New Monster Swordwing!

[Mengu]

Wouldn't it be very easy to adjust this monster to be a mid-paragon level threat, if that's how you wanted to use them? Say you want the Swordwing to be a level 15 Soldier:

Swordwing
Level 15 Soldier
Medium aberrant humanoid
XP ?
Initiative +16 Senses Perception +13; low-light vision
HP 154; Bloodied 77
AC 32; Fortitude 30, Reflex 28, Will 22
Speed 6, fly 10 (hover)
Armblade (standard; at-will)
Reach 2; +20 vs. AC (+22 against a bloodied target); 2d6 + 4 damage (crit 2d6 + 16), and the target is marked until the end of the swordwing’s next turn; see also vicious opportunist.
Sudden Strike (immediate reaction, when an adjacent enemy shifts; at-will)
The swordwing makes a melee basic attack against the enemy. The attack deals an extra 2d6 damage if it hits.
Vicious Opportunist
The swordwing’s opportunity attacks deal an extra 2d6 damage.
Alignment Evil
Languages Deep Speech
Skills Endurance +20, Stealth +19
Str 28 (+16)
Dex 24 (+14)
Wis 13 (+9)
Con 26 (+15)
Int 10 (+7)
Cha 10 (+7)

Takes about a minute to make the adjustments, and another minute to compare to another level 15 soldier and think it through to make sure there isn't an ability 15th level characters would not be able to handle. Comparing it to the Level 14 Soldier Boneclaw, you see most things are comparable.

I think they said it's not advisable to make adjustments for more than 5 levels, but on a simple monster like this, there can't be too much harm. If in doubt, use one less swordwing than an encounter would call for.

And if you don't like how the monster looks, clip the wings, give them innate flight, orange skin, beefier muscles, and have them wielding jeweled weapons, wearing crowns, necklaces, and bracers, and give them a different name like Eternal Gypsies. So in all of 5 minutes, you turned a page in the monster manual you didn't like, into your next encounter. I think with simple monsters like these, we'll have a lot more flexibility to fill in ranks of soldiers and skirmishers as needed. I could easily add two of these as guardians to some evil Efreet lord.

 

[Lackhand]

My biggest problem? It should be a threat from the feywild.

It isn't epic in flavor enough. The stats are fine, it just needs one more line of flavortext -- it causes everyone who sleeps within five miles of its nesting spire to dream (obsessively) about what it collects -- and given long enough years, to seek out the spire and bring the nest the objects of its many desires.

Tadaa. Now, that didn't need to be written in the book; I came up with that, spur of the moment while writing this post. But I don't see why things like that shouldn't be.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

Wouldn't it be very easy to adjust this monster to be a mid-paragon level threat, if that's how you wanted to use them? Say you want the Swordwing to be a level 15 Soldier:

Swordwing
Level 15 Soldier
Medium aberrant humanoid
XP ?
Initiative +16 Senses Perception +13; low-light vision
HP 154; Bloodied 77
AC 32; Fortitude 30, Reflex 28, Will 22
Speed 6, fly 10 (hover)
Armblade (standard; at-will)
Reach 2; +20 vs. AC (+22 against a bloodied target); 2d6 + 4 damage (crit 2d6 + 16), and the target is marked until the end of the swordwing’s next turn; see also vicious opportunist.
Sudden Strike (immediate reaction, when an adjacent enemy shifts; at-will)
The swordwing makes a melee basic attack against the enemy. The attack deals an extra 2d6 damage if it hits.
Vicious Opportunist
The swordwing’s opportunity attacks deal an extra 2d6 damage.
Alignment Evil
Languages Deep Speech
Skills Endurance +20, Stealth +19
Str 28 (+16)
Dex 24 (+14)
Wis 13 (+9)
Con 26 (+15)
Int 10 (+7)
Cha 10 (+7)

Takes about a minute to make the adjustments, and another minute to compare to another level 15 soldier and think it through to make sure there isn't an ability 15th level characters would not be able to handle. Comparing it to the Level 14 Soldier Boneclaw, you see most things are comparable.

I think they said it's not advisable to make adjustments for more than 5 levels, but on a simple monster like this, there can't be too much harm. If in doubt, use one less swordwing than an encounter would call for.

