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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Garnfellow" data-source="post: 1875746" data-attributes="member: 1223">Laconic Centurion, Mark IIIOwie.So my PCs ran into 4 updated Centurions last weekend. The combat went something like this: round 1, players win initiative, start to spell up and move into position. Then one of the Centurions breathes sleepy gas and half the party fails their saves, including all the guys who could possibly dispel the effect. Round 2 through 232 (or so, I lost count at some point in the second hour): while players with snoozing characters nap, gossip, and drink beer, the awake PCs attack the Centurions, do some damage, fall back, then the Centurions attack, heal their wounds, press forward. Not only was the encounter much, much tougher than I had anticipated, but far worse, it was pretty boring.A few lessons to be learned here. Now, having half the party fail their saves was considerably a bit worse luck than could have reasonably been anticipated. And having an incapacitated character for most of an important combat is a pretty frustrating and boring experience, but these things happen.But the fundamental design of these constructs was flawed in a couple of ways.First, when I did a playtest to check the Challenge Rating, I ran a series of encounters with one Centurion against a standard group of four adventurers. CR 10 seemed to work out just fine. Now, normally 4 CR 10 creatures equals an EL 14 encounter, which was my target. However, the Centurions have two abilities that act as force-multipliers: fast healing effectively gives them a lot more hit points, and wounding allows them to do a lot more damage. When you combine monsters with these two force-multiplying abilities, you get a lot more challenge per monster than would be expected. A whole lot more. In addition, each one of these things has a sleep gas breath weapon, which could take out a character in one round. If I had had one of these Centurions breath each round, I could have easily had a TPK on my hands. As it was, one use of that ability was plenty.Second, the specific combination of fast healing + hardness = a very hard to kill monster. Multiply this by four, and subtract half the party, and you get a lethal encounter. One could reduce the fast healing rate, but really you’re better off choosing one memorable concept and running with that, rather than have two ho-hum abilities.So, with all this in mind I’ve gone back to the drawing board again. The concept behind this monster is a tough soldier robot that is encountered in numbers. So I’ve reduced the HD, dropped hardness, and added fire and cold resistance. I’ve also reduced the DC of the sleep gas.=====Laconic Centurion of Hecatesseus: CR 9; Medium Construct; HD 12d10+20; hp 86; Init -1; Spd 20 ft; AC 23, touch 9, flat-footed 23; BAB +9; Grp +16; Atk +17 melee (1d8+7/19–20 plus wounding, masterwork longsword); Full Atk +17/+12 melee (1d8+7/19–20 plus wounding, masterwork longsword); SA breath weapon, wounding; SQ cold resistance 10, construct traits, darkvision 60 ft, fast healing 10, fire resistance 10, low-light vision; AL N; SV Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +3; Str 24, Dex 8, Con –, Int –, Wis 8, Cha 2.Breath Weapon (Su): Sleep gas cone, 60 feet, every 1d4 rounds (but no more than five times per day); DC 16 Fortitude save or fall asleep for 1d10 minutes.Wounding (Su): Any living creature damaged by the Centurion’s longsword continues to bleed, losing 1 hit point per round thereafter. Multiple wounds from such attacks result in cumulative bleeding loss. The bleeding can be stopped by a DC 15 Heal check or the application of a cure spell or some other healing magic. The wounding is a supernatural ability of the Centurion, not of the weapon.Construct Traits: The Centurion is immune to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects), poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, and any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless). The Centurion is not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain. Not at risk of death from massive damage, and is immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less. Since it was never alive, the Centurion cannot be raised or resurrected.Physical Description: A Laconic Centurion appears to be a stylized metal sculpture of an ancient warrior. The figure and its equipment are all made of bronze. The Centurion is depicted as wearing an antique cuirass, leg armor, and a plumed helmet that covers its entire face. A Centurion carries a large, rectangular shield and a heavy sword.</blockquote>

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