lvl 9 Solo Brute - Oni Twins

[burntgerbil]

I have built a encounter for my players and was looking for a good 8-10 solo monster and could not find any. The characters will encounter this monster along with some minions around it.

The idea for this is a pair of Oni/Ogres that are bound psychically and physically by a chain of corporeal shadow. There are a few reasons I did not want to stat them up as two separate monsters. I wanted them to share the same HP pool, and I wanted them to have some sort of mechanic binding them in close proximity to each other. Please look over the stat card I made for them in Illustrator and critique with your comments.

Thanks for your help.

 

[chronoplasm]

Pretty neat idea. I can't comment much on balance, since I'm not very good in that department, but I do have a suggestion for the flavor department...

Give one of them a sword of thunder and the other a sword of lightning.
Or..
Give one of them a sword of fire and the other a sword of ice.

Pardon me, I'm obsessed with duality.

 

[burntgerbil]

Cool idea. These guys are summoned through a circle of darkness - this whole adventure deals with a cult of shadow/darkness/necromancy/shadowfell. Direct opposite swords(maces) might work well - but that would necessitate (or at least imply) those weapons be magical loot - and my loot distribution is already set for the most part.

 

[JasonZZ]

Cool idea. These guys are summoned through a circle of darkness - this whole adventure deals with a cult of shadow/darkness/necromancy/shadowfell. Direct opposite swords(maces) might work well - but that would necessitate (or at least imply) those weapons be magical loot - and my loot distribution is already set for the most part.

Not necessarily. They might just be a power held by the oni in question--a reflection of their shared nature. After all, the weapons held by a balor or pit fiend aren't loot either, just a part of the creature's powers.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Depending on the levels of your characters I think this is an interesting monster. As it is a brute I am going to assume that the PCs will be about level 7 when they face it.

1: Hypnotic Breath.
This is a pretty nasty attack when you consider that the PCs will have 2 of these to deal with, and then another 2 when the creature(s) are bloodied. This is one of those powers that is quite hard to properly judge; attack +11 vs. Will should hit reasonably well, no problems there. Then we have the fail the save vs. Dazed and drop unconscious, I am assuming that other characters can wake someone up with say a DC15 heal check or the like. This power has the potencial of taking half your group out of action for an indeterminate ammount of time, I am not saying its unbalanced, I am just saying you might have to be careful with it or give the PCs a opportunity to discover this information before its too late. This is one of those powers that can go horribly wrong either way, either you don't get anyone and its a waste of time, or you could get everyone and thats your group dead.

2: Devour Soul.
I would probably make this attack target Fortitude instead of AC as that seems more appropriate to me. 10 healing seems a bit low, as it might not get chance to use this power that often (if at all!!) I would change it to either a straight 24 or more likely heal the ammount of damage dealt. Not waking the person up seems a bit harsh, maybe when hit by a Devour Soul attack they can make a save as a reaction, on success they wake up.

3: Morning Star.
This looks fine, personally I would increase the push to 2 squares.

4: Pommel Smash and Shadowy Rebuke.
These seem good, reactions to melee, close and ranged attacks should surprise your PCs.

5: Chained by Fate.
I like this, 4 squares doesn't give them the opportunity to move around much but that works well with the theme of the creature. I think the players should be able to exploit the chained aspect, and if one creature is forced to move more than 4 squares away instead of just nullifying the excess have it knocked prone. This would reward the players for clever use of powers and give them a brief advantage.


As this is a linked creature have you thought of maybe it having an attack that uses both of them at the same time, If the first one delays until the second one would act (for that round only), then they both attack the same target? Might be worth considering, though it might be a bit fiddly to use.

You also said that there would be some minions involved in the encounter, can you give us some details of them and their number?

 

[burntgerbil]

Thanks for the input ! I played this encounter this weekend against my party of 6 lvl 5 PC's. It went well - The breath worked well but each time, it only made one member unconscious.

For Hypnotic Breath/ Devour Soul, I adapted it directly from one of the Oni - and needed to add the errata to Breath {save ends} and change the Soul attack vs fortitude (Which I did in play).

I would love to have a way for the two of them to use their chain as an offensive weapon - both charging and clotheslining all people the chain hits - but readying an action or delaying seemed difficult to put into stats. I intended for both of them to recharge their immediate actions when one's turn comes around - and in the first round, I delayed where the two had exactly 3 PC's between them. This made their immediate actions very effective at keeping their threat level up.

I also want to think of something for them to do with a minor action. Maybe they can spend a minor action to mark a PC ? Maybe something else that deals more damage or lets them Shift 1 or 2 squares ?

I will say that this was a much better encounter than our last solo encounter - the Berbalang.

 

[Mesh Hong]

A minor action "attack vs. Fortitude; on hit target is pushed 1 square and Oni may shift 1 square" could be useful to stop them being pinned down.

I understand why you would want to include the tether in the attacks, but doing so might open a can of worms. If the Oni can use it to attack, then the PCs should be able to target it. You would have to work out its defences and HPs, and come up with an effect if it was ever broken. Not undoable, but fiddly and perhaps unnecessary in this situation.

 

[dammitbiscuit]

If you're happy with the monster thus far, don't mind me. There's a really cool solo encounter in Dungeon magazine with a Tiefling who has a ghoul on her back. You could mine that for ideas far better than the simple MM ettins.

I tried googling for "tiefling ghoul" "tiefling and ghoul" and "tiefling ghoul dungeon magazine", but didn't find it. I'll let you know if I turn it up. REALLY great adventure overall.