Dungeons of Dread Preview 5

[Reaper Steve]

DDM Preview 5 Up

Preview 5

I need to read it myself!

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

Dungeons of Dread Preview 5 is up on Gleemax, featuring the Howling Hag and the Angel of Valor:

This weekend, hundreds of people will get their first chance to play both 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons and the new D&D Miniatures Game. Both games will be unveiled at D&D Experience in Arlington, Virginia. There is a definite buzz around the office -- after what for some people here is years of development, we finally get to show off the new games!

By the end of the weekend, convention participants will have seen the majority of figures in Dungeons of Dread?. For the rest of you, we have a preview with two monsters being introduced to the Dungeons & Dragons universe in the new Monster Manual.

Howling Hag

Howling HagHags have been a staple in D&D for years and this continues with 4th Edition. The lowest-level hag in the new Monster Manual is the Howling Hag. This 7th-level controller is often found mixed up with a few dumb brutes like trolls and ogres. By hiding behind these bulky melee thumpers, the Howling Hag is free to use her short-ranged area attacks to assault a party. A hag isn't restricted to just combat encounters, either. All hags have an at-will ability to change their appearance into a form more acceptable to civilized society. For the Howling Hag, this form is an old crone of any medium race.

For the miniatures battle game, her ability to control the battlefield is clearly evident in her attack actions. When her Baleful Whispers attack hits a target, it is affected by ongoing damage that ends only when the target ends its move in a square farther from the hag. It also has an easy way to recharge Baleful Whispers -- if no enemies are affected by the power, it recharges!

Angel of Valor

Angel of ValorYou got the first glimpse of the new concept of angels with Desert of Desolation's Angel of Vengeance. Our second look is the Angel of Valor, a level 8 soldier. The Angel of Valor is the rank and file fighter of the angelic army -- it's the lowest-level angel in the Monster Manual entry. The usefulness of this miniature isn't restricted to just encounters in the late heroic tier. There are alternate versions of the Angel of Valor as minions for encounters all the way to 21st level.

I think this guy has quite a bit of potential for the D&D Miniatures battle game. At 30 points, you can use quite a few of them in a 200-point warband. It may not be as good a striker/skirmisher as the Everfrost Ranger, but that's not the role it has. This is a soldier designed to protect more vulnerable creatures. The Angel does this with a close attack that can stun adjacent enemies as well as a decent basic attack that can target the typically lower DEF(Ref) value.

Next week: two large monsters.

 

[Reaper Steve]

I beat you by 4 minutes!
But you posted the whole thing, so I vote for yours to stay.

I like... but it frustrates me that the lowliest rank-and-file angel is a rare. I hope I'm not expected to use more than 1 or 2 at a time.

 

[Zamkaizer]

"Lightning strikes again; lightning strikes again and again and again!"

 

[Kunimatyu]

Shrieking Hag looks like a lot of fun.

I'm not really digging on the Angel's look, though, and I'm not thrilled with the "foot soldier" of the angels being a rare. It's not quite as bad as if a Legion Devil was rare, but not much better either.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

I beat you by 4 minutes!


But you posted the whole thing, so I vote for yours to stay.

Posting the whole thing is what took the precious 4 minutes!

The mods will probably just merge the threads.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I personally really like the look of the new angels

Though probably nothing will ever beat Diablo angels for awesomeness.

I don't see any problem with angels being rare. I figure they are the personal servants of the Gods, they should be rare. Celestials and such will probably be the ones that are more common.

 

[Glyfair]

For some reason, the Angel of Valor reminds me a lot of the Mage Knight Solonavi.

 

[Voss]

Huh. I rather like the hag's set of abilities. Don't know if the damage will stay the same in 4e proper, but Baleful whispers is nasty. A hit and one failed saves drops an average 7th level rogue (Con 14 =56 hp) down to bloodied. And an area effect.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I really like the look of the new angels

Though probably nothing will ever beat Diablo angels for awesomeness.