Elder Rage Drake

[dragonis111]

Elder Rage Drake Level 3 Solo Brute
Large natural beast (mount, reptile) XP 600

Initiative +4 Senses Perception +4
HP 162; Bloodied 81; see also bloodied rage
AC 20; Fortitude 18, Refl ex 16, Will 15
Saving Throws +3; +6 when bloodied; see also bloodied rage.
Immune to fear (while bloodied only)
Speed 8; 10 when bloodied; see also bloodied rage
Action Points 1 (gains a second action point when bloodied)

Bite (standard; at-will) - Basic Melee Attack
+11 vs. AC; 1d12 + 6 damage; see also bloodied rage.

Claw (standard; at-will)
+10 vs. AC; 1d8 + 6 damage; see also bloodied rage.

Raking Charge (standard; at-will)
When the rage drake charges, it makes two claw attacks against
a single target.

Draconic Fury (standard; recharges when first bloodied)
The drake makes two claw attacks. If the drake hits a single
target with both claws, it makes a bite attack against the same
target.

Knockdown Sweep (Standard; recharges when first bloodied)
+8 vs reflex; Hit: 1d8 + 6 damage; targets all enemies within reach 2 and the hit targets are pushed two squares and knocked Prone.

Frightful Presence (standard; recharges when first bloodied) ✦ Fear
Close burst 5; targets enemies; +6 vs. Will; the targets are stunned
until the end of the dragon’s next turn. Aftereffect: The targets
take a –2 penalty to attack rolls (save ends).

Grab (Standard; at-will)
+11 vs Reflex. Hit: the enemy is grabbed and immobilized (escape ends). Sustain minor.

While an opponent is grabbed, the drake can use his bite attack with Combat Advantage against the grabbed opponent. If the grabbed opponent is Medium or smaller, the drake's rider (if mounted) cannot make a melee attack against the grabbed opponent.

Bloodied Rampage (immediate reaction, when first bloodied)
The rage drake immediately uses draconic fury followed up by knockdown sweep.


Bloodied Rage (while bloodied)
The rage drake immediately ends all affects that require a save, gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls and deals an extra 5 damage per attack, along with a +3 power bonus to saving throws and a +2 power bonus to speed.

Raging Mount (while bloodied and mounted by a friendly rider of
8th level or higher; at-will) ✦ Mount
The rage drake grants its rider a +2 bonus to attack rolls and
damage rolls with melee attacks.

Alignment Unaligned Languages —

Str 19 (+6) Dex 15 (+4) Wis 13 (+3)
Con 19 (+6) Int 3 (–2) Cha 12 (+3)

 

[Amaroq]

I've got one which I've been riding as a Mount, which my DM has had level up with the party, leaving his as follows:

Fang Level 13 Brute
Large Natural Beast (mount, reptile) XP 800

Initiative +9 Senses Perception +9
HP 160; Bloodied 80
AC 25; Fortitude 25, Reflex 23, Will 23
Immune fear (while bloodied)
Speed 8

Claw (Standard; at-will) - Basic Melee Attack
+16 vs AC; 1d10 + 6 damage

Bite (Standard; at-will)
+17 vs AC; Hit: 2d8 + 6 damage.
Critical: the target is Grabbed; see below.

Raking Charge (Standard; at-will)
When Fang charges, he may choose to make either: one bite attack; two claw attacks; or one bull rush attempt. Fang gets a +1 bonus to any attack rolls.

Charging ends the turn of both Fang and his rider.

Knockdown Swipe (Standard; encounter)
+14 vs Fortitude; Hit: 2d8 + 6 damage; the target is pushed two squares and knocked Prone.

Ferocious Hunger (Standard; daily) ♦ Reliable
+14 vs Reflex. Target: one adjacent prone, restrained, or immobilized enemy, or an enemy which Fang has grabbed.

Hit: 4d10 + 6 damage and the opponent is grabbed. (Sustain minor)

If this attack kills the opponent, Fang spends a round savaging the body; see "Grab", below, for details.

Grab (Standard; at-will) ♦ Default Action
+14 vs Reflex. Hit: the enemy is grabbed and immobilized (escape ends). Sustain minor.

While an opponent is grabbed, Fang can use his Bite attack with Combat Advantage against the grabbed opponent. If the grabbed opponent is Medium or smaller, Fang's rider (if mounted) cannot make a melee attack against the grabbed opponent.

If the opponent dies while grabbed, Fang spends the next round savaging the body. Until the end of his next turn, he cannot take a Standard action, and his Move action is limited to a 1-square-shift.

Bloodied Rage
While bloodied, Fang gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls and deals an extra 5 damage per attack.

If ridden as a mount, Fang grants his rider Combat Advantage for any melee attack while the drake is bloodied.

Unique Bond
Fang can only be ridden by his bonded rider, and will not willingly suffer himself to be ridden by anyone else.

