Second Skin - level 20 solo

[Mesh Hong]

Here is a Level 20 three stage solo creature that I recently used against my group of 6 level 17 PCs. To add a little context to the encounter it was the third of the day, the first encounter was even level and included 2 medusa, the second encounter was a beholder eye tyrant (which I made a slight adjustment to, making all its eye beams attacks random, and adding a power that stopped enemies graining the +2 bonus to hit from flanking and if the beholder was blinded it lost the use of its eyes of the beholder aura attack and could only take 1 attack with its eye beams power.

Anyway, the Level 20 solo is an old enemy of one of my characters (referred to as Brand in the creatures text) and has been hunting him for about 10 levels. The creature is a parasitic being that prefers to take a host body and enhance it with its own power, though it can operate for a while in its own form, for this encounter I also revealed its true base form.

In all but the creatures base form it looks like it is carved from white rock and appears like an angular and stylised living statue, in its base form it looks like a black column of writhing tentacles carrying a large rock at about waist height.

Second Skin Fell Troll Level 20 Solo Brute
Huge Aberrant Humanoid (phase 1) XP 14,000

Initiative +16 Senses Perception +20, darkvision
HP 1190; Bloodied 595; see Shed the Skin
Regeneration 10, if takes acid damage regeneration doesn't function next
turn
AC 34; Fortitude 36, Reflex 32, Will 34
Immune charm, disease, poison;
Resist 20 lightning, 10 radiant; Vulnerable 15 psychic, 5 necrotic
Saving Throws +5
Speed 10
Action Points 2

Stone Tipped Claw (Standard; at-will)
Reach 3; attack +23 vs. AC; 2d6+8 damage

Backhand Slam (Standard; at-will)
Reach 3; attack +21 vs. Reflex; 2d8+8 damage; on hit target is pushed 4
squares and knocked prone

Ferocious Attack (Standard; at-will)
Second Skin makes 2 Stone Tipped Claw and 1 Backhand Slam attack

Crunching Rush (Standard; recharge )
Second Skin moves up to 10 squares in a straight line, this movement
provokes opportunity attacks as normal; when any part of this movement
would take him into an enemies space he may make the following attack;
attack +20 vs. Fortitude; 1d10+8 damage; on hit Second Skin may either
grab target and carry them along or slide them 2 squares and knock them
prone, Second Skin may only grab and carry 2 targets, at the end of the
movement Second Skin makes an attack against each grabbed target;
attack +20 vs. Reflex; 2d8+8 damage; on hit target is released from the
grab, prone and dazed (save ends); on miss target is released from the
grab

Eye Beam Strafe (Standard; encounter) ♦ radiant
Close blast 5; attack +21 vs. Reflex; 4d12+7 radiant damage; on hit
target takes a -4 penalty to attacks (save ends); on miss half damage

Bellow of Revenge (Standard; encounter) ♦ fear
Burst 10; attack +21 vs. Will; on hit target is stunned until the end of
their next turn, after effect target takes a -2 penalty to attack (save
ends)

Shed the Skin (Immediate Reaction) ♦ when first bloodied
When first bloodied Second Skin sheds the Fell Troll revealing its ultimate
form, see separate stat block

Threatening Reach
Second Skin has threatening reach (3) with its Stone Tipped Claw attack

Alignment Evil Languages deep speech, common, giant
Skills Athletics +23, Dungeoneering +20, Endurance +24
Str 26 (+18) Dex 22 (+16) Wis 20 (+15)
Con 28 (+19) Int 18 (+14) Cha 24 (+17)

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Second Skin Level 20 Solo Controller
Large Aberrant Humanoid (phase 2) XP 0

Initiative +16 Senses Perception +20, darkvision
HP 595; Bloodied 297; at 200 HPs see Shed the Stone
AC 36; Fortitude 34, Reflex 33, Will 34
Immune charm, disease, poison;
Resist 20 lightning, 10 radiant; Vulnerable 15 thunder, 5 necrotic
Saving Throws +5
Speed 6
Action Points 1

