Duergar have Quills

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Well, according to the new MM2, duergar are still evil dwarves who frolic with demons. Now, however, they have...quills.

They are the porcupines of the evil humanoid ranks.

This is an interesting approach to monster design that I've never considered -- merging characteristics with small mammals. From now on, drow, rather than living underground, should hibernate all day and hang by tails from tree branches. Gnolls will carry baby gnolls in pouches and hop arounnd wherever they go. Bugbears will have black and white fur and eat bamboo.

Any other ideas? Halfling on a piano eating popcorn?

 

[jbear]

Maybe confused am I but for some reason Duergar shooting poisoned quills doesn't seem like something new... couldn't they do that in 3.5?

I could be mistaken... but it sounds very familiar.

 

[Morrus]

They had 'em in Thunderspire, so I'm not surprised they have 'em in MM2.

 

[kenmarable]

Maybe confused am I but for some reason Duergar shooting poisoned quills doesn't seem like something new... couldn't they do that in 3.5?

I could be mistaken... but it sounds very familiar.

Nope and nope. The weirdest the duergar ever got was psionics. I hadn't read MM2, so I was kinda confused by the whole quill thing as well. I really like 4e as a system, but some of the particular changes just seem odd to me. Ah well, I'm free to have my duergar be as quilled or not as I like.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Maybe confused am I but for some reason Duergar shooting poisoned quills doesn't seem like something new... couldn't they do that in 3.5?

I could be mistaken... but it sounds very familiar.

No, no...they had the generic "enlarge and turn invisible" abilities. Now, those are used only by certain flavors of duergar. They ALL shoot quills, now. Perhaps the pen is mightier than the sword (even when wielded by a giant evil dwarf)?

 

[ferratus]

The Durzagon (sp?), Duegar/Devil crossbreeds had poisoned quills in their beards. In 4e, all Duegar became Durzagon to distinguish the flavour text of the Duegar race a little further from the Drow.

 

[kenmarable]

The Durzagon (sp?), Duegar/Devil crossbreeds had poisoned quills in their beards. In 4e, all Duegar became Durzagon to distinguish the flavour text of the Duegar race a little further from the Drow.

Ah... that makes some sense. Yet again it's a "we need to distinguish this more" that I was already happy with, but to each their own. I had forgotten about the durzagon, so at least the change came from somewhere. Thanks!

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Honestly, I don't have a problem with most of the 4th edition changes to creatures like the barghest, the sphinx, or the metallic dragons. The residium mechanic for the rust monster on first glance doesn't feel right, but I understand why it was done that way.

The quills are just funny to me. Do they crossbreed with spined or barbed devils? The practical aspects of that are kind of mind-boggling...

 

[ferratus]

In 3e it was bearded devils actually. I suppose it could be barbed and spined devils in 4e, given that the quills are no longer confined to their beards.

I actually find the Duegar/Infernal Warlock connection, and the fact that Dwarves make good infernal warlocks and summoner wizards to be the best alignment of flavour text and stats in the game. If all the arcanists in my society were warlocks and demon summoners I'd be prejudiced against and hate arcane magic too! How awesome is that?

 

[CM]

I thought this was odd too (not exactly moral outrage, more "meh"), and just changed the flavor text to it being a thrown dart they could use as a minor encounter power or basic ranged attack.