Monsters with Fancy Equipment

[Imban]

So, uh, about monsters with fancy equipment in 4e. I'll admit I haven't had the time to sit down and fully read every page of all three corebooks as that is a lot of text, and I've unwisely spent my time doing things like making fun of all of the terrible monster names in the Monster Manual instead, but a question's come up and my attempt to ruffle through the books for an answer has been thwarted:

If a monster has equipment in its statblock, does it drop this equipment when it is slain? If so, what about equipment like the scourge of the Azer Taskmaster, the silver greatswords of the Githyanki, the flametouched mace of the Pit Fiend, the blowguns of the Banshrae, the spider rod of the Drow Arachnomancer, the dragonhide armor of the Fire Giant Forgecaller, the hexer rod of the Goblin Hexer, the slimy light shield of the Kuo-Toa Marauder, the pincer staff of the Kuo-Toa Whip, the bone breastplate of the Kuo-Toa Marsh Mystic, the Wand of Orcus, the skull mace of the Aspect of Orcus, Doresain's Toothlust and Cloak of Mouths, tridents of any of a large variety of monsters with them, and the shadowmail of the Shadar-Kai?

 

[Mort_Q]

They drop them if you want them to, and don't if you don't.

 

[MarkB]

They drop them if you want them to, and don't if you don't.

If they don't drop them, the PCs will simply pry them from their cold, dead fingers.

 

[Lobo Lurker]

I'm pretty sure you can rule that stuff to be a facilitator of the monster's power; on its own its just a sword, whip, mace, etc... albeit a funky looking one.

 

[Imban]

I'm pretty sure you can rule that stuff to be a facilitator of the monster's power; on its own its just a sword, whip, mace, etc... albeit a funky looking one.

I'm thinking I'd do that with things like Githyanki silver swords, the dragonhide armor, bone breastplate, and shadowmail, and skull maces, but it's a bit of a question with something like a scourge, blowgun, trident, or pincer staff where the item is not in the equipment lists at all, or the flametouched mace, slimy light shield, spider rod, or hexer rod which seem to be "non-magical" magical items, or Orcus or Doresian's stuff which is outright magical gear with no information given.

EDIT: For an even more specific reply, treating the azer's scourge as a funky-looking whip would be cool except there aren't actually stats for whips.

 

[Scribble]

What does the whip do when in the monster's hands?

Can you infer the rules for the weapon from that? (I don't have the books so I don't know what it says about monster powers...)

Aside from that I'd go with what a lot of people have been saying... it is simply a vessel to bring forth the creature's power... Unless you want it to be something else...

 

[Saeviomagy]

scourge of the Azer Taskmaster - pick a weapon that's close, make it cheaper to enchant with fire
silver greatswords of the Githyanki - aren't these ones just great swords that can cut astral trails?
flametouched mace of the Pit Fiend - mace that enchants easier with fire
blowguns of the Banshrae - surely the banshrae have rules? Limited ammo makes them not too much of a problem.
spider rod of the Drow Arachnomancer - make it an implement that only boosts spider spells
dragonhide armor of the Fire Giant Forgecaller - armor that enchants easier with (I assume) fire.
hexer rod of the Goblin Hexer - pick an implement
slimy light shield of the Kuo-Toa Marauder
pincer staff of the Kuo-Toa Whip
bone breastplate of the Kuo-Toa Marsh Mystic - sounds like a warlock implement
the Wand of Orcus - sounds like an artifact
the skull mace of the Aspect of Orcus - mace that enchants easier with... necromancy stuff
Doresain's Toothlust and Cloak of Mouths - I have no idea what these are
tridents of any of a large variety of monsters with them - the difference between a spear and a trident is basically nil
shadowmail of the Shadar-Kai - normal armor that enchants easier with shadowy properties

Note that most of these will essentially come down to "items that break down into specific use residuum", and so you could simplify things by just saying that they're worth X residuum, taken out of the monsters pile-o-gold and assume that the players will get enough of a mix of things to make whatever they want.

 

[Imban]

scourge of the Azer Taskmaster - pick a weapon that's close, make it cheaper to enchant with fire

I'm not sure what is "close" to a whip that is not a whip. If I was to judge by monster stats, it would do 1d6 damage and not be a reach weapon (?!), but that seems wrong. Their whip is also always on fire, so perhaps some bonus would be in order, but that could be handwaved away as the monster's unique power.

silver greatswords of the Githyanki - aren't these ones just great swords that can cut astral trails?

