Help needed - Solo using templates

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Given how successful my last cry for help in monster creation was (you guys were awesome), I thought I would try it again.

And again, Darren from Sherwood Park, don't read this.


This monster is intended to be the big baddy of this story arc, and a hint of things to come. Basically, he's subjugated all the local goblinoids and used them to conquer a dwarven city (a la Mines of Moria). The players should meet him at about level 5, and he'll be accompagnied by a number of hyenas and he will "summon" an Evistro demon to help out. It should be an n+4 or 5 encounter, though with 2 leaders n+3s haven't been terribly challenging.

To make the monster, I applied the Demonic Accolyte (DMG p. 178) and Warlock (DMG p. 183) templates to a Gnoll Claw Fighter, though any of the Gnolls would have worked (I chose the Claw Fighter as, to me, its the most visceral and interesting). Only change I've made is to give it the Gnoll Demonic Scourge's stats (except Str - I needed better stats for the Warlock template, and the Scourge's seemed appropriate as the only Gnoll leader) and I swapped Eldritch Blast for Shadow Walk in the Warlock template.

Anyway, here goes my first draft:

Lord Teeth Level 6 Solo Skirmisher

Medium natural humanoid (demon) XP 1250

Initiative +7 Senses Perception +6; low-light vision

Shield of Abyssal Majesty Aura 5; allies gain his resistance(s)
Armour of Agathys Aura 1, enemies take 1d6 + 5 fire damage
HP 264 (+10 temporary hit points); Bloodied 132
AC 21; Fortitude 20, Reflex 17, Will 18
Resist 5 fire
Saving Throws +5
Speed 8, see also mobile melee attack and shadow walk
Action Points 2
[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Claw (standard; at-will)
+11 vs. AC; 1d6 + 6 damage, 1D6 + 8 when bloodied; see also pack attack and curse
[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Mobile Melee Attack (standard; at-will)
Lord Teeth charges and makes two claw attacks against a single target instead of one basic melee attack.
Mobile Melee Fighter (standard; at-will)
Lord Teeth can move up to 4 squares and make one basic melee attack at any point during that movement. He doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when moving away from the target of his attack.
Shadow Walk
On his turn, if Lord Teeth moves at least 3 squares from his starting position, he gains concealment until the end of his turn.
Pack Attack
Lord Teeth deals an extra 5 damage on melee attacks against an enemy that has two or more of Lord Teeth’s allies adjacent to it.
Curse (minor, at-will)
Lord Teeth may place a curse on the nearest enemy. Lord Teeth deals an extra 1d6 on all attacks against a cursed enemy.
Should a cursed enemy be reduced to 0 hit points or fewer, Lord Teeth immediately gains 6 temporary hit points.
[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT]Hellish Rebuke (standard; at-will) * Fire
Range 10; +9 vs. Reflex; 1d6 + 5 fire damage.
If Lord Teeth takes damage before the end of his next turn, the target takes 1d6 + 5 fire damage and all the targets adjacent allies take half that amount.
See also prime shot.
[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Fiery Bolt (standard; encounter) * Fire
Range 10, +9 vs. Reflex, 3d6 + 5 fire damage, and creatures adjacent to the target take 1d6 + 5 fire damage.
See also prime shot.
[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Avernian Eruption (standard; daily) * Fire
Area burst 1 within 10, +9 vs. Reflex, 2d10 +5 damage and hit or missed all in burst take ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends)
See also prime shot.
[FONT=D&D 4e icons]Prime Shot[/FONT]
Lord Teeth gets +1 to all ranged attacks provided no ally is closer than he to the target
[FONT=D&D 4e icons]Consume Soul[/FONT] (immediate reaction, when an ally within 5 squares is reduced to 0 hit points or below)
Lord Teeth regains 3 hit points.
Alignment Evil
Languages Abyssal, Goblin, Common
Skills Intimidate + 12, Insight + 9, Religion + 9
Str 19 (+7) Dex 15 (+5) Wis 14 (+4)
Con 16 (+6) Int 13 (+4) Cha 15 (+5)
Equipment leather armour, +2 Master’s Wand of Hellish Rebuke, 10 ft chain


For the Warlock powers, I took those I felt most interesting and demonic - Hellish Rebuke for the at-will, Armour of Agathys for the Utility, Fiery Bolt for the encounter, Avernian Eruption for the Daily.
I will be renaming various powers to better fit the concept when I'm done.
My main concern is that he simply has too many different powers - not so much in actual attacks, but in all the other fiddly details (prime shot, pack attack, etc.) At the moment he's tactically interesting, but there is just too much to keep track of for a one off monster, even if he is the "end boss" for the first half of the heroic teir. Additionally, while I want to cut the number of these "support powers" down, I want to keep his flavour as demonic and bestial.
So... whatever feedback you can give me is appreciated.

