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

[Sir Brennen]

1. What is the range of his Infernal Summons? Can he conjure his allies from several miles away? Doubtfully. But if not, what is the range on it?

As this is pretty much the old "gate" ability of infernals, I'd guess that range isn't a factor, as long as it's on the same plane. Maybe not even then.

My question, though - if a pit fiend summons his allies, then ports away behind a closed gate while they occupy the heroes, when he's found in the bowels of the castle later and his "per encounter" ability ready again... is he summoning the same allies or new ones?

2. When he uses Irresistible Command, how does the devil in question slide those 5 squares?

"Slide" probably has a specific mechanical meaning in the game, possibly avoiding OA's, but also possibly countered by some classes' abilities (hence why it's not simply just a teleport.)

 

[Burr]

humble_minion, consider an 'ally' as someone who agrees that they are your ally. Whether or not they are correct doesn't matter. You can effect them because they trust you. Spies don't complicate the situation, since a) they can forgo any defense they want, and b) the other characters agree that the spy is their ally. In effect, it's as if they are allies until the pivotal moment of betrayal or discovery comes.

A Pit Fiend presumeably summons only lower-level devils who already agree they are allies. (Of course, any DM is free to let the Pit Fiend be mistaken.) An allied lower-level devil targetted with the Irresistable Command may very well wish they hadn't been allied with the Pit Fiend, but by then it's too late... the command ain't called irresistable for nothing.

This sort of no-save, ally-targetting command wouldn't make a good class ability, since it would be a mess if one player could target another player with an irresistable command. But in a context limited to NPC monsters, it's just fine. Monsters don't get to complain about unfair gameplay.

 

[Voss]

The 1 Action Point thing: If there's no recharge mechanic, then their strategy write up is something that a Pit Fiend can only use once before the DM has to hand wave it. Plus, you have the naritive problem that a being just below the Lords of Hell blows his one an only Action Point the instant he catchs sight of the PCs. Hellish assasination attempts, off screen battles, whatever it is, he gets through it with that Action Point in reserve, but as soon as he sees a PC he fires it off?

Unfortunately, the 4e design premise is centered around the idea that only combat with the PCs matter. Which is why he has no non-combat abilities (yeah, token skills) whatsoever. He can't even go home if he get conjured up by some pesky wizard. Heck. If you put him inside a box with 50' thick walls, he can't get out.

And finally: Yes, he is an Elite, but his fluff says he's only got ~12 alied peers. So you shouldn't have two Pit Fiends show up in the same encounter unless you really mean it. Likewise, pretty much anything in hell should be < Level 26, otherwise you have to ask why the Pit Fiends in charge.

Yes. And if you do really mean it, the first thing that happens is 16 minions with an additional +4 to hit show. It gets kinda freaky, both in all the stuff you have to keep track of, and how much damage the minions can do, particularly if they have attacks that target For, Wil or Ref, because the pit fiends can have them attacking at essentially +9. That almost certainly overcompensates for their lower BAB for being 5 levels lower, so they're actually a serious threat, especially given how many there are. Unless the PCs are utterly ridiculous in power level, that almost seems like a good chance of TPK.

 

[Voss]

humble_minion, consider an 'ally' as someone who agrees that they are your ally. Whether or not they are correct doesn't matter. You can effect them because they trust you.

Ugh. Who qualifies as an ally has to be very, very well defined (which it isn't in 3rd).
1- You should never be your own ally. Common English usage makes that an inherently stupid concept unless you actually have multiple personalities. Would 'affects allies and you' be that much harder to write? because it clears up half the ambiguity.

2- It has to encompass all the cases in the following fight correctly, and assign the bonuses

Enemy #1 Obvious enemy
Enemy #2 Has just been dominated by one of your allies, and you are unaware of that
Enemy #3 Is actually a shapeshifted infiltrator that is indifferent to you, but an enemy of #1.
Ally A Obvious ally
Ally B Is invisible, and you are unaware of his presence.
Ally C Has been dominated by the enemy, and you know it.
Ally D Has been dominated by the enemy, and you don't know it.
Ally E Doesn't consider himself an ally, but is fighting alongside you anyway for his own reasons.
& Yourself

I'm sure there are cases I'm not thinking of at the moment, but ally has to be defined in a consistent way such that, after reading it, you know which of all of those cases actually get the bonus.

And then you get into the other cases, like some of the Book of 9 Swords manuevers, where they have to be in a certain radius and hear you. Just for added fun.

 

[Aazenius]

I'm going back to some of the older post - the ones that felt the new Pit Fiend didn't do as much damage as the 3e version. I think the reason is this - Bloodied. If your character has 350 hit points (and it's doing an average of 60 to 65 damage per round) it only takes around 3 rounds before that character is taking penalties on their Attacks/AC, and things only get worse from there. Eventually you're attacks may suffer so bad you can't hit an AC of 44. Something to ponder.

 

[Hjorimir]

Attack Bonus of +31...

Str (+11) plus Dex (+7) plus 1/2 level (+13) = +31?

Is this WotC's compromise on the debate of Str vs Dex for attacks?

 

[Voss]

I'm going back to some of the older post - the ones that felt the new Pit Fiend didn't do as much damage as the 3e version. I think the reason is this - Bloodied. If your character has 350 hit points (and it's doing an average of 60 to 65 damage per round) it only takes around 3 rounds before that character is taking penalties on their Attacks/AC, and things only get worse from there. Eventually you're attacks may suffer so bad you can't hit an AC of 44. Something to ponder.

Wait, there are penalties for being Bloodied? Where was this?

 

[Grog]

A Pit Fiend presumeably summons only lower-level devils who already agree they are allies. (Of course, any DM is free to let the Pit Fiend be mistaken.) An allied lower-level devil targetted with the Irresistable Command may very well wish they hadn't been allied with the Pit Fiend, but by then it's too late... the command ain't called irresistable for nothing.

But since most every devil in the hells probably knows about the Irresistible Command ability, why would any devil ever agree to allow a Pit Fiend to designate him as an ally, knowing he'll just get blown up and instantly killed?

The more I think about Irresistible Command, the more it seems like a very poorly thought-out ability, both from a flavor standpoint and a mechanics standpoint (16 average damage at the cost of a 21st or 22nd level ally? Said ally could probably do more than that in just one round, especially with the Pit Fiend giving him a +4 bonus to hit).

 

[Hjorimir]

Do we have access to any other monster write-up with stats? Please provide a link if you can.

Thanks.

 

[Zsig]

Just to throw some more options for the people doing the math:

• Consider he's of Large size
• Consider his level lies between 21-30 which means Epic tier, so, for instance, his attack bonus derived from Class could be +2 (x2 for Paragon, and x3 for Epic), for a total of +6 to attack bonus, and who knows what else could get the same treatment.
  (yes, i made up those numbers)