The Runecarved Eidolon - Weird monster

[pawsplay]

A lurker that causes a -5 to hit, continuously, while lurking?

 

[WyzardWhately]

That is completely brutal. I love it. I seriously think that might be the best preview for 4E I have ever seen.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I note that despite being a construct it has an INT score. That's awesome. I'm going to have an NPC one of these in my game, who will probably be played like the Easter Island statue from Red Meat.

 

[erf_beto]

Just a wild guess, but I think that, unless a deity is specifically tied to the plane of shadow and/or death, most divine magic will deal radiant damage, regardless of the character/creatures alignment.

Isn't there a prismatic/color spray spell from those double page spread (DDXP) that deals radiant damage too? I'm guessing radiant is, yes, positive related, but not Divine related per se (akin to an arcane necromancer using necrotic/negative energy).

 

[Benimoto]

I think you're right. Another ENworld poster came up with a HP formula which works for all the MM monsters that were run at DDXP but which breaks down for the DDM monsters released at DDXP.

I suspect that the DDM cards had to be finalized and shipped a couple months before DDXP when the MM formulas were still being tweaked.

Yeah, comparing the monsters on the DDM cards to the ones in the Monster Manual preview pages, the ones on the DDM cards all had less HP than you would expect. If we plug the same formula that seems to be in use on the Feygrove Choker, the Eidolon would have something like 102 HP instead of 59, almost double.

The formula, mentioned by Upper_Krust that seems to match all the Monster Manual preview pages is something like [(Level + 1) * (6 or 8 or 10) + Con Score] * (1 or 2 or 5), where the 6, 8 or 10 depend on the monster's "role" and the 1 or 2 or 5 depend on whether it's normal, Elite or Solo.

The DDM cards were probaly sent to the printers something like 3 months before the con, and may have been in production for longer, so it's no big surprise that the HP fomula changed since they were printed. Or possibly the cards are accurate and the Monster Manual preview pages and adventures at DDXP are off, but I think that's less likely.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Isn't there a prismatic/color spray spell from those double page spread (DDXP) that deals radiant damage too? I'm guessing radiant is, yes, positive related, but not Divine related per se (akin to an arcane necromancer using necrotic/negative energy).

Right... I was saying most Divine-based damage will be Radiant, not the all Radiant will be Divine.

Positive and Negative energy don't even exist in the new edition anymore.

 

[frankthedm]

A lurker that causes a -5 to hit, continuously, while lurking?

Think of it as an enchantment that beats the snot out of you if you mess with it. Kinda reminiscent of the 'Opal ----" Magic the Gathering cards.

 

[Shroomy]

Just a wild guess, but I think that, unless a deity is specifically tied to the plane of shadow and/or death, most divine magic will deal radiant damage, regardless of the character/creatures alignment.

I think it would be quite easy and very evocative to swap out the radiant damage for necrotic damage if you'd want a strictly evil version of the monster.

 

[AllisterH]

The DDM cards were probaly sent to the printers something like 3 months before the con, and may have been in production for longer, so it's no big surprise that the HP fomula changed since they were printed. Or possibly the cards are accurate and the Monster Manual preview pages and adventures at DDXP are off, but I think that's less likely.

I think we can confirm the former. Looking over the DDM cards, there's a Level 5 Grick Brute and it only has 50 HP and we know from the MM preview page that the Grick is a level 7 Brute with 96 HP.

No way no how, 2 levels equate to a 46 HP difference.

re: Monster Roles
So, assuming you have a standard party of fighter, cleric, rogue and wizard, what do people think would be a balanced encounter in terms of monster role (I imagine 4 equivalent level Brutes against this party in a open stadium is just asking for a TPK for the party whereas 4 artillery guys at range will make hash of the party as well).

 

[Revinor]

So, assuming you have a standard party of fighter, cleric, rogue and wizard, what do people think would be a balanced encounter in terms of monster role (I imagine 4 equivalent level Brutes against this party in a open stadium is just asking for a TPK for the party whereas 4 artillery guys at range will make hash of the party as well).

I have quite the opposite feeling - 4 monsters of the same class are weaker then mixed group.

With 4 monsters, probably 2 melee (brute/soldier), 1 artillery and 1 random leader should be quite powerful combination.

4 brutes can be very vulnerable to terrain control - some combination of slow/ranged push etc should keep them from closing too fast for long enough that they will meet party defenders already weakened.

4 artillery monsters - as long as players are able to survive 1 round of fire (and they should) they can close from outside-of-range to melee range in 1 round and a bit (double move run action and next round move + attack).

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

re: Monster Roles
So, assuming you have a standard party of fighter, cleric, rogue and wizard, what do people think would be a balanced encounter in terms of monster role (I imagine 4 equivalent level Brutes against this party in a open stadium is just asking for a TPK for the party whereas 4 artillery guys at range will make hash of the party as well).

As others have said, mixed party is just as important for mobs as it is for PCs. Four brutes is like having a party of four fighters with greatswords.

I'd team up the Runecarved Eidolon with two of those Boneclaws the OP mentioned (or similar big bad guys with reach) and maybe 4-8 kobold minions. The kobolds run around and hassle everyone, encouraging the party to draw AOOs by chasing them, while the boneclaws smack down anything that moves and the eidolon makes it hard for the party to get anything accomplished. (Even those minions are gonna start to look scary with +5 damage when the party has -5 to hit!)