D&D 4E 4e Monster Manual excerpt

[Sir Brennen]

With that said, I wouldn't be to surprised if the Charm doesn't forbid her charmed victim to move away from her. My reasons
1) He still has to move away from her. This might or might not provoke opportunity attacks from he Succubus allies.
2) He can't attack her at all, which limits his tactical options.
3) He can't move close to her, unless he wants to risk his own life and waste his comrades attack.
4) If he would always stay besides her, the Succubus could basically become unbeatable, unless someone can stop being charmed by her. Otherwise, every single hit against her will hit her charmed victim, until it's dead. Then, she can kiss another party member, and rinse, repeat, until all party members are dead, except the last one, who is now here trusted ally.

I agree with your most of your assessment: if the Charm Kissed victim couldn't move away from the Succubus, then the power basically becomes an old school Hold Person which lasts the entire encounter.

However, point 4 wouldn't be entirely true - it doesn't make her unbeatable. Judicious use of slide/push/pull abilities on her or her bodyguard can be used to separate them, or just attacking with powers (especially spells) which are not specifically ranged or melee attacks. Or, hey... keep fireballin' 'em both and just make sure to keep healing your buddy

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

However 18 damage is just tickling to a lvl 22 character. A lvl 1 character hit's harder. Ok, he needs his daily to do so, but he's also 21 levels below him!

It takes away a lot of awe from these supernatural beings. They're supposed to be among the most nasty threats the hells have to offer and not "He's such a sissy, he can't actually hurt us without bringing his 20 friends along. Here, watch how I strip out of all armor and giggle while he tries to hurt me"

Look at it another way: characters are built to survive, while monsters are built to die.

Ok, that's an oversimplification, but think of a PC over the course of its career. How many saving throws will it have to make? How many critical hits is it subject to? That kind of thing. It's going to be far more than any monster. Which means there are more chances for a PC to suffer from something particular nasty, like a death effect of 100-point critical hit.

I agree that damage looks low. Maybe too low. I'm going to reserve judgment on this until I get the rules in hand. But before we really worry about this, remember two things:

1) 4e encounter design is moving away from the "all or nothing model," where monsters are destroyed in one round and PCs are subject to 10 kinds of save or read-a-magazine effects. Instead, we're going to have a lot more monsters in combat encounters. More monsters = more damage rolls = more damage.
2) We haven't really seen a monster devoted to dealing damage. The pit find is a leader. The war devil is a leader. The sucubbus is a controller. A better example of a damage dealer might be something like the elite shadar-kai warrior mentioned in another article, who can deal 3 attacks with one standard action.

 

[Sojorn]

Oh, huh.

Dominate is a ranged basic attack. Missed that the first time I looked at it.

 

[lutecius]

The art does convey the pit fiend is NOT the front line/solo monster anymore. He's stop taking the 'roids and is far more lithe than any previous pit fiend.

I like the absurdity of the succubus- version where it had a 40% chance of gating in a balor!

Speaking of which, do we know yet if he has switched teams too? They said they would eliminate needless symmetry.

The new pit fiend does look more like the balor with the weight loss, orthodontic treatment and newfound modesty.
And the balor better fits the “humanoid devil” mold than the “demon freak” one. Maybe it will become a proper name again.

 

[Wolfwood2]

Well, making the battles last longer and less deadly is one thing, BUT 1d6+8 and 4d4+8?

At a point where even the pregen wizard would have 108 hp (+x healing surges)?

This doesn't worry me too much, because "the math" of attack and damage is something the design team actually worked at this iteration. They sat down and figured how much damage a creature of a given role at a given level needs to do on a consistent basis. It's the sort of thing it's easy to playtest, too. So I'm 100% confident that attack/damage all works out somehow.

Of course there will be screw-ups elsewhere, but not here.

 

[occam]

You all missed the best point of the new succubus: she no longer drains you! So you can finally make some sweet love all night long....

Well, there is that Corrupting Touch. Maybe level drain has just turned into hit point damage.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

Oh, huh.

Dominate is a ranged basic attack. Missed that the first time I looked at it.

Wow, so does that mean Dominate can be used as a Opportunity Attack?

 

[LostInTheMists]

Speaking of which, do we know yet if he has switched teams too? They said they would eliminate needless symmetry.

No clue, although I'm holding out to see if the newly-team-swapped succubus kicked the erinyes to the curb. I like erinyeses. Erinyi? Erinyeese? Whatever. Winged infernal-angel-thingies-with-bows.

 

[Gargazon]

Speaking of which, do we know yet if he has switched teams too? They said they would eliminate needless symmetry.

The new pit fiend does look more like the balor with the weight loss, orthodontic treatment and newfound modesty.
And the balor better fits the “humanoid devil” mold than the “demon freak” one. Maybe it will become a proper name again.

I'm reckoning that the Balor in 4th Edition is going to look alot more beastial and muscular, like a slaughter-hungry being should. This is how WotC has said it's going to help widen the gap between demons and devils, along with the 'Devils want souls, Demons want slaughter' thing.

Having seen the devils, I wonder what the Demons will look like stat-wise. I bet they're more 'Every demon for himself' and are dealing the horrible amounts of damage people are expecting. Y'know, less team-work, more 'First one to rip off his head gets promoted! Go!'.

 

[Sojorn]

Wow, so does that mean Dominate can be used as a Opportunity Attack?

Was more thinking about the fact that that means it works with whatever "Feather me yon oaf" powers monsters might have. Like the war devil's Fiendish Tactics for example.