MM IV Q and A

[The Sentry]

Does anyone have any info on the new, powerful evil fey in the book (I forgot what they're called, sorry!)

It looked like someone had made an effort to produce a fey creature that reflected the sidhe myths - binding oaths, stolen children, curses, etc. I'd be very interested to hear if my impression was right, and if so how the mechanics worked.

They're called Verdant Princes (CR 11).

The binding oath power they possess is quite powerful (I don't see a saving throw DC anywhere so I guess the penalties are automatic) ; the Verdant Prince and another willing creature make a contract, if, at any time, the contract is not upheld by any of the parties, the oath breaker receives a -6 penalty to ALL ability scores and is sickened until the oath is completed.

 

[The Sentry]

What are some tweaks to the stat block format in this book?

Depends on what you call tweaks. If you don't have Fiendish Codex I, then you'll notice advancement and favored class entries have been added at the end of the ''Other Information'' section of the statblock. Otherwise these are your standard reworked statblocks that we've had since a year or so.

 

[The Sentry]

What does the Voor(oloth) look like? The MMIV art gallery omitted that critter's picture (among others).

I believe this falls under fair use so I'll give you the little bit of descriptive text at the beginning of the entry :

''This hulking creature waddles toward you on stubby legs. Its enormous arms end in vicious claws. Its armored face has no eyes, and ropelike tentacles constantly shoot out from its arms and back.''

The image pretty much conveys the same image : an mottled grey body, short, bent legs, long powerful arms that end in short, curved claws. The tentacle shoots in its back are quite weird, a sort of rastafarian lovecraft-ian horror.

 

[The Sentry]

Is power attack figured into the stat blocks and if it is is that made explicit?

No it isn't. I've checked out a couple of creatures and their attacks do not include any modifiers for Power Attack.

 

[blargney the second]

The whole dragon theme got me thinking about how on earth I would use all the draconic material that's coming out this year.

Solution: The Draconic Plague.

There's a disease that is sweeping across the plane, sometimes passed by contagion, sometimes appearing spontaneously. Regular people are turning into spellscales, dragonspawn, kobolds, etc. Some folk retain their personalities while others change completely. There'd be wars, murders, lynchings, all the good stuff.

-blarg

 

[Pants]

Got my MMIV today. I really like the art so far. Any of the pieces by WAR, Anne Stokes, Arnie Swekel, James Zhang, and Daarken are really fantastic. Actually, 90% of the illustrations are really good, only Wayne England is a little below par, but he's never been my favorite.

It's great seeing Arnie Swekel and Raven Mimura back doing D&D art alongside the excellent 'newcomers' James Zhang and Daarken. It's a really pretty book.

The dragonspawn are really varied and, IMO, the Bluespawn Godslayer, Greenspawn Sneak, and the blackspawn raider are the most 'boring' ones in the set. The rest have some unique abilities to help differentiate them, but nothing overly complex.

The statted up NPC monsters are a really mixed bag. The yuan-ti are pretty interesting, but that's about the best I can say. They look pretty utilitarian ie useful, but nothing else to write home about. The lizardfolk get the most love, with seven pages! The rest get about 4-6 pages each. The Yuan-ti get the least.

The Lolth-Touched template is pretty lame. Almost not even worthy of being a template. The web mummy, otoh, is pretty cool, though it almost looks like the idea was lifted from the Tome of Horrors II. Just for the sake of comparison, I like the Corpsespinner in the ToHII much more than the tomb spider, but I like the Web Mummy better than the Corpsespun template. Weird.

On a quick skim, my favorite monsters so far are the Vitreous Drinker (an undead created by Vecna that steals a creature's sight and can look through its eyes), the Defacer, the Avatars of Elemental Evil, the Balhanoth (a mage's worst nightmare!), the Concordant Killer, and the bloodfire ooze.

 

[Matafuego]

Could you expand a little on the Lolth Touched template please?
I was actually expecting it =(

 

[Pants]

Could you expand a little on the Lolth Touched template please?
I was actually expecting it =(

Alignment changes to NE.
Str and Con increase
Gains a +4 bonus on Hide and Move Silently
Becomes immune to fear
LA and CR +1.

Very utilitarian.

 

[Matafuego]

Thanks Pants!
Doesn't sound very inspired...

 

[Sammael]

Very bland.

That sounds better.

Is there an explanation in the book as to why the touch of a CE goddess would create NE beings?