Well I meant slow in the sense of... hm, Skirmishers have powers that let them quickly shift past the front line. They can get into the back ranks fast. It's not a measure of movement speed, but "ability to get past the defender" fast, or "deal their damage to someone not the blocker" fast.
Combining Monster Roles - or doing things you shouldn't do
- Thread starter Rechan
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(Psi)SeveredHead
Adventurer
Lots of classes mix roles. The berserker is the most obvious. (Goes from defender to brute/striker.)
I think this brute does not shift, and would likely provoke opportunity attacks. It would want to use up movement bypassing defenders if possible, since they can usually slow or immobilize it with an opportunity attack/triggered attack. Of course, it can still get behind the front line and just slice up a caster.
On that note, quite a few lurkers have abilities that let them shift, and not always in response to an attack. (This frequently helps them move into stealthy positions.)
nogray
Adventurer
For the most part, I'd stat the transforming cultists as pure brutes with an encounter (or recharge) power that can be used as part of a charge. That simulates the speed of that initial rush when they first engage you. If you feel that they must be fast, give the demon form a base land speed of 8 or so, and you will be set.
If I were going for a totally literal translation, I'd have them start with standard Artillery AC and hit points and give them a multi-round transformation power that they activate to change into brute form. Assuming a level 10 monster, I'd probably use a set of powers like in the sblock.
[sblock="D3 Transforming Cultist Powers"]Channel the Beast: (minor action) The cultist gains a charge of channel the beast. If a move or standard action is used, this charge can be donated to another cultist within two squares*. If the cultist takes any action on its turn other than using Channel the Beast, it loses all charges.
Demonic Form: (free action) When the cultist reaches ten** charges of channel the beast, Demonic Form activates until the end of the encounter. When Demonic Form activates, all conditions affecting the cultist end and the cultist gains sufficient temporary hit points to make the sum of its hit points and temporary hit points 126***. While Demonic Form is active, the cultist gains +3 to strength checks, +8 to athletics checks, and can only make Rending Slash and Brutal Slash attacks.
Rending Slash: (standard action, melee basic) Requires: Demonic Form; melee 1, +14 vs. AC, 2d8 + 13 damage.
Brutal Slash: (standard action, melee, recharge 5) Requires: Demonic Form; the cultist moves up to his speed and makes the following attack: melee 1, +14 vs. AC, 4d8 + 13 damage. This power can be used in place of a melee basic attack as part of a charge, but if so, the movement part of the power must still follow the rules for charging.
You might add some pushes or conditions to one or both of the slash attacks, and the recharge frequency was just a guess based on how often the demon cultists seem to do that big-damage charge. Notes for the choices are in the sblock. (Yay! Nested sblocks!)
[sblock="Asterisk notes"]* - Since the D3 cultist almost never transform all at the same time, I added the option of a cultist donating a charge to a nearby ally, giving them the option of having a staged/wave effect to the encounter. This also gives a preview to the PCs as to the transformative nature of the cultists. One more level of sblock shows an examples of encounter waves with three cultists.
[sblock="Example: Three Cultists"]There are three cultists (Alan, Bob, and Carl , in initiative order), plus a few other creatures -- say a couple soldiers and an artillery or a controller. The cultists all use their minors to build their own transformation, but all donate their move and minor to the cultist that goes second in initiative order (Bob). At the end of the first round, Alan and Carl have one charge, but Bob has seven.
On the second round, Alan donates his move and standard charges to Bob, building own as a minor. Bob starts his turn with nine charges. Depending on the range to the PCs, Bob can either transform with his minor then move to attack, or donate his move action channel, transform with his minor, and attack with Brutal Slash (or a charge action Brutal Slash for a "range" of 12 squares).
The key for the waved approach is to have the cultists donate all they can, making the next transforming cultist start with eight or nine charges.[/sblock]** - I picked ten charges for a three-round self-transformation. Well, three rounds and the first minor action of the fourth. Vary this up as you prefer. With the cooperative option above, it can be quite free-form as to how long it takes a given cultist to transform.
*** - The total of the cultist's hit points and temporary hit points is set to the level of a level 10 brute, about 126 hit points or so. This is to reflect that a partly wounded cultist still transforms to a full-strength demonic form.[/sblock][/sblock]To make the transformation more extreme, you could have their normal form be a lower-level creature, too (remembering to add back in the defenses when they transform, or even just having a separate stat block for the transformed form). Or you could make their normal form a standard creature and their demon form an elite.
Just throwing out some ideas to see what, if anything, sticks. Hope it's helpful.
Upper_Krust
Legend
One thing puzzles me.
If the Cultist knows the 'heroes' are coming, why doesn't it transform/summon/get possessed BEFORE they arrive?
There's no mechanical basis tying the two together.
WHAT IF, the cultist needs to draw blood from an enemy (make a successful attack) to begin the transformation process.
If the Cultist knows the 'heroes' are coming, why doesn't it transform/summon/get possessed BEFORE they arrive?
There's no mechanical basis tying the two together.