 

[silverwhisper]

i gotta say, i'm not sure how to address the problem of having too much stuff to track, i'm afraid, other than wondering if you couldn't have lord teeth escape his confrontation with the PCs: if he can escape, he becomes a more interesting foe in future encounters.

i was initially surprised by your applying the warlock template, figuring that the rogue template would actually make more sense with the base creature. but swapping in shadow walk helps make this work. i'll confess i'm a bit surprised at a skirmisher leader but the whole looks quite satisfactory, at least to me.

hm...have you created other solos in the past using both functional and class templates? and have you considered making the base creature an evistro instead?

aside: i'll confess, i really love the way evistros and clawfighters can work together: i ran such an encounter 2 sessions ago in my own game and it was quite dangerous to my players.

 

[Nurgle84]

My take on this guy would look like this:

Lord Teeth Level 6 Solo Skirmisher

Medium natural humanoid (demon) XP 1250

Initiative +7 Senses Perception +6; low-light vision

Shroud of Shadow and Flame: Aura 5, Lord Teeth has concealment, allies in aura gain resist 5 fire and enemies that start there turn in the aura or enter the aura take 5 fire damage

HP 264; Bloodied 132
AC 21; Fortitude 20, Reflex 17, Will 18
Resist 5 fire
Saving Throws +5
Speed 8, see also mobile melee attack
Action Points 2

Claw (Basic, standard; at-will)
+11 vs. AC; 1d10 + 4 damage, an enemy hit by a claw attack is jinxed and all following attacks made by Lord Teeth against this target deal +1d6 fire damage until the end of the encounter

Mobile Melee Attack (standard; at-will)
Lord Teeth charges and makes two claw attacks against a single target instead of one basic melee attack.

Mobile Melee Fighter (standard; at-will)
Lord Teeth can move up to 4 squares and make one basic melee or ranged attack at any point during that movement. He doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when moving away from the target of his attack.

Hellish Rebuke (Basic, minor 1/round; at-will) * Fire
Range 10; +9 vs. Reflex; 1d6 + 5 fire damage.
If Lord Teeth takes damage before the end of his next turn, the target takes 1d6 + 5 fire damage and all the targets adjacent allies take half that amount.

Fiery Bolt (standard; recharge 5,6) * Fire
Range 10, +9 vs. Reflex, 3d6 + 5 fire damage, and creatures adjacent to the target take 1d6 + 5 fire damage.

Avernian Eruption (standard; recharges when bloodied) * Fire
Area burst 1 within 10, +9 vs. Reflex, 2d10 +5 damage and hit or missed all in burst take ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends)

Consume Soul (Free, when a creature within 5 squares is reduced to 0 hit points or below)
Lord Teeth regains 6 hit points.

Alignment Evil
Languages Abyssal, Goblin, Common
Skills Intimidate + 12, Insight + 9, Religion + 9
Str 19 (+7) Dex 15 (+5) Wis 14 (+4)
Con 16 (+6) Int 13 (+4) Cha 15 (+5)
Equipment leather armour, +2 Master’s Wand of Hellish Rebuke, 10 ft chain

Instead of Shadow walk, he just has concealment permanent. As he has a way to avoid OA he would have concealment anyway. Instead of damaging enemies adjacent, he got a bigger aura with less damage and it gives allies the resistance. The curse is now integrated into the claw attacks and renamed to reflect the different mechanic. The mobile melee attack now allows a ranged attack for greater flexibility. The hellish rebuke was changed to minor 1/round to increase the amount of actions this solo can take. (A solo should be able to take at least 4 attacks or equivalent each turn. This guy can do 2 reliable, 3 if charging. But he can damage multiple enemies, so that should work. Prime Shot, increased bloodied damage on the claws and Pack attack was removed, but the general damage on the claw was increased to replace that loss. To reflect the THP gained by the old curse, the consume soul now works on enemies too and heals the double amount of life. Fiery Bolt got a recharge on 5,6 and Averian Eruption got a recharge on bloodied.

I think he is now easier to run, and should have enough punch to make for an interesting encounter.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Wow, Nurgle84, that must of been a lot of work. All I can say is thank you very much - that's fantastic.

