Elite Skull Lord

[styker]

I´m trying to transform a skull lord into a elite monster, but im having problem to think about new powers. One idea i had was giving one extra head to him so it was more dificult to kill him and he gained another attack. Someone can help me?

 

[keterys]

Honestly, you could just glance at templates for a good start. It's a slight spin cause it's a little different, but hey...

Anyhow, how about
+2 AC, +2 Ref, +2 Will
+2 Saves
+1 AP
Double HP
Regeneration 5 (does not function once command destroyed)

Increase its Master of the Grave aura to aura 5.

Add
Retributive Strike (immediate reaction, when hit by an attack; at-will)
Make a Skull of Bonechilling Fear or Skull of Withering Flame attack against the target.

 

[Griogre]

The problem with the Skull Lord is he is already very elite like. He’s already got the extra attacks of an elite and because they are already minors, you can’t just add a few more minors. Because of his Triple Skull Healing his hit points are already weird and just adding hit points makes this guy tougher. An elite really is suppose to be two of the single monsters in one skin. My approach would be to think what would happen if you had two Skull Lords on the battlefield and then make your elite do about the same thing.

While I think adding skulls could work, as a different approach I think you might consider adding a +2 to the skull attacks and then adding secondary attacks if the primary skull attacks hit. I would double the size of the Master of the Grave Aura and give him a double attack with the Bone Staff.

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

Doubling his hitpoints and a few defense tweaks here and there are enough, but there are lots of ways to make the Skull Lord Elite. It depends on what you want to do with him. He has a cool mechanic; and being elite means he can stick around longer to do his thing. One thing you could do is make it so that his skull powers get more powerful the fewer skulls he has. Alternately, you could add in some necromantic-themed Standard Action powers so that if One skull can't do anything meaningful (like the one that revives minions) the Skull Lord can still use a standard action and fire off some sort of Necrotic Curse or something.

 

[styker]

Huum, thanks everyone. It was a great array of ideas ^^

 

[James McMurray]

Any chance of using two Skull Lords instead of one elite? Our last epic game the PCs had an encounter with two pseudo-skull lords, a horde of minions, and a trap. They were Skull Lords advanced to 22nd level in their stats, but I changed the flavor to Yuan-ti to match the adventure. Instead of Fear it was whispered commands and they were snakey instead of undead.

The two "Yuan-ti Malison Venom of Life" coupled with our minion house rules and a poisonous trap was pretty tense. It wouldn't have been near as challenging if there had only been one of them, because double hit points doesn't give double actions, and leaves the monster more vulnerable to secondary effects like dazed, stunned, and foreced movement. The +2 to saves helps, but having two bodies means its harder to shut the powerhouse down completely, and much more likely that if you manage it, it won't last long.

 

[Victim]

Any chance of using two Skull Lords instead of one elite? Our last epic game the PCs had an encounter with two pseudo-skull lords, a horde of minions, and a trap. They were Skull Lords advanced to 22nd level in their stats, but I changed the flavor to Yuan-ti to match the adventure. Instead of Fear it was whispered commands and they were snakey instead of undead.

The two "Yuan-ti Malison Venom of Life" coupled with our minion house rules and a poisonous trap was pretty tense. It wouldn't have been near as challenging if there had only been one of them, because double hit points doesn't give double actions, and leaves the monster more vulnerable to secondary effects like dazed, stunned, and foreced movement. The +2 to saves helps, but having two bodies means its harder to shut the powerhouse down completely, and much more likely that if you manage it, it won't last long.

And they can provide regeneration to each other.