Stone Punch (Standard; at-will)
Reach 2; attack +23 vs. AC; 3d6+7 damage

Lightning Charged Punch (Standard; at-will) ♦ lightning
Reach 2; attack +23 vs. AC; 2d8+7 damage; on hit target takes 10
ongoing lightning damage (save ends)

Double Punch (Standard; at-will)
Second Skin makes a Stone Punch and a Lightning Charged Punch attack

Ultimate Control (Standard; recharge ) ♦ psychic
Line of sight; does not provoke opportunity attacks; attack +24 vs. Will;
on hit target is dominated (2 saves ends), note Brand gains a +5 bonus to
Will defence vs. this attack

Lightning Arc (Standard; recharge ) ♦ lightning
Close blast 3; attack +24 vs. Reflex; 4d8+7 lightning damage; on hit
target is dazed (save ends)

Eye Beams Strafe (Standard; encounter) ♦ radiant
Close blast 5; attack +24 vs. Reflex; 4d12+7 radiant damage; on hit
target takes a -4 penalty to attacks (save ends); on miss half damage


Share My Pain (Immediate Reaction; recharge ) ♦ psychic, when
damaged
When damaged Second Skin may psychically cause damage to a nearby
creature as an immediate reaction; range 5; attack +20 vs. Will; on hit
target takes an amount of psychic damage equal to half the total that
Second Skin took from the attack

Shed the Stone (Immediate Reaction) ♦ when reduced to 200 HPs
When reduced to 200 HPs Second Skins stone flesh falls away revealing its
ultimate base form, see separate stat block

Alignment Evil Languages deep speech, common
Skills Dungeoneering +20, Endurance +20, Insight +20
Str 24 (+17) Dex 22 (+16) Wis 20 (+15)
Con 20 (+15) Int 26 (+18) Cha 24 (+17)

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Second Skin (Base Form) Level 20 Solo Skirmisher
Medium Aberrant Beast (phase 3) XP 0

Initiative +20 Senses Perception +20, darkvision
Aura of Paranoia (fear, psychic) aura 5; Second Skin and all creatures
inside aura count as both allies and enemies, and take all benefits and
disadvantages from this (can provide flanking, take both ally and enemy
effects from powers and abilities from effects or creatures inside aura)
HP 200; Bloodied 100; see Refusal to Die
Regeneration 10, regenerate does not function next turn if Second Skin
takes thunder damage
AC 36; Fortitude 31, Reflex 35, Will 35
Immune charm, disease, poison;
Resist 10 radiant, 10 fire
Saving Throws +5
Speed 6, teleport 3
Action Points 1

Tentacle Rake (Standard; at-will)
Attack +25 vs. AC; 2d6+8 damage; on hit target takes 5 ongoing damage
(save ends)

Double Rake (Standard; at-will)
Second Skin makes 2 Tentacle Rake attacks; if both attacks hit the same
target they takes 10 ongoing damage (save ends)

Psychic Tornado (Standard; recharge ) ♦ psychic
Burst 3; attack +21 vs. Will; 3d8+8 psychic damage; on hit target is
pushed 6 squares and knocked prone

Mass Domination (Standard; encounter) ♦ psychic
Burst 5; attack +20 vs. Will; 1d6+8 psychic damage; on hit target is
dominated (save ends); Brand gets a +5 bonus to Will defence against this
attack

Refusal to Die (Immediate Reaction) ♦ necrotic, when first reduced to
0 HPs
Burst 5; attack +22 vs. Fortitude; 2d6+8 necrotic damage; on hit Second
Skin regains a number HPs equal to the damage taken by target

Combat Advantage
Second Skin deals 2d6 extra damage with melee attacks when it has
combat advantage

Alignment Evil Languages deep speech, telepathy 10
Skills Dungeoneering +20
Str 20 (+15) Dex 26 (+18) Wis 20 (+15)
Con 18 (+14) Int 22 (+16) Cha 26 (+18)

 

[Sporemine]

Cool monster mesh. How did the pcs end up? Alive? Partially alive? TPK?
That would be good to know. Post it on my monster creation thread where there's more traffic.

Kudos

-Sporemine

 

[Mesh Hong]

How did the pcs end up? Alive? Partially alive? TPK?