I'm going to sit on your suggestions for a bit and mull them over. I'm definitely going to adopt a bunch of them (the regenerating powers and simplified attacks). The reason I need to think on it is because I need to make sure the end result meets my plot "flavour" needs.

Which in turn responds to silverwhisper's questions - the reason I went warlock (and not rogue) is because of plot reasons I need a wielder of daemonic energies. For plot reasons, I also need him to be a Gnoll, which in my campaign are like tieflings, but with goblins as base rather than humans.

So, basically, I want to have a creature that is savage and demon like, but that is also chanelling energies from a different source. So, I'll give some thought on how to use what you two have given me and reshape it to meet my campaign's needs.

While I've fiddled around with the templates before (I made an elite skeleton that I didn't end up using), this is my first time doing so to create a solo.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Okay, I've thought on it some and here's the result:

Lord Teeth
Medium natural humanoid (demon)
Initiative +7 Senses Perception +6; low-light vision

Shield of Abyssal Majesty Aura 5; allies gain his resistance(s)
Armour of Agathys Aura 1, enemies take 2d6 + 5 cold damage
HP 274; Bloodied 137
AC 21; Fortitude 20, Reflex 17, Will 18
Resist 5 fire
Saving Throws +5
Speed 8, see also mobile melee attack
Action Points 2

[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Claw (standard; at-will)
+11 vs. AC; 2d6 + 6 damage

[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Mobile Melee Attack (standard; at-will)
Lord Teeth charges and makes two claw attacks against a single target instead of one basic melee attack.

Mobile Melee Fighter (move; at-will)
Lord Teeth moves 4 squares and makes one basic melee attack at any point during that movement. He doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when moving away from the target of his attack, and he gains concealment until the end of his next turn.

[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Hellish Rebuke (minor; once per turn, at-will) * Fire
Range 10; +9 vs. Reflex; 2d6 + 5 fire damage
If Lord Teeth takes damage before the end of his next turn, the target takes 2d6 + 5 fire damage and all the targets adjacent allies take half that amount.

[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Fiery Bolt (standard; recharge ) * Fire
Range 10, +9 vs. Reflex, 4d6 + 5 fire damage, and creatures adjacent to the target take 2d6 + 5 fire damage.

[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Avernian Eruption (standard; recharge when first bloodied) * Fire
Area burst 1 within 10, +9 vs. Reflex, 4d6 +5 damage and hit or missed all in burst take ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends)

[FONT=D&D 4e icons]Blood Fury[/FONT]
All of Lord Teeth’s attacks do +2 damage if he is bloodied

[FONT=D&D 4e icons]Consume Soul[/FONT] (immediate reaction, when a creature within 5 squares is reduced to 0 hit points or below)
Lord Teeth regains 6 hit points.

Alignment Evil Languages Abyssal, Goblin, Common
Skills Intimidate + 12, Insight + 9, Religion + 9
Str 19 (+7) Dex 15 (+5) Con 16 (+6) Int 13 (+4) Wis 14 (+4) Cha 15 (+5)
Equipment: leather armour, +2 Master’s Wand of Hellish Rebuke, 10 ft chain

Now, not as simple as Nurgle's suggestions, but I have adopted many of them. Overall, I like the feel both concept wise and how I see it playing.

What I've changed:
- I've added the curse damage to all attacks.
- I've kept the two auras. While more complicated, I like the disencentive to getting next to him. Plus, I'll describe it as an inner zone of cold protecting him from fire.
- I've bumped his hit points to include the armou of agathys hps.
- I've ditched Pack Attack - he won't have many allies and they are likely to die quickly. The loss of damage is partially made up by the double curse damage on a charge.
- I've made Mobile Melee Attack a move action, but kept it melee only. Additionally, I've made the concealment part of that ability. I think this will make him more interesting, meaning that every round he will be using his claws and running away to either charge another target or blast the group.
- I've taken Nurgle's advice and dumped Prime Shot. I considered just giving all of his warlock powers +1 to hit, but felt that made them too powerful compaired to his claw attacks.
- I've taken Nurgle's advice making Hellish Rebuke a minor
- I've taken Nurgle's advice regarding the recharge rates of the other powers
- Advernian Explosion was swtiched from 2d10 to 3d6 to accept the curse damage better (being 4d6 rather than 2d10+1d6)
- I took the extra damage when bloodied out of his melee attacks and put it as the ability Blood Fury (which matches the DMG player race ability) so that it will apply to his warlock powers as well.
- I took Nurgle's advice for consume soul.


