying on its toughness to weather any opportunity attacks. It will probably release the grab and swim away for another pass rather than getting pinned down by the other PCs, but it’s too obstinate to run and usually fights to the death.

  The shark’s bloodlust often gets in the way of those tactics, which is represented by a trait named Feeding Frenzy. When the shark starts its turn within 5 squares of a bloodied creature, it must make a bite attack against a creature adjacent to itself, which will also make it release a grabbed victim if it has one. “Creature” here means both allies and enemies can trigger the effect and be valid targets for the bite attack. Even a “tame” shark is dangerous to its allies.

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  It’s a movie shark, doing movie shark things. If you’re adventuring on or under water, you might run into it, otherwise it won’t usually impact your adventuring life.

  You can make them Huge and level them up to represent Underdark sharks, in which case they might make good thralls for Aboleths and for Mind Flayers who want to fight Aboleths.

  We get one sample encounter here:

  • Level 10: 2 fleshtearer sharks, 1 sahuagin baron, 2 sahuagin priests. This is likely the “command squad” for a bigger raid against a large ship or coastal village. They’d stay a bit further away from the front lines, and engaging them might be necessary to end the raid.

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