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axelsoar posted:I am not sure if this is the thread for this, but would this be the place to run home-brew monsters past people? Sure!
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Nov 20, 2014 18:45
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| # ? May 8, 2024 23:55 |
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Ok then, for context, this guy is meant to be shortly reoccurring antagonist for the party to deal with. The party ranges from evil to unlalligned, and all take place in what is the D&D equivalent of Smash TV. This guy is gonna be a smug do-gooder who the crowd loves. I am afraid that the +2 AC from being a soldier mixed with his aura may make him frustrating to hit, but I really want to give him flavorful paladiny so-self-righteous-it-hurts abilities.
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Nov 20, 2014 18:58
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I think that abilities that heal the enemy are not interesting to the players (unless there is a way to prevent them) and just make the fight last longer. Rebuke is literally the only thing interesting about this opponent, and maybe his aura if his allies have ways to push ranged PCs into it.
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Nov 20, 2014 19:07
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First off, be prepared for this guy to get creamed. As soon as a party smells the barest whiff of "recurring" they're going to drop dailies as fast as they can to murder him. Just letting him run away at 0 is going to feel really cheap unless that's the general tone of the game already, but you can soften the blow a bit if you hand them a major victory at the same time. Instead of -hit, maybe have the aura give them a couple points of radiant vulnerability. It's not quite as drastic, but it also doesn't slow the game to a crawl. It also doesn't look like he's an elite or solo. Was that intentional? What's the rest of the encounter look like?
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Nov 20, 2014 19:19
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axelsoar posted:Ok then, for context, this guy is meant to be shortly reoccurring antagonist for the party to deal with. The party ranges from evil to unlalligned, and all take place in what is the D&D equivalent of Smash TV. This guy is gonna be a smug do-gooder who the crowd loves. This guy does almost nothing but make fights take longer and make people playing melee wish they had rolled anything else, with no countermeasure, while ranged attackers will destroy him with little difficulty. The mark makes little difference because the people getting up in his grill will not care about being marked by him, especially if he is doing AOE heals. He's also got way too many tricks for a standard monster who is probably not going to endure three rounds of combat. I would get rid of his aura and his crit bonus, and probably just go with the rest of his powers. If you want the 5 temp hp from his AOE to matter you should probably make it a burst, not a blast.
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Nov 20, 2014 19:28
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Here is another whack at this guy, removing the healing from his moves and replacing crowd favorite entirely. Yes, being a standard monster is intentional. He is meant to be in a encounter with other gladiators, the party should be level 3 and 4 players strong when they fight him for real. He will be accompanied with an artillery spellcaster, A melee brute and a yet undecided 4th combatant, all of which will be level 3. I am considering making him an elite and dropping the 4th guy.
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Nov 20, 2014 19:31
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axelsoar posted:Here is another whack at this guy, removing the healing from his moves and replacing crowd favorite entirely. His radiant powers will be scarier if you go with the radiant vulnerability aura, though.
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Nov 20, 2014 19:41
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homullus posted:His radiant powers will be scarier if you go with the radiant vulnerability aura, though. Maybe pair him with a radiant caster to make him more of a threatening target just by existing.
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Nov 20, 2014 19:44
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homullus posted:His radiant powers will be scarier if you go with the radiant vulnerability aura, though. I'd sooner just give him nastier damage if that's the intention. Harder to forget that way.
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Nov 20, 2014 19:46
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Gort posted:I'd sooner just give him nastier damage if that's the intention. Harder to forget that way. If the goal is only doing more damage, totally. If the goal is doing more damage with a tactical feature the players can try to mitigate with forced movement and/or their own mobility powers, the aura's better.
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Nov 20, 2014 19:49
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axelsoar posted:I am considering making him an elite and dropping the 4th guy. It's been a while since I've played 4e, but my gut says you should probably switch the zone to EoNT instead of EoE if it's a recharge power. Plus you'd get to eliminate a bunch of wording. And yeah, I'd still recommend some kind of radiant vulnerability here, whether on the zone or the aura. Yeah, it's more to keep track of, but it adds a little more strategy and interaction between his powers. Bonus points if you the other enemies have some radiant powers as well to play off of it (he is a Leader after all).
