Orcs preview

[Beastman]

Interesting article, but if the whole book has that format, I guess there is a lots of white space if they don't wnat to break the stat-blocks.

Anyone noticed this: Minions do a fixed amount of damage? Is this true for all minions or just orc minions?

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Many thanks for putting up all the details - for some reason I can't unzip stuff at work.

I am absolutely thrilled with these Orcs - I completely agree that they look like a great way to challenge parties in a brutal melee fight.

I think we should start a "Why won't it DIE?!" sweepstake - how many times will the average party bloody the battlerager before it finally collapses?

 

[arscott]

Has anyone posted that 'ORC AXEBERSERKER LICH' yet?

His powers could include following abilities:

RAGE LIKE HELL (Recharge 5, 6): You get +4 to damage and saves when you rage
AXE MANIAC (Melee +10 - At-Will): You get an extra attack with a Greataxe (damage 1D12+12)
RUGH, BRUTAL! (Recharge 6): You get to attack all adjacent enemies.
+All the Lich goodness, of course!

Here's the powers of a 6th level ELVEN INNKEEPER (Controller):

THROW TANKARDS (Ranged +11 - At-Will): Damage 1D4 + DEX
MY INN, MY RULES! (Recharge 3, 4, 5, 6): Elven innkeeper gets +2 to all rolls within his inn, while his adversaries get -1 to all their rolls.
USE THE TRAP DOOR (Daily): The elven innkeeper may teleport outside the inn by using his secret trap door and escape tunnel.

Isn't it kinda counterproductive to use the numbered bullet points recharge dice when the actual attack symbols are inthe exact same spot?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Interesting article, but if the whole book has that format, I guess there is a lots of white space if they don't wnat to break the stat-blocks.

white space is much better than a divided statblock...

Anyone noticed this: Minions do a fixed amount of damage? Is this true for all minions or just orc minions?

Yes they do. The idea seems to be following: when you are surrounded by 5 orcs, the DM throws 5 d20 and multiplies it with the damage number.

The reasoning: with 102 orcs the total damage will not vary a lot around the arithmetic middle. You save a lot of time.

also: attack bonus of minions seems generally higher than the average monster's to hit bonus, but the average damage is rather lower than than that of an average axefighter with high strength...

for me the most intersting article in the near futre will be the one covering minions, because those two orc minions seem rather strange statwise...

 

[Plane Sailing]

So drive him into the negative enough and the 10 hit points wont be enough to bring him to positive so the second attack never occurs due to death.

My point is that I'm sure we've seen information that states that monsters don't have negative hit points.

They die at 0hp.

They can't recover hp when they are dead.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Minions need to have a relatively high attack bonus, otherwise they won't do anything.

They still need to be threatening, even if they do go down easily. I'd rather face monsters that hit often, for not much, but die easily than any other combination - it means that they don't just flail around uselessly getting killed off, but neither do they run the risk of dominating the damage output.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Interesting article, but if the whole book has that format, I guess there is a lots of white space if they don't wnat to break the stat-blocks.

Anyone noticed this: Minions do a fixed amount of damage? Is this true for all minions or just orc minions?

It seems true for all Minions. One of the primary reasons seems to be usability - since 4 Minion equal approximately one Monster of their level in XP and challenge, having to roll both attack and damage would take too much time.

 

[Heselbine]

Minions have got to be one of the best features of the new game.

Last Tuesday I ran a pretty viable 'Night of the Living Dead' scenario - wave after wave of zombie minions attacking the adventurers in an inn. Marvellous. Against 1st level characters. All of whom survived (just).

Plus, attacks that also push are great fun. I had two Enraged Zombies attacking the halfling paladin. The first one punched him halfway across the room. The second one followed up and slammed him into the wall. Highly entertaining and a very memorable encounter.

For a similar reason, the new 'turn undead' is excellent.

4th edition, in my humble opinion, is a significantly better game.

 

[Cirex]

My point is that I'm sure we've seen information that states that monsters don't have negative hit points.

They die at 0hp.

They can't recover hp when they are dead.

That would make sense. That extra attack is the final attempt they got to kill the enemy with their last breath. After that, they are gone.

We need to see the full pack of rules, but I my interpretation of the situation is as yours for now.

 

[Gunpowder]

My point is that I'm sure we've seen information that states that monsters don't have negative hit points.

They die at 0hp.

They can't recover hp when they are dead.

Well usually yes, but three things.
1. the Death Strike ability is already an exception based ability allowing the orcs to make an attack after they are dead, so any other riders on a regular melee attack should be kosher. Since it is already breaking the general rule of no actions after dead.
2. Didn't the article talking about no negative hit points for monsters also say that the DM overrides that when he wants to? Personally, I find the mental image of an orc wading through a battle with spears, arrows and other what-not sticking out of him refusing to go down, entertaining enough to grant him negative hit points.
3. You could qualify the Death Strike ability as a immediate interrupt, so it would go off before the lethal blow is struck giving the Bloodrager a 10 HP booster, after which the blow could kill him if it deals enough damage.

I guess it really comes down to how you want the Bloodrager to play out.