Dragon 372 - Ampersand: Summoning, Arcane Power Preview, and Mordain the Fleshweaver

[Byronic]

Fire Warrior does seem a bit... weak. Especially for a level 1 daily.

You have to use a standard action to make the Fire Warrior attack, which does 1d8 + Int damage.

What makes this better then a Cloud of daggers, which does (on average) 1 less damage but is an auto hit? Of a Magic Missle?

Is it the opportunity attack? Is it the ability to move him about and use him for flanking purposes?

 

[BarkingDeathSquirrel]

Fire Warrior does seem a bit... weak. Especially for a level 1 daily.

You have to use a standard action to make the Fire Warrior attack, which does 1d8 + Int damage.

What makes this better then a Cloud of daggers, which does (on average) 1 less damage but is an auto hit? Of a Magic Missle?

Is it the opportunity attack? Is it the ability to move him about and use him for flanking purposes?

The worst part (IMO) is that the Angel of Fire's attack does the exact damage damage, but to all targets adjacent to it... (it also has the same opportunity attack as well...)

Sure, I guess the Fire Warrior has +2 AC/Fort over most summons, but... I doubt that will really make a difference in the long run.

The Fire Warrior needs some kind of extra effect, my vote is for Marking targets with its Standard Action attack like the Arrowhawk does.

 

[Rechan]

The Fire Warrior needs some kind of extra effect, my vote is for Marking targets with its Standard Action attack like the Arrowhawk does.

Here's my suggestion:

Marking like the Arrowhawk does, and anyone who hits the fire warrior takes (ability score bonus) worth of fire damage. Likely either Con or Dex, not Int.

 

[Cadfan]

I don't think the Fire Warrior is the best, but, if you assume that a summoning wizard is going to focus on feats that improve his summoning abilities, his own AC, and his own hit points, it might be awfully tough to kill. If you have a leather armor wizard with an 18 intelligence, the Fire Warrior clocks in at AC 18.

I like the guys who mark with opportunity attacks way better, but I can see the Fire Warrior being viable.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Back when I was running an Eberron game, I was actually going to get my party to seek out his help.

Back when I was running an Eberron game I did this very thing - it was a blast!

Problem - the queen of Breland has been killed with a Keepers Fang. It is all being kept hush-hush and the party, as the most powerful people in Breland (~8th level) are commissioned to recover her body.

Research reveals that only one person has ever rescued someone from the Keepers domain before... Mordain the fleshweaver.

The PCs unearth some Xoriat secrets as introductory presents, and manage an audience with Mordain, of whom they are all about as scared as scared can be. Most of their interaction was via a homunculous who had a different number of limbs and features each time they saw him as a result of his masters whims.

Mordain agreed to help the party if they completed 4 research missions for him first, and he gave them five options to choose from. He used a mirror of mental prowess to transport them to the location and observe their progress.

Unfortunately on their last mission the party end up killing the young gold dragon children of an ancient golden dragon archmage; moreover a golden dragon archmage who had access to an artifact known as the 'web of motes' which allows skilled users to track the relationships between people.

The last they saw of Mordain was him in panic forcing them through the mirror into the demon wastes near the entrance to the keepers demesne after a short debate with himself about wiping them out utterly in order to reduce the likelihood of the dragon tracking them back to a relationship with him.

The party did eventually succeed in their mission (although with many deaths along the way), they will always remember their creepy audiences with Mordain and his homunculi.

Cheers

 

[Rechan]

Back when I was running an Eberron game I did this very thing - it was a blast!

My campaign was "Turn Desolation (Demon Wastes town that kept going Roanoke) into a vibrant colony for Cyre refugees". The plan was that, in order to get crops that could grow in the ravaged Demon Wastes, the PCs had to seek out Mordain to help them engineer some suitable foodstuff. An alternative plot was to engineer a vaccine to deal with an abyssal virus.

My vision of Mordain was similar to Hannibal Lector; polite, prim, charming. But if you were rude, he'd turn you inside out (but leave you alive and conscious), then continue being his charming self. His appearance was perfect, even by elf standards, but occasionally you'd see something poke against the inside of his cheek, or stretch the skin of his stomach out, like something was in there wiggling around, but he'd pay it no mind like it was a nervous tick. All of this while he's surrounded by his menagerie.

I could even see giving Mordain a version of a phylactery, but more organic; unless it's destroyed, if he is killed, a clone is hatched from the phylactery. And, planting this cocoon inside something like a huge flesh golem, or something equally big and nasty, held inside a secret chamber. To be real mean, there's no limit on how many of these he could have (although I would say two would be a reasonable maximum just for the sake of argument).

Like I said, Mordain was my favorite NPC.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

My campaign was "Turn Desolation (Demon Wastes town that kept going Roanoke) into a vibrant colony for Cyre refugees". The plan was that, in order to get crops that could grow in the ravaged Demon Wastes, the PCs had to seek out Mordain to help them engineer some suitable foodstuff. An alternative plot was to engineer a vaccine to deal with an abyssal virus.

My vision of Mordain was similar to Hannibal Lector; polite, prim, charming. But if you were rude, he'd turn you inside out (but leave you alive and conscious), then continue being his charming self. His appearance was perfect, even by elf standards, but occasionally you'd see something poke against the inside of his cheek, or stretch the skin of his stomach out, like something was in there wiggling around, but he'd pay it no mind like it was a nervous tick. All of this while he's surrounded by his menagerie.

I could even see giving Mordain a version of a phylactery, but more organic; unless it's destroyed, if he is killed, a clone is hatched from the phylactery. And, planting this cocoon inside something like a huge flesh golem, or something equally big and nasty, held inside a secret chamber. To be real mean, there's no limit on how many of these he could have (although I would say two would be a reasonable maximum just for the sake of argument).

Like I said, Mordain was my favorite NPC.

And with your description, I think he'd be one of my favorites, too. I'll have to keep him (and you) in mind if I ever get to run (or play) Eberron.

 

[The_Fan]

Yeah, he would need to be hit by a power that does both. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but there's probably some out there (or will be at some point).

It looks like the only one that can do it is the Planshifter Dimensional Cascade power. Starlock's Coldfire Vortex only does Cold OR Radian, not both. However, I believe it would work if you use one power that does cold and another that does radiant. So if your cleric does Radiant and then your wizard dos cold, then the regen would not work.

 

[Engilbrand]

I used him in a game as a demigod. He was a Wizard who had become too powerful and had started to experiment on everything in a large area. I used the Forest of Flesh article. There were Doppelgangers in the area who were searching for artifacts which would bring back their deity, Mordain the Fleshweaver, Mordain the Healer, Mordain the Changer.
When alive, he attracted the attention of numerous Clerics and Wizards. They tried to kill him, but he was like Rasputin. He wouldn't stay dead. They sent him to a plane connecting the Shadowfell to the Far Realm.
The Doppelgangers were able to channel his power into rituals that changed them. This was how I introduced Genasi. The first time they fought a Genasi Swordmage, they had no idea what was going on. It was good stuff.
We never got to the end, but there was a good chance to him coming back and laying waste.

 

[CardinalXimenes]

Here's my suggestion:

Marking like the Arrowhawk does, and anyone who hits the fire warrior takes (ability score bonus) worth of fire damage. Likely either Con or Dex, not Int.

Remember that the Fire Warrior has Fly 6 for movement. It's a 1st level daily that gives you a perfectly obedient and expendable flying minion (complete with opposable thumbs) for five minutes. If a wizard can't get any out-of-combat mileage out of that, he's not trying.