D&D 4E 4e Monster Manual excerpt

[Lacyon]

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

You can't normally make OAs with ranged attacks, so probably not.

 

[occam]

I also imagine that Snaketongues are what they're calling purebloods now, as 'pureblood' always kinda bugged me ("It's a pureblood? But it's not snake-like at all! The abominations are all 'RAWR! IMMAH SNAKE!' and they're an abomination of the snake people? I'm so confused!"). What was an abomination now looks to be the 'true' Yuan-Ti. And I think that's awesome.

It's the same for me. As much as I love yuan-ti, the names have always stricken me with cognitive dissonance.

 

[Shazman]

Putting together an encounter in 4e is going to feel like building a warband, I think. "Okay, I have a war devil - to maximize his abilities I need to include at least 2 other devils of level 22 or lower..."

That's pretty much the whole point of 4E. Makae it more minis-centric to sell more minis.

 

[Shazman]

I have to say that their examples are... uninspiring. I don't really see any interesting powers at all and what they do have are anemic. I have the feeling that we may discover in their attempt to fix the math and extend the sweet spot they've compressed the power curve too much. A level 8 or 9 monster should wipe the floor with a party of lvl 1 pcs barring extraordinary luck or tactics.

I have to say that I agree. Every 4E stat block I have seen has been very uninspiring. Practically every attack is "do some damage (piddly damage at that) plus shift them some squares or hit them with ongoing poison damage or something". 3.5 stat blocks may be more complicated, but they are also far more interesting.

 

[AllisterH]

I have to say that I agree. Every 4E stat block I have seen has been very uninspiring. Practically every attack is "do some damage (piddly damage at that) plus shift them some squares or hit them with ongoing poison damage or something". 3.5 stat blocks may be more complicated, but they are also far more interesting.

Not really. One of the things with this succubus is that her powers are actually effective as many of the previous spell-like abilities were either things that the DM didn't need (if the Succubus didn't have Tongues, how many DMs would actually have the Succubus not know the language?) or ineffective.

One of the reasons why high level adventuring is not that fun is the rocket tag effect at high levels. Thanks to the potentially high HP total of say a barbarian, many creatures were designed to be able to take out said barbarian. Which of course, required wizard spells that simply bypassed the HP to be effective and thus you got an arms race.

This tended to lead to the effect where basically he who won initiative, just plain won. Basically, high level adventuring became exactly like level 1-2 adventuring. One of the advantages of this method I can see is that with a lowered damage on presumably the part of the PCs and monsters, there's less emphasis on tricking out your PC beforehand with splatbooks since most likely, the tactics at the table are going to be the biggest decider on success.

re: DOMINATE
In the Miniatures game, Dominate allows for the attacker to use the target's Standard ACTION with any action that falls under a Standard Action.

Thus, if Dominate is the SAME in the RPG as the DDM game, the succubus can use Dominate to force the player to use their DAILY on any target they choose. This might be changed for the RPG just for that reason.

re: TELEPORT (and magic)
There definitely has been a concerted push to cut down on Teleport shenanigans. Not only that, but looking at both devils, there's much less emphasis on magical abilities. My guess is that WOTC have purposely tried to move away from the magic-centred basis of previous editions. People have always complained that magic is too dominating at mid to high level and that's because every creature pretty much was magic based at mid to high levels.

 

[lutecius]

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.

I think/hope the name will be re-used for something closer to its mythological source: either an über-harpy-hag-devil or an angel of vengeance (on a side note i hate the "angels" from the preview books with passion)

 

[frankthedm]

Damge output for Devils maight be low, but there are foes that really bring the pain. 10 levels before the War devil, there is this critter.

Hook Horror
Large Aberrant Beast
Level 13 Soldier
AC 30 Fort 27 Ref 24 Will 23 HP/Bloodied 150/75
Init +11 Spd 6
Senses: Darkvision; Perception +15
Attacks
Melee: Claw Reach 2; +21 vs AC; 1d10+8 AND Followup
followup +19 vs Fort, L or smaller; pull 1 AND Restrained; only 1 at a time
Melee Feast +21 vs AC, Restrained only; 3d10+8
Melee Fling +21 vs Fort, Restrained only; 2d10+8 AND push 4 AND knock prone
Abilities: Lethal: +4 atk against Bloodied
Str +14 (26) Con +12 (22) Dex +11 (21) Int +3 (5) Wis +10 (18) Cha +7 (13)

 

[Gargazon]

I have to say that I agree. Every 4E stat block I have seen has been very uninspiring. Practically every attack is "do some damage (piddly damage at that) plus shift them some squares or hit them with ongoing poison damage or something". 3.5 stat blocks may be more complicated, but they are also far more interesting.

I don't get how you would think the 3.5 stat blocks were more interesting. Can you give some examples, because so far all the 4th edition stat blocks look far, far more interesting and fun to use than any 3.5 one.

 

[Derren]

Another thing about Charming Kiss, Dominate, and two Warlock powers, Eyebite and Curse of teh Dark Dream also have the Charm descriptor, so it is very unlikely that this keyword has any rules behind it, and if it has than nothing "charm specific".

 

[FadedC]

Another thing about Charming Kiss, Dominate, and two Warlock powers, Eyebite and Curse of teh Dark Dream also have the Charm descriptor, so it is very unlikely that this keyword has any rules behind it, and if it has than nothing "charm specific".

Hmm yeah I doubt that the charming kiss does anything more then the power says it does. It's only supposed to be a mildly nasty power used by one non elite member of a whole group of monsters. It isn't supposed to take it's target completely out of the entire fight.

The charm descriptor would seem to be for characters/powers that might be able to resist or dispel charm.