Burning Sky NPC customizations

Like the thread where we customize Skill Challenges, this one is for NPCs! Speaking of the Skill Challenges thread, yes, I mean to post in it (thanks for keeping it alive, sfedi!).

Anyway, first one: Pixis the Assassin from The Mad King's Banquet.



Feedback is welcome, especially since I'll be running this guy for my PCs on Friday.

Justifications

I dropped the HP dramatically; rather, I let the Builder do it for me. This follow the errata released by WotC that solos should be easier to take down. Notice that this build is high-powered but can be taken down by a group of five in a few rounds. This guy is an assassin -- he's here to kill the PCs, not drain their HP one stab at a time.

I put more damage in his unarmed strike, and made his shuriken a minor action. The most important change is that the shuriken slows on hit, and slowly dazes and actually knocks out unlucky PCs. Considering he can throw up to three of these a round (or as many as he can fit in a close blast 5 as a recharge power), this becomes his primary means of endangering the PCs.

The idea is that he knocks his target out and goes in for the coup-de-gras (maxing his unarmed and sneak attack damage) then escapes. Of course, in reality, a PC has to not only be unlucky, but also unloved by his allies for this to occur.

For defense, he gets an immediate interrupt where he can literally redirect a daily if he plans carefully. But the power is limited by requiring two enemies adjacent to be effective, and the PC needs to miss on the second roll.

If you feel this guy is overpowered, console yourself with the knowledge that Pixis is the first difficult encounter of the adventure and one of the hardest encounters in the campaign so far -- lastly, the XP PCs get from him are likely to push them into Paragon Tier. This fight literally caps heroic tier. It might not seem too dramatic of a battle on which to switch tiers, but I like to think that it represents their changing from just valley heroes to important political figures after whom highly paid assassins are sent.

Finally, I actually toned this guy down from the version I'm running. I had an extra power: Standard, At-will: Pixis makes two Cutting Chop attacks. Your call on whether to add that. It can make a huge difference, particularly if someone DOES go down: he can deal 58 damage in a single standard action, not including his minor action shurikens (+25 each)...

This guy CAN kill your PCs if they don't give it their all, make no mistake.

Text

For those who want to copy and paste this for some reason, here's the text output from the builder:

Pixis the Assassin Level 12 Solo Skirmisher
Medium natural humanoid XP 3,500
Initiative +15 Senses Perception +12; darkvision (from ointment)
HP 480; Bloodied 240
AC 26; Fortitude 24; Reflex 28; Will 20
Saving Throws +5
Speed 8 (from boots of springing and striding)
Action Points 2
m Cutting Chop (standard; at-will) • Weapon
+17 vs AC; 2d6 + 5 damage
r Shuriken (minor; at-will) • Weapon
Ranged 6/12; +17 vs AC; 1d8 + 5 damage, and the target is slowed (save ends). First Failed Saving Throw: The target is slowed and dazed (save ends both). Second Failed Saving Throw: The target is unconcious.
C Shuriken Sweep (standard; recharge 5 6)
Close blast 5; Pixis makes a Shuriken attack against enemy targets in the blast.
Martial Defense (immediate interrupt, when pixis is hit by a melee attack; recharges when pixis becomes bloodied)
The attacker must re-roll the attack roll. If the attack misses, Pixis redirects the attack to an adjacent enemy of his choice. The attacker then executes the attack as if he had hit the enemy Pixis selected.
Combat Advantage
Pixis deals 2d6 extra damage on melee and ranged attacks against any target he has combat advantage against.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common
Skills Acrobatics +18, Athletics +15, Stealth +18, Thievery +18
Str 19 (+10) Dex 25 (+13) Wis 13 (+7)
Con 16 (+9) Int 16 (+9) Cha 13 (+7)
Equipment Boots of striding and springing, Ointment of Darkvision, Shuriken x20
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This monster statistics block has been generated using the D&D Adventure Tools.

For a Solo Skirmisher it lacks a lot on the movement department. And means to hide or gain CA as well.

Not that it won´t dish out tons of damage as it is, but at least to give it more the feel of an assasin.

I woulod also add something to escape or change the combat dramatically once in the encounter. You can justify it as an item or whatever.
For example, a Teleport, a blinding burst, etc.

The main problem I see is that, as a solo, he needs to have a means to secure his combat advantage, other than getting lucky on rendering a hero unconscious with a shuriken (which after the heros close will result in opp. attacks). In this latter case, players get annoyed that they're unconscious character is getting critted while other PC's are beating on the solo. Combat advantage without allies is nigh useless unless the solo has a means of securing it (blinding PC's, going invisible, whatever). A semi-OK party will simply surround him and kick his arse.

kumagroo said:

A semi-OK party will simply surround him and kick his arse.

Click to expand...

And this is exactly what happened when I ran him, even though I took sfedi's advice and gave him a teleport power. I need to work on my NPC designs.

So, what do you think? Minor leg sweep to knock prone?

Although the minor sweep would work, it doesn't feel very "assassin"ish, IMHO.
Dazing, blinding, making himself invisible seems more in flavor.

A Close Blast 3 vs Ref to Daze until end of next turn
A Close Burst 2 vs Will to Blind until end of next turn
All semm good things.

Another thing I may suggest is to have a Standard Action that allows him to move and attack.
And a move action, at will, that allows him to shift and gain CA against the enemy he ends adjacent to.
The move could instead allow him to become invisible until after he moves 1 square (he basically ignores OAs from the first square).
Another way to do this is, instead of a fancy move action, he could have an Effect Close Burst 1 that blinds until the START of his next turn, no attack, minor action at will.

Hope this helps.

PD: Try to make Mesh Hong (sp?) see this creature, he's an outstanding monster designer and he should be able to provide a much more insightful criticism.