[4E Monster Pack] Cultists

[AgentPaper]

Just something I threw together in the new Monster Builder, and was wondering how balanced these might be. If anyone wants to playtest them, that'd be great. And feel free to use them however you wish, giving me credit or not, I really don't care as long as you enjoy them.

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Edit: Updated and added Hulking Demon.

[Xefas]

I couldn't find a range for the Cultist of Pain's "Death's Grip" power, despite it being marked as a ranged attack.

Also, the Cultist of Pain's "Unholy Might" ability makes reference to its "Aura of Pain", when in fact the name of its aura is "Aura of Torment".

The Cultist of Demon's "Dark Summoning" ability makes reference to a "Lesser Demonspawn" but all I see is a regular old "Demonspawn".

Just a few little things I saw.

I really like the Unholy Might mechanic. If I ever end up running another 4th edition game, you can bet I'll be using these *bookmarks thread*

[AgentPaper]

I couldn't find a range for the Cultist of Pain's "Death's Grip" power, despite it being marked as a ranged attack.

Also, the Cultist of Pain's "Unholy Might" ability makes reference to its "Aura of Pain", when in fact the name of its aura is "Aura of Torment".

The Cultist of Demon's "Dark Summoning" ability makes reference to a "Lesser Demonspawn" but all I see is a regular old "Demonspawn".

Just a few little things I saw.

I really like the Unholy Might mechanic. If I ever end up running another 4th edition game, you can bet I'll be using these *bookmarks thread*

Thanks! I knew there would be a bunch of little things like that. I've updated my version with those things, but I'll wait until I finish with their tactics sections to update them.

Which brings to my attention that those aren't displaying the tactics, which they all have, only they're all the same.

And you'll probably notice at some point that they all have the same equipment loadout, which is wrong, for example the Cultist of Shadow should have a Execution Axe. That seems to be a bug with the monster builder at the moment; whenever I change one, the rest of the cultists change to be the same. And yet, oddly, it only happens with these guys, and not with my custom Sahuagin. (who all have different loadouts)

Anyways, I'm kinda feeling like these guys are probably too powerful, especially in large groups, at least compared to other monsters around their level.

And yeah, Unholy Might is basically the signature ability of these guys. Kill one, and suddenly the rest are that much more powerful. It should make the normal "Blow my dailies right off" parties think twice. They probably want to pick their targets carefully, and make sure that once a few are down, they have the resources to take out the rest as fast as they can.

[Krazddndfreek]

The target of the "Hellfire Cultist's" "Hellfire" power is 'Burst 0" might wanna fix that too.

Keep up the good work.

[AgentPaper]

The target of the "Hellfire Cultist's" "Hellfire" power is 'Burst 0" might wanna fix that too.

Keep up the good work.

That's on purpose. It starts out only hitting one person, but as enemies go down, it hits more and more players. So for example if you've got 8 cultists and 6 of them die, then suddenly it's a burst 6 power.

[Xefas]

Another thing I picked up on after re-reading it. The Cultist of Blades is listed as a Soldier, but its abilities seem more Brute-like, in that its primarily concerned about being semi-stationary and dealing a lot of single-target damage (though I could see an argument for the shifting making it more of a skirmisher). Not to mention that I believe its version of Unholy Might helps out other Cultists enough for it be classified a "Leader".

The Cultist of Pain, on the other hand, is listed as a Brute but has some very clearly Soldier-like powers, punishing others for moving to, being near, or attacking enemies other than the Cultist of Pain.

[AgentPaper]

Another thing I picked up on after re-reading it. The Cultist of Blades is listed as a Soldier, but its abilities seem more Brute-like, in that its primarily concerned about being semi-stationary and dealing a lot of single-target damage (though I could see an argument for the shifting making it more of a skirmisher). Not to mention that I believe its version of Unholy Might helps out other Cultists enough for it be classified a "Leader".

The Cultist of Pain, on the other hand, is listed as a Brute but has some very clearly Soldier-like powers, punishing others for moving to, being near, or attacking enemies other than the Cultist of Pain.

