Wall of Bones

[burntgerbil]

I humbly submit for your critiquing my second custom monster.

This one needs a little background - The first error on it is it's size. The size is variable to suit your needs, but I planned on the wall being 4 contiguous squares or more long.

It looks fun (and deadly) to play and I am looking forward to throwing it at my party this weekend. I plan to use two - across a corridor from each other with other baddies thrown in.

Let me know what you think -

Josh

EDIT: I don't have open grave, nor have I gotten to page through it - so I am not aware if there is anything like this already.
Thanks Again.

 

[Rechan]

Could you explain "Scraping Throng"? What's the explanation/purpose of the power, I mean.

Depending on what you are thinking, it might be better to make it an OA (since Immediates can only be used once per round). You might consider giving the Bone Wall threatening reach, if you want it even harsher.

 

[Mentat55]

Would this be better as a trap or hazard, since it is stationary? Then it might have more interesting defeat conditions than just "do 200+ hp of damage to it" and it could make the fight more dynamic. Otherwise, once the PCs realize what it is, I think they might try to fall back and plunk it with ranged attacks, and there isn't really anything it can do about it. I guess it depends on what other monsters you have.

 

[Mesh Hong]

OK here are my initial reactions and thoughts.

1. General Stats
Your HPs and Defences and Stats seem to be a bit off. The creatures Stats especially seem to be quite a bit higher than they should be, it is a very clever and incredibly charismatic undead wall (with these stats it would be a smash hit at dinner parties ).

Using your (inflated) stats I get its HP and defences to be:
HP: 240; Fortitude: 26; Reflex: 21; Will:25

2. Grasping Darkness
I get this to be:
Reach 2; attack +12 vs. AC; 2d8+7 damage; on hit target is grabbed (escape ends)

One potencial problem for your grabbing wall here is its low Reflex defence, which means that it will be easy for Acrobatic characters to escape its clutches. While its inflated strength is pumping up its Fortitude defence and making it much harder for Athletic characters to escape. This might need thinking about, you could maybe state the target DCs in the attack power.

3. Scrabbling Throng
I think I understand what you mean here, you are trying to give it a lesser version of Threatening reach, in this case if a creature moves three consecutive squares within reach 2. Personally I think this will need reworking as the first time it gets this attack off the players will surprised at the new attack mechanic, then they will just learn to hop in and out of its reach. This power will also be a bit fiddly to remember turn after turn, so you may get inconsistant results. I would say a creature either has Threatening Reach or it doesn't, and in my opinion Threatening reach should be a rare power.

4. Macabre Devouring
I wouldn't give this creature such a high damage attack as a minor action when its basic attack is already using the high damage matrix

My usual way of dealing with this sort of attack is as follows:

Macabre Devouring (minor; at will) - 1/round
Target must be grabbed at start of Walls turn; attack +10 vs. Reflex; 2d6+7 damage

5. Swallow
It seems a bit cheap to have this as a move action when it is such a nasty attack, but I don't have any real objection to this.

Again it should be attack +10 vs. Fortitude

6. Bonealanche
I like bonealanche it's amusing and logical, and it makes an impression on the enviroment (the difficult terrain).

Again it should be attack +10 vs. Reflex

General
As I have stated your to hit values seem off, a level 9 brute should be at:
+12 vs. AC; and +10 vs. Fort/Ref/Will

I like the idea of the wall of bone, but as previous posters have said it is massively weak against ranged attacks and could be pumelled by a bow ranger/wizard/warlock/cleric. As it can't move you might want to add an ability that states that it cannot be subject to push, pull or slide effects, or knocked prone (etc)

The wall is undead, maybe it should have some resistance to necrotic and vulnerability radiant.

What I would do with this encounter is design some sort of caster that specialised in push,pull,slide effects so that you could drag the PCs into the reach of the wall. Or you could have some sort of crushing wall trap behind them that slowly forces them forward each turn, limiting their ability to stay out of reach. Then of course there is the obvious, it is blocking the passageway ahead that they need to go down, so they have to engage it.

