Scions of Elemental Evil Released on D&D Beyond

D&D Beyond has released the new short adventure Scions of Elemental Evil ahead of its exclusive stores and convention organized play release. This week, Wizards of the Coast released the short adventure, which is set in the Greyhawk region and pits players against the Elemental Evil fanatic Ulsedra Vox. The adventure is made for up to six Level 4 adventurers with the D&D cartoon cast (plus new character Niko) provided as pregenerated characters. Amanda Hamon is credited as the lead designer while Will Doyle is credited as a designer on the adventure.

Notably, Scions of Elemental Evil uses the 2024 rule set and contains several magic items from the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. It also contains updated statblocks for several monsters, including the incubus and succubus demons. Notably, an incubus can shapeshift into a succubus and vice versa once per long rest, with each statblock containing different abilities and access to different spells. The succubus has access to an 8th level Dominate Person spell at will, while the incubus has access to a Nightmare bonus action that renders a creature with 20 or less HP unconscious on a failed saving throw.

The adventure will be available to play at organized play events at stores and conventions from October 29th to November 25th.

 

[Gorck]

Nope. Just a lot of HP.

Oh well, there goes my theory right out the window. Or maybe not, since they say these might not be the final versions that appear in the MM.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I can't say that I like the clear trend of taking spells OUT of the statblocks. You could easily place the effects of the slow spell in the space taken up with the superfluous "using Constituation as a spellcasting ability" (I mean, it would take a few more characters, but not enough to worry about, IMO. And the benefits far outweigh the crime.)

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Oh well, there goes my theory right out the window. Or maybe not, since they say these might not be the final versions that appear in the MM.

Yeah, that idea could be a rather "late addition" to the monster design. We'll have to see.

Here's hoping that they've gone back-and-forth on how much they include spell text in the monster blocks. DO NOT make us DMs look up spells to run monsters (except for maybe full Evil Wizard-types, with a LOT of spell or spell-like abilities).

I DO like that the Golem has a ranged attack. It's just more exciting when they do.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Yeah, that idea could be a rather "late addition" to the monster design. We'll have to see.

Here's hoping that they've gone back-and-forth on how much they include spell text in the monster blocks. DO NOT make us DMs look up spells to run monsters (except for maybe full Evil Wizard-types, with a LOT of spell or spell-like abilities).

I DO like that the Golem has a ranged attack. It's just more exciting when they do.

It seems somehow wrong to me that the Golem is better at ranged now than in melee.

 

[Zaukrie]

I can't say that I like the clear trend of taking spells OUT of the statblocks. You could easily place the effects of the slow spell in the space taken up with the superfluous "using Constituation as a spellcasting ability" (I mean, it would take a few more characters, but not enough to worry about, IMO. And the benefits far outweigh the crime.)

Agreed. Brutal. Awful. Terrible. Truly.

As far as I can see, they added more HP to monsters, and they do LESS damage sometimes? Slog much?

The monster design is a serious step BACKWARD. Unreal when so many monster books are our there to learn from. Truly awful. I like the new PHB, and as far as I can tell, I'll like the new DMG. But the MM? Not likely.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Agreed. Brutal. Awful. Terrible. Truly.

As far as I can see, they added more HP to monsters, and they do LESS damage sometimes? Slog much?

The monster design is a serious step BACKWARD. Unreal when so many monster books are our there to learn from. Truly awful. I like the new PHB, and as far as I can tell, I'll like the new DMG. But the MM? Not likely.

Well, we'll have to see. One thing that has been clear to me from many editions worth of playtesting, is that monsters can go through a lot of swingy "balance" passes. Hopefully this is just a phase that they went through before reaching a better final version for the MM. I won't hold my breath, though. Most things published in the PHB were darn close to the last thing we saw playtest-wise, so these are probably closer to that, with a few tweaks here-and-there but most of it set.

I have VERY strong opinions on monster design, and I had very high hopes for the MM. So, while seeing new versions very much excites me, I agree with you that there's not much here to like. Some of it even seems to backtrack on some of the things that Monsters of the Multiverse had done well. I was hoping for another step forward from there. Ah well. There might still be time.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It seems somehow wrong to me that the Golem is better at ranged now than in melee.

I agree with you on that. Here's another strange one. I'm not going to show the whole block, because it's almost exactly the same in all other ways but here's the Knight's Attacks:

Actions (Knight 2014)
Multiattack. The knight makes two melee attacks.
Greatsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage.
Heavy Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, range 100/400 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d10) piercing damage.

Actions (Knight 2024)
Multiattack. The knight makes two attacks, using Greatsword or Heavy Crossbow in any combination.
Greatsword. Melee Attack Roll: +5, reach 5 ft. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) Slashing damage plus 4 (1d8) Radiant damage.
Heavy Crossbow. Ranged Attack Roll: +2, range 100/400 ft. Hit: 11 (2d10) Piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) Radiant damage.

... Their crossbow still sucks, Attack-mod wise, but it now packs a big wallop (and can be used with multiattack).

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Actually, there's one other notable difference for the Knight - the 2024 one is missing the "Leadership" trait.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Actually, there's one other notable difference for the Knight - the 2024 one is missing the "Leadership" trait.

But they can now deal radiant damage, because we needed more magic!

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I'm curious about the "why" for replacing Infernal Charm and the Golem's Slow with spells. The best I can think is so that they can be unambiguously affected by Counterspell by RAW.

I'm glad to see DR and DI to nonmagical weapons gone, but the Ogre just becoming an even bigger bag of HP without even an added push or topple rider to its melee attack is discouraging.