Wazir Ghul Khota, the leper dragon

[RangerWickett]

I'm planning Tuesday's game session, where the PCs will be trying to rescue priestess being kept hostage by a leper dragon necromancer. I've been reading the comments on the variant solo design thread, and here's what I've come up with.

The party is 12th level, and I'm shooting for a level 15 encounter. The dragon is sunbathing atop a pile of bones at the top of a canyon, with a few of his minions keeping watch for him. The sun soothes his leprous curse.

The location I have in mind is where two rivers meet up, so there are five main zones of the fight: the rivers, the banks around them, and three sections of ground forty feet up the canyon walls. They're taking rafts to reach the dragon, and I suspect they'll climb up to fight him on the high ground. He'll try to keep his distance (which won't work against my party's archer and agile barbarian), and when he goes down to 3/4 max HP, his wings will tear free (leper, remember) and he'll dive into the river.

The PCs will have to scramble to get back to their rafts to chase him through the rapids as he tries to get to his lair, where the priestess is being watched by his undead creations. There'll be a bit of fighting in the water, and when the dragon gets to 1/2 HP they'll reach his lair.

Ghul Khota's lair is an area caustic chemicals and hot spring geysers, with a side stream from the river flowing through it. Here he'll fight to the end if necessary, though when he hits 1/4 max HP, one of his forelimbs will fall off, and at 0 HP, he'll lose his head.

Sound good? Here are the stats:

Wazir Ghul Khota
Large Level 12 Solo Artillery/Skirmisher
He wears tons of charms and magical adornments. He chants for his sun magic. Personality like Danny DeVito, self-loathing but also vindictive.
Speed 8, swim 8, fly 8 (clumsy).
HP 620. Healing Surges 2. Bloodied 310. Surge Value 155.
AC 28; Fort 23; Ref 25; Will 28.
Resist 10 necrotic. Saves +5, see Unphaseable. Action Points 2.

• Bite reach 2, +17 vs. AC; 2d10+6, and ongoing 10 necrotic and weakened (save ends).
• Claw +17 vs. AC; 1d8+6, and the target contracts djinni’s leprosy (reskinned Mummy Rot 13).
• Tail Snatch immediate reaction when enemy within 2 attacks him, +15 vs. Fort, 1d8+6. Wazir shifts 1, then pull target adjacent. Secondary attack +15 vs. Ref. Target is grabbed until escape.
• Double Attack two claws and a bite against at least two different targets.
• Flyby Attack recharge 5-6, move speed and make a bite at any point during.
• Black Lightning Breath recharge 5-6, close blast 5, +15 vs. Ref, 4d8+5 and ongoing 10 necrotic and weakened (save ends). After effect, ongoing 5 necrotic (save ends).
• Blinding Light of Heaven at-will, ranged 20, +15 vs. Will, 1d8+6 radiant and blinded until end of dragon’s next turn.
• Lord Necromancer at-will, minor. Creates an undead minion within burst 10. See undead minions, below.
• Desert Madness encounter, burst 2 within 20, +15 vs. Will, 1d8+6 psychic, slide 3, and force a basic attack against a target of the dragon’s choice.
• Bloodied Breath recharges and uses immediately when bloodied.
• Frightful Presence encounter,close blast 5, +15 vs. Will, target is stunned until end of dragon’s next turn. After effect, -2 to attack rolls (save ends).
• Unphaseable at-will, free action at start of turn. Wazir makes a save against one condition either that a save can end, or that lasts for a turn.
• Leprous Woe At the beginning of Wazir's turn, if he has 465 hp or fewer, his wings tear free. At 310 or fewer, Wazir loses his tail. At 155, a forelimb rips off. When this effect triggers, any marks on Wazir transfer to the lost limbs, which become the following creatures.

Leprous Wings. (Reskinned wyvern) 106 hp. AC 24, Fort 24, Ref 20, Will 19. Speed fly 8 (hover). Large.
Clawed Buffet. +15 vs. AC. 1d6+7 and knock prone. Can flyby attack.
Wrapping Rot. +15 vs. AC. 1d6+4 and secondary. +13 vs. Fort. Ongoing 10 necrotic.

Crushing Tail. (Reskinned crushgrip constrictor) 96 hp. AC 25, Fort 25, Ref 22, Will 22. Speed 6, swim 6. Large.
Raking Bones. +15 vs. AC. 1d10+6 and grab (until escape).
Constrict. +13 vs. Fort. 2d6+12 and dazed until end of tail’s next turn.


Vengeful Claw. (Custom) 83 hp. AC 24, Fort 20, Ref 22, Will 19. Speed fly 6 (hover).
Blinding Light of Heaven at-will, ranged 20, +15 vs. Will, 1d8+6 and blinded until end of claw’s next turn.
Accursed Touch. +17 vs. AC. 1d8+6, inflicts djinni’s leprosy, and lose a healing surge. With combat advantage, it also counts as one failed death saving throw.


Minions and allies to follow.

 

[RangerWickett]

At the bone pile where he sunbathes, he has a few leprous guardians to warn him.

Skeleton minions with scimitars. (Created by Lord Necromancer power.) 16 hp*. Speed 6. AC 27, Fort 23, Ref 22, Will 22. Resist 10 necrotic. Vulnerable 5 radiant. +16 vs. AC, 9 dmg. Flank and aid liberally.


* We use a variant minion rule where minions have a small amount of HP, but I never actually track minion HP. If an attack deals enough to kill the minion in one hit, it dies. If it deals enough to bloody it, it becomes 'bloodied.' If it doesn't bloody it, I ignore the damage. However, if a bloodied minion takes any damage, it dies. It works well for us.



