Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="OchreJelly" data-source="post: 5382106" data-attributes="member: 62056">I've had some time take a deeper dive into the book.&nbsp; I figured it would be fun to compare what I felt were some more problematic monsters in the past.&nbsp; Let's start with wraiths:Wraiths.&nbsp; I have posted in the past at how much I loath this monster, which is a shame because it's one of my favorite monsters conceptually.&nbsp; The problems lie in the fact that most variants regenerate, are insubstantial, and often have weaken attacks.&nbsp; While evocative on paper, this has lead to some real boring slog-fests in my campaign.&nbsp; I'm looking at a certain encounter that had 4 sword wraiths in a published adventure.&nbsp; Now lets look at the new wraiths.&nbsp; All of them share this trait: Insubstantial: The wraith takes half damage from all attacks except force damage.&nbsp; Whenever the wraith takes radiant damage, it loses this trait until the start of its next turn.&nbsp; At first I did a double-take, and quickly looked up &quot;insubstantial&quot; in the new glossary.&nbsp; Ok, so only wraiths appear to have this &quot;force damage&quot; rider on their insub entry.&nbsp; Interesting.&nbsp; I like seeing alternative ways to bypass their defenses, even if it just means the wizard will plunk away with MM.&nbsp; Also, wow!&nbsp; Turning this horrifying shade into a partially real fleshy husk for a turn with radiant damage is pretty flavorful.&nbsp; Shadowglide has also been updated.&nbsp; Rather than a basic shift 6, it's now a triggered ability.&nbsp; When it takes damage, it becomes invisible as a free action and teleports 6 squares.&nbsp; Overall this seems a nice update a feels more lurker -- the old ability felt more skirmisher.&nbsp; Finally a note on radiant vulnerability.&nbsp; It seems that many of the undead have had radiant vulnerability removed.&nbsp; Most of them now have a trait like the one above that does something interesting (or fiddly) when they take radiant damage.&nbsp; This is not an insignificant change.&nbsp; I'm ok with bringing radiant in line with other damage types, while still retaining its undead-blaster status.&nbsp; Overall, it seems like a good fix to a problematic monster.&nbsp; Unfortunately the variants only go up to level 8.&nbsp; That means if you truly want to tinker with the higher-level versions, you'll probably want to at least retrofit the &quot;racial&quot; trait.&nbsp; This also speaks to a larger problem.&nbsp; Earlier I mentioned how I was pleasantly surprised to have many MM1 updates, but now I sort of wish that if they updated something, that they would update all variants for clarity's sake.&nbsp; It's a case of go big or go home.&nbsp; Now when I'm crafting encounters I need to be cognizant of whether the creature was an essentials update in MM1, or if it was one of the missed variants.&nbsp; At least I have reference material, but I really don't want to spend all my prep time dealing with these issues.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="OchreJelly, post: 5382106, member: 62056"] I've had some time take a deeper dive into the book. I figured it would be fun to compare what I felt were some more problematic monsters in the past. Let's start with wraiths: [B]Wraiths[/B]. I have posted in the past at how much I loath this monster, which is a shame because it's one of my favorite monsters [I]conceptually[/I]. The problems lie in the fact that most variants regenerate, are insubstantial, and often have weaken attacks. While evocative on paper, this has lead to some real boring slog-fests in my campaign. I'm looking at a certain encounter that had 4 sword wraiths in a published adventure. Now lets look at the new wraiths. All of them share this trait: [I]Insubstantial: The wraith takes half damage from all attacks except force damage. Whenever the wraith takes radiant damage, it loses this trait until the start of its next turn. [/I] At first I did a double-take, and quickly looked up "insubstantial" in the new glossary. Ok, so only wraiths appear to have this "force damage" rider on their insub entry. Interesting. I like seeing alternative ways to bypass their defenses, even if it just means the wizard will plunk away with MM. Also, wow! Turning this horrifying shade into a partially real fleshy husk for a turn with radiant damage is pretty flavorful. [I]Shadowglide [/I]has also been updated. Rather than a basic shift 6, it's now a triggered ability. When it takes damage, it becomes invisible as a free action and teleports 6 squares. Overall this seems a nice update a feels more lurker -- the old ability felt more skirmisher. Finally a note on radiant vulnerability. It seems that many of the undead have had radiant vulnerability removed. Most of them now have a trait like the one above that does something interesting (or fiddly) when they take radiant damage. This is not an insignificant change. I'm ok with bringing radiant in line with other damage types, while still retaining its undead-blaster status. Overall, it seems like a good fix to a problematic monster. Unfortunately the variants only go up to level 8. That means if you truly want to tinker with the higher-level versions, you'll probably want to at least retrofit the "racial" trait. This also speaks to a larger problem. Earlier I mentioned how I was pleasantly surprised to have many MM1 updates, but now I sort of wish that if they updated something, that they would update all variants for clarity's sake. It's a case of go big or go home. Now when I'm crafting encounters I need to be cognizant of whether the creature was an essentials update in MM1, or if it was one of the missed variants. At least I have reference material, but I really don't want to spend all my prep time dealing with these issues. [/QUOTE]

Verification