D&D 4E The 4e Pit Fiend Revisited

[Evilhalfling]

just a spot of pure conjuncture, which assumes some ability for 26th lvl PCs to be fire resistant.
What if the flame touched mace is considered to be Fire and Physical damage?
it does have both the [fire] and [weapon] descriptors.
That would make the poot critter far less hosed by fire resistance.

 

[keterys]

It might be, but they did put 'fire damage'. In the one power that is both, it says it like '4d6 fire and cold damage' I believe. Of course, we don't usually call out 'weapon damage' so dunno.

I was actually wondering if it was just an error and it was supposed to be normal damage on the mace, then fire from the followup. Or maybe it's just 'weapon' because you can disarm it and that's one way you track that.

P.S. I should probably stop hogging this thread. Too bored at work. *hides*

 

[DandD]

According to this:

Resistance or immunity to one keyword of a power does not protect a target from the power’s other effects. When damage of a power is described as more than one type, divide the damage evenly between the damage types (round up for the first damage type, round down for all others). For example, a power that deals 25 fire and thunder damage deals 13 fire damage and 12 thunder damage.

It might be half (rounded up) damage from the flametouched mace is fire, and the (rounded down) damage is therefore weapon damage. At least, that's how I interprete it.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

In terms of worrying about whether the Pit Fiend as we know does 'enough' damage, remember that all of the information we have seems to point towards each attack doing less damage than in 3e - thus making fights last longer.

It may be that, when compared against other equivalent monsters and high-level PC's that this Pit Fiend is doing LOTS of damage!

 

[Delgar]

I think this guy is cute:

Pit Fiend Lich Level 26 Solo Controller (Leader)
Large immortal humanoid undead (devil) XP 45,000
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 585; Bloodied 292
AC 46; Fortitude 44, Reflex 38, Will 44
Resist 30 fire, 15 poison , 18 necrotic
Saving Throws +4
Speed 12, fly 12 (clumsy), teleport 10
Action Points 2
Regneration 10, if the lich takes radiant damage its regeneration doesn’t function on its n Spellmaster (minor; recharge 5, 6)
The lich regains the use of an expended encounter power next turn.
Necromantic Aura (Necrotic) aura 5
Any living creature that enters or starts its turn in the aura takes 5 necrotic damage.
Necrotic Master
The lich can convert any attack power it has to necrotic.
Change a power’s energy keyword to necrotic, or add necrotic energy to an attack power that doesn’t normally deal energy damage.
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

 

[mmu1]

Or in other words, the 3.X-Pit Fiend hasn't much more compared to the 4.0-Pit Fiend. Yay.

Not really. The write-ups by Mal are completely skewed. (no offense - but they are)

In one of them, he describes all the wonderful things a 4E Pit Fiend will do when used in a group of monsters.

In the other, he writes about the 3.5 Pit Fiend as a single monster, and then very... selectively... interprets the effects of the Pit Fiend's spells.

For example, arguing that targeted Greater Dispel Magic is a bad move at higher levels is pretty disingenous. Even if it's a level or two lower than the spells it's cast on, it's often one of the most effective ways to hurt a heavily buffed character.

Blasphemy? Blasphemy has a 40' radius, so unless you're fighting out of doors, it's very likely to get most of the party, and unless the party level is equal to the caster level, it's absolutely brutal because of the Weaken on top of the Daze.

Unholy Aura works on the Pit Fiend and all of his allies. Suddenly, whoever else is in that encounter (because we're not assuming that the 4E version gets allies and the 3.5 one doesn't, right?) fighting the PCs gets +4 AC, +4 to saves and high SR.

While in 3.5 Pit Fiends did not have "boss monster, leads other demons" stamped on their stat block, I think it's pretty obvious that's their role - a single Pit Fiend vs. a 20th level party is not a well-designed encounter. (and more than a 4E pit fiend would work well without allies to teleport around)

 

[hong]

While in 3.5 Pit Fiends did not have "boss monster, leads other demons" stamped on their stat block, I think it's pretty obvious that's their role - a single Pit Fiend vs. a 20th level party is not a well-designed encounter. (and more than a 4E pit fiend would work well without allies to teleport around)

A 3.5 pit fiend is a CR 20 monster. By definition, it is supposed to be a reasonable encounter for a 20th level party.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I think this guy is cute:

Pit Fiend Lich Level 26 Solo Controller (Leader)
Large immortal humanoid undead (devil) XP 45,000

Oh dear Gods. I just noticed that he could recharge his summoning power at will. You'd be knee deep in Devils within a few rounds - he's practically unbeatable.

Round One! Summon!
Round Two! Recharge Summon!
Round Three! Summon!

Rinse and repeat until you run out of models to put on the table...

 

[Jack99]

Oh dear Gods. I just noticed that he could recharge his summoning power at will. You'd be knee deep in Devils within a few rounds - he's practically unbeatable.

Round One! Summon!
Round Two! Recharge Summon!
Round Three! Summon!

Rinse and repeat until you run out of models to put on the table...

Technically only every 3rd round on average (recharge 5,6), but yeah, it could quickly get very nasty indeed.

 

[Jack99]

Double-post