Anyway, I'm pretty happy with him, though I do admit he could be streamlined more. So, I'm open to more suggestions. And thank you muchly for your input so far - especially Nurgle84.


One concern I do have is perhaps he now does too much damage? I'll have to compair him to other mid-heroic solos. One compensation, however, is even if he does do a lot, the way Mobile Melee Fighter now works means he'll be spreading it around.

 

[Nurgle84]

No problem, that didn´t take to long. 15 minutes maybe. I really like creating monsters

Some things:
1. When do the enemies take the damage from armour of agathys? STart of there turn? Start of Tooths turn? Entering the aura?
2. The damage could be a bit to high, as you are using the high normal damage expression, normally reserved for Brutes. If you really go nova you could dish out 16d6+35 in a single round to a single target. (Move: Mobile melee Fighter, Standard: Avernian Eruption, AP: Fiery Bolt, Minor: Hellish Rebuke, AP: Mobile Melee Attack) Round about 91 damage in a single round. Thats probably an instakill.

Hope to hear from you again if you need another monster.

Edit: On a second thought, let the damage as it is, but use the nova only if a player taunts Tooth. I had to many solos that were a clear disappointment because they didn´t deal enough damage. I would like to hear how the lord played out.

Edit again: I just saw, that you made the mobile melee fighter a move action. Great Idea. Now he can deal 3 attacks a round. Thats almost as many as the group. Although this increases the nova damage by another 2d6+6. (see above)

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Just as a minor note you could probably simplify the Mobile Melee Fighter text by just making it a 4 square shift. Then there is no need to explain that it doesn't provoke. I don't THINK it really changes anything much, and for a homebrew monster that sort of thing isn't a big deal.

Personally I would be a bit concerned about the single turn damage output possibility too. He can probably down 2 PCs easily in a single round, but how that plays out really depends on the encounter. If the encounter design leaves the rest of the party free to pretty much whale on him, then having 2 members down for a couple of rounds isn't too bad. OTOH if he can ever repeat that trick a time or two late in the encounter it could go bad for the party. 4d6 IS a lot of damage for 5th level given that it will probably affect half the party at least, 24 points being 50-70% of a 5th level PCs total. I can imagine a combination of party bunching up a bit too much plus a lucky die roll for recharge and they're toast. Then again, they just better be on their toes.

Usually if I design something like this I'll play out a few rounds on paper and see what happens. Generally the players will do better than my simulation, but if it ends up a massacre in simulation then you know something may be amiss.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Yeah, I made the newbie mistake of forgetting that Curse damage only applies once per round - so by applying it to all attacks, I seriously uber-ed up the monster. So, I'll remove 1d6 from all the attacks. Not sure how to incorporate some "curse like" damage, though - really, it should apply to the first successful attack roll each round, but for simplicity's sake, I may just only apply it to Hellish Rebuke, as that will be used once (and only once) each round.

That will go quite some way to remedying the "over damage" issue.

Incidentally, I do plan to spread around the damage - the Moblie Melee Fighter is designed in such a way that if the monster wants to get his defensive bonus he pretty much needs to move alot and thus spread the damage around. Glad you like making it a move action, Nurgle. And Abdul, that's a great suggestion about making it a shift - it does simplify the language and does exactly the same thing.

As for the Armour of Agathys, Nurgle, it damages anyone who starts next to it on the beginning of their turn - which makes it perfect to just make it an aura (which I did) as that's what aura's do too.

As for number of actions, I think I have it about right - it will be making 3 attacks a turn, each doing on average about 12 points of damage (on a hit), with an uber-attack that can potentially hit several players doing about 15 damage every 2-3 turns. The fight will get even tougher when its bloodied, with the party likely low on powers and the monster doing +2 damage on each attack. Plus with the aura (doing on average 8 automatic damage to anyone next to it), given that the party is highly melee dependant (4 out of the 5 players are melee oriented, with only one of those (the cleric) with any ranged options at all), he should be challenging. Of course, if the party rolls 3 crits in 2 rounds like with the last solo, things may be a bit less so for the party. 8)

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Okay, here's with the changes I discussed above.


