Bhut (conversion from X4)

[Sixten]

In support of my continuing fantasy that I might one day run a 4E conversion of X4/X5, here's my first stab at converting the bhut. I like the idea of these guys, and the whole Evil Abbey section of the module, but there are a whole lot of "first edition-isms" in the design of these guys.

Bhut
level 8 skirmisher
XP 350
medium natural humanoid (shapechanger)

Initiative +9; Senses Perception +4
HP 88; Bloodied 44
AC 22; Fortitude 20; Reflex 21; Will 18
Immune disease, charm; Resist 5 necrotic; Vulnerable 5 radiant
Speed 6

Claw (standard; at-will)
+13 vs Ac; 1d8 + 5 damage.

Bite (standard; recharge )
+13 vs AC; 2d6 + 3 cold damage, and target is dazed and weakened (save ends both).

Uncanny Approach (minor; encounter)
The bhut shifts 4 squares, and inflicts +1d6 damage until the end of its next turn.

Shape of Evil * Polymorph
At dawn, the bhut assumes the appearance of a normal human. The bhut has no control over their human appearance, which will be the same each day. This effect lasts until dusk, when the bhut resumes its true appearance. This ability will function even if the bhut has not rested, or is unconscious.

Alignment Evil; Languages Common
Skills Bluff +11, Stealth +12

Str 14 (+6); Dex 16 (+7); Wis 10 (+4)
Con 16 (+7); Int 10 (+4); Cha 13 (+5)


Design Notes: I tried to give them some properties that preserve the "pseudo-undead" feel of the original, but since 4e undead don't have as many of the automatic immunities, I'm not sure how well this succeeded. Likewise, the vulnerability to blessed weapons doesn't really work in 4e. For the bite attack, I didn't want to make it an every-round thing, but it seemed like it should be more than an encounter power.

The shapechange is a little weird, but we don't actually have an example of involuntary polymorphing in the Monster Manual, as far as I could tell. Doppelgangers and lycanthropes control theirs completely.

It seems to me like there should probably be a few flavors of these guys, since the Evil Abbey is essentially populated only by bhuts, and it'd get boring awfully fast with just this one kind of monster. Suggestions? (Maybe a leader-y controller type for the abbot, and some artillery wizards?)

 

[JoeNotCharles]

I think the Bhut should be an Elite. If you look at the way they're used in X4, a single Bhut is supposed to be a solid encounter (not incredibly challenging, but not a pushover), and you only once find 4 together, which is really tough.

Vulnerability to radiant is a good substitute for the vulnerability to blessed weapons. As a skirmisher, I think they need some sort of movement power to round them out (I don't have the books handy, but check what things like ghouls get).

For the abbot, since he has the pet bear and the snake is near by, how about giving him some sort of shamanic powers (perhaps lifted from the beastmaster ranger)?

 

[Sixten]

I think the Bhut should be an Elite. If you look at the way they're used in X4, a single Bhut is supposed to be a solid encounter

True, but the thing is that this is kind of generally true of Basic/Expert encounters. A whole lot of things that are single creatures in that module would need to be redesigned. They also aren't as tough in a game that doesn't really use DR.

As a skirmisher, I think they need some sort of movement power to round them out (I don't have the books handy, but check what things like ghouls get).

Ghouls actually just get high movement rate and a climb speed. Not a bad idea, though; I'll peruse some of the other skirmishers for inspiration.

 

[JoeNotCharles]

True, but the thing is that this is kind of generally true of Basic/Expert encounters. A whole lot of things that are single creatures in that module would need to be redesigned. They also aren't as tough in a game that doesn't really use DR.

Oh come on! I just wrote a huge post going through all the encounters in the module evaluating them in terms of this, and when I clicked "submit" it asked me to type my name and password again (I guess it timed out?) and then said, "Sorry, can't post this because you logged on after clicking post!"

Upshot: the bhuts are problematic, because they should be usable in 1-bhut, 2-bhut and 4-bhut encounters. I would retheme them as being constantly followed around by a cloud of flies (minions), with 8 groups of flies per encounter no matter how many bhuts. That way it's not so obvious that as you add bhuts you get less minions.

So against a Level 5 party, Level 5 Elite Bhuts with Level 5 minions are:

1 bhut (400 XP) + minions (400 XP) = 800 XP = between level 3 and 4 (easy fight but not ridiculously easy)
2 bhuts (800 XP) + minions (400 XP) = 1200 XP = level 6 (good fight)
4 bhuts (1600 XP) + minions (400 XP) = 2000 XP = level 9 (really tough fight, good for a climax)

The Abbot gets both the bear, the snake and minions, and there's also a fight with a bhut and 2 bugbears (and minions), and those work out pretty well too. You can do the math yourself. (I'd advance the Abbot a few levels and make the snake a Crushgrip Constrictor that's dropped back a few.)

Other than that there are a bunch of encounters with low-life that's (in the original version) a challenge for a single character but not a group. (Hidden snakes, ochre jelly floating in a pool, giant leech.) I'd turn these into traps which drain a healing surge (due to poison or strangulation), or encounters/skill challenges which explicitly start with the lurker targetting a single character and doing as much damage as possible to that character before being killed (leech drags one character into the pool and the others must rescue them) instead of complete satisfying fights.

