Critique my manscorpions

[JoeNotCharles]

I just created my first monster with the Adventure Tools! But I have a notoriously poor feel for balance, so I'm wondering if I went overboard on anything, or left something as more of a pushover than I expect. Do these look level-appropriate?

Note: the PC's have no major necrotic or radiant attacks at the moment, so the resistances/vulnerabilities are only for flavour - these are soldiers of the god of darkness and corruption who only come out at night - although I may give them a side quest to get some source of radiant damage after the first few encounters. Also, I'm using a house rule where all enemy HP is dropped to 80% of the standard, but they do extra damage. I haven't quite settled on how much - these were created by adding the level (11) to all standard attack damage, half level (5) to minor action attack damage, and the tier number (2) to all ongoing damage.


Manscorpion Halbardier Level 11 Soldier
Large Shadow Magical Beast XP 600
Initiative +9 Senses Perception +11; darkvision
HP 90; Bloodied 45
AC 27; Fortitude 24; Reflex 23; Will 22
Resist 10 necrotic; Vulnerable 10 radiant
Speed 8

m Halbard (standard; at-will) + Weapon
Reach 2; +18 vs AC; 2d6 + 16 damage and the target is marked until the start of the manscorpion's next turn
m Tail Sting (minor; at-will) + Poison
Reach 2; +16 vs Reflex; 1d8 + 10 damage and ongoing 7 poison damage
M Followup Strike (immediate interrupt, when an enemy marked by the manscorpion moves or makes an attack that does not include it; at-will) + Weapon
Reach 2; +18 vs AC; 2d6 + 16 damage
C Scything Burst (standard; encounter) + Weapon
Close Burst 2; +18 vs AC; 3d8 + 16 damage and the target is knocked prone

Alignment Chaotic Evil
Skills Dungeoneering +11, Stealth +12
Str 24 (+12) Dex 15 (+7) Wis 13 (+6)
Con 17 (+8) Int 13 (+6) Cha 12 (+6)
Equipment Halberd


I gave them the mark / Followup Strike combo because I wanted them to be slightly sticky without going as far as giving them threatening reach, and then Scything Burst to have a bit of a nova attack.

I'm a bit worried that the Tail Strike is too powerful for a minor action, but I don't want to force them to choose between a tail strike and halbard attack. And I have a dwarf in the party, but poison really hasn't come up for a while, so I felt it was time to give "poison damage (save ends)" some face time again.

Next up is the archer variant:


Manscorpion Archer Level 11 Soldier
Large Shadow Magical Beast XP 600
Initiative +10 Senses Perception +11; darkvision
HP 70; Bloodied 35
AC 23; Fortitude 23; Reflex 24; Will 22
Resist 10 necrotic; Vulnerable 10 radiant
Speed 8

m Scimitar (standard; at-will) + Weapon
+18 vs AC; 1d8 + 16 damage
m Tail Sting (minor; at-will) + Poison
Reach 2; +16 vs Reflex; 1d8 + 10 damage and ongoing 7 poison damage
r Greatbow (standard; at-will) + Weapon
Ranged 25/50; +18 vs AC; 2d6 + 16 damage
R Double Attack (standard; at-will) + Weapon
The manscorpion archer makes two greatbow attacks against a single target or against two targets within 3 squares of one another
R Arrow of Darkness (standard; recharge 5 6) + Weapon
Ranged 25/50; +16 vs Reflex; 3d8 + 16 necrotic damage and the target is blinded (save ends)

Alignment Chaotic Evil Languages: Common, Deep Speech
Skills Dungeoneering +11, Stealth +15
Str 18 (+9) Dex 21 (+10) Wis 13 (+6)
Con 17 (+8) Int 13 (+6) Cha 12 (+6)
Equipment Scimitar, Greatbow, 40 arrows


Nothing much to say about this one.

Finally the big gun. This one I have no idea if I've gone overboard or not far enough:


Manscorpion Captain Level 13 Elite Soldier
Large Shadow Magical Beast XP 1600
Initiative +11 Senses Perception +13; darkvision
HP 208; Bloodied 104
AC 29; Fortitude 26; Reflex 25; Will 25
Resist 20 necrotic; Vulnerable 10 radiant
Saving Throws +2
Speed 8
Action Points 1

