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Mercenary Pen
2009-05-15, 10:48 AM
This is a monster I've been working on for the past few days on and off, but I'm not certain whether I've given it enough decent powers to justify its Elite status.

Skeletal Guard Captain

Skeletal Guard Captain
Level 9 Elite Soldier (Leader)
Medium natural animate (undead)
XP 800

Initiative +7
Senses Perception +7; Darkvision
Army of the Dead Aura 5, allied undead starting in the aura can shift up to 2 squares as a minor action.
HP 196; Bloodied 98
AC 27; Fortitude 25; Reflex 23; Will 21
Immune disease, poison; Resist 10 Necrotic; Vulnerable 5 Radiant
Saving Throws +2
Speed 5
Action Points 1

Deathstalker Halberd (standard; at-will) melee basic
-Necrotic, Weapon
Reach 2; +16 vs. AC; 1d10+5 Necrotic damage and ongoing 5 Necrotic damage (save ends).

Deathtouched Strike (standard; recharge 6)
-Necrotic, Weapon
Reach 2; +16 vs. AC; 3d10+5 Necrotic damage and the target is marked and weakened (save ends both).

Bonechilling Gesture (minor, recharge when first bloodied)
Necrotic
One ally of the skeletal guard captain makes a melee basic attack with an additional 1d4 points of necrotic damage.

Death Mark
All allied undead gain a +1 to attack rolls against any target you have marked.

Threatening Reach
The skeletal guard captain can make opportunity attacks against all enemies within its reach (2 squares)

Alignment evil
Languages-
Skills Athletics +14, Intimidate +10
Str 20 (+9) Dex 16 (+7) Wis 17 (+7)
Con 18 (+8) Int 17 (+7) Cha 13 (+5)
Equipment Scale mail, Deathstalker Halberd +1 (AV)


All critique welcome, and ideas to fill any perceived gaps would most helpful.

Yakk
2009-05-15, 11:06 AM
Skeletal Guard Captain
Level 9 Elite Soldier (Leader)
Medium natural animate (undead)
XP 800

Initiative +7
Senses Perception +7; Darkvision
Army of the Dead Aura 5, undead starting in the aura can shift up to 2 squares as a minor action.
HP 196; Bloodied 98
AC 27; Fortitude 25; Reflex 23; Will 21
Immune disease, poison; Resist 10 Necrotic; Vulnerable 5 Radiant
Saving Throws +2
Speed 5
Action Points 1
Shifting 2 squares as a minor action. That's... interesting.

I am going to pay no attention to the boilerplate parts of the creature (resists, AC, defenses).

The slow speed is a bit of a concern with no decent ranged attacks, but I'll assume this creature occurs in a cramped area.

Deathstalker Halberd (standard; at-will) melee basic
-Necrotic, Weapon
Reach 2; +16 vs. AC; 1d10+5 Necrotic damage and ongoing 5 Necrotic damage (save ends).
Ongoing 5 is worth about 9 damage. So this is a basic attack that does about 19 damage per hit.

Deathtouched Strike (standard; recharge 6)
-Necrotic, Weapon
Reach 2; +16 vs. AC; 3d10+5 Necrotic damage and the target is marked and weakened (save ends both).
This will be used about 2 times over the skeleton's ~6 rounds of life.

Each time it weakens someone for ~1.8 rounds, halving the damage they do for that long, and does ~21 damage on a hit.

Bonechilling Gesture (minor, recharge when first bloodied)
Necrotic
One ally of the skeletal guard captain makes a melee basic attack with an additional 1d4 points of necrotic damage.
Might want to add in a once per round requirement. Doing 3 gestures in a round could be quite sick.

Death Mark
All allied undead gain a +1 to attack rolls against any target you have marked.
This could get annoying to keep track of. But it is an elite.

Threatening Reach
The skeletal guard captain can make opportunity attacks against all enemies within its reach (2 squares)This could pump out a lot of damage -- you cannot approach the guard captain without taking a melee attack.