Finally there are the mummies, wights and vampire which are too weak to challenge the party, so they're not good Solos, but should probably be a satisfying (though not too dangerous) fight. Need to up the numbers or give some minions here.

Every other encounter with only 1 creature works well as a solo.

I found the balance problems to be more with the encounters with 100 orcs and a leader, things like that.

 

[Sixten]

Other than that there are a bunch of encounters with low-life that's (in the original version) a challenge for a single character but not a group.

Yeah, that's sort of what I was alluding to above: most classic modules have lots of these, "you find one orc" or "a yellow mold!" encounters that don't seem to fit the 4e encounter design philosophy. I'm a little reluctant to do what you suggest, since the only thing that those encounters can do is to drain surges. (Everything else resets after a short rest.)

I found the balance problems to be more with the encounters with 100 orcs and a leader, things like that.

There's that, too. Though, hopefully, even with action movie 4e characters, "hide from the Master's entire army" still seems like a prudent course of action to the players.

 

[dangerous jack]

I like this implementation of the Bhuts.

I'd probably increase their Bluff skill to +15 (Cha + Training + Focus), and Thievery to +12 (Dex + Training).

Instead of a movement power due to their Skirmisherness, maybe an extra power when they have combat advantage? My first idea is that if they hit with a claw attack when they have combat advantage, their bite immediately recharges and they can use it as a secondary attack against the same target. That could be pretty vicious though, and may result in a lot of weakened and dazed PCs.

 

[King Nate]

I was looking at possibly converting this monster today…you saved me the trouble.

I haven’t done any of the math to see if your numbers are right, however here are a few of my suggestion;

Add Twin Claws (standard; at-will)
Make two claw attacks.

Change Bite (move; at-will)
Perform this attack immediately after hitting target with the Twin Claws attack.
+13 vs AC; 2d6 + 3 cold damage, and target is dazed (save ends).

Instead of having this as a recharge ability I removed the weakened effect and made it harder for the Bhut to hit with it. The Bhut must hit with both claw attacks and have a move action available to use.

I would increase the radiant vulnerability to 10 or even 20. They are suppose to die instantly to blessed weapons so I would figure more damage from radiant attacks could represent this in a way.

The Shape of Evil power doesn’t need to have immediate reaction or daily. Just describe what happens each sun rise and sunset.

I would require that a Bhut must take a class template to represent that class while in human form this can also make them different from each other while making them a little tougher since then now become Elites.


I guess this is how my changes would look without the class template.

Bhut
level 8 skirmisher
XP 350
medium natural humanoid (shapechanger)

Initiative +9; Senses Perception +4
HP 84; Bloodied 42
AC 22; Fortitude 20; Reflex 20; Will 20
Immune disease, charm; Resist 5 necrotic; Vulnerable 20 radiant
Speed 6

Claw (standard; at-will)
+13 vs Ac; 1d8 + 5 damage.

Twin Claws (standard; at-will)
Make two claw attacks.

Bite (move; at-will)
Perform this attack immediately after hitting target with the Twin Claws attack.
+13 vs AC; 2d6 + 3 cold damage, and target is dazed (save ends).

Shape of Evil * Polymorph
At dawn, the bhut assumes the appearance of a normal human. The bhut has no control over their human appearance, which will be the same each day. This effect lasts until dusk, when the bhut resumes its true appearance. This ability will function even if the bhut has not rested, or is unconscious. While in their human form they cannot attack with claws or bite they must rely on their class weapons to attack.

Alignment Evil; Languages Common
Skills Bluff +15, Stealth +12, Thievery +12

Str 18 (+8); Dex 16 (+7); Wis 10 (+4)
Con 12 (+6); Int 10 (+4); Cha 15 (+5)

Or maybe you can make them mathmaticly weaker knowing that you MUST add a Class Template to them?

 

[JoeNotCharles]

I would require that a Bhut must take a class template to represent that class while in human form this can also make them different from each other while making them a little tougher since then now become Elites.

That's a great idea! Rather than require a class template, I'd just make sure the base monster works well with class templates and note that it's common for them to take them.

 

[King Nate]

I just thought of another idea as well, stolen from the zombies in the MM.

If a Bhut gets a critical hit against them from a source with the radiant keyword they die. Similar to zombies taking critical hits.

 

[Sixten]

Instead of having this as a recharge ability I removed the weakened effect and made it harder for the Bhut to hit with it. The Bhut must hit with both claw attacks and have a move action available to use.

Was there a specific reason you changed these around, or just design flavor? (Your version of the bite, by the way, should probably say "hits with both attacks from Twin Claws," or something.)

I would increase the radiant vulnerability to 10 or even 20. They are suppose to die instantly to blessed weapons so I would figure more damage from radiant attacks could represent this in a way.

The thing about the bless vulnerability is that it was really a challenge for the players. And blessed melee attacks, while not exactly rare in D&D, were a lot less common than sources of radiant damage in 4E. I don't really like "trick" monsters in 4E, but I also don't want clerics and paladins to automatically just mow through these guys.

If a Bhut gets a critical hit against them from a source with the radiant keyword they die. Similar to zombies taking critical hits.

This, on the other hand, I like. I don't think I'd make it instant death, but definitely pile on some extra damage.

I also have some revisions to my original creature that I'll post a bit later. (Stats and defenses, and another power to make them more skirmisher-y.)