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An excerpt from the upcoming Manual of the Planes
For those with no care to link:
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Astral Dreadnought Level 24 Solo Brute
Gargantuan immortal magical beast XP 30,250
Initiative +18 Senses Perception +19; darkvision
Frightful Presence (Fear) aura 3; enemies in the aura take a –2
penalty to attack rolls.
HP 1,135; Bloodied 567
AC 38; Fortitude 38, Refl ex 35, Will 38
Immune fear; Resist 30 variable (3/encounter; see Monster
Manual, page 282); see also swallow
Saving Throws +5
Speed fly 12 (hover)
Action Points 2
Pincer Claw (standard; at-will)
Reach 3; +27 vs. AC; 2d6 + 13 damage, and the target is
grabbed (until escape). An astral dreadnought can grab
up to two creatures at a time, one in each claw. The astral
dreadnought cannot use this attack if it has two creatures
grabbed.
Twin Pincer Claw (standard; at-will)
The astral dreadnought makes two pincer attacks. The astral
dreadnought cannot use this attack if it has a creature grabbed.
Pincer Crush (standard; at-will)
Targets creatures grabbed by the astral dreadnought; +25 vs.
Fortitude; 2d12 + 13 damage.
Swallow (standard; at-will)
Targets a bloodied Large or smaller creature that the astral
dreadnought has grabbed; +25 vs. Fortitude; the target is
swallowed. The target enters a demiplane that is 8 squares
wide, 8 squares long, and 2 squares tall. The swallowed
creature arrives in a square of the dreadnought’s choosing.
A hovering eyeball occupies the center 4 squares of the
demiplane.
Creatures in the demiplane can attack the eye. It shares the
current hit points, defenses, immunities, resistances, and
saving throws as the astral dreadnought, and it is also
insubstantial. The eye can’t be knocked prone or teleported,
and it is immune to forced movement. Creatures in the
demiplane are not affected by the dreadnought’s aura.
Any damage or effects the eye takes are also applied to the
astral dreadnought. When an astral dreadnought dies, the
swallowed creatures are expelled into the space the creature
formerly occupied.
Chained God’s Gaze (minor; recharge ⚄ ⚅ ) ✦ Psychic
Close blast 3; +25 vs. Will; the target is dazed (save ends). First
Failed Saving Throw: The target is stunned instead of dazed
(save ends). Second Failed Saving Throw: The target is stunned
and takes ongoing 40 psychic damage (save ends both).
Orb of Dread (free 1/round; at-will) ✦ Psychic
Close blast 3; targets swallowed creatures; +26 vs. Will; the
target is dazed (save ends). First Failed Saving Throw: The target
is stunned instead of dazed (save ends). Second Failed Saving
Throw: The target is stunned and takes ongoing 40 psychic
damage (save ends both).
Alignment Chaotic evil Languages Supernal
Str 29 (+21) Dex 22 (+18) Wis 25 (+19)
Con 27 (+20) Int 5 (+9) Cha 14 (+14)
Hmm...
I find it interesting to note that this creature actually has a fair number of powers. That is its got quite a few special things it can do during a fight compared to the average in the Monster Manual. My suspicion is that this is going to be an ongoing trend. The original goal seemed to be to make monsters that could easily fit on what amounted to an index card and loads of special powers works against that.
In a recent Podcast over at the WotC site it was mentioned by one of the players in a in house game that his very favourite encounter so far was with the Eye Tyrant. Interestingly enough the Eye Tyrant has more powers then any other monster in Monster Manual I.
Hence my suspicion that we are going to see, on average, an increase in the number of powers monsters have from here on out.
Hmm...
I find it interesting to note that this creature actually has a fair number of powers. That is its got quite a few special things it can do during a fight compared to the average in the Monster Manual. My suspicion is that this is going to be an ongoing trend. The original goal seemed to be to make monsters that could easily fit on what amounted to an index card and loads of special powers works against that.
Keep in mind this guy is a Solo monster, who are supposed to have a variety of powers (especially several which they can use at a time) - with that in mind, he actually looks right on par with most Solos from the Monster Manual.
But that said, the Draconomicon definitely supports your view - many of the dragons in there have a boatload of powers. Certainly the uniques - Tiamat almost takes up a full page with her stat block(s) - but even the new dragon types seemed pretty dense reading.
Again, though, these are solos. I'm hoping there will be a good mix - individual enemies won't be too complex, unless they are supposed to be an entire encounter in their own right. (Like with this guy, who is pretty straightforward, despite the fact he splits up the party and moves some of them to another entire playing field.)
Well its worth pointing out that they could go with more complex, on average, from here on out and we'd still get a 'good mix' for the most part simply because Monster Manual I is chaulk full of the simpler monsters.
I also agree with you that no one wants to see minions with a dozen powers - thats just madness. More for the Solo's on the other hand is a good trend, IMO.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Hence my suspicion that we are going to see, on average, an increase in the number of powers monsters have from here on out.
This has been my suspicion about everything in supplements. I very much expect the core rules to be the most simple and plain vanilla expression of the concepts in the game. They are designed to be your bread and butter, the basic bricks needed to build any house. The expansions will give us the more specialized and complex mechanics, the things that you want to build around and highlight in your campaigns.
This has been my suspicion about everything in supplements. I very much expect the core rules to be the most simple and plain vanilla expression of the concepts in the game. They are designed to be your bread and butter, the basic bricks needed to build any house. The expansions will give us the more specialized and complex mechanics, the things that you want to build around and highlight in your campaigns.
Hence my suspicion that we are going to see, on average, an increase in the number of powers monsters have from here on out.
This sort of thing is fine if done well and with a lot of fore thought but complexity is a sharp tool and one can hurt oneself with it.
I've been statting up 3.5 classes a lot lately to make a kind of high level clan as opposition for my PCs and I'm constantly shocked by some of the real garbage thats out there in the splat books. Take something as basic as the Wild Mage. Great concept for a prestige class, lots of interesting potential - and then you eventually realize that you actually have to roll a d6 and adjust all your spells by this number every friggen time you cast anything. In other words just about every value for all your spells change every single time you use them. What the hell were they thinking when they put that in there? I mean somebody's got to cut back on the crack. Spells are complicated enough as is without making it so that the players hand book has to be open to the spell every time you use it so you can figure out whats different about it and how the hell do you track this. Its a book keeping nightmare.
Anarchaic Initiate has a related but slightly different problem. You can open up a rift to the plane of chaos and then all sorts of crazy s+%@ starts happening - seems like a good idea until you realize that using this power is actually an exercise in looking up weird charts stashed in untouched corners of varous books. Its so complicated that its hardly fun the first time and it does not really improve after that - lots of looking through the rule books instead of doing your turn and after you use your power once its kind of old hat. Again a really awful set of powers.
So complexity is not really a terrible thing but it needs to be balanced. To much complexity damages, as opposed to helping, the game. Now I'm on board with some more powers for monsters, especially Solo's because what we have gotten so far is so stripped down that there is a real danger that the monsters 'moves' become tired and stop seeming entertaining to the players but I do think its a serous issue to consider any additional complexity in light of functionality because it seems very easy to misjudge this and create complexity that seems cool initially but turns out to be a chore or worse in actual practise - the dispel magic rules in 3.5 are sort of like this. Pretty cool in concept but a major drag on the game in practise and a real annoyance when the spell is being slung about right left and centre.
While psionics are definitely in the cards, it doesn't appear to be something that will appearing in the near future (I would say 2010 at the earliest). "Psychic" is a type of damage in 4e and appears throughout all of the books released so far.
I think there are some 3PPs working on alternate psionic rules.