Game Day mini = Spined Devil

[ZoA2]

Perhaps all we are seeing is the combat stat block, (the one that will see use 95% of the time), and text listing role-playing encounter options is appended elsewhere.

Hope you are right. If not I’m fairly certain if wizards screw up in this department third party publishers will fill in the void with more interesting monsters

Then You as DM can freely give them the ability Pass for Mortal or Masque of a thousand faces. I know I've done it with many devils that did not have it in 3E. If some special foe needs it , he gets it. Not every mook devil that crawled it's way out of the pit needs the abilty to be a mastermind disguised as a human.

Well DM can make entire monster from scratch so according to your logic he does not really need MM to begin with, so why would WotC even bother making one?

 

[Zurai]

Well DM can make entire monster from scratch so according to your logic he does not really need MM to begin with, so why would WotC even bother making one?

Hyperbole much? There's a big leap in logic from "DMs can add minor plot-related abilities to monsters" to "DMs should make every single monster from scratch".

 

[frankthedm]

Well DM can make entire monster from scratch so according to your logic he does not really need MM to begin with, so why would WotC even bother making one?

To save the DM time. It takes less time to grant a pre written devil a minor illusion or shapchanging trick than it takes a DM to write up an entire monster based around a minor illusion or shapchanging trick.

 

[Mad Mac]

Giving all devils the equivelent of change self is a one sentence house rule. (Or brief comment in the monster heading description) I wouldn't sweat it too much either way.

 

[Paraxis]

And hows about some folks weigh in on Nethersight? Sounds like those from the beyond get something better than plain ole darkvision this time. It might just be the new term for ‘see in darkness’, though they might even get to see your soul as a default, rendering most illusions moot.

What if?

Nethersight, lets you see into the Shadowfell at the same time as the real world. Objects are supposed to exist in both right. It lets you see like darkvision, plus lets you see creatures that are only in that plane of existance normaly.

and What if?

The same type of vision was available to Fey. Fey creatures could see into the Feywild and this could replace low-light vison for elves.

Opens up awhole new slew of options for using the planes if party members are contantly looking into one of them. Makes the sometimes weird mechanics of low-light interacting with torches and stuff go away. Also makes the black and white vison of Darkvison a better fit.

 

[nightspaladin]

As for there not being a 1/2 level damage bonus to the monsters attacks, that may be because he isn't a hero. In Saga, you add half your "heroic" level, which is of course combined levels in all your adventuring classes. Mooks and standard villains don't have these levels so they don't gain such a benefit. It was one of the ways that Saga differentiated between you and the average rebel trooper who is about to be shot and fall off camera dead.

So I think we still might see 1/2 damage per level, but only for us.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I’ll wait and see before I make final judgment but I fear this dumbing down of monsters by turning them in one trick pony cannon fodder for PCs will be major trend in 4e.

Except thats kind of what spinagons ARE. Crappy little flaming spike flingers, about the lowest form of devil there is.

 

[Cam Banks]

In SWSE, your class also provides a one-time class bonus to two or three Defenses. Usually it's one at +2 and one at +1, although a couple of them are all +1. Couldn't the spined devil be getting a similar one-time bonus to his Defenses? Then you'd just have 10 + stat bonus (which includes half level) + one time bonus.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[jasin]

Any luck relating level with HP? The creature has 47 HP and +5 Con bonus. Working 3.X like, 30 of those HP should come from Con, leaving 17 for 'hit dice', which sounds a bit low.

18 + 5d6 + 6 x (Con +2) = 47?

d6 for skirmisher, triple max at first level like in Saga.

 

[Knight Otu]

What if?

Nethersight, lets you see into the Shadowfell at the same time as the real world. Objects are supposed to exist in both right. It lets you see like darkvision, plus lets you see creatures that are only in that plane of existance normaly.

and What if?

The same type of vision was available to Fey. Fey creatures could see into the Feywild and this could replace low-light vison for elves.

Opens up awhole new slew of options for using the planes if party members are contantly looking into one of them. Makes the sometimes weird mechanics of low-light interacting with torches and stuff go away. Also makes the black and white vison of Darkvison a better fit.

That's an interesting idea, but I don't think that is what nethersight is. Remember, we are talking about a devil here, which means that for the most part, it is confined to the Nine Hells in the Astral Sea, rather than on the Material Plane or the Shadowfell.