All 6 PCs came through alive and none of them dropped at any point. Overall I was quite happy with the encounter, the luck of the dice slightly favoured the PCs (but that is sometimes how it goes so I am not bothered by that).

Notably the PCs got a massive critical against the creatures first form that really helped them out, and I couldn't dislodge the rogue who was using close quarters to fight from inside the creatures base. The mass domination power that I thought was going to be quite nasty only hit 1 PC out of 5 in range (very poor rolls) and the Refusal to Die power only gave the creature about 36 HPs, again I was hoping for a bit more.

All in all it was an interesting and dynamic fight, but not as deadly as my rebalanced Beholder Eye Tyrant. Still the fight contained some amusing banter as the creature was trying to bargain with individual members of the group, trying to tempt them into becoming its host.

 

[Quickleaf]

Fascinating monster - there must be some cool story behind it!

Interesting how the resistances/vulnerabilities change...I'm not sure I see the logic behind it, but it must make for a dynamic fight.

How did this solo fare against conditions like stunned, particulary "until the end of next turn" powers? I've read some DMs feel solos get screwed by PCs wielding status effect imposing powers.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Fascinating monster - there must be some cool story behind it!

There is, here is the massively abridged version:

About level 6 one of my PCs (Brand) got pulled through and trapped in the Far Realms. (I hadn't planned it, but then PCs sometimes do the craziest things)

I then ran 2 seperate scenarios where the group played other characters also trapped in the far realms working for a mysterious and powerful figure called "The Mark" (this was Brand after he had "joined forces" with an entity of the Far Realms that had promised to help him escape). [note I didn't tell anyone what had happened to Brand in the Far Realms, they were simply having a few sessions in a parrallel story]

The second scenario was the group and The Mark finding and openning a portal that would take them all back to their own times/locations. This was a massive and long fight with an incombat skill challange and more and more creatures arriving every turn as they battled against the odds in a last stand style situation.

Just as they were openning the portal a giant star dragon arrived and The Mark (Brand) persuaded the entity possessing him (second skin) to detach and buy them some time to get to the portal, The Mark (Brand) promised to hold the portal to allow second skin to travel through.

When second skin detached The Mark was able to fully realise that second skin was an Evil entity and wanted to travel to the middle world in order to cause destruction and mayhem. So The Mark (Brand) closed the portal behind him sealing Second Skin in the Far Realms.

Second Skin was last heard shouting that it would have its revenge, it would devote itself to finding a way to track Brand down and kill him.

Brand arrived back exactly where he had origianlly left, with about 20 seconds having passed for his companions. Brand had spent 200 years in the Far Realms and had aged about 30 years. (second skin had found Brand dying in the Far Realms and had "saved his life", then extended his life and used him as a vessel to try and escape to the middle world)

Now jump forward to the PCs being level 17:

Really short (and surprising inaccurate!) description.

Second Skin was able to latch onto a device that was "sucking energy from the planes" to impose his own order on the bad guys of my main plot and bring through a temple dedicated to him. The players had to enter the temple in order to break the connection between the planes to foil the main bad guys. Second Skin was waiting there for Brand (after softening the party up with other encounters and challanges).

Conclusion:
The party defeated him, but found that they couldn't kill him. On death he left a large stone gaunlet (of artefact power) that contains his essence. If anyone puts the guanlet on they will gain great power but second skin will be back (an still looking for revenge). So the group have to find a way of keeping the artefact safe.

Interesting how the resistances/vulnerabilities change...I'm not sure I see the logic behind it, but it must make for a dynamic fight.

Their isn't any real logic behind the shifting resistances/vulnerabilities, but then it is a creature from the far Realms It is just another way of making the encounter slighly different as it progresses.

How did this solo fare against conditions like stunned, particulary "until the end of next turn" powers? I've read some DMs feel solos get screwed by PCs wielding status effect imposing powers.

I am blessed not to have an orb wizard in my group. I know my group, and I was happy to take what ever they had left to throw at me. If you look you will see that this "solo" has a total of 4 action points. The only thing that was a real problem was the rogues Close Quarters power, and when it changed to its 3rd form it was only a medium sized creature so the rogue just fell off.