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Nov 20, 2014 19:49
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edit: ok, I am redesigning him as an elite and will show him alongside his retinue when I am ready to run him past you guys again, thanks very much for the feedback.
Ash Rose fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Nov 20, 2014 |
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Nov 20, 2014 19:50
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Ok, I think I have at least captured what I want this encounter to look like now. Tactics: Beryl does his best to be in the middle of the party, marking the most dangerous looking people and blasting people with his encounter whenever it is available. The Invoker keeps its distance as it blasts people in Beryl's aura with its ranged attack, using Get Thee Hence if it is in a bad situation. The Tosser makes a beeline for anyone in the back trying to snipe or anyone making a run for the invoker, and grabs them and tosses them directly next to Beryl. Player Countermeasures: Stay loosely grouped as to avoid masses of people getting hit with judgement, tie the dwarf down with a defender or controller and gib the invoker asap. I changed up crumbling facade to also trigger if Beryl is all that is left to help the fight end quicker, let me know what you guys think.
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Nov 20, 2014 20:49
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axelsoar posted:edit: ok, I am redesigning him as an elite and will show him alongside his retinue when I am ready to run him past you guys again, thanks very much for the feedback. Generally speaking I will always make a character with a name at least an elite. The very fact that you are planning this fight instead of just going "OK, three skirmishers and two artillery, roughly the right level, FIGHT!" means that you'll probably have a pretty good fight for your players.
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Nov 20, 2014 20:58
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Gort posted:Generally speaking I will always make a character with a name at least an elite. That is probably a good rule of thumb, I think I spent too much time looking at official 4e adventures where they model bosses as standard monsters that are higher level.
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Nov 20, 2014 21:00
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Gort posted:"OK, three skirmishers and two artillery, roughly the right level, FIGHT!" But yeah axel, that looks like a solid encounter. My only concern is that it's really only doing 3 hits per round unless the AoE recharges. Unless I'm mathing wrong from what you've said it looks like this isn't even a Hard encounter. If that's about what's been challenging for your party you're set. But since it looks like you're trying to make this more of a (mid?)boss battle, if they've been blasting through similar fights you might want to sprinkle in a few minions (summoned radiant wisps?) or some kind of environmental challenge (paladin's fans in the stands use mirrors to reflect radiant damage at random squares every round?). Or hell, you could probably add that other standard back in.
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Nov 20, 2014 21:25
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One very minor point: you do know Beryl is a girls' name, right?
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Nov 21, 2014 10:08
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thespaceinvader posted:One very minor point: you do know Beryl is a girls' name, right? History 15 check for the player's to realize, anyone can then use Minor action to taunt the poo poo out of Beryl, causes -1 morale penalty to attack rolls. That's what I'd do.  In other news: campaign is moving along smoothly, so it's about time I introduced the big bad(s). The players don't necessarily know it's gonna be the end boss, of course. I already know what roll they are going to play, but I'm not too sure about the exact monster to base them on. Here's my main villains and what I imagined them to be like: - A huge Warforged, who is meant to use his Herculean strength to literally level the battlefield. He's basically meant to be the Hulk. He causes huge shockwaves by punching/jumping, he tears parts of the arena out of the earth to create blockades and/or pitfalls. Since he's meant to shape the earth, I wanted to base him on Ogremoch from MM3, scaled down to about level 20, and minus the petrification abilities. Also, he needs to have a huge jump move, which causes any of Ogremoch's many shockwave attacks. So far, so good... - A wrestler, who does the most ridiculous wrestling moves and is pretty much a jackass all around. I admit, I'm drawing a blank on this one; I thought of using that brawler-type Orc from Manual of the Planes (I think?), whose main deal is dazing people and throwing them into each other. Alternatively, since it's come up recently, how about a generic lv.17/18 baddie with Brawler fighter powers, according to the DMG rules for monsters with powers? Anybody got experience with those things? - Aaaaaand, finally, a Warlord-type who does absolutely no work himself. He's meant to be a strategic genius who is rather frail/defenseless on his own. He'll be surrounded by some hardcore soldiers while he commands masses of brutes and minions, and he's meant to heavily use Diplomacy and roleplaying shenanigans against the players. Basically, I haven't found any leader-type monsters yet who are completely devoted to commanding big groups of minions; again, I guess I could use several Warlord powers and slap those on a blank lv.15/16 dude... Any ideas? So far, I'm at "Ogremoch knockoff with jump", "Bareknuckle Orc with Brawler Fighter powers" and "Generic Dude with Warlord Powers"... They're meant for about 4 people, mostly Strikers.
