D&D 4E Dungeons of Dread Preview 1 - 4e stuff!

[catsclaw227]

I found the latest Dungeons of Dread Mini preview pretty interesting.

Here's the text for those that can't see it.

Ascendant Hellsword
The Ascendant Hellsword is an Evil champion for the Civilization faction. This elite brute's Infernal Slash increases positional changes on the battlefield. No longer do we have games of static figures mindlessly swinging at each other. Watch out, Bodyguard!

The roleplaying side is a slightly higher-level version of the Cambion Hellsword as seen in the Monster Manual. Instead of a late Heroic-tier enemy, this will be seen more often in early Paragon play. The full roleplaying statistics will need to wait until the set is released.

Fen Hydra
Gone is Dual Activation; bring on Multi-Activation! To mimic the solo nature of the Fen Hydra in the Dungeons & Dragons RPG, this Large creature has the ability to activate twice in a round. The attacks and hit points are dialed down slightly from the Monster Manual, but it does have the ability to increase its number of attacks as it is damaged. With Multi-Activation 2 and New Heads, a bloodied Fen Hydra can dish out a potential 80 damage in one round, not including critical hits!

You'll notice some changes from the 3rd Edition Hydra. Gone is the dinosaur body; this is not an unintelligent, wingless dragon with multiple heads. Instead, this Large creature fills its own unique niche. As you fight it, it sprouts new heads. This guy gets more and more dangerous as the fight continues!


Chillborn
What's better than a mob of zombies? A mob of Chillborn zombies! This common zombie is appropriate for mid-Heroic tier encounters. Rogues are no longer useless against these guys, because there's no immunity to Sneak Attack here. Zombie head-shot, here we come!

Looks like there's a monster called a Cambion Hellsword in the 4e MM, a Late Heroic tier monster, while this advanced version is a Paragon level baddie.

Infernal Slash: Attack each adjacent enemy once, +12 vs. AC; place target up to 3 squares away in line of sight, then deal 20 fire OR 20 cold damage.

That's cool Wicked Awesome! (per Le Rouse Memo)

 

[Nymrohd]

And Hydras are solo monsters! Gnarly!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Good catch

 

[Scott_Rouse]

And Hydras are solo monsters! Gnarly!

I am glad to see the memo is reaching people.

Marketing wins!

 

[Dragonbait]

Dang.. I actually want to start buying minis again and playing DDM.. Uh-oh..

Personally, I like the solo hydra idea. I don't know if I like the serpentine form, but meh, I can adjust.

Edit: In accordance with the memo: The new minis are ripping.

 

[Nymrohd]

Oh yeah they are so fetch.

Though I still prefer using tokens on my battlemat.

 

[humble minion]

I'm just happy because the Ascendant Hellsword is going to make a great Cold Captain Wyther once my Savage Tide PCs reach Scuttlecove...

(Yes, I AM self-centred, why do you ask?)

 

[Darrell]

Let me preface this by saying that I'm one of the 'I'm probably not gonna go 4e' crowd.
I am, however still gonna be buyin' D&D Minis, 'cuz I like 'em.

That having been said, here is my take:

Ascendant Hellsword...
...eh. I don't use cambions in my campaigns, so it does nothing for me. Looks pretty good, though. Trade fodder, as far as I'm concerned.

Fen Hydra...
I like it. Conceptually, the multi-headed serpent-ish thing instead of a multi-headed dragon-ish thing seems, somehow, more evocative to me. Probably because I can actually see using it. I throw 'snaky' critters at my players with some regularity, but 'dragony' encounters are few and far-between. This one is more of a 'boss snake.' Best of the three.

Chillborn (Zombie)...
Don't care much for the 'cold' aspect, but he looks like a pretty decent new zombie sculpt, and ya can't have too many zombies. I'll try to get about five or so.

2 hits, 1 miss...not bad for the first preview.

Well, that's enough outta me...

Regards,
Darrell

 

[Guacamole]

Three New Monsters

Ascendant Hellsword (Cambion mentioned in preview!)
Fen Hydra
Chillborn Zombie

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mi/20080131b

The cards with the mini stats are on there but my tired eyes can't make much out. Have fun!

 

[Benimoto]

The other interesting thing is that it seems that we'll have a pretty large supply of 4th edition stat blocks at the end of the month, since there's a Dungeons of Dread prerelease every day at DDXP, and all the cards seem to come with 4th edition RPG stats on the back. I wonder what secrets will survive the con...