The Devil's in the Details: Slavicsek reveals the Pit Fiend in all its glory

[Just Another User]

It'll be memorable- he can blow up his minions (yeah- not a fan of that idea myself)

Honestly, I think it is a stupid ability, more fitting for a video game than a RPG (and I don't mean Diablo or WoW, I mean Super Mario).

 

[Zsig]

Have anyone figured out the "Recharge 4 5 6" already?

I'm with the impression it's something like this:

"On the beginning of your turn, roll a d6. On a result of 4 5 or 6, the ability recharges."

Other monsters' special attacks could have a better or worse chance, say, Dragon's Breath Weapon (Recharge 5 6), which would then replace the "once every 1d4 turns".

Since it's a pain to keep track of turns, i don't think that that would be a bad idea.

If it's already been figured out before, sorry.

On another topic,
About the difficulty of the Pit Fiend himself, as many other people already pointed out, keep in mind that he's not a solo monster, but that doesn't mean he's not a boss type guy. More like a general. So on a given 26th encounter, would have him ("2/5") plus his soldiers ("3"), OR minions ("6") ... and that's not counting up the other mooks he can summon. So yeah, pretty nasty.

 

[Reynard]

As far as the Pit Fiend not having "social" abilities, who cares?...
As a DM I only need a stat block to serve one purpose: run the monster in a fight against PCs.

Except in 4E there is a defined, almost "combat like" scoial interaction system. if we were talking 1E here where in-character negotiations between PCs and NPCs were in fact out-of-character negatiations between the player(s) and DM (a system i prefer byt the way) this would be perfectly viable. that's not the case. Because there is a back and forth, almost tactical aspect to the forthcoming social interactions rules, creatures with whom the PCs might have social interaction need social abilities in their stat blocks. Essentially, it is just another kind of combat.

 

[Benimoto]

So why can't you do that for combat? It seems a bit silly that they're putting in a system for resolving social encounters and yet apparently not considering that monsters might participate in those social encounters.

The Pit Fiend's skill list includes both Bluff +27, Intimidate +27, and if we're making any correct assumptions about skills, his Diplomacy skill is going to just be his modified Charasma check, +22.

So if the social interaction system is dependent on those scores, we're all set. If it's not, then we have not idea is the stat block includes the relevant info. I'm going to assume that it does, since assuming the designers "just forgot" is stretching it.

 

[Professor Phobos]

Except in 4E there is a defined, almost "combat like" scoial interaction system.

Is there really? I didn't know that.

 

[Dragonblade]

So why can't you do that for combat? It seems a bit silly that they're putting in a system for resolving social encounters and yet apparently not considering that monsters might participate in those social encounters.

This a good point. I haven't seen their social encounter system, but if additional social stats are needed to run a monster in that system, then I would hope that would be something the designers include in a statblock. It may already be there in the stat bonuses and we just don't know what we are looking at.

 

[Fifth Element]

I don't know, how else do you interpret that?

You read it in the context of the entire post. Not in isolation.

 

[Benimoto]

Have anyone figured out the "Recharge 4 5 6" already?

I'm with the impression it's something like this:

"On the beginning of your turn, roll a d6. On a result of 4 5 or 6, the ability recharges."

Other monsters' special attacks could have a better or worse chance, say, Dragon's Breath Weapon (Recharge 5 6), which would then replace the "once every 1d4 turns".

Since it's a pain to keep track of turns, i don't think that that would be a bad idea.

If it's already been figured out before, sorry.

I'm curious about that myself. In the D&D minis rules, the rechargeable special abilities recharge when some tactical condition is met, like "recharge when an adjacent enemy becomes bloodied", "recharge when this creature takes damage", "recharge when there are two or more enemies adjacent". It's possible that "4 5 6" could refer to a chart of those possibilities. Alternately it could be, as you suggest, a die roll and all the tactical stuff is just be the minis game's way of making things more tactical.

EDIT: Another idea is that the Pit Fiend's "Action Points 1" might mean 1 action point die a round, and if he ever rolls a 4 5 or 6 on it, his teleport gets recharged. A little weird, but we're just brainstorming here.

 

[Grazzt]

Honestly, I think it is a stupid ability, more fitting for a video game than a RPG (and I don't mean Diablo or WoW, I mean Super Mario).

Agreed. Should my group ever encounter a 4e pit fiend it will be house-ruled not to have the 'explode your allies' ability (unless of course, as mentioned above, it can charm or polymorph the PCs into allies and then blow them up).

 

[Remathilis]

So why can't you do that for combat? It seems a bit silly that they're putting in a system for resolving social encounters and yet apparently not considering that monsters might participate in those social encounters.

In 3.5
Balance +10, Bluff +29, Climb +34, Concentration +29, Diplomacy +10, Disguise +29 (+31 acting), Hide +25, Intimidate +31, Jump +40, Knowledge (arcana) +29, Knowledge (nature) +10, Knowledge (the planes) +29, Knowledge (religion) +29, Listen +29, Move Silently +29, Search +29, Spellcraft +31, Spot +29, Survival +8 (+10 on other planes, +10 when tracking), Tumble +31

in 4.0
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)

So:
Balance +10/+20
Bluff: +29/+27
Climb +34/+24 (really, it can teleport and has wings, but I digress)
Concentration +29/+21
Diplomacy*: +10/+22
Disguise*: +29/+22
Hide* +25/+20
Intimidate +31/+27
Jump +40/+24 (see climb)
Knowledge (arcana) +29/+19
Knowledge (nature) +10/+19
Knowledge (the planes)* +29/+24**
Knowledge (religion) +29/+24
Listen* +29/+18
Move Silently* +29/+20
Search* +29/+19
Spellcraft* +31/+19
Spot* +29/+19
Survival +8/+18
Tumble* +31/+20

* This skill is getting merged with another somewhere down the line in 4e.
** Uses his religion skill, since planar knowledge seems to be religion-based