Leper giants (x2). (Reskinned foulspawn hulks) 150 hp. AC 24, Fort 27 (29 when bloodied), Ref 22, Will 22. Speed 8.
Large. Immune fear.
Slam. Reach 2. +15 vs. AC. 2d8+7, or 3d8+9 while bloodied.

Bitzenhoff, Wayfarer Leper. (Reskinned foulspawn seer) 86 hp. AC 24, Fort 19, Ref 23, Will 21. Speed 6, teleport 3.
Aura 10 allies get +2 to one attack, check, or save per turn.
Twisted Staff. +14 vs. AC. 1d8+6 and push 1.
Warp Orb. Ranged 10. +16 vs. Ref. 1d8+6 and daze (save ends).
Portal. Minor. Ranged 10. Create a blue or orange portal (replacing any existing one of the same type). Creatures entering one square end up in the other.
Force Slam. Recharge 5-6.Ranged 10. +16 vs. Fort. 1d8+6 force and slide 5.
Defensive Jaunt. Recharge 5-6. Interrupt. Teleport 3 squares.


At his lair, he has 16 skeletal minions keeping guard on the priestess, plus one of those nifty four-armed skeletal brutes who commands the mini-legion. There will be plenty of mildly hazardous terrain -- acid pools, a handful of small geysers that go off intermittently, and a big bubbling spring that they can trigger into a geyser.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Looks like a really good encounter.

I especially like the way that the dragons limbs get detached and become creatures in their own right.

From my first read through nothing stood out as seeming "wrong", it reads like it will be an exciting and dynamic combat.

Good stuff.

 

[Elric]

[*]Unphaseable at-will, free action at start of turn. Wazir makes a save against one condition either that a save can end, or that lasts for a turn.

Looks good. Unphaseable shouldn’t be a free action; it should be no-action. Otherwise, it can’t be used against stuns. I would specifically exclude this from working against marks; otherwise you weaken one-round mark defenders (fighters/wardens).

By “condition” do you mean “effect in general” or “condition as defined on page 277 of the PH”? Either one could work, but the former is clearly broader.

Given the overall strength of this solo, and the relative lack of status effects players can inflict at level 12 compared to higher Paragon levels, this ability might be too strong. Maybe don’t give him the +5 bonus to saves when he uses it.

In general, he seems too strong to be a level 12 solo. This isn’t necessarily a problem, because you’re building an encounter for a certain difficulty level based on your party, but if in doing so you underestimate his strength, the party could be in for a rough fight.

I assume that as he loses body parts you’re decreasing his abilities to match (losing his Tail= no Tail Snatch). Still, this gives him many more effective HP that the party needs to go through to put down his offensive capabilities. On top of his good offense, high HP, and strong defenses, this is too much. I’d go with the MM2 design guidelines (see http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/256505-monster-manual-2-elite-solo-design.html) and drop his HP to 496, drop AC to 26, Reflex to 23, and Will to 26.

 

[Mesh Hong]

I recently used a level 17 solo that had an ability where as a minor action it could deal itself 30 damage and remove any one status effect. It worked really well, of course the turn it was stunned it couldn't do anything as it couldn't use a minor action but otherwise it was able to use the power about 4 times during the encounter.

Of course it helps that I don't have a wizard in my party, so I didn't have to contend with stun locking.

 

[the Jester]

Looks good- both a fun monster (and I think the detaching body part monsters are a nice touch, albeit maybe too Shogun Warriors/video gamey for some groups), and a fun encounter setup with cool terrain use.

Edit: That said, his hit points seem a little high- as a 12th level solo, he should have 4*(104+con) hps. He actually has 620 hps; a little math says his con ought to come out to about 51 (!). Is this intentional- you didn't post his ability scores- or is it a variation from the formulae? (I do that all the time, and more and more as I use the game in play more.)

 

[chronoplasm]

I think it might be easier to handle Leprous Woe in a way similar to the Skull King from the MM.
When the dragon is reduced to 0 hit points, it sheds one of its body points to retrn to full HP and spawn an enemy for the party to fight.

 

[RangerWickett]

Looks good- both a fun monster (and I think the detaching body part monsters are a nice touch, albeit maybe too Shogun Warriors/video gamey for some groups), and a fun encounter setup with cool terrain use.

Edit: That said, his hit points seem a little high- as a 12th level solo, he should have 4*(104+con) hps. He actually has 620 hps; a little math says his con ought to come out to about 51 (!). Is this intentional- you didn't post his ability scores- or is it a variation from the formulae? (I do that all the time, and more and more as I use the game in play more.)

Normal paragon solo design says to quintuple HP instead of quadruple, but they seem to be reversing that in MM2, so I'm going to lower his hp and defenses a bit. I'm also grabbing Mesh Hong's ability to deal damage to himself to shed conditions; it fits a necromancer, in my mind, to have him channel bad stuff into a piece of his body, and then to have that body part fall off so the rest of him is unaffected.

 

[Greatwyrm]

It would be an honor to have a character or two slaughtered by your dragons.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Normal paragon solo design says to quintuple HP instead of quadruple, but they seem to be reversing that in MM2, so I'm going to lower his hp and defenses a bit.

Personally I am still in two minds over reducing Solo's HPs. The last solo encounter I ran was a level 17 brute, by the MM1 rules it should have had about 825 HPs, I changed it to 1000 HPs and it worked out just about perfect.

I suppose it all depends on the size and composition of your group, I have 6 PCs: 3 strikers, 2 leaders and a defender so in my case a solo should have one more standard creatures HPs to keep it in line with the party. I am all for reducing the grind in combat, but for my group any potencial grind doesn't come from a slab of HPs it would come from a badly designed encounter.

In your case you have designed an excciting and dynamic encounter that is spread across many locations. I really don't think your players will notice any grind from the creature having more HPs, in fact I think it will add to the excitement and make sure that a couple of crits don't drastically shorten any one section.