m Halbard (standard; at-will) + Weapon
Reach 2; +20 vs AC; 2d8 + 19 damage and the target is marked until the start of the manscorpion's next turn
m Tail Sting (minor; at-will) + Poison
Reach 2; +18 vs Reflex; 1d10 + 12 damage and ongoing 7 poison damage
M Followup Strike (immediate interrupt, when an enemy marked by the manscorpion moves or makes an attack that does not include it; at-will) + Weapon
Reach 2; +20 vs AC; 2d8 + 19 damage
M Tactical Sweep (immediate interrupt, when an enemy marked by the manscorpion captain or one of its allies moves or makes an attack that does not include the captain; at-will) + Weapon
Reach 2; +18 vs Reflex; 1d10 + 12 damage and the target is knocked prone
C Scything Burst (standard; encounter) + Weapon
Close Burst 2; +20 vs AC; 3d10 + 19 damage and the target is knocked prone
C Night's Command (standard; recharge 5 6)
Close Burst 10; the manscorpion captain makes one of the following commands:
Kill the Unbelievers! - all manscorpion allies in the burst can make a basic attack as a free action
Surround Them! - all manscorpion allies in the burst can shift 2 squares as a free action
Strength From Darkness! - all manscorpion allies in the burst can spend a healing surge to heal 15 hp as a free action
Last-Ditch Command (free; encounter)
When the manscorpion caption is bloodied, Night's Command immediately recharges and the captain may use it as a free action

Alignment Chaotic Evil
Skills Dungeoneering +13, Stealth +14
Str 25 (+13) Dex 16 (+9) Wis 14 (+8)
Con 18 (+10) Int 14 (+8) Cha 16 (+9)
Equipment Halberd


I figured the Tactical Sweep would give it a nice synergy with its follwers marking ability - it (with its higher attack bonus) can hit and knock the victim prone first, giving the manscorpion who actually has the mark combat advantage for its Followup Strike. Or if a character is within reach of both the marking manscorpion and the captain, they'll have to choose which one to attack, and take an attack from the other.

I'm not sure if the commands are too powerful, though. Or if, at paragon tier, an elite needs something more than this. What do you think?

 

[JoeNotCharles]

The title of the thread just below this reminded me that I meant to add half level to damage, not the whole level. So all the damage expressions are about 5 points too high.

 

[Old_school_overlord]

A few thoughts:

For Manscorpion Archer, the roll looks like Artillery and Soldier is just a typo.

How about instead of Radiant Vulnerability, they are instead blinded until the start of their next turn if they take Radiant damage.

It's worth specifying the Tail Sting is 1/turn, you probably have this in mind, but these are pretty cool monsters, and someone might pick them up for use without realising this. Making the ongoing damage Poison and Necrotic would help reinforce their Shadow flavour.

Fights against large numbers of Soldiers can get grindy, would you consider retooling the Captain into a Brute/Skirmisher? Otherwise you have bodyguards protecting someone with even higher defences than themselves. For nights command your basically always going to use the "kill the Unbelievers" option, the other bits seem redundant, or likely to just prolong the fight.

Follow up strike is redundant on the Captain, you could tidy up the profile a little by dropping it.

The close bursts look like they probably only target enemies, but as written they don't currently.

Generally looks good though

 

[JoeNotCharles]

A few thoughts:

For Manscorpion Archer, the roll looks like Artillery and Soldier is just a typo.

Right. Cut-and-paste error.

How about instead of Radiant Vulnerability, they are instead blinded until the start of their next turn if they take Radiant damage.

The source material says they're cursed so that sunlight pains them, so I think radiant vulnerability is about right. I might add "grant combat advantage in direct sunlight" too.

It's worth specifying the Tail Sting is 1/turn, you probably have this in mind, but these are pretty cool monsters, and someone might pick them up for use without realising this. Making the ongoing damage Poison and Necrotic would help reinforce their Shadow flavour.

Good point, I'll add the 1/turn.

Does a dwarf's +5 to saves vs. poison apply to "poison and necrotic damage"? If not, I'm going to leave it as poison. (Unless the dwarf's player pisses me off.)

Fights against large numbers of Soldiers can get grindy, would you consider retooling the Captain into a Brute/Skirmisher? Otherwise you have bodyguards protecting someone with even higher defences than themselves. For nights command your basically always going to use the "kill the Unbelievers" option, the other bits seem redundant, or likely to just prolong the fight.

Yeah, I think I'll remove the healing option. I'll leave the shift though, it might have a tactical use, even if it's rarely used.

Follow up strike is redundant on the Captain, you could tidy up the profile a little by dropping it.

It's not redundant since it does more damage; maybe I'll just drop it and make Tactical Sweep do the full damage.

The close bursts look like they probably only target enemies, but as written they don't currently.

Whoops, I'll fix that too.

Thanks for the comments!

 

[Mesh Hong]

Here are my initial thoughts when looking at your creatures.

I will take it for granted that you are reducing the HPs to about 80% and adding half their level to damage, so instead of a +16 it should be +10 (inferred from another one of your posts).

