Level 33 "Solo Primordial"?

[doctorhook]

Page 243 of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide details a 33rd-level monster whose role is "Solo Primordial". (As in, not "Solo Brute" or "Solo Controller".)

Did I miss something, or is "primordial" a new monster role?

 

[Kaelkatar]

Their Mistake IMO

 

[Arivendel]

I never really gave it much of a look, I understood it to be one of the Primordial Beings which rule the Elemental Chaos and as such has a type of its own (Maybe the Demons like Mephistopheles will have Solo Archdevil as a type?), Im assuming this is a) a typo or b)a new monster role for the creatures native to the elemental chaos which will be explained and expanded upon on the FR Player's Guide.

 

[Wrox]

Primordial is a keyword like demon or immortal. I suspect it should say the following:

Level 33 Solo Brute
Huge elemental humanoid (earth, fire, primordial)

 

[Mouseferatu]

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that "primordial" actually is a deliberate creature type/role, with its own unique abilities. These are the godlike entities that created the world, after all. They probably should have mechanical aspects that aren't well modeled by any of the existing roles.

 

[doctorhook]

I never really gave it much of a look, I understood it to be one of the Primordial Beings which rule the Elemental Chaos and as such has a type of its own (Maybe the Demons like Mephistopheles will have Solo Archdevil as a type?), Im assuming this is a) a typo or b)a new monster role for the creatures native to the elemental chaos which will be explained and expanded upon on the FR Player's Guide.

Well, I'm not sure how many monsters we can expect in the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide. I don't expect any, personally.

Primordial is a keyword like demon or immortal. I suspect it should say the following:

Level 33 Solo Brute
Huge elemental humanoid (earth, fire, primordial)

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that "primordial" actually is a deliberate creature type/role, with its own unique abilities. These are the godlike entities that created the world, after all. They probably should have mechanical aspects that aren't well modeled by any of the existing roles.

Both of these seem reasonable. What we need is one of those "mathy" types to dissect the stat block and tell us yea-or-nay regarding whether or not this fellow conforms to any existing monster roles.

 

[frankthedm]

Well, if it has all the best parts of each roll, then yeah "Primordial" can be it's own type.

The ranged attack and damage of Artilary
The HP & Damage of a Brute
The battlefield manipulation of a Controller
The ability to get the drop on the party like a Lurker
The defenses of a Soldier
The mobility of a Skirmisher

 

[Kaelkatar]

A role is what you do, not who you are. The role should always be behavior, and not physical attributes. There are already a good number of MM entries that hardly match up statistics to their supposed role, thus when a monster's role becomes blurry it is sufficient to simply give it one of its roles, and explain in the tactics section exactly how to play the creature. I hope that it was a simple mistake, and that the intent was actually to put brute or something and that it somehow slipped through their editing team, if it is intentional then it starts to invalidate the whole reason behind implementing a role system in the first place.

 

[doctorhook]

I forgot to mention this before, but FWIW, the same creature again listed as a "level 33 Solo Primordial" on the "Monsters by level" table in the back of the book.

 

[kaomera]

I hope that it was a simple mistake, and that the intent was actually to put brute or something and that it somehow slipped through their editing team, if it is intentional then it starts to invalidate the whole reason behind implementing a role system in the first place.

I would agree, except that this is a level 33 Solo. It's an encounter in and of itself, and a tough one at that, so it really doesn't interact much with the normal role system, anyway. I think that the intent must have been that this is a single creature that can (more or less) fill any / all of the normal monster roles.

Actually, I guess I can kind of see your point anyway; at the very least it could potentially end up being a can of worms down the line, although I don't see it being a big problem just yet. The real issue is going to be if we start seeing many more "Primordial"s, especially anything of a lower level.