D&D 4E Original 4E Monsters

[keterys]

So, on the chromatic dragon using force - which of course I took forever to get back to, but my thoughts are an orange dragon.

Some similarities to red, but much smaller and weaker. They are some of the greediest of the chromatics with respect to one thing - magic. They have learned to eat and digest it and their attacks and defenses are imbued with force powered by the magic they have eaten.

In terms of combat abilities, controllers or artillery of lower level than red dragons (but not drastically lower). Their claw attacks would not be as impressive as other dragons, but they would have force-assisted powerful bite and tail attacks. Their breath weapon would be fire and force, both, with a strong knockback. They would have significant push and some knockdown abilities. Initially they would have a powerful shield of force surrounding them that they can use to damage and push away those who end near them, but when bloodied it would fracture and they would instead single target lash out with force when damaged.

 

[Rechan]

Hey Keterys. I'm looking at your Young Hydra.

First of all, +3 vs. AC? For a 3rd level party, that's pretty much going to bounce off their AC.

Second, what happens if the party doesn't have any acid or fire attacks (or at least, only has one, thus can only destroy one head)?

Finally, I'm thinking of reskinning the hydra to represent a volcano god. Although, if I switch the fire to cold, then my party is boned; no cold attacks, nor acid. (Or fire for that matter.)

 

[keterys]

Hey Keterys. I'm looking at your Young Hydra.

First of all, +3 vs. AC? For a 3rd level party, that's pretty much going to bounce off their AC.

Well, it' gets +1 per head on top of that. And it does half damage on a miss.

Second, what happens if the party doesn't have any acid or fire attacks (or at least, only has one, thus can only destroy one head)?

Eventually it hits 0 hp and still dies, but it gets a lot more dangerous along the way.

Finally, I'm thinking of reskinning the hydra to represent a volcano god. Although, if I switch the fire to cold, then my party is boned; no cold attacks, nor acid. (Or fire for that matter.)

Critical hits also work, and with them getting 4 or so attacks per round on it, they'll probably at least get one of those.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Okay keterys...we have follwed this thread long enough.

When are the PDF(s) coming out? Surely someone has picked up on this wonderful idea of giving us stats for our minis and is going to publish them. I want them now!

please Connors

 

[keterys]

Sadly, as far as I can tell the demand is pretty low and it eats up a significant amount of my time to do the pdfs. I absolutely, completely, desperately want to finish this, but between RL work, running games for people, preparing modules for others, playtesting/suggesting things for others that might actually see being published, etc... it ends up falling pretty low on the priority pole. In truth, I don't even have as much time to read this board as I used to, which makes me sad. Lotta good ideas I'd love to discuss.

I really miss the old days when I got to just make up some ideas and people were using them in games right away, lots of feedback, etc.

P.S. I'll see if I can't just sac some sleep off the schedule so I at least have things moving every day, to at least restore the things that were lost.

 

[Connorsrpg]

You know what I would think would sell as a very cheap and easy PDF? Something very short and about one type of character/creature.

eg: "Twenty Goblins". Could change the number and I have thought about this myself, but just a short PDF with other common creatures in it, ESPECIALLY minions. I want minion gnolls and duergar.

I noticed someone (Blackdirge I believe) has already started something like this...I recently bought their PDF on BUGS. But these don't have to be original monsters. I think there is heaps of scope for new versions of current creatures (esp humanoids and esp minions for the higher level humanoids). I would be happy to join in.

Was once started a thread for it but was told straight out putting them in the wiki would be a much better idea. (Same with the African creatures I am resurecting for my home campaign).

Anyway, just a thought, as I play more modules I really wish there was a lot more different versions of some critters. I often swap out a guy for four minions so the controllers get more fun.

But, your idea of doing minis is very cool too. (Maybe they could be combined). Anyway, I use a lot of your monsters, but most are from the original bundle you put together. Esp b/c I had those minis. Lost track of your various PDFs by role (with no pics).

Life does get in the way sometimes, heh?

C

 

[Rechan]

Hey Keterys. Got a request for you.

You have a system for turning a normal monster into a lower level elite, and an elite monster into a lower level solo.

Could you design something to make a solo into an elite?

There are so many cool solo monsters I want to use, but I can't possibly do a constant "Battle the one big bad guy". Especially because their hit point totals take forever.

 

[keterys]

Good call. It's tricky, but let me play around with that, cause I could use that right away.

Doing the stats themselves is not too bad, cause the attack and defenses are level delimited, but making a basic system that works without additional design decisions for which powers to eliminate or reduce in effect is pretty difficult.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

Just wanted to say I used your feral ratbeasts last night in the first adventure in my Parsantium campaign. They worked really well, with PCs moving about, trying to shake them off their legs!

Thanks!


Richard

 

[keterys]

Great to hear!

So, I haven't had a chance to test out the Solo to Elite conversion, but what I'm playing with involves mostly halving the amount of special/AE to make it match an elite better. I do suspect that even more so than the other conversions this one will need a little coaxing attention, but... anyhow, so far the basic rule looks like:

At-Wills
Melee/Ranged powers that make 3+ attacks gain recharge 4 5 6 –or- hit half as many targets (round up)
Area/Close attacks become recharge 4 5 6 –or- hit half the area (round down)
Immediate action become encounter actions that recharge when first bloodied
Minor Action powers become 1/round

Recharge
Recharge 5+ powers become encounter actions that recharge when first bloodied
All other recharge actions increase the needed amount by 1

Taking a pass over a few example solos:

Changes:
Black Dragon’s breath weapon would be once before bloodied and once again when bloodied, or possibly once, free when bloodied, then once a final time.
Cloud of Darkness recharge 56 instead of 4-6.
Tail Slash twice instead of at-will

Primordial Naga
Flailing Heads makes three attacks.
Spit Fire and Wind Slam 1/round
Freezing Breath 2xencounter

Tarrasque
Fury becomes 1xencounter
Trample becomes recharge 4 5 6
Frenzy becomes recharge 4 5 6

The 'proud nails' there are the dragon breath weapon, the tarrasque's fury, and aura powers in general. I left 'encounter' powers as is, but there's something a bit disturbing about having 2 elite dragons using frightening presence over the one, so there may need to be something done there.

So, anyhow, I think I'll need to break out some more examples and map out the damage differences to make sure it's at least reasonably approximate. I suspect certain solos, like purple worms, will just break, but they're kinda stupid solos anyways