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Nov 21, 2014 13:37
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Torquemadras posted:History 15 check for the player's to realize, anyone can then use Minor action to taunt the poo poo out of Beryl, causes -1 morale penalty to attack rolls. That's what I'd do. That is so in line with the tone of the game I might just have to use it.
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Nov 21, 2014 18:06
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So uh, latest problem, I can't seem to import stuff using the masterplan plugin, I use the exact same username and password for DDI and it works fine on their website, but the plugin does not seem to recognize it. Is the plugin in the OP out of date?
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Nov 22, 2014 18:49
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Yeah, it looks like it. Seems like the code is still using the old URL, which hasn't been updated to the new URL.
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Nov 22, 2014 18:54
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I'm trying to come up with a fun solo for the final fight of the current campaign that won't be completely invalidated by the party's two controllers. Is there any precedence for a creature with multiple minds in a single body? I'm pretty sure that would work out fine for dazing/stunning (you could stun the mage brain but leave the fighter brain unimpaired) but I'm not sure how that would work with marks. Has anyone done anything similar?
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Nov 25, 2014 20:24
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Ettins. Various forms of solo have multiple turns/initiatives/ways to limit the impact of control/status effects. Look up Calastryx from (I think) Nentir Vale. I toned that fucker DOWN for LFR play because it was hideously vicious. Typically, but not always, the mark would affect both turns though.
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Nov 25, 2014 20:27
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Calastryx just has all marks/dazes/stuns flat out end at the end of each of it's individual turns. Though there's another version which has the clunkier "each head is marked separately but one daze effects everything"
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Nov 25, 2014 21:17
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If you're feeling lazy, just reskin a dragon from the Monster Vault. You don't want to know how many of my solo fights were reskinned or slightly modified dragons. On one occasion, I reskinned a dragon as another dragon. Twice. For the same fight. (It was a 'three phase fight' thing, which is the best way to do solos.) Edit: Bold for emphasis. The pre-Vault solos are hot garbage.
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Nov 25, 2014 22:33
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Poison Mushroom posted:If you're feeling lazy, just reskin a dragon from the Monster Vault. You don't want to know how many of my solo fights were reskinned or slightly modified dragons. Did that change dragons or are they still all the boring claw/tail/claw and tail/breath creatures?
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Nov 26, 2014 19:34
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Dragons have different tricks and fulfill different roles as solos depending on color. All post-Monster Vault dragons have strong but not too bullshit methods of negating dazing and stunning. Essentially, the dragon gets an extra attack each round unless you stunned/dazed it, in which case it shucks off that condition instead of making an additional attack. This is as opposed to some monsters who save against every condition in the game (including marks) at the beginning and end of their turns, or who outright ignore all mark penalties and procs, and other annoying bullshit that usually comes up in epic.
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Nov 26, 2014 20:06
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MM3 has a few pretty good dragons that all get an aura which expands over three turns and then explodes into an area attack. They make for a fun additional positioning tactics element.
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Nov 26, 2014 22:06
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It's still worth giving your solo monster a bunch of friends, such as respawning minions, for example, to spread the hurt around. Even MV solos aren't at their best if fought alone.
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Nov 26, 2014 22:12
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djw175 posted:Did that change dragons or are they still all the boring claw/tail/claw and tail/breath creatures? The easy way to answer that is to show you the Red Dragon from the Monster Vault previews. The tail attack is a reaction. Note the Instinctive Assault and the Bloodied Breath features.