The way I see it, Brutes and Soldiers are both "defender" roles, but with two different ways of going about it. The brute has lots of HP, low defenses, and does high damage attacks, which combined with it's in-your-face tactics, tends to make it a good idea to attack them. Soldiers, on the other hand, have high defenses and normal HP, and keep people attacking them with their moves. Both types can lean more towards protection or striking.

The Cultist of Pain just happens to be a more "protector" leaning brute, while the Cultist of Blades is a more "striker" leaning soldier. The Cultist of Blades will also be moving around more, since it can't bring people towards it, and can shift as part of an attack. I'm actually changing it so that it can shift as part of it's basic attack. Which means it can take an attack of opportunity, move in front of the target, and hit him. They can still move around him after, and he can't take another attack of opportunity on them, but it's there at least. Unless I decide that his AoOs also stop movement, but I'm not sure I wanna go that far.

As for the Cultist of Blades being a leader, I'm not really sure that's the case. His Unholy Might allows a dying creature to shift once and attack before it actually dies, which is pretty much the same as most of the Unholy Mights, in that it makes something bad happen to the guy who killed the cultist.

One interesting thing that arises from all this, though, is that even when the party is level 4-5, the level 1 minion cultists are still a big threat, since there's more of them, and you can't just wipe them out without giving the rest of the cultists a huge power boost. Which means you have to leave them alone for the most part, and try to surgically remove the powerful leaders before going ape on the cultists, which will just keep getting stronger and hitting harder as you try to take them out.

Anyways, the next thing I'm working on is some stronger demons that fit in well with these guys. They're not cultists, so no unholy might, but they're all pretty tough (ie: elite brutes/soldiers) so if you try to take them out first, the cultists are going to do a number on you. Probably better to have a defender focus on them, and since they're generally rather dumb, they'll be happy to try and beat him to a pulp instead of going after the squishies. (Note that I'm generally balancing them with this in mind, so if you have them act smarter, don't be surprised if people die)

For example, the one I have done now is the Hulking Demon, (need a better name) which is a level 4 elite brute, and does 2d8+4 damage with it's basic attack. And it can attack twice a round. And each attack knocks the target back 2 squares, and if both hit, he takes 5 ongoing damage. Not to mention that, when he's bloodied, he can charge and still attack twice.

[Rigon]

the Cultist of Whispers has an at-will power named Dark Whispers. what is the point of recharging an at-will power with Unholy Might? didn't you mean "immediately use" instead of recharge? or was the power meant to be a "recharge *" instead of at-will?

[AgentPaper]

the Cultist of Whispers has an at-will power named Dark Whispers. what is the point of recharging an at-will power with Unholy Might? didn't you mean "immediately use" instead of recharge? or was the power meant to be a "recharge *" instead of at-will?

Ah, good catch. I was initially intending for that to be a recharge power, but then changed my mind since I didn't want the guy to be standing around doing nothing or trying to attack feebly with his dagger half the time. Anyways, I've changed it to immediately use the power instead. Thanks!

I've also figured out how to get around the equipment bug. Turns out it only happens when I'm filtering the results to names with "cultist" in them, which for whatever weird reason made it so a change to one changed all of the monsters with "cultist" in the name. Odd. Anyways, the cultists will have their correct weapons equipped now. No more Fullblade attacks using a dagger!

I'll try to get the updated images up later today, along with the demons I've been working on.

If any of you have your own ideas for cultists or demons or anything that would be cool in an encounter with these guys, feel free to share!

[AgentPaper]

Sorry it took me so long to put up those updates. Anyways, they're up now, so nyeh.

As always, comments and critique are appreciated. I'd love if these got playtested.

[Xefas]

If any of you have your own ideas for cultists or demons or anything that would be cool in an encounter with these guys, feel free to share!

I'd like to see a Cultist "Trap", that's a rune circle that augments and/or has its own Unholy Power ability. Maybe it can be disarmed slowly by simply scoffing it out with standard actions, or by making Arcana or Religion checks to dissipate its power with chants or some other kind of fluff.