Lower level Quom

[Scalding]

I decided to introduce my players to the Paragon tier by dropping them into the Astral Sea. One of the first things that happens to them is that they are discovered by a small group of Quom who determine that their sorcerer has a shard of Likal in his head. The Quom immediately move to capture the sorcerer to take him back to their captain, who will have the honor of extracting the shard. This required the creation of some new Quom, more suitable to the level of the heroes.

The Quom Bowmaster is basically a remake of the Carrion Tribe Sakah Hunter:

[sblock=Quom Bowmaster]
Quom Bowmaster
Level 13 Artillery: 800 XP
Medium immortal humanoid
Initiative +12
Senses Perception +15
HP 96; Bloodied 48
AC 25; Fortitude 24; Reflex 26; Will 24
Speed 6, Fly 3 (while within the Astral Sea)

r Longbow (standard; at-will)
Ranged 20/40; +20 vs AC; 2d10 + 6 damage

m Spear (standard; at-will)
+18 vs AC; 2d8 + 6 damage

R Longbow Volley (standard; requires longbow; recharge 4 5 6) • Weapon
Ranged 20/40; two attacks, targets one or two creatures; +20 vs AC; 2d10 + 6 damage

R Crystal Spirit of Lakal (minor; encounter) • Conjuration
Ranged 10; the quom bowmaster conjures a dazzling silver-green crystal that hovers in a space adjacent to an enemy in range. Any enemies adjacent to the conjured crystal grant combat advantage to the quom bowmaster. As a move action, the quom bowmaster can move the conjured crystal 5 squares. The conjured crystal cannot be attacked, but it is vulnerable to dispel magic and similar effects. Sustain Minor: The conjured crystal persists.

Combat Advantage
The quom bowmaster’s melee and ranged attacks deal 1d6 extra damage against any creature granting combat advantage to it.
Implacable Determination (free, when an enemy within 5 squares of the quom bowmaster scores a critical hit; encounter)
The quom bowmaster can make a basic attack, shift 1 square, or move its speed.

Alignment Unaligned
Languages Supernal
Skills Bluff +14, Insight +15
Str 19 (+10) Dex 22 (+12) Wis 19 (+10)
Con 12 (+7) Int 15 (+8) Cha 16 (+9)
Equipment Leather Armor, Spear, Longbow, 40 Arrows
[/sblock]

The Quom Subjugator, however, is more of my own design, although I looked at things like the Bone Scribe and the Canolith Harrier for inspiration.

These Quom have the rather difficult task of obtaining deity-shards from adventurers. Taking things from adventurers is always a daunting task, but made even more so when the things have to be surgically removed, as in this case. No one really tracks the statistics, but the survivability rate of Quom surgeries leaves something to be desired. So, how do you keep the adventurers down? Especially, how do you keep casters down? In previous editions, you could silence, blind, and bind a caster and you're good to go. This doesn't appear to be the case in 4th edition.

It seems there are two possibilities: Dominate or Stunned. Dominate is nice in that the character is conscious and essentially mind-controlled (within limits). Stunned means the character can't take any actions, so isn't as nice. I'm thinking Dominate is too powerful though, so I made it a special kind of limited Dominate where they can't use any of their victim's powers, just command them to do mundane things that don't put them in immediate danger. So you can command them to board your skiff, but not to jump off it when they're 500 feet up (unless that's something they'd do on their own anyway, like if they could fly).

So the minions do this. They have a close blast 1 (essentially melee 1) attack where if they hit it does no damage and the target is dominated until the end of the minion's next turn. I gave them a ranged attack as well (i.e. they can use a bow), that dazes similarly to the Canolith Harrier.

Without further ado, the Quom Subjugator:

[sblock=Quom Subjugator]
Quom Subjugator
Level 13 Minion Controller: 200 XP
Medium immortal humanoid
Initiative +10
Senses Perception +8
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion.
AC 27; Fortitude 24; Reflex 25; Will 26
Speed 6 , Fly 3 (while within the Astral Sea)

C Lesser Domination (standard; at-will)
Close Blast 1; +17 vs Will; Target is dominated until the end of the quom subjugator's next turn. Lesser dominance does not allow the quom subjugator to cause the target to make any attacks or use any powers, and cannot cause the target to take any action that would be obviously and immediately physically dangerous.

r Hindering Shot (standard; at-will) • Weapon
Ranged 15/30; +18 vs AC; 5 damage, and the target is slowed until the end of the quom subjugator's next turn.

Implacable Determination (free, when an enemy within 5 squares of the quom subjugator scores a critical hit; encounter)
The quom subjugator can make a basic attack, shift 1 square, or move its speed.

Alignment Unaligned
Languages Supernal
Skills Bluff +18, Insight +13, Intimidate +18, Religion +12
Str 11 (+6)
Dex 18 (+10)
Wis14 (+8)
Con 15 (+8)
Int 12 (+7)
Cha 24 (+13)
Equipment Robes, Crossbow, 20 Bolts

[/sblock]

 

[Mesh Hong]

I quite like these creatures:

Quom Bowmaster

Does what it says on the tin, he is very good with a bow (above average damage, includes extra damage and generates his own combat advantage).

The only slight niggle I have with him is that he is using the same attack expression for ranged and melee (+20 vs. AC). In my opinion artillery creatures should take a penalty when attacking in melee, in this case I would have the spear attack at +18 vs. AC.

Quom Subjugator

In your description you say they have a close burst 1 and in the creature stat block you give them a close blast 1.

The range of 20/40 seems a little excessive for a dazing attack, I think it would probably be more reasonable as a 10/20 attack (even though in play this probably will make close to zero difference).

An encounter with bowmasters and subjugators is not going to be lacking in the PCs granting combat advantage, and raises design questions over the practical use of the bowmasters Crystal Spirit of Lakal power. I don't have an issue with that power, its just that in an encounter with the two types of creature CSoL seems overly complicated to track and use when compared to a range 40 daze (save ends) power, if you see what I mean.

Anyway these are just my opinions and thoughts I hope they help.

 

[Scalding]

Hi Mesh,

You've got good thoughts. As I said, I copied the powers from other critters of the appropriate level and just changed the name/flavor for the most part. I hadn't really paid attention to the bowmaster's ranged and melee to-hit, but you're right, the melee attack should be +18. I plan to use a marker to represent the CSoL so that shouldn't be too bad to track.

I meant for the subjugator to have a close burst 1 attack, meaning 1 square. That's fundamentally the same as melee 1, except that it could theoretically hit multiple tiny enemies or something, and has more of a caster feel to it.

I wanted them to have some usefulness beyond 1 square however, so I added the bow. I have thought about using a crossbow instead (range 15/30), but I decided it wouldn't really matter and the bow was a better flavor choice. I've been undecided about the daze, specifically whether I should do that or another effect, and whether it should be save ends or until end of subjugator's next turn.

Other possible effects to use (instead of dazed): Immobilized, knocked prone, slowed, or weakened. Immobilized or slowed are very good for control, so perhaps one of them would be best. Also, it's a minion, so it shouldn't be terribly powerful; Slowed is probably the best condition to apply.

Thanks for your input!

 

[Mesh Hong]

Just looked at your revised stat blocks and I think they are good to go.

I really think that slowed was the best condition to attach to the subjugators ranged attack (it was what I was going to recommend), I would consider increasing its damage from 5 to 8 though (and maybe 10 depending on how many you are planning to use in the encounter).