Excerpts: Phane

[Lazaro]

More excerpts are up.

For those who dont care to link:

Spoiler:

Abominations are living weapons that were created during the ancient cosmic war between the gods and the primordials. Some of these creations were enormous (such as today's art preview: the tarrasque), others small. Some were singular beings of terrific power, while others were legion. A few abominations stand apart as failed or incomplete divine experiments that have either been locked away or forgotten.

Phane

Phanes can manipulate time, which they use to sow chaos among mortals. Occasionally they form pacts with powerful beings that share their destructive propensities. Consisting of coalescent mist, this creature has the lower body of a hunting cat and the torso, arms, and head of a humanoid. The air ripples around the creature, and though it moves with feline grace, it seems as though it can barely hold itself together.

Phane Tactics
A phane uses its great speed to stay out of range of opponents while targeting them with wizening ray. If forced into close combat, a phane uses either its temporal touch or wizening tempest to slow or stun enemies so it can withdraw safely and attack from a distance.

Phane Lore
A character knows the following information with a successful Religion check. DC 25: Phanes are native to the Astral Sea, but they are found throughout the cosmos, walking the space between moments, ever on the hunt for prey.

Encounter Groups
Phanes aren’t choosy about their allies. Legend tells of them working with sorrowsworn, nightwalkers, powerful demons and devils, and mighty fey.

Level 26 Encounter (XP 46,000)

1 phane (level 26 elite controller)
2 sorrowsworn soulrippers (level 25 skirmisher)
2 dread wraiths (level 25 lurker)

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Phane Level 26 Elite Controller
Large immortal magical beast XP 18,000

Initiative +23 Senses Perception +25; darkvision
HP 478; Bloodied 239
AC 41; Fortitude 38, Reflex 41, Will 38
Resist insubstantial
Saving Throws +2
Speed 10, fl y 10
Action Points 1

Temporal Touch (standard; at-will)
Reach 2; +29 vs. Reflex; 2d8 + 10 damage, and the target is slowed until the end of the phane’s next turn. The phane shifts 4 squares before or after making this attack.

Wizening Ray (standard; at-will)
Ranged 10; +29 vs. Fortitude; 2d6 + 9 damage, and the target is dazed and weakened (save ends both). Aftereffect: The target is weakened (save ends). The target appears elderly until the effects of the wizening ray end.

Wizening Tempest (standard, usable only while bloodied; at-will)
Close burst 1; phanes are immune; +29 vs. Fortitude; 2d6 + 10 damage, and the target is stunned (save ends). Aftereffect: The target is dazed and weakened (save ends both). The target appears elderly until the effects of the wizening tempest end.

Temporal Fugue (minor; at-will)
By moving backward and forward in time, a phane can remove one effect afflicting it.

Alignment Unaligned Languages Supernal
Str 24 (+20) Dex 30 (+23) Wis 25 (+20)
Con 23 (+19) Int 28 (+22) Cha 22 (+19)

[Razz]

Level 26 creature and that's all it can do?

I sure do enjoy the 3e Phane MUCH better. That's hardly an epic creature to face. It lost so much coolness from what it had in 3e...ugh.

[Krauser_Levyl]

Razz wrote:

Level 26 creature and that's all it can do?

I sure do enjoy the 3e Phane MUCH better. That's hardly an epic creature to face. It lost so much coolness from what it had in 3e...ugh.

I'm also under the impression that the epic monsters presented until now (pit fiend, war devil, chuul juggernault and now, phane) seem a bit weak compared to what epic level characters are theorically capable of doing. I mean, abominations should be monsters capable of crushing civilizations...

A phane does an average damage of 19/round against 1 character (or 17/round against 2 if bloodied). However, a 26th-level fighter should have about 190 hit points. With all PC healing capabilities (and "self-ressurrection capability", according to the Epic Tier preview) and like, it's difficult to see how a phane (who is an elite monster) can hold his own against 2 PC simultaneously.

My hope is that this "Wizening" attacks have some real chance to hit against 26th-level characters. While the phane can hardly beat the PCs fast, they also won't be able to beat the phane fast if they spend most of time neutralized by all the dazing/stunning.

EDIT: I've noted now that the phane is insubstantial. I don't know what advantage this gives it.

[Kvantum]

Another point is that the Phane is not a solo monster in 4e terms, which should mean that it's part of an encounter, not something the PCs tackle on its own.

Now if a Level 26 solo monster looks just about as weak, that's when we know 4e Epic's got some problems...

[Teiran]

Razz wrote:

Level 26 creature and that's all it can do?

All it can do? It has a pretty darn good chance to hit because it's going up against your Fort defense, gets a area attack every round once bloodied, and hands out Combat Advantage to its friends like it was halloween candy. Pair this sucker with a rogue type and it'll be very dangerous. And I would be it'll be pretty darn hard to hit this thing once the party gets old and grey. (Assuming that the players will have roughly equivalant AC's and To Hit's at this level as the Phase does.)

I would also like to point out that the Phane is going to last a lot longer then most 3rd edition monsters do at this level, just because of hit points alone. 478 hit points is a lot for a single creature.