"It's got me! HELP!"

[Rechan]

Alternative Headline: We're gunna need a bigger airship.

So, I'm working on a monster for my game. I'm taking a bulette, and reskinning it as an earth spirit/primal elemental thing, known as the 'Eater of All That Walks'. The current Evil Guy has it bound, and he is about to unleash it on the PCs.

The problem is that the Bulette is an Elite monster, and thus I need to think of something to put in the combat with it to make it interesting. So I decided to turn it into something like the monster from Tremors; an earth kraken, essentially, with tentacles that launch out of the ground, and a giant mouth that will serve as the "head".

Instead of treating it as a solo monster, the Tentacles shall serve as standard monsters, while the Head will have the Bulette stats and be the elite. But I need stats for the tentacles.

Suddenly I'm not sure how to handle them. I know that I want two things for them:

1) The tentacle should be able to knock someone prone, because the Bulette does more damage to a prone target.

2) An attack that basically hits the target and yanks them underground. They are literally stuck underneath the earth, trapped, and supposedly 'here comes the head, aboute to eat you'. But, how should this be represented, stat-wise? Immobilization doesn't imply a certain fear. Stunned? Restrained? The target won't have LoS or LoE, and naturally it's going to want to try and spend actions escaping/friends trying to pull them out. Should the tentacle grab the target, and drag them under, preventing them from attacking no one but the tentacle (and vice versa)?

Other considerations:

How do I answer this question to my pcs: When one of the PCs "Marks" one part of the monster, why aren't the other parts marked also?

When the "head" dies, the tentacles likely should, too. So, how should this effect the tentacle stats? Should this go into the xp matter, given that they're limited in potency?

The tentacles, to me, are sounding very Soldier-like. They knock prone, and capture targets. However, being a soldier means a beefy AC/Defenses. So the PCs are going to get frustrated attacking the tentacles, when they keep missing, and just focus on the head. (This becomes problematic because of the above paragraph).

 

[Rechan]

Also something like timed events, something to vary the battlefield up, make it interesting, would be good.

 

[PowerToast]

For the tentacles: I suggest stating them as brutes, despite the obvious soldier-y role. That'll make them tough, but also very squishy and vulnerable to focused fire. They'll go down quick, but not too quick. Don't worry about the role, so much.

As for what status the tentacles can inflict, I'd have you look at the Feymire Crocodile in the Monster Manual. What's cooler than getting swallowed into the earth? Keep the 'only works on bloodied' part if you like, or don't. I'd go ahead and just port the attacks over to your tentacle beasties, actually. Grabbing a target and then crushing the life out of it seems to be just about what you're looking for in the tentacles. If you want them to synergize with the head more, just have them knock the hero's prone, though. Alternativly, have the attack that's only useable when the target is grabbed simply pin the players to the ground, forgoeing extra damage in return for making the player effectivly prone.

As to why the entire monster isn't marked when one part of it is, why not give each of the tentacles a set of eyes and maybe even a brain, a la hydra? They all report to the central head, and that helps explain how the head knows where to come up and bite. Failing that, I'd just say "It's too darn big!" or even perhaps "The tentacles are controlled independently of the head; each tentacle is controlled by a sub-section of it's brain."

When the head is bloodied, why not make it start draining hp from the tentacles? "You watch the tentacle to your left writhe and wither, and the head is suddenly looking more healthy!" A note to increasing the head's longevity: Have it duck under ground if it's got too many effects on it, and let it make a heal check to get an extra save against the junk on it. This, combined with the life leaching will let it feel more like a solo and less like an elite. These two things combined really make the players feel like they need to kill the tentacles. That being said, if the players manage to take it from bloodied to dead in a single turn, let the tentacles all die with the head instead of them transfering vitality as a immediate reaction. They've served their purpose at that point, and if your players can do that, they deserve a little reward, no?


Edit: Missed the timed events thing, posted before you did. How about letting the head hedge players in with rock walls? Treat it as a separate thing, don't make it part of the head's actions. Just say "after three rounds, create a wall 5 within 10 of a tentacle" and describe it something like this: "One of the beasts tentacles burrows underground, forcing a five foot high stone wall to rise up from the earth! It will take an athletics check to climb over it!" This will force the players to waste time trying to regroup, while your beastie pounds on isolated players. Another idea would be to have the head eat the ground from under a player, creating a sinkhole. Give the player a saving throw, if he fails, he's in a ten foot deep pit. Don't let this effect cause damage, simply tell him "The beast eats the ground out from under you, and you slide into a pit in the earth!" or some such. Then the monster's head is down there with him, hopefully eating him alive while his allies struggle to toss him rope and help him out.

If you want a pit or a wall to be relevant later on, give your tentacles a push power and give it a decent recharge; five or six on a d6 would be about right. Have one tentacle push him past the wall, and another tentacle push it behind the wall. It be even easier to push the players into a pit.

Finally, consider giving the tentacles an encounter power to cause an earthquake and knock everyone prone. Use it just in time to KO a bloodied player with the head. Have all the tentacles spend their standard to make the attack, a close burst 5 measured from each tentacle. Have it attack fort, on a hit, knock the player prone and do no damage. Doing that on the turn a pit opens up would be killer to. "You're prone, and you slide into a pit. Now the head's eating you, nom!"