WHAT IF, the cultist needs to draw blood from an enemy (make a successful attack) to begin the transformation process.
nogray
Adventurer
A couple things, perhaps. The first is that it is likely not a pleasant thing, to be possessed by a demon. Another might be out of a sense of self-preservation; the demon possessing you will rush into battle, not caring about your life at all, so it might be something that is done only when there is imminent threat to the summoner or a cause that it cares about. One last one would require a tweak to the Demon Form power in my stat block. Add and tweak this bit to the text:
Demonic Form: (free action) When the cultist reaches ten charges of channel the beast, Demonic Form activates until the end of the encounter. When Demonic Form activates, the cultist loses all but one hit point, all conditions affecting the cultist end, and the cultist gains sufficient temporary hit points to make the sum of its hit points and 125 temporary hit points 126. While Demonic Form is active, the cultist gains +3 to strength checks, +8 to athletics checks, and can only make Rending Slash and Brutal Slash attacks.
That way, the cultist would only start transforming if the attack was imminent or in progress. When the demon form goes away, they would be left with depleted hit points, simulating a painful or fatiguing possession. (Granted, they could short rest to heal, but NPCs typically don't have many surges to spend, so that would be risky.)
Upper_Krust
Legend
Hey nogray! 
If its a cultist then thy are possibly unhinged to begin with and if not possibly blinded by indoctrination.
What you could do is make it an ability the Cultist will only use when desperate (ie. Bloodied).
Seems unnecessarily complicated. I'd just make the change double (or quadruple?) existing hit points, add action point(s) and save bonuses where appropriate and set up the attacks so that they were appropriate to the new (more powerful) monster.
nogray said:
If its a cultist then thy are possibly unhinged to begin with and if not possibly blinded by indoctrination.
What you could do is make it an ability the Cultist will only use when desperate (ie. Bloodied).
Seems unnecessarily complicated. I'd just make the change double (or quadruple?) existing hit points, add action point(s) and save bonuses where appropriate and set up the attacks so that they were appropriate to the new (more powerful) monster.
I would never consider limiting my monster creation based upon fitting into a certain roll. Heck I have used minions that hit for 50 damage before.
If you are after an example of a Brute that can close in to the PCs back lines quickly, then golems may be worth a look. They almost all have rampage abilities where they attack everybody they move through or something similar. Combined with a move action you are getting wherever you want to be on the battlefield in one turn. This is also good as it makes their impact on the battlefield felt immediately.
If you are after an example of a Brute that can close in to the PCs back lines quickly, then golems may be worth a look. They almost all have rampage abilities where they attack everybody they move through or something similar. Combined with a move action you are getting wherever you want to be on the battlefield in one turn. This is also good as it makes their impact on the battlefield felt immediately.
nogray
Adventurer
Hey nogray!
If its a cultist then thy are possibly unhinged to begin with and if not possibly blinded by indoctrination.
What you could do is make it an ability the Cultist will only use when desperate (ie. Bloodied).
Seems unnecessarily complicated. I'd just make the change double (or quadruple?) existing hit points, add action point(s) and save bonuses where appropriate and set up the attacks so that they were appropriate to the new (more powerful) monster.
True (regarding the unhinged/blinded), but you asked why they wouldn't go ahead and transform long prior to the encounter, so I endeavored to create some reasons, both RP (unpleasantness/risk of life) and mechanical (losing their hit points to represent a painful/fatiguing transformation).
The choices I made were to address the OP, who was asking about simulating a D3 transforming cultist. They (1) don't start transforming until they are aware of you, (2) will definitely transform without being attacked, (3) take some time to transform, (4) don't all generally transform at once, and (5) when they do change, they become a fresh (full hit points) creature.
To address (1), I embraced your question and provided a mechanical incentive for them not to start transforming too early. If they do, make themselves weak when the transformation wears off. (Thus, "lose all hit points but one.") As a heroic tier NPC, they would have only one healing surge, so even spending that, they are at low hit points.
Point (2) nullifies conditions like requiring bloodied for the transformation. It's one of the points of drama, as they are usually not the only things around. You usually have to choose between dealing with a more immediate threat that is actually damaging you and killing the cultists chanting peacefully in the corner.
Points (3) and (4) worked together, in my head, with the idea that maybe the reason they weren't all simultaneously transforming was they were focusing their efforts on changing one of them into demon form. Thus, I decided that donating "charges" of the power might be one way to model that. The cultists never attack or move while they are transforming, too, so I gave them a reason. If they do anything else on their turn, they lose all that they've built up.
Point (5) led me to giving them a set total of hit points. (126 was chosen for a level 10 Brute, which I thought was fitting given the circumstances of the story at the time you are encountering these foes.) I think the cultists do become full-health monsters when they change, but I'm actually not certain that is absolutely correct. As to the complexity, it's not really. It sets their hit points (the total of their normal and temporary) to that of an unwounded brute. It might also be cool because (if you used the mechanic as it was written in my second post) it would make them "bloodied" the whole time they are in demon form. That has some interesting implications, both mechanically and in the fiction (I am playing with a couple tieflings in one of my campaigns, for example).
I am not saying that your ideas are not better and possibly simpler, but they don't really address the transforming cultists in D3. I prefaced the whole original set of powers with, "if I were going for a totally literal translation," after all. I was trying to set up the mechanics to match (as closely as I could) the experiences I'd had fighting the cultists in Diablo 3.
Anyhow, it's an interesting topic, and I like your ideas, too.
