New Monster Swordwing!

[I'm A Banana]

*Shrugs shoulders* Maybe I am just the odd one out. But I have always found it is the mechanics and artwork that inspired me not the fluff.

Whenever I made up encounters or the way monsters worked, I never once look at the fluff the monster has, since well it is my world, so the monsters will work my way.

The easy litmus test is this:

Did you play 3e? Did you use the phantom fungus, ever?

The mechanics are cool on that one. It's a low-level threat that is invisible and also a plant, which means that it's good at surviving what the PC's can dish out. It automatically negates the "magic missile every round" strategy, and also the "flank him and then stab him" strategy, which are the basic combat strategies for low-level characters.

I mean, if you didn't use it, maybe you thought the artwork was dumb? That's a pretty subjective thing, I guess, so I won't debate it.

By the mechanics, the Phantom Fungus should have been in everyone's game at the mid-single-digits. Very cool encounter potential.

But it didn't tell a DM how to use it very well outside of the statblock.

Most commentary I've heard agrees that it's a pretty lousy monster -- the flumph of 3e. I'd be excited to learn that someone beat the odds on this one.

Alternately, substitute the ythrak, the digester, or, heck, even the destrachan (and I'm being generous on that one, because their fluff is perhaps the best out of the group).

 

[Voss]

Alternately, substitute the ythrak, the digester, or, heck, even the destrachan (and I'm being generous on that one, because their fluff is perhaps the best out of the group).

Keep going. You're hitting every monster on my list of 'things to throw in the trash'
It irritates me that I went through 3rd editions MM I, II and III and the fiend folio and found about 250 usable monsters. Thats about the number of monsters in one of those books. I'd rather that didn't happen again. Sadly, at the epic tier, they're at 1 for 3 for me.

 

[Simon Marks]

Bottom line, it's an orc with higher numbers.

Are Orcs dull then?

 

[Lizard]

Another case where a cool concept is undermined by the stripped-down 4e mechanics. We have this nifty idea of a race of interdimensional mad collectors...muhgawd, there's plot potential there...but look at the skills! Appraise? Knowledge? History? Nope. Endurance and Stealth. The concept is not rendered into the mechanics. This is a Fail.

EDIT: To those noting it's "an orc with higher stats", well. who can be surprised by this? Every 4e monster has 2-4 tricks, and in the name of simple mechanics, a lot of Cool Abilities are reduced to very simple conditions. No ability drain, no level drain, no real long-term effects, means that just about everything boils down to "Does damage and inflicts a simple condition that ends with a save". So we have the Phane, which just does weakeness effects (that you've been facing since heroic levels) with dubious flavor text, and "epic" monsters whose powers are "hit you real hard, but not really too hard for you to take at your level because everything is supremely balanced".

I'm really hoping Necromancer's TOH introduces actually *interesting* abilities. (And that the GSL will show up and permit it....)

 

[chaotix42]

I don't see these guys as connoisseurs. Maybe the Crownwing is good at sorting out valuable magic items for his collection, but do you really need Appraise or History for your collection of skulls, hearts, or weapons? I figure they collect as much junk as truly valuable stuff, in the case of those swordwings that actually collect anything valuable at all. I see them going for some twisted Far Realm sense of aesthetics.

 

[Lizard]

I don't see these guys as connoisseurs. Maybe the Crownwing is good at sorting out valuable magic items for his collection, but do you really need Appraise or History for your collection of skulls, hearts, or weapons?

To know if this is really the heart of an ancient iron dragon, as the scum who is trying to sell it to you claims, or if it's just a pit lord heart -- you already have ten! Sure, you'll kill the fool whether it's real or fake, but if you put it in the wrong display case...why, it will be the faux pas of the century! And with the crownwing coming to view your collection next month...well, being wrong is as good as being dead!

I figure they collect as much junk as truly valuable stuff, in the case of those swordwings that actually collect anything valuable at all. I see them going for some twisted Far Realm sense of aesthetics.

See, based on the fluff, I immediately see one of these guys as the spider in the web, the master of a network of spies and thieves, who seek out especially rare and valuable items that fit the swordwing's twisted ideas of beauty or collectibility. You can base a long story arc on this concept. Unfortunately, the stats don't match -- average int and cha do not spell "Mastermind schemer" to me. Ultimately, it seems WOTC can't get away from the idea that monsters appear, get killed, and vanish -- the idea of seeing a cool monster in the MM and building a campaign around a sentence or two of flavor text is apparently quite alien to the current development mindset.

(Sure, I can build my own monsters with the "right" stats and skills, but then we're back to "So what am I buying this book for?")

 

[chaotix42]

Good points.

I like the crownwing gangster idea, and I still think it can work, just that the crownwing is the easily frustrated and eccentric leader of the group. He sits in his dank cave, waiting impatiently for his minions to gather what he wants while his swordwings sit in the corner playing with their lint and eyeball collections. When the rogues and warlocks return the crownwing spends some time silently inspecting the booty, then wigs out and eviscerates one or two of the poor fools for some imagined slight - of course he's never going to be completely satisfied!

Eventually one of the thieves fears for his own life and tries to double-cross the crownwing. Thing is, it turns out the crownwing just started up a nice collection of hostages, and the dude's girlfriend makes a great centerpiece. Enter PCs.

*EDIT* A simple scenario to be certain, but stimulus for quite a few adventures IMO. The PCs can become wrapped up in all sorts of convoluted plots hatched by the smarter and wiser minions of a much more powerful but simpler creature.

 

[mmu1]

Are Orcs dull then?

Only if you still have to fight them despite being high enough level to start rubbing shoulders with demigods.

 

[SteveC]

My reaction to this creature is: wow is that a lot of hit points. At 234 Hit Points, the suggested encounter requires 1166 damage to get through. To finish this battle in 8 rounds requires the PCs do average 145 damage a round. Wow! Unless higher level characters do a lot more damage than we've seen so far, I'm not sure how that's going to happen.

Beyond that, these creatures seem pretty boring. They swoop in and ... attack. The Crownwings at least will be good with a spring attack, but it sounds like these guys will just hack on a character until dead. They'd be good as defenders to a certain extent, I suppose.

Pretty meh, although the art is nice.

--Steve

 

[DandD]

These aren't Pokémon, these are the catchers who will try to make your heroes Pokémon. Gotta catch'em all, which is, your heroes are going to be collected into their hives. And by you, that is, your lungs will be, the rest will be discarded.

Mwahahahaha...