I hope this helped! Good gaming!

 

[Rechan]

Thanks, good thoughts.

I'd be tempted to go with teh swallow whole, although the PCs are right now fighting a giant venus fly trap. I wouldn't want to repeat swallowing again.

I like the drain HP from the tentacles bit. Bulettes can all ready go underground and second wind, so that sounds about right. The head will also dunk itself down and let the tentacles act for a round, just to stay out of the heat/come up in a surprise. The HP siphon should probably happen on the Tentacle's turn (otherwise, the Head is just spending too many actions).

Just, I'm looking at 5 4th level PCs here. The bulette is getting marked down to a 7th level elite. So I can't bring to bare really really nasty stuff.

As to "each tentacle has a brain", I'm thinking of it less as an organism and more of an entity. This is why the tentacles don't 'move' when the mouth dives and swims around under the earth; because the Ground Itself is the 'body' of the monster. So, less organs and more metaphysics.

 

[PowerToast]

That's even easier, then. "The great conciousness that embodies this earthen beast is beyond mortal comprehension!" I'd say that the ground's intellect is vast enough to focus great amounts of attention on individual parts of the entity.

 

[Rechan]

Treat it as a separate thing, don't make it part of the head's actions. Just say "after three rounds, create a wall 5 within 10 of a tentacle" and describe it something like this: "One of the beasts tentacles burrows underground, forcing a five foot high stone wall to rise up from the earth! It will take an athletics check to climb over it!" This will force the players to waste time trying to regroup, while your beastie pounds on isolated players.

I had thought of walls, but this gives a bit more rules savviness to it!

Another idea would be to have the head eat the ground from under a player, creating a sinkhole. Give the player a saving throw, if he fails, he's in a ten foot deep pit. Don't let this effect cause damage, simply tell him "The beast eats the ground out from under you, and you slide into a pit in the earth!" or some such. Then the monster's head is down there with him, hopefully eating him alive while his allies struggle to toss him rope and help him out.

That is excellent.

I love the pit-ground-eatin' idea

Another possibility is having a large area that sinks in. This isn't a pit, so much as creating lower ground/difficult terrain.

If you want a pit or a wall to be relevant later on, give your tentacles a push power and give it a decent recharge; five or six on a d6 would be about right. Have one tentacle push him past the wall, and another tentacle push it behind the wall. It be even easier to push the players into a pit.

Finally, consider giving the tentacles an encounter power to cause an earthquake and knock everyone prone. Use it just in time to KO a bloodied player with the head. Have all the tentacles spend their standard to make the attack, a close burst 5 measured from each tentacle. Have it attack fort, on a hit, knock the player prone and do no damage. Doing that on the turn a pit opens up would be killer to. "You're prone, and you slide into a pit. Now the head's eating you, nom!"

This is quite excellent, thank you.

The more you talk, the more it looks like the tentacles should be controllers, not brutes. Which is on par with controller territory of knocking down and affecting areas, etc.

Also, I think I will treat the walls/pits as "Terrain events". The bulette isn't wasting actions doing it, but it happens at the bottom of the initiative order (or possibly, at 10).

 

[Ibixat]

You could treat the tentacles as minions, allow up to say 8 of them to be out maximum at a time, if you hit a tentacle it retracts into the ground (dead) for the time being (even can inflict 1 damage on the main guy for whacking a tentacle) give the tentacle a grab attack and some standard miniony damage, every round roll 2d4, that many tentacles come popping back out of the ground to harrass and attack the players again, just cap it at 8 out at once.

I'd make the tentacle immobile, reach 4, grab and slide target to adjacent square with a fixed amount of damage, anyone hit by the "main body" while grabbed would take bonus damage or be able to be hit by a special attack.

Allow the creature to retract tentacles at will as well in case they are positioned badly, any that are retracted automatically come out somewhere else.

 

[Walknot]

Thanks for some cool concepts.

Will definitely try it out.

 

[fba827]

Hmmm ... Maybe give the following ability to the tentacles:
Final Strike (immediate reaction, when head is killed).
Reach 2. Each tentacle gets one free basic melee attack to a target in reach, and then the tentacle dies, instantly, itself.

(It's the wild flailing around at the moment the head is killed; so whatever its basic slam attack is)

 

[Rechan]

So, rough stats for the tentacle:

Tentacle: Lvl 3 Controller
Init +3
HP: 49 B: 24
AC 17 F 16 R 15 Will 15
Speed: 6, Burrow 6.

Slam: Reach 2, +8 vs. AC; 1d10+3

Slap: Reach 2, (Standard, Recharge 5 6) +7 vs. Ref; 1d6+3, pushed 3, knock prone.

Earthquake: (Standard, Encounter) Close Burst 2, +7 vs. Ref; 2d6+3, knocked prone.

Sacrifical Limb: (Standard, At Will) Lose 10 HP. The head gains 10 HP.

Death Throes (Immediate Reaction, when the Head reaches 0 HP, Encounter). Make a basic attack against the nearest enemy, then retreat.