And if you don't like how the monster looks, clip the wings, give them innate flight, orange skin, beefier muscles, and have them wielding jeweled weapons, wearing crowns, necklaces, and bracers, and give them a different name like Eternal Gypsies. So in all of 5 minutes, you turned a page in the monster manual you didn't like, into your next encounter. I think with simple monsters like these, we'll have a lot more flexibility to fill in ranks of soldiers and skirmishers as needed. I could easily add two of these as guardians to some evil Efreet lord.

Good first post!

 

[StarFyre]

hmm

reminds me of the Tau Vespid's for WH 40K...

 

[The Little Raven]

It has a sword for an arm, and it has wings. Let's call it... a swordwing. I'm fairly pro-4E, but these monster names... ouch.

Better than a Ghhjkslmz or whatever it would have been named back in the days of "let's pull some letters out of a Scrabble bag" naming schemes.

 

[Piratecat]

It isn't epic in flavor enough. The stats are fine, it just needs one more line of flavortext -- it causes everyone who sleeps within five miles of its nesting spire to dream (obsessively) about what it collects -- and given long enough years, to seek out the spire and bring the nest the objects of its many desires.

As a guy running a 3.5 epic lvl game, I'll point out that there's a definite need for epic lvl monsters that are really tough but not necessarily "changes the whole world around them" flavorful. I loved the addition of your text, but it means that you couldn't really use them unless you've seeded rumors about obsessive dreaming. Sometimes you just need something with a lot of hit points to whack on... a mook instead of a named character, to use Feng Shui terms. The swordwing seems to fit the bill.

 

[Benimoto]

Yeah, I got to agree with doctorhook here...there's epic monsters with a capital E and then there are monsters meant to fight epic characters.

Yeah, that's the thing. It's one thing to say that all epic level monsters should be fascinating, world-threatening creatures, but it's another thing to actually do it. After all, there's 10 levels in the epic tier, and each level is going to involve 10ish encounters with 5ish monsters in each encounter.

Over a course of 500 monsters, you're going to need some "epic orc warriors". It's just good adventure pacing.

 

[Lizard]

Yeah, that's the thing. It's one thing to say that all epic level monsters should be fascinating, world-threatening creatures, but it's another thing to actually do it. After all, there's 10 levels in the epic tier, and each level is going to involve 10ish encounters with 5ish monsters in each encounter.

Over a course of 500 monsters, you're going to need some "epic orc warriors". It's just good adventure pacing.

Then why not use, well, epic orc warriors? Just level an orc to 25 and be done with it. He'll have more cool powers and equipment.

The thing is, there's nothing about the swordwing which makes it epic, other than the numbers. I could take the same basic mechanics and use it at 5th level, or 15th, just scale it. There's nothing there which players need epic-level powers to match or counter -- even the fact it flies is not relevant, since it has to close to melee range to do any damage.

In theory, a reasonably large number of commoners could kill one. Compare to high level 3x critters, which usually had DR, incorporeality, or something else which basically made them invulnerable to 'mundane' weapons, or special attacks (death ray, life drain, whatever) which only high-level characters could face or recover from, etc.

I think the swordwing is an interesting enough monster, and I can see using it -- see above -- but there's nothing "epic" about it. It's the obvious downside of "extending the sweet spot" -- gameplay changes very little between level 1 and level 30. Instead of orcs attacking the village, it's swordwings attacking the nation, but if you did a statistical analysis of damage as "% of hit points lost/attack", I'm guessing you'd find the battle plays out pretty much the same. Do D&D players WANT the same basic play across 30 levels? WOTC thinks so. The market will decide.

 

[hong]

Then why not use, well, epic orc warriors? Just level an orc to 25 and be done with it. He'll have more cool powers and equipment.

Some people will no doubt do that. However, the backdrop to which epic encounters take place may not be one in which orcs have much of a place.

This is entirely different to the question of whether epic monsters are "interesting".

I think the swordwing is an interesting enough monster, and I can see using it -- see above -- but there's nothing "epic" about it. It's the obvious downside of "extending the sweet spot" -- gameplay changes very little between level 1 and level 30. Instead of orcs attacking the village, it's swordwings attacking the nation, but if you did a statistical analysis of damage as "% of hit points lost/attack", I'm guessing you'd find the battle plays out pretty much the same. Do D&D players WANT the same basic play across 30 levels? WOTC thinks so. The market will decide.

I, personally, am looking forward to paragon-tier play as having bigger numbers and more shock than heroic tier.

 

[The Little Raven]

Then why not use, well, epic orc warriors?

Because I don't want to use orcs. I want to use epic-level grunts that aren't just beefed up dudes from previous tiers.