jamesmanhattan
Explorer
So I want to try at updating Orcus by using the new black dragon solo released in the Dungeons & Dragons comic book #1 as the guideline.
I read AngryDM's guide, but he's designing encounters not designing monsters. I want to do as little as possible. Change Orcus's powers as little as possible, but still make him a terribly frightening demi-god that he is.
Taking the new black dragon, it puts on a condition that is so terrible that players have to take standard actions to remove that condition, this is an ingenius way to put on an optional stun. It takes standard actions away from the party, since they start out with a standard action advantage. You could have Orcus copy that with his Necrotic Burst: keep players from spending surges unless an ally comes and gives them a Healing or Religion check. (I thought that might make it too difficult)
So here goes:
One: Orcus needs to handle stun, daze, and dominate. He can shed dead parts of himself to remove spell effects. He takes 40 damage at the start of his turn and removes any effect he chooses.
Two: Orcus's touch of death is his defining power, I feel a fight where it didn't occur, would be selling everyone short on the fun of fighting Orcus. Also having it recharge on a 6 is too swingy for me. It becomes a "Free action" triggered on a hit, similar to how a Knight's Power Attack works.
(Free Action) On a hit from the Wand of Orcus: target is reduced to 0HP. Necrotic resistance cannot reduce this in any way. Recharge When Orcus becomes Bloodied.
Three: His Necrotic Burst does damage on a hit, but add an effect even on a miss that puts on the condition: players cannot spend healing surges. Someone adjacent can do a DC 33 Heal Check to remove this effect. Also change this to Recharge when Bloodied. This will make your players really frightened, and also make them scramble all over the place to do these heal checks. It also fits well as Orcus has power over life and death.
Four: Orcus needs to go twice per round and be able to attack twice with his Wand of Orcus. Add these two powers.
Double Wand Attack (Standard Action:At-Will ): make two Wand of Orcus attacks.
Demonic Savagery: On Orcus's initiative +10 Orcus makes a Double Wand of Orcus Attack or charges.
Five: Remove the stun from the tail, because stun is not fun. Let the tail be an close burst once per round when he's attacked
Six: update to use all the new damage expressions, make each hit of the Wand of Orcus do one full brute monster's worth of damage. Since he's level 33 this should be a target of 4d12+25. He can make 4 of those attacks per round now, plus a tail strike every now and then to be the equivalent of 5 monsters.
Seven: reduce his defenses by 2 and his HP to be equal to 4 monsters as in the DMG2. Increase his hit chances by +2, as in the latest July errata where Brutes get better hit chances.
Tactics wise: Don't forget how annoying that he is surrounded by difficult terrain, that even affects flying players. He also has a teleport 6 speed! Those two things alone make him difficult to deal with.
I read AngryDM's guide, but he's designing encounters not designing monsters. I want to do as little as possible. Change Orcus's powers as little as possible, but still make him a terribly frightening demi-god that he is.
Taking the new black dragon, it puts on a condition that is so terrible that players have to take standard actions to remove that condition, this is an ingenius way to put on an optional stun. It takes standard actions away from the party, since they start out with a standard action advantage. You could have Orcus copy that with his Necrotic Burst: keep players from spending surges unless an ally comes and gives them a Healing or Religion check. (I thought that might make it too difficult)
So here goes:
One: Orcus needs to handle stun, daze, and dominate. He can shed dead parts of himself to remove spell effects. He takes 40 damage at the start of his turn and removes any effect he chooses.
Two: Orcus's touch of death is his defining power, I feel a fight where it didn't occur, would be selling everyone short on the fun of fighting Orcus. Also having it recharge on a 6 is too swingy for me. It becomes a "Free action" triggered on a hit, similar to how a Knight's Power Attack works.
(Free Action) On a hit from the Wand of Orcus: target is reduced to 0HP. Necrotic resistance cannot reduce this in any way. Recharge When Orcus becomes Bloodied.
Three: His Necrotic Burst does damage on a hit, but add an effect even on a miss that puts on the condition: players cannot spend healing surges. Someone adjacent can do a DC 33 Heal Check to remove this effect. Also change this to Recharge when Bloodied. This will make your players really frightened, and also make them scramble all over the place to do these heal checks. It also fits well as Orcus has power over life and death.
Four: Orcus needs to go twice per round and be able to attack twice with his Wand of Orcus. Add these two powers.
Double Wand Attack (Standard Action:At-Will ): make two Wand of Orcus attacks.
Demonic Savagery: On Orcus's initiative +10 Orcus makes a Double Wand of Orcus Attack or charges.
Five: Remove the stun from the tail, because stun is not fun. Let the tail be an close burst once per round when he's attacked
Six: update to use all the new damage expressions, make each hit of the Wand of Orcus do one full brute monster's worth of damage. Since he's level 33 this should be a target of 4d12+25. He can make 4 of those attacks per round now, plus a tail strike every now and then to be the equivalent of 5 monsters.
Seven: reduce his defenses by 2 and his HP to be equal to 4 monsters as in the DMG2. Increase his hit chances by +2, as in the latest July errata where Brutes get better hit chances.
Tactics wise: Don't forget how annoying that he is surrounded by difficult terrain, that even affects flying players. He also has a teleport 6 speed! Those two things alone make him difficult to deal with.
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