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I'm working on a 4E sliver campaign, and one sliver that's giving me some trouble is the Overlord. I was hoping to get some insight on how to make this thing the best that it can be. So, any help would be greatly appreciated.
I haven't fully written it out yet, but a Brood Sliver implants a target with a sliver larva. I figure it'll function similar to the Slaad's chaos phage disease. So, the Overlord's domination ability is completely dependent on a brood sliver implanting a character.
It is quite hard to judge the balance of a level 33 creature as it is really dependant on the group that is going to face it.
Having said that it looks quite nasty in the damage dealing department with its four actions a round. As Chronoplasm has said Sliver Domination is a bit of a wild card because we have no way of knowing who will be implanted.
Specifically I would say that Claws should be changed from a basic melee attack to a standard melee attack. The way it is presented would mean that it gets to make four attacks (split amongst at least two targets) as an opportunity attack. I know you probably mean it to only take one claw strike as an opportunity attack but it simply isn't written that way. The simplest way to get around this is to just seperate it out into two powers.
I am also not quite sure how long Frightful Presence would actual last, is the end of the creatures next turn when it has acted next? If so the PCs arn't going to be stunned very long.
Another critisism I could make is that the creature is probably a bit dull for a level 33 major threat (and possible end boss for the campaign?). Personally I would design the creature to have at least two stages to keep the fight exciting and unpredicatble. I would stat the creature with at least two different stat blocks - one for normal and a different one for when bloodied. I would use this to make the creature radically different as the fight progressed which keeps things fresh and exciting for the players.
Well, it's not intended to be the final boss of the campaign.
That would be the Queen...but I haven't statted her out completely yet.
But, my players are a group of massive min/maxers. So they should be able to hold their own in a fight against the Overlord.
You make a good point though. I was worried about the claws...I'll tone those down a bit.
Should I throw a save ends on the stun?
And if you have any ideas for other abilities that would work for the Overlord, I'd love to hear them. I'm new to homebrewing, so I'm a bit wary of what I should and shouldn't add to a monster.
Well, it's not intended to be the final boss of the campaign.
That would be the Queen...but I haven't statted her out completely yet.
How many PCs and what level will be facing the Overlord?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malignant Mind
And if you have any ideas for other abilities that would work for the Overlord, I'd love to hear them. I'm new to homebrewing, so I'm a bit wary of what I should and shouldn't add to a monster.
I'll see what I can come up with. Personally my campaign is at level 20 at the moment so I havn't got any actual experience of Epic tier play.
If you are new to monster creation you are certainly jumping in at the deep end by design a level 33 solo creature!
I am interested to know how far off this encounter is, game wise (i.e. what level your Pcs are now and the amount of time you estimate it will take them to reach the encounter). I say this because the power level of the PCs jump massively between tiers so it is a little tricky gauging just what PCs are capable of far in advance.
They won't be fighting it until 29 or 30. And the full group is 6 people.
Well, I figured it'd be a good idea to get the hard stuff out of the way first :P
The campaign hasn't started yet, and is still in the developmental stages. But the party is starting to come together...we have a Warforged Warden, a Dragonborn Paladin, a Tiefling Warlock, a Minotaur Barbarian, and a Goblin Sorcerer. Not sure what the last character will be though. And that's just the starting group. Characters may change by then if someone dies and can't/doesn't want to be resurrected.
And my group tends to fully plot out their characters from level 1 to 30 when they make it. Or at least, about half of them do. Give or take.
Plus, the way we do stats, while rather powerful by 4E standards, has helped save the groups lives multiple times in my current game.
Last edited by Malignant Mind; 6th November 2009 at 05:18 AM..
Well if you havn't started the campaign, and when you do will be starting at level 1 with this encounter at level 29 my strong advice would be to not stat the creature yet. In fact leave it for about 28 levels!
It is so far in the future, and so much will happen between levels 1 and 29 that any creature you design now will be significantly different to if you stated it at the right time. Really you will have a much clearer idea of what an appropriate, challanging and fun encounter is for the group closer to the event.