Yeah, in 3e. In 4e they do bonus psychic damage. They seem to be written up as greatswords though so I'll just let that slide.

flametouched mace of the Pit Fiend - mace that enchants easier with fire

Looking at it critically, it seems to be a Large mace that does fire damage instead of weapon damage, doubled because the pit fiend is an epic foe. It would be... nice if this had a writeup, admittedly.

blowguns of the Banshrae - surely the banshrae have rules? Limited ammo makes them not too much of a problem.

GOOD NEWS: They have rules.
BAD NEWS: The Banshrae Dartswarmer inflicts 1d10 damage and dazing and a stat penalty with hers, while the Banshrae Warrior inflicts 1d4 damage with hers.
SILLY NEWS: They carry "darts", rather than any number of darts.

spider rod of the Drow Arachnomancer - make it an implement that only boosts spider spells
hexer rod of the Goblin Hexer - pick an implement

I'd rule these as non-magical arcane implements, which I missed in the equipment chapter, I guess. ...except that the Hexer Rod, unlike a "real" rod, can be used as a weapon. So probably as per a club, since 1d6 damage. I'm not sure what the Spider Rod is even supposed to be, but it also can be used per a club and immobilizes targets that it hits. Perhaps the immobilization should be kept, perhaps not, but I have no idea what a spider rod even is.

dragonhide armor of the Fire Giant Forgecaller - armor that enchants easier with (I assume) fire.

Eh, probably easier to just say it's fancy hide armor.

slimy light shield of the Kuo-Toa Marauder

Well, on one hand it's a light shield. On the other hand, it's physically covered with slimy stuff... I'd probably just rule that they can be used for their really nice ability, but that after the next extended rest, they dry up and become normal light shields.

pincer staff of the Kuo-Toa Whip

Seems to just straight up be a quarterstaff with an additional ability. Not bad.

bone breastplate of the Kuo-Toa Marsh Mystic - sounds like a warlock implement

I'm not sure armor makes a good implement.

the Wand of Orcus - sounds like an artifact

It is. It just isn't written up anywhere. I can vaguely understand this since artifacts now have two-page writeups for individual artifacts, but it better be in the Tome of Treasures.

the skull mace of the Aspect of Orcus - mace that enchants easier with... necromancy stuff

Bonus necrotic damage for no reason, as per many other things. It just gets its own name. I'd probably rule it as a mace, I guess...

Doresain's Toothlust and Cloak of Mouths - I have no idea what these are

Magic items wielded by this dude named Doresain, a lieutenant of Orcus, that have no writeup.

tridents of any of a large variety of monsters with them - the difference between a spear and a trident is basically nil

For some reason, you can throw a trident in 4e, but not a spear. You are otherwise correct.

shadowmail of the Shadar-Kai - normal armor that enchants easier with shadowy properties

Yeah probably.

Note that most of these will essentially come down to "items that break down into specific use residuum", and so you could simplify things by just saying that they're worth X residuum, taken out of the monsters pile-o-gold and assume that the players will get enough of a mix of things to make whatever they want.

None of these except for possibly Toothlust and the Cloak of Mouths are non-artifact magic items and thus even applicable targets for Disenchant Item.

 

[Saeviomagy]

slimy light shield of the Kuo-Toa Marauder
pincer staff of the Kuo-Toa Whip
bone breastplate of the Kuo-Toa Marsh Mystic - sounds like a warlock implement

Well, a couple of mistakes last time around.

For the slimy light shield, I'd similarly say the special ability lasts until a rest, or until a set number of uses.

For the pincer staff, I'd say that it's a quarter staff, and the fancy ability should be a feat (assuming it's powerful enough... otherwise just let it be a freebie)

The bone breastplate is just a breastplate (or pick some other suitable armor type) - maybe tack on some sort of additional enchant bonus.

Oh, and 'close' to a whip would be: pick a weapon that has similar stats and treat them as the same.

 

[Saeviomagy]

None of these except for possibly Toothlust and the Cloak of Mouths are non-artifact magic items and thus even applicable targets for Disenchant Item.

Says who? Choose an amount of gold you want them to be worth, deduct it from the monster's treasure package, and tell your players "well, it's magic, but it doesn't seem to work unless you're a <insert monster here>, but you might be able to make something else out of it". Then if you want to add some flavour, narrow down what can actually be made a little (or a lot - up to you really).