Awesome solo monster fight

[Unwise]

I like the new monster, as always I have a couple of questions/suggestions :

- Why does it get half damage from ranged attacks? I mean, I know why mechanic wise, but why in the game world? Is it a skeletal frame that arrows pass through? Mounds of blubber? It sounds like a tentacled worm, but why would it feel reasonable to the players that their attacks do less damage? I'm not being a stickler for realism, but nerfing someone to half damage "just because" never goes down too well.

- Would it be more fun to make it "half damage from attacks that originate more than 10 (for example) squares away"? That way, any wizard that wanted to risk getting beaten on could still do full damage. Doing damage and getting damaged is what makes combat interesting for most players.

Looking back, my observations tend to read a touch negatively, that is not the intent at all. I like the monster and I like where you are going with it, you have obviously put time into designing the encounter, not just the monster.

Where will this fight take place? A monster like this deserves an interesting lair. Pools of acid? Stalagtights that drip acid? When it burrows, it leaves 15' deep 2x2 square holes in the battle field?

 

[the Jester]

I like the new monster, as always I have a couple of questions/suggestions :

- Why does it get half damage from ranged attacks? I mean, I know why mechanic wise, but why in the game world? Is it a skeletal frame that arrows pass through? Mounds of blubber? It sounds like a tentacled worm, but why would it feel reasonable to the players that their attacks do less damage? I'm not being a stickler for realism, but nerfing someone to half damage "just because" never goes down too well.

Force field. The crawling apocalypse is an ancient war machine (and undead to boot!).

- Would it be more fun to make it "half damage from attacks that originate more than 10 (for example) squares away"? That way, any wizard that wanted to risk getting beaten on could still do full damage. Doing damage and getting damaged is what makes combat interesting for most players.

Not a bad idea. However, the wizards and cleric often get to shine; this encounter is designed to help give the melee guys a bit of a (tactically difficult) chance to shine.

Looking at the beastie, however, I notice that it's hit points are too high- I must have switched something around somehow. It should be about 400, so as to be a bit low (to compensate for that "Har! I scoff at your ranged and area attacks!" power). I wouldn't have caught this if you hadn't posted, thanks a lot!

Looking back, my observations tend to read a touch negatively, that is not the intent at all. I like the monster and I like where you are going with it, you have obviously put time into designing the encounter, not just the monster.

Where will this fight take place? A monster like this deserves an interesting lair. Pools of acid? Stalagtights that drip acid? When it burrows, it leaves 15' deep 2x2 square holes in the battle field?

It's in a desert. The pcs will find some ruined foundations and so forth. As they poke around, the crawling apocalypse will burst forth from a drift of deep sand. Hmm, I don't have the map or anything in front of me, but IIRC there are some stone columns waiting to be toppled by pc or monster.

 

[invokethehojo]

The moment when they bloodied it and it split in four was priceless. The rogue that struck the bloodying blow actually screamed, "What? NO!" at the table. It was awesome.

I guarantee you that if Paul WS Anderson is a member of ENworld you will see that monster in the next Resident Evil movie... and therefore it might not suck!

 

[Dausuul]

I find that this happens a fair bit in my games, especially with a fighter tank. If it's happening, sometimes I'll get the monster to blatantly ignore the mark and attack another target. What fun is being able to punish someone for ignoring you if they never incur that punishment?

Mind you, I've had that go really poorly, many times. "The monster hits the wizard for thirty damage!" "Alright, I hit the monster for seventy-three. And he's blind, prone, and can't stand up, save ends. And now it's my turn."

Yeah, it happens to me too. Still, there are plenty of ways to counter it:

• The monster has multiple attacks, and at least one of them has a push/slide/teleport effect. Knock the fighter out of reach, then you can do what you like. (This is nice because it doesn't flat-out negate the fighter's stickiness--she still draws one whack every round--but also doesn't allow her to lock the monster down completely.)
• Burst and blast attacks, of course.
• Teleportation. The ability to teleport is a "get out of fighter lock free" card.
• Abilities that daze, stun, or blind the fighter. (Blinding won't prevent the fighter from using combat challenge, but it will enable the monster to move to a safe location without fear of OAs.)
• Finally, attacks that work best when focused on a single target. This is the "briar patch" solution; the monster wants to focus fire on the fighter! You could give it a hefty damage bonus for a target it hit last round; have an attack that inflicts a minor status effect, but hurts much more if the target is already subject to that status; give the monster a move action that jacks up its damage output for the turn (so you want to force it to move around); enable it to negate an enemy's ability to heal (fighters go down very fast when they can't recover hit points); et cetera.

 

[Nullzone]

You have to be careful about how you interfere with your defender when it comes to solos (or anything, really). His entire job is focused around drawing attention to himself and away from the other party members, so if you do stuff like daze him all day it can make him feel like he's not contributing.

There are a lot of great ways to still dish pain out to other people though; actions that allow multiple attacks is one, as long as you've included the fighter in the attack there's no issue. Bonus if you make it an effect that also gives the solo some mobility at the same time, so he deals a bunch of damage and now is repositioned to take on another strategy (and consequently screw with the players' own).

Teleporting is good, but doesn't work on every defender. Wardens and Swordmages both mess with monster mobility when marks are violated; it also has potential to make the players lives easier since now the monster is conveniently at range for a creatures in burst nova or stuff like lazy warlords to invoke a lot of triggered effects at once.

A truly excellent way to do things is to allow the defender to potentially lock the solo down, but make him regret it, while simultaneously making the situation such that other players aren't safe either. The briar patch solution is one way to do this, as are "donut auras"; stuff that punishes you up close, but also prevents you from keeping the monster at arm's length all the time without taking some consequence for doing so.