Manscorpion Halbardier Level 11 Soldier
Large Shadow Magical Beast XP 600
Initiative +9 Senses Perception +11; darkvision
HP 90; Bloodied 45
AC 27; Fortitude 24; Reflex 23; Will 22
Resist 10 necrotic; Vulnerable 10 radiant
Speed 8

m Halbard (standard; at-will) + Weapon
Reach 2; +18 vs AC; 2d6 + 16 damage and the target is marked until the start of the manscorpion's next turn
m Tail Sting (minor; at-will) + Poison
Reach 2; +16 vs Reflex; 1d8 + 10 damage and ongoing 7 poison damage
M Followup Strike (immediate interrupt, when an enemy marked by the manscorpion moves or makes an attack that does not include it; at-will) + Weapon
Reach 2; +18 vs AC; 2d6 + 16 damage
C Scything Burst (standard; encounter) + Weapon
Close Burst 2; +18 vs AC; 3d8 + 16 damage and the target is knocked prone

Alignment Chaotic Evil
Skills Dungeoneering +11, Stealth +12
Str 24 (+12) Dex 15 (+7) Wis 13 (+6)
Con 17 (+8) Int 13 (+6) Cha 12 (+6)
Equipment Halberd

I like it. As already pointed out the Tail Sting needs to be 1/round but otherwise it is a solid soldier.

Manscorpion Archer Level 11 Soldier
Large Shadow Magical Beast XP 600
Initiative +10 Senses Perception +11; darkvision
HP 70; Bloodied 35
AC 23; Fortitude 23; Reflex 24; Will 22
Resist 10 necrotic; Vulnerable 10 radiant
Speed 8

m Scimitar (standard; at-will) + Weapon
+18 vs AC; 1d8 + 16 damage
m Tail Sting (minor; at-will) + Poison
Reach 2; +16 vs Reflex; 1d8 + 10 damage and ongoing 7 poison damage
r Greatbow (standard; at-will) + Weapon
Ranged 25/50; +18 vs AC; 2d6 + 16 damage
R Double Attack (standard; at-will) + Weapon
The manscorpion archer makes two greatbow attacks against a single target or against two targets within 3 squares of one another
R Arrow of Darkness (standard; recharge 5 6) + Weapon
Ranged 25/50; +16 vs Reflex; 3d8 + 16 necrotic damage and the target is blinded (save ends)

Alignment Chaotic Evil Languages: Common, Deep Speech
Skills Dungeoneering +11, Stealth +15
Str 18 (+9) Dex 21 (+10) Wis 13 (+6)
Con 17 (+8) Int 13 (+6) Cha 12 (+6)
Equipment Scimitar, Greatbow, 40 arrows

I think the Scimitar attack should be +16 vs AC (not +18), it is usal for artillery creatures to have a 2 lower melee attack, as they are specialised in ranged attacks.

The Tail Sting again should be 1/round.

Double Attack is pretty powerful, I would consider making it "1 or 2 targets", or in other words not able to target the same enemy with both attacks. If you did this you could drop the "within 3 squares of each other requirement".

I might actually consider making the standard Greatbow attack a 3d6+10 damage attack and keeping the Double Attack as a 2 targets 2d6+10 attack.

Manscorpion Captain Level 13 Elite Soldier
Large Shadow Magical Beast XP 1600
Initiative +11 Senses Perception +13; darkvision
HP 208; Bloodied 104
AC 29; Fortitude 26; Reflex 25; Will 25
Resist 20 necrotic; Vulnerable 10 radiant
Saving Throws +2
Speed 8
Action Points 1

m Halbard (standard; at-will) + Weapon
Reach 2; +20 vs AC; 2d8 + 19 damage and the target is marked until the start of the manscorpion's next turn
m Tail Sting (minor; at-will) + Poison
Reach 2; +18 vs Reflex; 1d10 + 12 damage and ongoing 7 poison damage
M Followup Strike (immediate interrupt, when an enemy marked by the manscorpion moves or makes an attack that does not include it; at-will) + Weapon
Reach 2; +20 vs AC; 2d8 + 19 damage
M Tactical Sweep (immediate interrupt, when an enemy marked by the manscorpion captain or one of its allies moves or makes an attack that does not include the captain; at-will) + Weapon
Reach 2; +18 vs Reflex; 1d10 + 12 damage and the target is knocked prone
C Scything Burst (standard; encounter) + Weapon
Close Burst 2; +20 vs AC; 3d10 + 19 damage and the target is knocked prone
C Night's Command (standard; recharge 5 6)
Close Burst 10; the manscorpion captain makes one of the following commands:
Kill the Unbelievers! - all manscorpion allies in the burst can make a basic attack as a free action
Surround Them! - all manscorpion allies in the burst can shift 2 squares as a free action
Strength From Darkness! - all manscorpion allies in the burst can spend a healing surge to heal 15 hp as a free action
Last-Ditch Command (free; encounter)
When the manscorpion caption is bloodied, Night's Command immediately recharges and the captain may use it as a free action

Alignment Chaotic Evil
Skills Dungeoneering +13, Stealth +14
Str 25 (+13) Dex 16 (+9) Wis 14 (+8)
Con 18 (+10) Int 14 (+8) Cha 16 (+9)
Equipment Halberd

Tail Sting, as before should be 1/round.

