RangerWickett
Legend
My Dark Sun group faced one of these tonight, and it was a party level +3 encounter, so we took a thumping. We found all sorts of fun tricks, like putting the shaman's spirit animal over it when it burrowed so it had a hard time coming out, or grabbing it so we could ride it a la Dune. It is designed pretty damned well as a bucking bronco, though.
I was sad that my character never got swallowed. Everyone else had some trick to make it spit them out -- fire genasi with a fire shield that burnt, druid with thorns that scraped its insides -- but me, I was just a soft-shelled crab of a thri-kreen. The genasi ended up getting stung down to 6 HP, swallowed into unconsciousness, and dissolved before any of us were daring enough to leap down the bastard's gullet and drag our friend out.
All around, a pretty fun fight, and since this is the first solo we've faced in about 6 months, I was impressed how there was no real grind. If I were to design an encounter with one, though, I'd give it something to do against long-ranged attackers. I suppose it could just burrow then pop up and swallow a ranger, and usually you won't be fighting it in a rocky desert, but a cave with limited avenues of escape.
It could maybe use one or two 'tricks' to make the combat environment change slightly as the battle progresses. Like maybe when it burrows it can create wide pits and ditches to divide the party? Or it could vomit out acid at long range, to create hazardous terrain and keep snipers from camping. Or a rechargable power to let it kick up dust, shed marks, and burrow away without provoking. The thing only really moved 3 times in the course of 10 rounds of combat.
(Then again, we knocked it prone 7 times during the fight. That amused us to no end for some reason. Maybe because of how huge the mini was.)
So I say to the D&D writers, great design! Keep it up.
I was sad that my character never got swallowed. Everyone else had some trick to make it spit them out -- fire genasi with a fire shield that burnt, druid with thorns that scraped its insides -- but me, I was just a soft-shelled crab of a thri-kreen. The genasi ended up getting stung down to 6 HP, swallowed into unconsciousness, and dissolved before any of us were daring enough to leap down the bastard's gullet and drag our friend out.
All around, a pretty fun fight, and since this is the first solo we've faced in about 6 months, I was impressed how there was no real grind. If I were to design an encounter with one, though, I'd give it something to do against long-ranged attackers. I suppose it could just burrow then pop up and swallow a ranger, and usually you won't be fighting it in a rocky desert, but a cave with limited avenues of escape.
It could maybe use one or two 'tricks' to make the combat environment change slightly as the battle progresses. Like maybe when it burrows it can create wide pits and ditches to divide the party? Or it could vomit out acid at long range, to create hazardous terrain and keep snipers from camping. Or a rechargable power to let it kick up dust, shed marks, and burrow away without provoking. The thing only really moved 3 times in the course of 10 rounds of combat.
(Then again, we knocked it prone 7 times during the fight. That amused us to no end for some reason. Maybe because of how huge the mini was.)
So I say to the D&D writers, great design! Keep it up.