Alignment evil
Languages-
Skills Athletics +14, Intimidate +10
Str 20 (+9) Dex 16 (+7) Wis 17 (+7)
Con 18 (+8) Int 17 (+7) Cha 13 (+5)
Equipment Scale mail, Deathstalker Halberd +1 (AV)
I'm assuming that the Deathstalker Halberd's powers aren't added onto the above? (ie, the undead uses it differently).

Does the aura apply to itself?

The tactics that this creature does could impact how dangerous it is -- the tactics section from the MM isn't fluff, it is key to balancing a monster.

I could see this creature doing a lot of pain by 'kiting' melee characters. You hit a target, shift out of range, and make them take an OA to close on you again.

All of this soldier's attacks are against AC. That could be a weakness.

It has no 'area' style attacks.

Mercenary Pen
2009-05-15, 11:30 AM
Shifting 2 squares as a minor action. That's... interesting.

That was based off the Tactical Deployment recharge power of the hobgoblin commander, I just toned down the shift for a more permanent version.


Might want to add in a once per round requirement. Doing 3 gestures in a round could be quite sick.
If you look, this one recharges when first bloodied. You're only going to get 2 gestures per Skeletal Guard Captain total.


This could get annoying to keep track of. But it is an elite.
This could pump out a lot of damage -- you cannot approach the guard captain without taking a melee attack.
Except by shifting. Also, if you think that's bad, try looking up the Threatening Reach on any Hydra in the Monster Manual.


I'm assuming that the Deathstalker Halberd's powers aren't added onto the above? (ie, the undead uses it differently).
Nope, but the Halberd's powers are very similar to the damage that the melee basic attack does (that's where I got the idea for the ongoing damage from).


Does the aura apply to itself?
No, I should have written allied undead to clarify that one. I'll edit that.


The tactics that this creature does could impact how dangerous it is -- the tactics section from the MM isn't fluff, it is key to balancing a monster.
I'll write up some tactics when I get the chance, but I'm just about to head off to work.


All of this soldier's attacks are against AC. That could be a weakness.
It's also true of most other soldier role monsters I consulted against.


It has no 'area' style attacks.
I'm debating whether to put in a close burst, but I would normally deploy this with something else to provide artillery support.

Its strengths, as I perceive them, are going to be training and military cohesion, earned during its former life. It doesn't do the damage itself so much as facilitate the damage dealing of others.

Yakk
2009-05-21, 08:28 AM
Ah. So it's "assume it hits" damage is somewhere around
8 actions (60% chance each)
19*6 + 21*2 = 156*.6 = 93.6
+2 allied attacks +5 damage (50% chance) = 1 average ally attack damage + 2.5.

96.1

It also nullifies about 1 player action over that period of time. That's worth about half an allies attack damage, as it extends the lifetime of some ally by about one round.

It marks a PC for about 2 rounds total. With an average of 4 allies pounding on the target, and a 50% hit rate, that's another 7 damage from that marking power. (as noted, I didn't think it was worth the extra bookkeeping).

103.1 damage budget.

Plus the impact of the guy's "shift 2 as a minor action", plus the impact of PCs having to run in past the elite's threatening reach.

Call it 6 threatening reach attacks (assuming it tries to kite PCs), at 60% accuracy, for another 68.4 damage output.

171.5 damage budget. Plus 1.5 average level 9 monster's hit damage.

This is an elite, so it should be doing about 1.75 times that of a standard monster of its level in damage.

Mercenary Pen
2009-05-22, 11:23 AM
Okay, I have a couple of ideas to bring up the damage levels, so I'll post them as soon as I can stat them out.

First idea is:

Final Command
(immediate reaction- on reduction to 0 hit points)
Close Burst 5: All allies of the Skeletal Guard Captain gain combat advantage against foes in the burst for one turn.