The force field on the apocalypse terror is a good example; place the force field at 4 squares so ranged 5 still can make the choice, and then give him an aura 4 or some similar effect that causes a nasty thing to happen if you're in close like that...ranged people can then make a choice to stay close by and do full damage but eat the nasty close-range effect, or stay safe and kill it slower, and the defender has to choose whether to hold the line and keep eating the close-range or to back off and let the solo do as he pleases.

 

[the Jester]

Well, my party kicked the crawling apocalypse's ass six ways from Sunday. They managed to immobilize it three or four different times, once with a "dazed and immobilized (save ends)" that it failed to save against for a round.

OTOH they kept forgetting to account for its Automatic Escape ability, and they triggered it three times after they knew about it...

It was an awesome fight, made easier for the group by one of the wizards' mass resistance for a good part of the early part of the combat. Then, while dazed, immobilized and too far away to hit anyone, the apocalypse used its Doom Pulse and scared the crap out of the guys who had confidently moved into its aura... and made its saving throw against being dazed and immobilized.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

Hmm, multi-headed solos that tear themselves apart when bloodied seems to be a bit of a theme... I threw the below at my party of six 11th level PCs a couple of weeks ago:

Wellspring fused horror Level 13 Solo Controller
Large aberrant beast XP 4000
HP 635; Bloodied 317; see also bloodied fission Initiative +10
Regeneration 5
AC 27; Fort 27; Ref 25; Will 24 Perception +9; all-around vision
Vulnerable 10 psychic (if the horror takes psychic damage its regeneration doesn’t function on its next turn); see also psychic madness
Saving Throws +5 Action Points 2
Speed 5, climb 5; see also scuttle
TRAITS
Fused creatures
The Wellspring fused horror comprises two mutated humanoids horribly fused by the energies of the Tear of Ioun. At the start of the encounter, roll two initiative rolls for it. Before becoming bloodied, it has two turns every round, a full set of actions (standard, move, and minor) on each of its turns, and can take one immediate action between each of its turns. See also bloodied fission.

STANDARD ACTIONS
Tentacle ♦ At-will
Attack: Melee 2 (one creature); +18 vs. AC
Hit: 3d6+9 damage and the target is grabbed (until escape). The Wellspring fused horror can have up to 4 targets grabbed at a time, but only 3 if it wants to make any other tentacle or tentacle flurry attacks.

Tentacle rip ♦ At-will
Attack: Melee 2 (one creature grabbed by the horror); +17 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 6d6+9 damage and the target is pushed 3 squares, knocked prone and no longer grabbed.

Tentacle flurry ♦ At-will
Attack: Close burst 1 (enemies in burst); +18 vs. AC
Hit: 3d6+9 damage and the horror slides the target 1 square and knocks it prone.

MOVE ACTIONS
Scuttle ♦ At-will
The horror shifts 3 squares, taking any grabbed creatures with it.

MINOR ACTIONS
Bite ♦ At-will, 1/turn
Attack: Melee 2 (one creature grabbed by the horror); +18 vs. AC
Hit: 1d6+9 damage and ongoing 5 poison damage (save ends).

Tear and constrict ♦ At-will, 1/turn
Effect: The horror maintains all grabs and each grabbed target takes 10 damage.

TRIGGERED ACTIONS
Foolish flank ♦ At-will, only while not bloodied
Trigger: An enemy moves into a position flanking the horror (note that the horror has all-around vision).
Effect (opportunity attack): The horror makes a tentacle attack against the triggering enemy.

Psychic madness ♦ At-will
Trigger: The horror takes psychic damage.
Effect (immediate reaction): The horror makes a tentacle flurry attack.

Tentacle block ♦ At-will
Requirement: The horror must have at least one creature grabbed.
Trigger: The horror would be hit by a melee or ranged attack.
Effect (immediate interrupt): The target for the attack becomes the grabbed creature.

Bloodied fission
Trigger: The Wellspring fused horror is first bloodied.
Effect (free): The Wellspring fused horror splits into two Medium creatures, each occupying one of the squares of the original fused horror. Each separate horror has half the fused horror’s remaining hit points, and acts as an entirely independent creature on one of the fused horror’s initiative counts. An independent horror can only have one creature grabbed at a time, and cannot use foolish flank, but otherwise has the same characteristics as the fused horror.

Skills Athletics +17
Str 22 (+12) Dex 19 (+10) Wis 6 (+4)
Con 15 (+8) Int 8 (+5) Cha 17 (+9)
Alignment Chaotic Evil Languages Common


It was a fun fight, won handily, but not easily, by the PCs. The highlight of the battle - for me, as DM - was the tentacle rip critical hit on the already bloodied wizard. And the fact that the ranger's first shot in every round hit the fighter grabbed by the horror.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[666Sinner666]

I want to know why a huge worm has no burrow attacks and grab and swallow ability? If it is more skeletal than "meaty" that explains the lack of grab and swallow. But lack of a nice borrow then attack option seems like an oversight to me. Other than that I think its a great monster.

 

[the Jester]

I want to know why a huge worm has no burrow attacks and grab and swallow ability? If it is more skeletal than "meaty" that explains the lack of grab and swallow. But lack of a nice borrow then attack option seems like an oversight to me. Other than that I think its a great monster.

Wait, which creature?

I think you're talking about the crawling apocalypse. It's not a worm; it's more like a mummified kraken.

I found a pic of it here.

 

[Iron Sky]

This thread reminds me of an old thread I had. Might be time to practice some threadnomancy!

Edit: Link fixed.