Tactical Sweep seems a little cruel to me, an attack that triggers off any mark (not just his own) could get quite confusing. This is not something I would personally do, but that doesn't mean it is wrong!

Nights Command has a choice of actions that are by no means equal.
-All creatures inside burst 10 making a free attack could get very messy, I think it should probably be up to three creatures inside burst.
-All creatures shifting 2 squares is alright. I think I would normally grant an immediate free move action (so they could either shift 1 or move their speed), shift 2 is ok and on balance is probably worth teh same as a move action (pros and cons).
-spend a healing surge and regain 15 HPs. I would avoid any reference to healing surges, either regain HPs or grant Temporary HPs. In this case granting all allies in teh burst 15 Temporary HPs might be a good way to go.

What the Captain is really missing is a double attack, which is amusing as the standard artillery has one and the elite leader doesn't

As an elite he should have an at will multi attack, in this case the easiest is a Double Halbard. But you could instead have an attack that also granted an ally a free attack against the same target.

Anyway, I hope these comments help.

 

[JoeNotCharles]

For the Double Arrow, I took a look at other paragon tier archers, and both Rakshasa Archer and Salamander Archer get that ability. (It's even identical, IIRC.) So I just followed suit.

 

[Old_school_overlord]

Does a dwarf's +5 to saves vs. poison apply to "poison and necrotic damage"? If not, I'm going to leave it as poison. (Unless the dwarf's player pisses me off.)

My understanding is that it would - in reverse to how resistances would work admittedly. Probably not that big a deal, and maybe a better idea to give a bunch of them necrotic powers to underline the connection.

I like the new MMIII method of not giving monsters resistances and instead having the monsters punish you for using a less appropriate damage type against them.

So how about:
Trait:When a Manscorpion takes Necrotic damage, its damage increases by 5 until the end of it's next turn.

I'd also like to see the Archers poisoning their arrows, how about:

Apply Venom (minor; at will)
All ranged attacks Manscorpion archer makes this turn gain ongoing 7 poison damage (save ends) on a hit.

Worth trimming a couple of points off the attacks base damage if you decide to do this. Extra reasons for doing this below...

I'd really like to see more options for you for your encounter design, here are the powers for an extra elite Skirmisher. I've used Nil as the name of their Deity, in honour of the "Way of the Tiger" adventure books, which also had a manscorpion:

Manscorpion Nightdancer lvl 12 elite Skirmisher
*some numbers*
Spear (standard; at-will) + Weapon
Reach 2; +17 vs AC; 2d6 + 12 damage

Tail Sting (minor; at-will) + Poison
Reach 2; +15 vs Reflex; 1d8 + 6 damage and ongoing 7 poison damage (Save Ends)

Scorpion Dance (standard; at-will) + Weapon
Reach 2; +17 vs AC; 2d6 + 12 damage, Two Attacks. Nightdancer can shift 1 square before or after each attack.

Skittering Assault (standard; Recharge 5,6)
Manscorpion Nightdancer Shifts 8 squares and makes Spear attacks against up to 4 targets at any point during the movement.

Prey on the Weak (Trait)
Manscorpion Captain deals an extra 2d6 Damage to targets taking ongoing Poison damage.

Nil's Castigation (Standard; Encounter)
Close Blast 5; Targets creatures taking ongoing poison damage; +14 vs Fortitude; 3D8 + 9 necrotic damage and target is weakend and slowed (save ends both).


It would be nice to also maybe a have a Controler with some powers to target will/fort, at the moment these guys only target AC & Reflex...

Manscorpion Zealot of Nil lvl 14 Elite Controller
*some numbers*
Ritual Knife (standard; at will)
+19 vs AC; 1D8+12 damage.

Tail Sting (minor; at-will) + Poison
Reach 2; +17 vs Reflex; 1D8 + 7 damage and ongoing 7 poison damage (Save Ends)

Baleful Stare (Standard; At will)
Range 10; 1 or 2 targets; +17 vs Will; 1D12 +12 Necrotic damage and target takes a -5 penalty to saves until the end of Zealot of Nil's next turn.

Invoke the Blood of Nill (Standard; Recharge 5,6)
Blast 5; Targets creatures taking ongoing Poison damage; +15 vs Fortitude; The targets ongoing poison damage increases to ongoing 30 poison (save ends).

Majesty of Nil (Standard; Recharge 5,6)
Burst 3; Targets Enemies; +15 vs Will; 3D8 +14 Necrotic damage and target is pushed 3 squares and knocked prone.