Interesting Monster Powers

[BlackSeed_Vash]

I'm going to be running a mini campaign (3.5) shortly that is of the horror centric. My players and I are well versed in 3.x and pathfinder. We tried 4E and determined very early on it wasn't the flavor we wanted. Because of our lack of familiarity with 4E monsters, I figured stealing a variety of interesting/creepy powers from them would give the various re-fluffed 3.5 monsters a unique twist. I would greatly appreciate it if those of you who enjoy the 4th edition would provide me a list of monsters to look at with interesting and/or creepy powers.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Well, most of the outright described powers are pretty tactical. They are always described in quite circumscribed fashion, though it always seemed to me that a lot of monsters should be more open-ended. Like the famous Succubus with its Domination power. One would presume that a Succubus has a much more generalized ability to charm and seduce, but nothing of that is mentioned in the writeup, you just get this (admittedly useful) tactical power that can turn an enemy into a sort of ally temporarily.

So, you CAN borrow from 4e, and find a lot of reasonably interesting tactically useful stuff. You won't often find a lot that is more open ended though. MM3 has some fun concepts though, like the Banderhobbs that can be pretty neat.

 

[Garthanos]

Well, most of the outright described powers are pretty tactical. They are always described in quite circumscribed fashion, though it always seemed to me that a lot of monsters should be more open-ended. Like the famous Succubus with its Domination power. One would presume that a Succubus has a much more generalized ability to charm and seduce, but nothing of that is mentioned in the writeup, you just get this (admittedly useful) tactical power that can turn an enemy into a sort of ally temporarily.

I have been figuring most powers that affect a hero and will get shrugged off can affect 'ordinaries' in a protracted way.

A spell which slows a hero but they resist, would literally make a statue of someone when they are defeated by it.

 

[BlackSeed_Vash]

Ah. Thank you guys for your input. Guess I'll just have to skim the MMs.

 

[MoutonRustique]

Ah. Thank you guys for your input. Guess I'll just have to skim the MMs.

4e is built around being a set of "blocks". Alone, the blocks are fairly dry.

As such, there are precious few "cool powers" in and of themselves. There are very cool monsters that use those blocks in synergistic or flavorful (oftentimes both!) fashion however.

Indeed, the best way to find cool stuff will be to skim the MMs. OR if you make a more circumscribed request, there's plenty of folks here that'll share what they thought was cool.

i.e. What are cool monsters = cricket sounds
Which are your preferred monsters when building a creepy undead fight = probably a good deal more input (but this is just a guess)

 

[pemerton]

I'm going to be running a mini campaign (3.5) shortly that is of the horror centric. My players and I are well versed in 3.x and pathfinder. We tried 4E and determined very early on it wasn't the flavor we wanted. Because of our lack of familiarity with 4E monsters, I figured stealing a variety of interesting/creepy powers from them would give the various re-fluffed 3.5 monsters a unique twist. I would greatly appreciate it if those of you who enjoy the 4th edition would provide me a list of monsters to look at with interesting and/or creepy powers.

I would suggest the Chained Cambion (MMIII) - the Mind Shackles power that "psychically chains" two PCs together is (in my view) quite brilliantly designed. The flavour is that the Chained Cambion screams out is anguish to nearby minds. The mechanic is that the PCs take damage if separated from one another - and a save from one only ends the effect on that one. So first, you have two players who have to coordinate their PCs together, which causes frustration and irritation with one another. Then one saves but the other doesn't, meaning that the one who did save can either leave the other one to suffer (causing frustration and irritation) or has to still suck up the effect (causing frustration and irritation). It's one of the most elegant integrations of mechanic and flavour I've encountered.

The same book also has the Pact Hag, which I found hard to run, but has some interesting abilities around charm/domination.

One of my favourite monsters - simple, but again very flavoursome - is the Deathlock Wight, and especially its Horrific Visage (reposted from the MM update pdf, no longer hosted by WotC I believe):

Horrific Visage (fear, psychic) ✦ Recharge 4 5 6
Attack: Close blast 5 (creatures in the blast); +7 vs. Will
Hit: 1d6 + 6 psychic damage, and the wight pushes the target up to 3 squares.​

It's a blast, so only effects those on one side ie looking at the wight. And their minds are blasted (psychic damage) and they recoil in horror (push 3 sq) unless somehow immune to fear effects. Best used near pits, ledges etc.

From MMII, there is the Gorechain Devil that has a non-charm dominate power: it grabs you with its chains and treats you as a puppet!

Are these the sorts of things you're looking for?

 

[Tony Vargas]

OK, pemerton, that reminded me (for some reason) of the Nymphs' "Whisper Game" power. Ongoing psychic damage you can get rid of by passing it to an ally...

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

OK, pemerton, that reminded me (for some reason) of the Nymphs' "Whisper Game" power. Ongoing psychic damage you can get rid of by passing it to an ally...

hehehe, that was an awesome one that I'd nearly forgotten about.

Now, how about a twist? When you pass it on it gets WORSE. So you either suffer yourself or your ally suffers even MORE than you... I mean, it might be an incentive to just live with it, but not always! Particularly if the DM is cruel and clever and puts it on a weaker (and more selfish, ideally) PC...

 

[BlackSeed_Vash]

Thank you everyone. These suggesting came in just in time for me to squeeze them into tonight's game.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Thank you everyone. These suggesting came in just in time for me to squeeze them into tonight's game.

Let us know how it went!