Lord Teeth
Medium natural humanoid (demon)
Initiative +7 Senses Perception +6; low-light vision

Shield of Abyssal Majesty Aura 5; allies gain his resistance(s)
Armour of Agathys Aura 1, enemies take 1d6 + 5 cold damage
HP 283; Bloodied 141
AC 21; Fortitude 20, Reflex 17, Will 18 - see also mobile melee fighter
Resist 5 fire
Saving Throws +5
Speed 8, see also mobile melee fighter
Action Points 2

[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Claw (standard; at-will)
+11 vs. AC; 1d6 + 6 damage

[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Mobile Melee Attack (standard; at-will)
Lord Teeth charges and makes two claw attacks against a single target instead of one basic melee attack.

Mobile Melee Fighter (move; at-will)
Lord Teeth moves 4 squares and makes one basic melee attack at any point during that movement. The target of the attack may not make an opportunity attack for this move. Lord Teeth also gains concealment until the end of his next turn.

[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Hellish Rebuke (minor; once per turn, at-will) * Fire
Range 10; +9 vs. Reflex; 2d6 + 6 fire damage
If the target damages Lord Teeth before the end of Lord Teeth's next turn, the target takes 1d6 + 6 fire damage and all the targets' adjacent allies take half that amount.

[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Fiery Bolt (standard; recharge ) * Fire
Range 10, +9 vs. Reflex, 3d6 + 6 fire damage, and creatures adjacent to the target take 1d6 + 7 fire damage.

[FONT=D&D 4e icons][/FONT] Avernian Eruption (standard; recharge when first bloodied) * Fire
Area burst 1 within 10, +9 vs. Reflex, 2d10 + 6 damage and hit or missed all in burst take ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends)

[FONT=D&D 4e icons]Blood Fury[/FONT]
Lord Teeth gets +2 to all damage rolls if he is bloodied

[FONT=D&D 4e icons]Consume Soul[/FONT] (immediate reaction, when a creature within 5 squares is reduced to 0 hit points or below)
Lord Teeth regains 6 hit points.

Alignment Evil Languages Abyssal, Goblin, Common
Skills Intimidate + 12, Insight + 9, Religion + 9
Str 19 (+7) Dex 15 (+5) Con 16 (+6) Int 13 (+4) Wis 14 (+4) Cha 15 (+5)
Equipment: leather armour, +2 Master’s Wand of Hellish Rebuke, 10 ft chain


Okay, I did a couple of things
- removed 1d6 damage from all the attacks except for the primary effect of Hellish Rebuke
- added +1 damage to all the warlock's implement attacks - added implement bonus to his hits, but previously forgot to do so for damage.
- added + 1 damage for adjacent targets for Fiery Bolt - infernal pact gives him that, which I missed.
- deciced NOT to change Mobile Melee Fighter as Abdul suggested to make it a shift. His way, NONE of the party get an opportunity attack if he moves away, which I think is too powerful.
- changed the wording on Blood Fury to match that in DMG - this way, it also applies to his Armour of Agathys aura.
- made a mistake calculating hit points - they go up by 9.
- changed Hellish Rebuke to only do secondary effect if the target damages the monster - this gives the target a tactical choice and prevents it from being just another form of automatic damage (both of which makes the power more interesting).

So, as for damage, if he focuses on a target he can do is 5d6+30 (or +38 if bloodied), and that's only if everything hits. That target will then take another 1d6+5 if adjacent to the monster, and 1D6+6 if the monster is damaged in the next turn. That's a grand total of 7d6+49 damage - or about 74 damage - or assuming a 50% hit rate, about 40, which is most of an average character's hit points of 50. Assuming the party deals on average 30 damage a round (not unreasonable, assuming an average 2d8+4 per turn x5 players, with a 50% miss chance), it will take 8 rounds to kill it in which the monster will likely deal 320 damage to the players - or roughly 25-30 healing surges worth. Even with 2 leaders and a paladin in the party, this will be very tough (what with access to roughly 35 healing surges including their full hit points, second winds, healing powers, and potions).

Again, thanks for everyone's help - I'm really happy with the changes, though I'm afraid its damage is too high. Perhaps it might help to compair it to the young blue dragon. The dragon can only take only attack on a standard, which can do up 1d6+2d4+15 damage to one target, or about 13 on average. On the other hand, the dragon has about 10 more hit points, can fly, has reach and better defences NADs (even with Lord Teeth's concealment, with which only Lord Teeth's AC is as good as the dragon's), so the dragon fight will last longer. Still, I think mine is much tougher - then again, MM solos are kind of wussy, so mine should be tougher.

In any case, I definitely need to run a test combat as Abdul suggested - I'll get the players to let me copy their character sheets next time we play.