Dungons of Dread (DDM) Monster Stats from DDXP

[Benimoto]

For those of you looking to check out some more monsters, my friend Dave was a D&D Minatures judge at DDXP and scanned the backs (roleplaying stats side) of the cards he got.

Take a look. You may have seen some of these before, and there's a few duplicate scans, but most should be new. Remember that the DDM stat cards have somewhat abbreviated stats and there may be more info in the full Monster Manual entry.

• Dwarf Warlord, Dragons, Death Knight and others
• Eye of Flame, Rakshasa, Vrock, etc.
• Griffon, Dire Wolf and more
• Bulette, Drow Wand Mage, Warforged Infiltrator and friends
• Giant Centipede, Fen Hydra and pals

My impression is that since these cards were printed so far before the actual Monster Manual, that there may be changes. For example, the Silver and Red Dragons have references to a "cone", which may have changed to a "blast" and they both have relative low HP for their level, compared to the stats we've seen for the Black and the White dragons. I think they may have adjusted the dragons' (or all solo monsters) HP upwards after playtesting.

A lot of the monsters have fun new abilities, and look like they'll be a lot of fun to run. I like how the Shadow Demon teleports to dying and wounded PCs' sides, and how if your passive insight is too low, you'll never notice the Rakshasa in its humanoid form until it's too late. The Bulette and Eye of Flame look like total beasts (in different ways) and they're only elite.

 

[Novem5er]

Thanks, I hadn't seen some of those!

Most striking observation:

The Young Red Dragon is just a level 7 Solo, where as I'd previously guessed that it would be a 9 or a 10. Now my guess is that Chromatic Dragons scale 1/level in each level Tier. For instance, in Heroic, we have:

White, level 3
Black, level 4
(guessing) Green, level 5
(guessing) Blue, level 6
Red, level 7.

Also interesting that we have the RPG stats for the Young Silver Dragon now, which is a level 8 solo.

Also regarding the dragons.... It seemed like the Red and Silver had less options than the Black we've seen so far. Seriously, all I see are a double-melee strike, a breath weapon, and an Immediate Breath when bloodied. Looking at the numbers, though, the Red's breath weapon recharges on a 4+ and does 3d12 + 6, half on a miss. Yikes! How'd you like to face that every other round? Not as many options as the Black, but definately more OOOMPH!

 

[baberg]

I notice the Dwarf Warlord has a Cleric-like ability to make one of its allies use up a healing surge - but there's no list for the healing surge strength on the cards that I can see. Is this a known issue with the DDM stat blocks, or do healing surges heal a certain amount per level? Or is that something we'll have to wait to find out?

 

[Benimoto]

I notice the Dwarf Warlord has a Cleric-like ability to make one of its allies use up a healing surge - but there's no list for the healing surge strength on the cards that I can see. Is this a known issue with the DDM stat blocks, or do healing surges heal a certain amount per level? Or is that something we'll have to wait to find out?

For all the DDXP pregen characters, the healing surges healed 1/4 of the PC's HP, rounded down.

 

[AllisterH]

Interesting.

Compare the Grick from the DDM card to the Grick from the actual MM that was on display. Biggest difference is HP and defences. Attack value is roughly the same.

Grick from MM
Grick Level 7 Brute
Medium aberrant beast XP 300
Initiative +4 Senses Perception +10; darkvision
HP 96; Bloodied 48
AC 19; Fortitude 19, Reflex 14, Will 15
Resist 10 against effects that target AC
Speed 6, climb 4
m Tentacle Rake (standard; at-will)
+10 vs AC; 2d6 +4 damage, and ongoing 5 damage (save ends)
Expert FlankerThe grick gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls against an enemy it is
flanking.
Alignment Unaligned Languages -
Skills Endurance +13, Stealth +9
Str 18 (+7) Dex 13 (+4) Wis 14 (+5)
Con 16 (+6) Int 2 (-3) Cha 7 (+1)

 

[baberg]

For all the DDXP pregen characters, the healing surges healed 1/4 of the PC's HP, rounded down.

Gotcha, thanks!

 

[IanB]

Because of how early DDM cards go to print compared to when they come out, chances are these roleplaying stats were in the can for at least 3 months or more of time where the game itself was still in flux.

Also anyone who isn't familiar with how DDM cards work should be aware that the back-side stat blocks are almost never complete, or at least haven't been in the past. They also have a history of not being the best-edited content WotC puts out, to put it mildly.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

Thanks for posting these! Some of the undead are called "Natural": ie the Vampire Spawn is Medium Natural Humanoid (Undead). It looks like the second descriptor in the monster name is the planar origins of the beastie:

Natural = the Middle World
Immortal = the Astral Sea and its domains
Fey = Feywild
Shadow = Shadowfell
Elemental = Elemental Tempest (including demons)
Aberrant = Far Realm

 

[zoroaster100]

Interesting. The vrock has resist variable 15 (2/encounter). I wonder how that works. Does that mean the vrock can resist 15 against any two first attacks in an encounter? Or that the vrock picks to types of damage to be resistant 15 against for each encounter? Or something else?

 

[hong]

Interesting. The vrock has resist variable 15 (2/encounter). I wonder how that works. Does that mean the vrock can resist 15 against any two first attacks in an encounter? Or that the vrock picks to types of damage to be resistant 15 against for each encounter? Or something else?

Most "encounter" powers (all of them?) are activated at the user's discretion. I wouldn't expect the vrock's to be any different. So it means "reduce damage taken by 15 against any 2 attacks in an encounter".