Rizhail
2014-01-17, 01:48 PM
I'll be starting up an RL campaign soon (for the first time in half a decade) and am working on some encounters for the first few sessions. After spending some time with 4th edition, I've found myself enamored of the idea of Elemental Archons (elementals forged into humanoid shapes and used as soldiers by the various elemental powers). As they fit well into the various plots ideas the campaign will revolve around, I want to work out some of the specifics of the Archons before things kick off.
Right now, my basic setup for the archons is thus: all of the archons encountered early in the campaign will come from the same source (an old Netherese research facility, containing an intact and automatic forge for creating archons). Archons will come in groups of three (the forge spitting out three at a time), with each member of the trio having the same elemental type but different abilities/roles, with the intent that each trio of archons acts as a squad. One archon will be a tanky/frontline creature, one will be a skirmisher/damage dealing creature, and the third will be some sort of ranged/support creature.
To keep things diverse, there will be ten types of elements for the archons: the four base elements and the 6 potential pairs of those elements (e.g. fire-earth in the form of a lava archon, air-water as ice archons, etc). So, I'm basically setting up 30 different kinds of creatures. As far as stats go, I've got that under control. But what I'm looking for is themed abilities to give to the archons to make the encounters interesting.
For example: the earth element would thematically suggest strength and durability. It also fits well with concepts like magnetism, some natural disasters (rockslides, earthquakes), and use of stone/metal weapons/tools. An earth archon squad would be:
-'Tanky' archon: What I've dubbed an 'Earthwall', an armored archon with a magnetic ability. This ability would allow the archon to have longer reach than normal when using or targeting metal objects (so, 10' reach on its own attacks be controlling its weapon at a distance, disarming metal weapons from foes, tripping someone by hurling its shield at them, etc), would slow foes moving through the 10' radius who are wearing metal armor, and allow the archon to create a targeted magnetic field on a single creature as a swift action (+2 deflection to AC on itself or an ally, -2 to attack for enemies with metal weapons or wearing metal armor). I know that not all metals are ferromagnetic and thus my players might try to get smart, but I'll be playing this on Hollywood's version of magnetism for simplicity, so any type of metal will be affected. Because this is D&D, where making physics cry is a free action.
-Skirmisher archon: Dubbed a 'Rockslide', this archon attacks with its rocky fists and focuses on charges and bull rushes. Its special ability would be to allow it to do its slam damage on a successful bull rush (or bull rush on a successful charge attack, I haven't decided yet), with a few bonuses to bull rushing if I feel it necessary (like the Improved Bull Rush feat).
-Ranged archon: 'Shardstorm', an archon whose arms are made of clouds of sharp stone flakes. It attacks by hurling these razor shards at foes. It can make normal ranged attacks, or a sort of breath weapon attack, with the breath attack essentially filling a 30-ft cone or 60-ft line with razor shards (with the requisite 1d4 round cooldown).
Together, the archons provide an aggressive, durable threat. The earthwall tries to control armed enemies through its enhanced reach and debuffing abilities, the rockslide pushes foes around (preferrably into the earthwall's magnetic field), and the two of them work together to set enemies up for the shardstorm's breath attacks.
What I'm looking for is help in coming up with types of archons and the abilities they would have. I've already worked out quite a few more than just the three above, but I'd love to hear what sort of ideas other playgrounders would have. I'm also happy with making the ranged/support role archons into spellcasters, so suggesting a few spells for them would be cool (note that these are intended to be up against level 4 characters at first, so nothing above spell level 3 please).
The elemental types as I'm currently working with them (feel free to toss in your own ideas on these):
-Standard four (fire, water, earth air)
-Ash (fire/air)
-Lava (fire/earth)
-Steam (fire/water)
-Ice (air/water)
-Dust (air/earth)
-Mud (earth/water)
Right now, my basic setup for the archons is thus: all of the archons encountered early in the campaign will come from the same source (an old Netherese research facility, containing an intact and automatic forge for creating archons). Archons will come in groups of three (the forge spitting out three at a time), with each member of the trio having the same elemental type but different abilities/roles, with the intent that each trio of archons acts as a squad. One archon will be a tanky/frontline creature, one will be a skirmisher/damage dealing creature, and the third will be some sort of ranged/support creature.
To keep things diverse, there will be ten types of elements for the archons: the four base elements and the 6 potential pairs of those elements (e.g. fire-earth in the form of a lava archon, air-water as ice archons, etc). So, I'm basically setting up 30 different kinds of creatures. As far as stats go, I've got that under control. But what I'm looking for is themed abilities to give to the archons to make the encounters interesting.
For example: the earth element would thematically suggest strength and durability. It also fits well with concepts like magnetism, some natural disasters (rockslides, earthquakes), and use of stone/metal weapons/tools. An earth archon squad would be:
-'Tanky' archon: What I've dubbed an 'Earthwall', an armored archon with a magnetic ability. This ability would allow the archon to have longer reach than normal when using or targeting metal objects (so, 10' reach on its own attacks be controlling its weapon at a distance, disarming metal weapons from foes, tripping someone by hurling its shield at them, etc), would slow foes moving through the 10' radius who are wearing metal armor, and allow the archon to create a targeted magnetic field on a single creature as a swift action (+2 deflection to AC on itself or an ally, -2 to attack for enemies with metal weapons or wearing metal armor). I know that not all metals are ferromagnetic and thus my players might try to get smart, but I'll be playing this on Hollywood's version of magnetism for simplicity, so any type of metal will be affected. Because this is D&D, where making physics cry is a free action.
-Skirmisher archon: Dubbed a 'Rockslide', this archon attacks with its rocky fists and focuses on charges and bull rushes. Its special ability would be to allow it to do its slam damage on a successful bull rush (or bull rush on a successful charge attack, I haven't decided yet), with a few bonuses to bull rushing if I feel it necessary (like the Improved Bull Rush feat).
-Ranged archon: 'Shardstorm', an archon whose arms are made of clouds of sharp stone flakes. It attacks by hurling these razor shards at foes. It can make normal ranged attacks, or a sort of breath weapon attack, with the breath attack essentially filling a 30-ft cone or 60-ft line with razor shards (with the requisite 1d4 round cooldown).
Together, the archons provide an aggressive, durable threat. The earthwall tries to control armed enemies through its enhanced reach and debuffing abilities, the rockslide pushes foes around (preferrably into the earthwall's magnetic field), and the two of them work together to set enemies up for the shardstorm's breath attacks.
What I'm looking for is help in coming up with types of archons and the abilities they would have. I've already worked out quite a few more than just the three above, but I'd love to hear what sort of ideas other playgrounders would have. I'm also happy with making the ranged/support role archons into spellcasters, so suggesting a few spells for them would be cool (note that these are intended to be up against level 4 characters at first, so nothing above spell level 3 please).
The elemental types as I'm currently working with them (feel free to toss in your own ideas on these):
-Standard four (fire, water, earth air)
-Ash (fire/air)
-Lava (fire/earth)
-Steam (fire/water)
-Ice (air/water)
-Dust (air/earth)
-Mud (earth/water)