Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 3553127" data-attributes="member: 15999">Pretty major battle coming up in my campaign; an old nemesis returns from Hell riding a Nightmare.  I want to make this challenging, but I also want to use the monster's abilities fairly.  It will be a 10-HD elite nightmare (CR 8) and the rider is a half-fiend orc Bbn10 (CR 12).  The party is 5 PCs of about 9th level but has no single-classed PC caster (Rog4/Wiz5/AT1, Hex5/DD4, Ftr2/Brb7, Ftr8/DwD1, Ran9, and Clr7 cohort).   Several questions here:1) Does the Nightmare's continual smoke cloud obscure the rider's vision or grant concealment to the rider?  I'd say "no" so that it makes sense for the creature to serve as a mount.  Just have the rider sitting above the smoke cloud.2) Does this sequence work?  Rider readies to attack when within range; Nightmare uses Flyby Attack to moves to within range of foe (triggering rider's attack), attacks or uses ability, and then moves away.  AOOs are not avoided, and charge bonuses are not gained, but because Flyby Attack does not require straight-line movement, the Nightmare can move behind cover afterwards (trees, buildings, etc.).3) Does this sequence work?  Rider readies to attack when within range; Nightmare moves to within range (triggering rider's attack) as its move action and then as a standard action readies Etherealness if it or rider is attacked (and so this would happen immediately before a PC's counterattack).  AOOs are avoided because the creature only enters a threatened square, then uses a (Su) ability.4) Astral Projection seems to be an EXTREMELY powerful ability; if I am reading it right, the Nightmare (and rider) can hide their bodies somewhere (possibly still in the Nine Hells) and just use their projections to attack.  Can you project onto the Material Plane? 5) Why does this creature NOT have fire resistance?I'm considering stripping out the Astral Projection ability, adding immunity to fire, and giving it max HP per HD.  That, I think, is still a CR 8 Nightmare (since Astral Projection is so powerful).  Otherwise, the Nightmare alone is a TPK, even at the un-advanced CR 5 version.</blockquote>

Verification