D&D 4E The 4e Pit Fiend Revisited

[Shroomy]

So, I was kind of bored this afternoon, so I spent some time reviewing old threads. I came across several on the 4e pit fiend stats released way back on 1-25-2008 (seems so long ago, doesn't it?). For you reference here are the stats again:

Pit Fiend Level 26 Elite Soldier (Leader)
Large immortal humanoid (devil) XP 18,000
Initiative +22 Senses Perception +23; darkvision
Aura of Fear (Fear) aura 5; enemies in the aura take a –2 penalty on attack rolls.
Aura of Fire (Fire) aura 5; enemies that enter or start their turns in the aura take 15 fire damage.
HP 350; Bloodied 175
AC 44; Fortitude 42, Reflex 38, Will 40
Resist 30 fire, 15 poison
Saving Throws +2
Speed 12, fly 12 (clumsy), teleport 10
Action Points 1
Melee Flametouched Mace (standard; at-will) • Fire, Weapon
Reach 2; +31 vs. AC; 1d12+11 fire damage plus ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends).
Melee Tail Sting (standard; at-will) • Poison
+31 vs. AC; 1d6+11 damage, and the pit fiend may make a free followup attack. Followup: +29 vs. Fortitude; ongoing 15 poison damage, and the target is weakened (save ends both effects).
Melee Pit Fiend Frenzy (standard; at-will)
The pit fiend makes a flametouched mace attack and a tail sting attack.
Ranged Point of Terror (minor; at-will) • Fear
Range 5; +30 vs. Will; the target takes a –5 penalty to all defenses until the end of the pit fiend's next turn.
Ranged Irresistible Command (minor 1/round; at-will) • Charm, Fire
Range 10; affects one allied devil of lower level than the pit fiend; the target immediately slides up to 5 squares and explodes, dealing 2d10+5 fire damage to all creatures in a close burst 2. The exploding devil is destroyed.
Infernal Summons (standard; encounter) • Conjuration
The pit fiend summons a group of devil allies. Summoned devils roll initiative to determine when they act in the initiative order and gain a +4 bonus to attack rolls as long as the pit fiend is alive. They remain until they are killed, dismissed by the pit fiend (free action), or the encounter ends. PCs do not earn experience points for killing these summoned creatures. The pit fiend chooses to summon one of the following groups of devils:


8 legion devil legionnaires (level 21), or
2 war devils (level 22), or
1 war devil (level 22) and 4 legion devil legionnaires (level 21)

Tactical Teleport (standard; recharge 4 5 6) • Teleportation
The pit fiend can teleport up to 2 allies within 10 squares of it. The targets appear in any other unoccupied squares within 10 squares of the pit fiend.
Alignment Evil
Languages Supernal
Skills Bluff +27, Intimidate +27, Religion +24
Str 32 (+24) Dex 24 (+20) Wis 20 (+18)
Con 27 (+21) Int 22 (+19) Cha 28 (+22)
Equipment flametouched mace, noble signet ring

Based on what we know now, two months and a DDXP later, what are your opinions of the pit fiend? If your opinions changed, why?

 

[Gargazon]

While the Pit Fiend functions perfectly well in his role as Leader, making his allies both harder to hit and making it easier for them to hit (Aura of Fear + Point of Terror are a nasty combination) but his damage is still incredibly weak.

Any character with decent Fire Resistance (which will include any Tiefling that's high enough to fight this monster) will laugh off all of the Pit Fiend's attacks except the Poison Sting, and barring that the Pit Fiend relies too much on his minions as his primary form of damage, which is also, regretably, blowing them up. Any minions he uses that aren't summoned are also free XP for the party, which is kinda lame :\

 

[drjones]

I think it looks tough as hell, it is not a beater by any means but considering its great tactical movement powers and support abilities it is well suited to be used as the designers seem to intend: Leading a well organized force of devils.

That it gives more xp by being part of a group does not seem like an issue as it is not a solo monster. We don't know how much xp it takes to get from level 24 to 25 for a PC so who knows, 18k might not be all that much compared to a solo monster of that level.

Also I don't think you can ignore his defenses, we don't know what will be an average attack bonus at that level but 44 seems like a very high number when a melee attacker is going to be debuffed by the aura already.

I think from their design claims if you are looking for high hight points and high damage in one big baddie demons will fit more.

 

[Think0028]

EDIT: Eh, not sure. Need to playtest.

 

[WhatGravitas]

1d12+11? That's horrible. That's an average of 17.5 damage. He'd have to hit himself 20 times in order to kill himself. Looking at this, I'd say best case with someone of equivalent power levels would be a 10-round combat, which sounds a little long. Am I misunderstanding this guy, the length of combat, or will there be some sort of compensation in rules we have yet to see?

Well, don't forget: He's "only" an Elite monster, i.e. one pit fiend per two PCs of equal level for an average encounter. The second part is: He's obviously going to use his summons, hence setting up flanks and having more actions and attacks with them. Finally: He has an aura dealing 15 fire damage per round, giving us 22.5 damage, if he just whacks with his mace.

And then add his tail sting, and his frenzy with the nasty ongoing damage effects.

This way, he looks a bit more dangerous.

Cheers, LT.

 

[keterys]

26th Character with +6 from stat (start at 16 and +1 every 4 levels), +8 weapon, +13 from levels, +2 proficiency, +2 combat advantage, will be at +31 to hit and require a 13, before the -2 penalty. Seems pretty decent.

I am surprised it doesn't have a little less fire damage (at least resistance to fire is a daily power), but its summoned allies can likely do pretty good melee damage and its sting is pretty solid. Especially when you consider that PCs will have more like 150 hit points at that level.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I think we need to see actual 26th-level characters before we can judge how effective it is. Have we seen characters beyond 1st-level anywhere?

 

[Kordeth]

Well, don't forget: He's "only" an Elite monster, i.e. one pit fiend per two PCs of equal level for an average encounter. The second part is: He's obviously going to use his summons, hence setting up flanks and having more actions and attacks with them. Finally: He has an aura dealing 15 fire damage per round, giving us 22.5 damage, if he just whacks with his mace.

And then add his tail sting, and his frenzy with the nasty ongoing damage effects.

This way, he looks a bit more dangerous.

Cheers, LT.

And let's not forget how many hp a high-level character will have--going off of the rogue preview, a 26th-level rogue with a 12 Con will have 149 hp at 26th level. Defenders will obviously be a little sturdier, but between his mace's 17.5 average damage and his 15 damage fire aura, he's got a pretty decent chance of dishing out 32.5 damage per round with one attack. Add in the pit fiend frenzy (an at-will standard action) and his chances are pretty good for dishing out sixty two damage per round. Even if the rogue makes every save vs the poison and fire damage, it's just a hair more than two rounds for the pit fiend to smear the rogue into a fine red paste just with his basic attack options.

Yeah, I have absolutely no beef with the pit fiend's stats.

 

[The Little Raven]

Yeah, I have absolutely no beef with the pit fiend's stats.

Especially when you add in the fact that there will be an average of 3 additional monsters in the encounter with the pit fiend (since it's an elite, which counts as 2). If it was a Solo creature, I could understand thinking it's weak, but as an elite with some friends, it's definitely a threat.

 

[Falling Icicle]

I like the new Pit Fiend with one exception - his weapon attack is treated as fire damage. That's just ludicrous. Adding fire damage to it is one thing, but why is the base weapon damage treated as fire? I really, really hope this isn't how they're doing flaming, shocking, etc. weapons...

[Edit] Oh, and I would have preferred if he was a Solo monster.