Dungeons of Dread Preview 4

[frankthedm]

The HP for both the monsters, I'd bet, is artificially low in the miniatures game. We already saw that the Balhannoth had closer to 80 hp on the RPG side, back when the RPG side of the cards were briefly flashed on the GamerZer0 video podcast. And in in preview 2, Peter Lee mentioned that he had lowered the amount of HP the hydra had to make it more playable in the skirmish game.

The skirmish game features fairly even forces, and so I would guess that combats take longer than fights in the RPG, where the characters typically have the advantage. To make up for this, they lower HP levels in the skirmish game. Or at least that's my understanding of the design philosophy here.

This was my understanding as well.

The fire Archon in Desert of Desolation is immune to fire.

So even if energy immunities are disappearing from the RPG, they're still in skirmish.

Those skirmish stats and 3E RPG stats were based on 3E standards, Even when translated back to 4th edition in the later 4E stat card PDF, things with immunities kept their immunities other than the original 4E previews, like the spine devil.


[IMaGel]http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mi20080221a_immo.jpg[/IMaGel] Looks like this guy smoldered over from from Dreamblade to me.

 

[megamania]

I like the subtle oriental flavor of the Immolith and its art.

Kinda reminds me of the demon from Samuri Jack

 

[Callikah]

Aku!

 

[frankthedm]

Aku!

has Jazz hands!

Yes, it does look like a fiery yōkai.

 

[OgreBane99]

I'm surprised no one's commented on the changes to the abilities/powers of the Balhannoth. If I remember correctly, the Balhannoth was from 3.5 MMIV (and the only new creature I liked in that book). In 3.5 it used a lot of antimagic stuff, such as an aura and an "antimagic grapple." I remembered using one in a campaign and liked how the encounter went.

Granted, instant teleport sounds fun too, but no antimagic grapple?

 

[LEHaskell]

This seems very odd to me. Why exactly would a fire elemental be hurt by a fireball no matter how big a blast you can make? Maybe it's too 'videogamey' but I'd expect such a hairbrained plan to actually heal it.

The best example of this I can think of is from BASTARD! the anime. A fire efreet is used to attack the hero character, Dark Schneider who was a fire casting wizard. The Efreet laughed at DS's casting of a fire spell saying he was immune to puny mortal fire spells. At which time, DS unleashed his Halloween spell (nasty big fire boom burn spell) and litterally out-burned the efreet.

I see that same thing happening in a D&D game. The player summons a fire archon to deal with the red dragon, figuring it will last a while due to it's resistance to fire, and since it attacks with a sword, can beat on the dragon. The dragon muses, then immolates the fire archon with heat it had never felt before....

Ktulu

Hmmm....that's a novel approach: "It's OK, it's not really videogamey, more anime." That'll stop the hate.

 

[Zamkaizer]

I'm surprised no one's commented on the changes to the abilities/powers of the Balhannoth. If I remember correctly, the Balhannoth was from 3.5 MMIV (and the only new creature I liked in that book). In 3.5 it used a lot of antimagic stuff, such as an aura and an "antimagic grapple." I remembered using one in a campaign and liked how the encounter went.

Granted, instant teleport sounds fun too, but no antimagic grapple?

Isn't every grapple effectively an antimagic grapple?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

My initial thought on seeing those 2 monsters was WTF??? The Balhannoth looks like the brother of the Chaos Monster while the Immolith looks like he snuck out of an unreleased Dreamblade set. Is it just me or do those hands look like he auditioning for a Broadway musical?

I haven't checked out the stats too much but if I ever use them in a game I doubt I'll be using those minis for them.

Olaf the Stout

 

[WhatGravitas]

Granted, instant teleport sounds fun too, but no antimagic grapple?

Well, it's still a mini stat card, right? The RPG version could be much more verbose and detailed...

EDIT: Does DDM even have grapple?

Cheers, LT.

 

[Stogoe]

Looks like this guy smoldered over from from Dreamblade to me.

Good! That minis game had some incredible sculpts - much better than D&D minis have ever put out. The Flame Harrower is just plain awesome, and more D&D flame-creatures should have minis that good.