This restriction may be overcome for one encounter or 5 minutes with a successful Intimidate or Diplomacy check of DC 30, but the rider does not gain any of the benefits of riding Fang as a mount even if he has the Mounted Combat feat.

Failure of said check by 5 or more points causes Fang to attack the would-be-rider as though s/he were an enemy, until they successfully make a DC 30 Diplomacy or Nature check to calm him back down - and the would-be-rider may not attempt to ride him again until 5 minutes have passed.

Alignment Unaligned
Skills Athletics +17, Endurance +16, Intimidate +14

Str 23 (+12) Dex 17 (+9) Wis 17 (+9)
Con 21 (+11) Int 7 (+4) Cha 16 (+9)

 

[Amaroq]

It was a very different take on the same basic idea, so I thought you'd enjoy it by way of comparison!

Other than that, yours looks pretty cool. I like the Draconic Fury one, really gets it in touch with its draconic heritage. Compare him with the L3 Solo Young White Dragon, though, and he still feels a little weak, especially if you pitted him as a Solo against 4 Level 3 characters I think he'd go down pretty easily.

He might be well suited to pick up some kind of "Burst 1" ppower, some kind of push+prone power, or something else to slow the rate of incoming fire. Maybe a heavy paw swipe which knocks prone and daze(save ends) a target?

 

[dragonis111]

Amarog(I like how your dm leveled your rage drake) first take note that he is huge not large size in case you didn't catch that improvement, I gave him your grab but adjusted the +14 to +11, and I gave him knockdown sweep, +8 versus reflex doing 1d8+6 knocking back all hit targets 2 squares and prone. But it recharges when first bloodied, so this guy will be like he got a 5 minute rest when you bloody him, recharging all his encounter powers and gaining bloodied rage on top of that. (I edited both of those into my original post) Lastly I feel he should have one more recharging encounter power, but I don't know what it could be, any thoughts on it? (man I have edited this reply like 10 times now)

 

[Amaroq]

Yeah, one more good Encounter power would really make your guy, I think. Just brainstorming, no thought of "balance" yet, here's some ideas:

Roar, fear, burst/blast, weakens (save ends)

Pin, special attack vs prone target

Savage, special attack vs prone or grabbed target

Some kind of movement/attack power, maybe:

Trampling Charge, charge target X and trample any Medium creatures between you and X?

Tail Sweep, burst, when flanked

What about a Minor attack power, or an Immediate Interrupt/Reaction?

....

Personally I'd save Huge for later levels, but that's just personal preference .. and probably influenced by cost of minis!

You probably want to remove the "Spends a Standard savaging the body" bit, that was more role-play for our misbehaving puppy of a rage drake (plus a balance thing, usually he makes that awesome 4 attack but misses his next turn).

Or, you could conceivably make an interesting sub-game out of that by having him worrying the body, but giving it an actual in-game effect which hastens the "body" towards death. (E.g., worry, standard, at-will, force an additional death save.) That would put the heat on the rest of the party to rescue their fallen comrade quickly rather than just focus fire on the bad guy.

For levelling up monster we use either the Monster Builder tool from D&D Insider, or the freely available Monster Maker tool... both very good tools.

 

[dragonis111]

Hey Amarog, I added in frightful presence that recharges when first bloodied, took away savaging the body from the grab, brought him back down to large, gave him an action point, he now has a +2 to saving throws, +4 when bloodied. He now has 3 encounter powers that recharge when he is first bloodied with the effects of bloodied rage(go read what it does now) on top of that.(I edited the original post for all the new stuff) So what do you think now?

 

[Amaroq]

Yeah, that looks really good. I like the recharge-on-bloodied effects.

A typical Solo would have 2 Action Points instead of 1 .. what about adding a second Action Point when he gets Bloodied?

Likewise a typical Solo would have +5 on saving throws but I actually like the +2/+4 flavor better ... maybe +3/+6 would be more balanced relative to other Solo's, but I'd definitely keep the flavor of it, and +2/+4 lets the players "shine" more .. especially at low levels, where their "save ends" effects shouldn't absolutely nuke your solo as becomes a problem in Paragon and Epic tiers.

His Frightful Presence and Draconic Fury make him feel a lot more like that Young White Dragon. On one hand, that's great, because its awesome flavor, and you have a very good idea that those powers are balanced for his level. On the other hand, me, I like playing with powers - mostly so my players never have any idea what's coming!! So, I'd encourage you to keep those as your "initial idea", but play with a couple other powers for him to see if they fit - basically, toy with a couple other ideas from other monsters and, if they fit your concept better, then swap them for one of the powers you've chosen.

One that comes to mind as fitting the flavor is an "Immediate Reaction, when first Bloodied, makes a counter-attack".. maybe he does it again when reduced to zero hit points. Not sure which Brute has that, but if you've got D&D Insider, I love scrolling around the Compendium for ideas.

 

[dragonis111]

I added the extra action point when bloodied, changed saves to +3/+6, and added in bloodied rampage(read original post).