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Nov 26, 2014 22:27
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So I got thinking that it would be rather interesting to play Ghirahim from Skyward Sword. Following is in spoilers in case anyone actually cares about those for a Zelda game that has been out for a good while now: That is, an intelligent artifact who is trying to revive their former wielder. Whether that is a hero or a villain is up to player discretion! I'm thinking +Charisma because sheer force of personality required to create a body for itself and choice of +Dex or +Con to reflect what sort of weapon they were. Finesse or a more heavy type of weapon. Though strength may be more appropriate? I dunno. For racial powers, not much in the way is misc. bonuses because their active would be quite good: Turning back into artifact weapon form. They'd be a weapon that is one tier above what inherit bonuses would give, along with an enchantment of their choice, so long as it would be available at their character level. They would have a set of leader powers they could use on their wielder, one for standard, move, and minor. I dunno if they should be at-will, encounter, daily, or a mix thereof. The powers themselves ought to be distinct to the character, though I could certainly come up with a few generic ones. Thoughts on this? Overly complex? Would it be too good, too weak?
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Nov 30, 2014 18:55
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If I were DMing and you were willing to put the work in, I think it's a neat concept, though playing an intelligent weapon is one of my favourites. I've went for the "the weapon is the character and the stats reflect that, the weilder is just some schlub kid/prince/hireling" I'd be hesitant to give you a whole suite of powers like that since if it just replaced your class, then whats the point? I'd make the racial just be the bonus and let you use your class powers as normal. (Essentialy granting the wielder extra attacks magic shockwaves etc if you aren't a leader type, for example.)
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Nov 30, 2014 19:04
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Prison Warden posted:If I were DMing and you were willing to put the work in, I think it's a neat concept, though playing an intelligent weapon is one of my favourites. I've went for the "the weapon is the character and the stats reflect that, the weilder is just some schlub kid/prince/hireling" The idea was to let it offer versatility. Giving you access to a suite of leader powers when you choose to take a more passive role. Though certainly, normal access to all your usual class powers could work just as well. It would probably be easier to handle, so I think I'd probably favor that more ultimately. Perhaps with one additional thematically appropriate power tossed in. Yeah, the easier route would be to just have a wielder whose class levels are basically on loan from you. But I think the route where you have a bit more self agency akin to Ghirahim is interesting as well.
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Nov 30, 2014 19:15
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One thing we had a lot of success with in 4e for that kind of character who has two modes is just to make two character sheets from scratch - don't try and link the two, just manage the switching modes outside the game mechanics. This worked great for a warforged cavalier / avenger and for a shifter druid / scout at the table.
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Dec 1, 2014 02:26
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If I wanted to do some play-by-post with my group, where's a good private forum for that sorta thing? We're all so busy so getting in some minor sidequests and the like between sessions would be neat.
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Dec 1, 2014 22:02
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I wonder if it's ever kosher to take mechanical elements away from a character for a period. My party's in the Feywild, they have an Assassin, and there's a gnome in the Monster Vault whose gimmicks are Shadow Step and Shade Form, lifted wholesale from the Assassin's class description. I'd really like to spin this into a situation like "that dickhead gnome stole Dave's shadow and is running around with it causing havoc, better get it back" instead of "he is [class] so he can do [class feature]" which is boring, but for obvious reasons, I strongly hesitate. Probably should just talk to that player and if it's alright with him, it'll at least still be a surprise for the other five. Maybe offer him a temporary benefit.
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Dec 3, 2014 11:58
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Ask the player. If the DM arbitrarily took away some of my features I would be pissed (depending on the features, I'd definitely be pissed if the main damage feature was taken, I might be ok for minor ones). Other people don't mind at all. Doesn't matter what we will tell you here.
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Dec 3, 2014 13:21
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To be honest, sometimes I just need an excuse to write down my vague ideas concisely. Usually I realize halfway through that I've actually got it all worked out, sometimes I hit Post.  Anyway he's fine with it and I'm throwing in a magic item as a reward to sweeten the deal.
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Dec 3, 2014 13:28
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My Lovely Horse posted:To be honest, sometimes I just need an excuse to write down my vague ideas concisely. Usually I realize halfway through that I've actually got it all worked out, sometimes I hit Post. You always want to ask for stuff like this if it's going to actually last for any relevant length of time, but yeah. Sweet loot generally makes up for many wrongs.
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Dec 3, 2014 14:00
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| # ? May 8, 2024 23:55 |
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It's more fun if you have the assassin player and the gnome recognize they are both assassins on sight and build something interesting on that, as opposed to arbitrarily gimping a player because it's "interesting." Your player will not be as interested as you are.
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Dec 4, 2014 05:25
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