Anyway these are my first thoughts, I hope they are helpful.

 

[Rechan]

What I would do with this encounter is design some sort of caster that specialised in push,pull,slide effects so that you could drag the PCs into the reach of the wall. Or you could have some sort of crushing wall trap behind them that slowly forces them forward each turn, limiting their ability to stay out of reach. Then of course there is the obvious, it is blocking the passageway ahead that they need to go down, so they have to engage it.

Other options would include:
A battle on a steep incline (maybe the PCs are dropped in through a chute). One square of the incline = 3 squares diff terrain. So escaping the wall is difficult.

Place the bone wall in a hallway, and disguise it (the bones covered in wax, or looking inert, like macabre decorations) until the PCs are in the hall, and the thing springs to life. Even more vicious is if the PCs are fleeing, and the bone wall is used to halt their retreat (or seals off their retreat, coming in behind them).

A necromancer summons the wall. You don't need any fancy rules, just the walls appear on the Necro's turn, and the necro gets to place the wall where he chooses.

Instead of a wall, it constitutes the ceiling, thus the PCs are always within reach.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Instead of a wall, it constitutes the ceiling, thus the PCs are always within reach.

That is hilarious, the image of a PC being swallowed by the ceiling in a room is pure comedy horror. You could make it a lurker and give it stealth so it can grab the last person in the marching order. That would teach the casters for hanging around at the back.

Rogue: Wheres the [wizard] gone?
Warlord: I don't know, he was here a minute ago lets go back and look for him
(all tramp back through the room)
Rogue: Now wheres the [bow ranger] gone?
(all turn around)
Paladin: I don't know, wait a minute whats that pool of blood....
Rogue: Its comming from the ceiling
(muffled screaming and crunching sounds from above)
Cleric: The horror.....the horror!

 

[burntgerbil]

Well, the scenario was going to be the wall was obscured - in a dark 10' hallway, where the "statue" standing in far end of the as-of-yet-undiscovered tunnel-o-death. The statue springs into action (Skull Lord) two soldier/skirmisher types try to block escape on each end and allow the walls devour as many as they can. The party approaches this corridor after the hallway takes a 180 degree turn - hopefully preventing the party from backing up and blasting away at it (they won't have line of effect).

I agree that I could have a better stealthy ability - AND threatening reach might work. I imagined the original ability being when someone tries to run past it, arms at the bottom spring out and grab their legs and take their legs out.

I looked to the MM for original inspiration - the feymire crocodile is where many of the stats came from. I should scale the wall's level up to 10.

 

[Roger]

The other comments are generally good.

I feel compelled to point out how sick Macabre Devouring is, though. 9d8+15 damage per round vs a grabbed character is pretty mean.



Cheers,
Roger

 

[burntgerbil]

Wow, I missed that. I had intended on the wall's M.O. to be to swallow and re-incorporate it's victims as often as possible. I guess one could gank party members relentlessly with macabre devouring - but I had intended on the wall grabbing, bloodying and eating as many people as possible.

Maybe I should include a mechanic that allows the wall to grow one square if a victim dies while inside the wall - reflecting the remains of the ex-party member now permanently part of this wall.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

This is a pretty interesting monster. Almost as interesting is the idea of building up an entire 'family' of monsters based on the wall concept. I'm not sure what other walls would be like, but I'm sure we're all creative enough to come up with some. Perhaps the meme is more 'immobile monster' than wall per-se. Plants spring to mind. Existing plant monsters are all pretty much just ordinary monsters that happen to be green. But what about a wall of thorns? Or even just a giant venus fly-trap (not a wall, but immobile none the less).

The immobility in and of itself doesn't bother me. As we see it is quite possible to mitigate that weakness, or just let it stand. These things can be specialty construct-like monsters that evil bad guys build into their lairs simply because they will slow down and weaken any invaders. Obviously you'd be smart to position and support them to make them most effective, but if they get a jump on a party at least they do some damage.

Hmmm, wall of flowers!