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

[med stud]

That's a very good point. But I'm kinda worried that they're losing stuff like create undead and persistant image that are useful out side of combat. And it's one thing to say that the DM can just make it up, but players tend to get annoyed if DM make stuff up willy nilly. What's the difference between making up an attack method mid combat because you feel the moinster should have it and having a monster create an illusion of itself that that the PCs will spend resources fighting or whatever? Not much to me.

Personally I consider it a failure if my players can predict my BBEGs . If the players get annoyed because they can't metagame with their knowledge of the MM there is something wrong IMO...

 

[BryonD]

Really, an old school pit fiend would be pretty predictable as well. As a monster has a life span of about 4 rounds in a standard combat it's options are limited. I can't imagine a pit fiend casting animate dead or the like in a serious combat.

There are lots of ways to be unpredictable with long spell lists etc but there are few ways to be unpredictable in a sane way.

That is not my experience.

Even if you assume a poorly played Pit Fiend stands toe-to-toe and goes down in 4 rounds (a really bad assumption), at least it won't replay almost exactly the same the next time.

 

[frankthedm]

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).

That ablility has a fair amout of use IMHO. Getting the weak or debuffed out of melee and opening up charges for other, meaner allies, when the teleport ally is still recharging. Also it allows a DM who is burning out/crashing to reduce the amount of minis he has to mess around with .

I like the Pit fiend able to use lesser devels as if pawns on a chessboard. Hopefully I was not the only ones thinking his summons are pawns and rooks.

 

[Shroomy]

So, I'm assuming that a "slide" is movement that does not provoke opportunity attacks, which would make sense, since you don't want your bomb to be killed before it gets a chance to explode.

I have to say, exploding allies and the auras makes large groupings of PCs very dangerous.

 

[Benimoto]

That ablility has a fair amout of use IMHO. Getting the weak or debuffed out of melee and opening up charges for other, meaner allies, when the teleport ally is still recharging. Also it allows a DM who is burning out/crashing to reduce the amount of minis he has to mess around with .

I like the Pit fiend able to use lesser devels as if pawns on a chessboard. Hopefully I was not the only ones thinking his summons are pawns and rooks.

I agree. I haven't read Worlds and Monsters yet, but aren't the Devils immortal fearless beings to whom death is a mere temporary inconvenience? The Pit Fiend himself is a "Large immortal humanoid". What's the good of a lawful evil hierarchy if you can't treat creatures lower on the scale than you as literal cannon fodder. And for all we know, following the orders of a Pit Fiend to death might be something that devils actually clamor for.

 

[Simon Atavax]

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.

Well, seeing as how it's, like, a role-playing game and all, he and his group might be planning to, ya know, role-play. As opposed to rolling Diplomacy checks as if it were just another type of combat.

 

[Lord Zack]

Well, seeing as how it's, like, a role-playing game and all, he and his group might be planning to, ya know, role-play. As opposed to rolling Diplomacy checks as if it were just another type of combat.

Talking in character is not what role playing means.

 

[Hjorimir]

Talking in character is not what role playing means.

Slippery slope there, Zack. Role-playing means a lot of different things to people around here.

 

[Rechan]

I'm curious. To those who think the Pit Fiend's exploding allies thing is stupid:

Did you also think the exploding Balor was stupid?

One detonates devils, one detonates upon death. Not a lot of difference.

 

[Lord Zack]

Slippery slope there, Zack. Role-playing means a lot of different things to people around here.

Well thats not what it means to me. Besides, a system for determining success in a non-combat encounter and talking in character are not mutually exclusive.