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

[Sammael]

The pit fiend is yet another bland Mearlsification. It looks and feels NOTHING like a pit fiend should (and, as a great fan of devils in D&D, I've run dozens of pit fiends over the years in my games, as both allies and adversaries, so I feel qualified to comment).

Furthermore, the removal of unique devils/dukes of Hell from the hierarchy, and the fact that retarded legion devils and war devils (just read their entries in FCII) seem to have replaced the traditional cornugons makes me really, really sad.

Looks like I will have to house rule half of the freaking Monster Manual. And if I have to do that, I am not sure I'm going to bother in the first place.

 

[tombowings]

The more I look at this, it sure seems like a sucky power unless there's some specific detail we don't know.

It does what, 16 points of damage on average? Aren't the PC's going to be fairly heavily warded against fire damage at the point in the encounter when flinging your nearly dead mook's makes strategic sense?

Well, we know resistances are going to be far rarer than in 3.Xe. I wouldn't be surprised if they only had fire resistance 5, if any at all.

 

[Gloombunny]

I noticed that it does not list the save for the ongoing fire damage from the mace. Any idea how this is handled.

Saving throws are unmodified d20 rolls. At the beginning of your turn, you make a saving throw for each negative condition on you. A roll of 11 or higher ends the condition, and a roll of 20 ends all negative conditions on you. (Actually, there will probably be some conditions that aren't based on saves like that. But in general.) The pit fiend gets +2 to its saving throws as a special ability, which is actually a substantial bonus. I doubt many creatures will have any saving-throw bonus at all.

The poison, from the stinger, actually lists that it is fortitude based, and the number you add to the d20 roll is 29.

That's not a saving throw. The stinger is an attack against AC, and if it hits it does damage and triggers an automatic attack roll against Fortitude, and if *that* succeeds then the person you hit gets poisoned. And the poison lasts until they roll 11 or higher on the saving throw they get each turn.


I'm not keen on the thought of rolling all those d20s every turn, but I guess it's better than tracking round-countdowns and rolling damage every turn.

 

[helium3]

Someone from WotC (mearls?) posted that you can add class levels to monsters.

*blink*

Really? What happened to the whole thing in the . . . October? . . . podcast about the monsters and classes basically having been constructed under two entirely different systems? How can you just blop a couple of class levels onto a monster if they're entirely different?

If it was so easy to do that, why were they (at that time) struggling with multi-classing?

 

[helium3]

Well, we know resistances are going to be far rarer than in 3.Xe. I wouldn't be surprised if they only had fire resistance 5, if any at all.

At 26th level?

 

[A'koss]

I noticed that it does not list the save for the ongoing fire damage from the mace. Any idea how this is handled. The poison, from the stinger, actually lists that it is fortitude based, and the number you add to the d20 roll is 29.

Just wondering

The Mace attack is against your AC (effectively doubling as your "save defense" against the fire damage) - if it hits you, you're automatically lit on fire in addition to taking the base damage. You have to roll your save to end it.

Poison always targets your fortitude so that's why it gets listed as a separate "attack". The stinger is the delivery system which is a melee attack that targets your AC.

 

[tombowings]

Saving throws are unmodified d20 rolls. At the beginning of your turn, you make a saving throw for each negative condition on you. A roll of 11 or higher ends the condition, and a roll of 20 ends all negative conditions on you. (Actually, there will probably be some conditions that aren't based on saves like that. But in general.) The pit fiend gets +2 to its saving throws as a special ability, which is actually a substantial bonus. I doubt many creatures will have any saving-throw bonus at all.


That's not a saving throw. The stinger is an attack against AC, and if it hits it does damage and triggers an automatic attack roll against Fortitude, and if *that* succeeds then the person you hit gets poisoned. And the poison lasts until they roll 11 or higher on the saving throw they get each turn.


I'm not keen on the thought of rolling all those d20s every turn, but I guess it's better than tracking round-countdowns and rolling damage every turn.

Where are you getting this from? I I didn't know we heard anything about saving throws yet.

 

[tombowings]

At 26th level?

Yes, even at that high of level.

 

[Irda Ranger]

The creature is so...so...*specialized*. It doesn't FEEL like something which has a life outside of an encounter. (This problem is pretty much endemic to 4e. I would have something like 'Common combat abilities' and 'full abilities', the latter being additional powers to round out the beast and make them more interesting for worldbuilding and social encounters.)

Just make the rest of that crap up. Who cares how may ranks in Profession (Juggler) he has? Just give him whatever you feel he needs to make him fit into you worldbuilding plans. That's what I've done for years and as long as it doesn't screw up the CR it works perfectly.

Given that there is an intention to create social skill contests in 4E, one might have suspected a noble of hell to have some stat element related to leadership or diplomacy.

He's still got untrained +22 in every other skill he doesn't have Skill Training in, so I don't know what you could possibly be complaining about. Other than, you know, just complaining for the sake of whining about stuff.


***********


This looks pretty cool to me. I'm certainly not going to debate the numbers with anyone, since I haven't seen the complete 4E package any more than the rest of you have. I'll just assume that the 4E devs are not morons and that the Dmg per round is about right, etc. etc. I certainly like the flavor of using minions who are about to die anyway as cannon ammo. Very Devilish.

My only complaint is that I'd like a little more clothing on the art. Devils are supposed to be civilized after all, so I'm picturing a dude with horns and wings but still dressed well in silk and fine leathers. Ah well, I can always sub in more preferred art. The "hard stuff" (as Eric Noah has posted on recently) has already been done.

 

[Wolfspider]

Legion devil legionnaires? Talk about an awkward name....