As always my advice is to concentrate on the next session and keep an eye on the tier you are in, with half an eye on overall plot progression into the next tier. The more you design the end of the campaign the more locked in it gets in your mind and the less flexible your plot becomes.
Well the campaign itself is being built from the bottom up. I have a general idea where it's gonna go, but I know my group, and they will attempt to do some of the most random things that can throw off a game for a few sessions, although they are usually hilarious.
For the most part, I'm just trying to get a basic idea of how I want the final encounters to be built, so I'm not stuck trying to do it at the last minute. And with my inexperience with homebrewing, I'd like to get the opinions of people that have done it before, so that I don't end up with a TPK because of some horrible abomination that I've created.
Looking at the Defences they seem a bit high to me. From your stats I would have expected:-
AC: 49 Fortitude: 51; Reflex: 45; Will: 46
The HPs look right (MMII standards)
The damage expressions seem to be in the right area. I am slightly concerned about Overlords Frenzy, but its max damage is less than 2 Claw attacks (of which it can make 4 with the same standard action) so in that way it is balanced.
I am concerned about the amount of actions and therefore damage output the overlord has. 4 turns a round and able to make 5 attack rolls a turn is 20 attack rolls which is sort of the equivalent of 20 standard creatures. The problem I have with this is that I have no experience as to if this is massively overpowered or just tough as my PCs are only level 20. I will have a better grasp of the situation in a couple of months when my group have spent a few levels in Epic tier play.
Like I have already said a big factor is the make up of your group, and their paragon and epic destinies. The bump in power and the actual abilities can have a massive impact on the design of the creatures they face. (especially solo encounters). One thing I have my eye on at the moment is the Epic Destiny powers that rely on you dying, or another member of the group dying. Does that mean that I should be designing encounters where PCs are being killed once every three adventuring days or so, just so that they can use those powers? - only experience from Epic Tier play will guide me.
As another personal example to stress my point, at the end of the Heroic Tier I designed what I thought was an inceadibly tough opponant that stood a real chance of killing a couple of PCs and would at least force them to radically adapt their standard tactics. They faced the creature in the first session when they had reached Paragon Tier, and the Paladin had gained Certain Justice, that single power was so good (and unlike anything they had had before) that it took me completely by surprise and made the encounter increadably easy and almost trivial for them.
I'm surprised Quadrual Action has not been mentioned. That is insanely overpowered. This monster is only going to anger your PCs, not challenge them in a fun way.
__________________ Matt James
Freelance Game Designer Loremaster.org
I'm surprised Quadrual Action has not been mentioned. That is insanely overpowered. This monster is only going to anger your PCs, not challenge them in a fun way.
It has been mentioned.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mesh Hong
I am concerned about the amount of actions and therefore damage output the overlord has. 4 turns a round and able to make 5 attack rolls a turn is 20 attack rolls which is sort of the equivalent of 20 standard creatures.
It is worth remembering that high level solos can be designed to act multiple times in a turn. There is always a question of balance with it though. Tiamat (level 35 solo brute) has 5 actions (each standard and minor) a turn, this is probably the power that the designer used.
As for Tiamat- the difference is that she is acting all in one turn on the initiative order. Acting 5 separate times in a dynamic round? That's overpowered in my humble opinion.
Perhaps it should work more like Tiamat's?
__________________ Matt James
Freelance Game Designer Loremaster.org
As for Tiamat- the difference is that she is acting all in one turn on the initiative order. Acting 5 separate times in a dynamic round? That's overpowered in my humble opinion.
Perhaps it should work more like Tiamat's?
This creature is acting exactly like Tiamat. He has lifted Quadruple Action and Quadruple brain directly from the Tiamat stat block, only changing the wording very slightly.
Thing is, it has to use those limited standard actions as it's move actions too. That may only use up one, maybe two in rare occasions, but it does reduce the amount of attacks.
The damage on the claws could stand to be reduced a bit so I don't end up throwing a wall of dice at someone. I'll change those as soon as possible.
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