Question about Black Dragon

invokethehojo · May 14, 2008

I'm about to run my first 4e game and I'm using a modified Nightscale from the "Raiders of Oakhurst" adventure. I remember reading that solo monsters are designed to fight (or feel like fighting) a group of monsters.

My question is: he has several at will melee abilities, can I only use one per round like a regular monster, or am I supposed to use more than one if able. (the one claw and two claw attacks confused me)

rkanodia · May 14, 2008

He still only gets a Minor Action, Move Action, and Standard Action on his turn.

The double claw ability is better than the single claw ability; when you're going to attack in melee, that's the one to use. The reason that he has the single claw ability is that it is a 'basic' attack, which means he can use it when a PC gives him the chance to make an Opportunity Attack. The double claw isn't 'basic', so it can't be used for OAs.

Boarstorm · May 14, 2008

I'd like to add to rkanodia's post the following:

The solo's ability to "feel" like several monsters lies in his use of interrupts and reaction abilities, so despite only getting one turn, he's often harassing the PCs on their turns as well.

invokethehojo · May 14, 2008

thank you sir, my PC's will live much longer because of you

Blackbrrd · May 14, 2008

It says what kind of action you expend when you use it. For instance the double claw attack is a standard action. You have one standard, move, minor and immediate*** action each round.

I ran the dragon against a party of three, so I reduced the hp to 125*, reduced defenses by 4**, and removed the two last abilities. It was a good fight, but I could have made it harder. It lasted long enough and the players where satisfied.

* HP as a elite in other words
** actually ac by 6 because I had three characters with attacks targetting ac, and it's craptasticly boring waiting for a player to roll an 18 to hit the thing.
*** An ability has to trigger this, but you only get one immediate action each round anyhow.

malraux · May 14, 2008

invokethehojo said:
I'm about to run my first 4e game and I'm using a modified Nightscale from the "Raiders of Oakhurst" adventure. I remember reading that solo monsters are designed to fight (or feel like fighting) a group of monsters.

My question is: he has several at will melee abilities, can I only use one per round like a regular monster, or am I supposed to use more than one if able. (the one claw and two claw attacks confused me)

The key is the action type. Each round you get a minor, move and standard action. So Nightscale can use a standard action to either bite or claw or double claw or breath weapon or cloud of darkness or frightful presence. And then he can also move. The immediate reactions use his minor action, and can happen outside his initiative count.

invokethehojo · May 14, 2008

is the bite a basic attack as well, my stat block does not indicate which are basic and which are not

Blackbrrd · May 14, 2008

malraux said:
....The immediate reactions use his minor action, and can happen outside his initiative count.

Wrong

It uses up is immediate action, which you only have one of each round. So, even though Tail slash is triggered multiple times in a round, Nightscale can only use it once.

malraux · May 14, 2008

Blackbrrd said:
Wrong

It uses up is immediate action, which you only have one of each round. So, even though Tail slash is triggered multiple times in a round, Nightscale can only use it once.

I did not know that. I must unlearn what I have learned.

Rechan · May 14, 2008

What's the difference between a turn and a round?

Or rather, which is it when:

You go from top of the initiative order to the bottom, and then you start back at the top
You go from one step of the initiative to the next (Bill has init 15, Josh has Init 15 - it goes from Bill to Josh - what is that?).