This is my first shot at a mythic Talonquake to close out RRR. Any thoughts? I anticipate that by the end of RRR, my players will be around 6th level and have 2 mythic tiers. For this Talonquake, I excised the Eirikk story and the armor. I then took the base owlbear, cranked up its size to Huge, gave it 6 additional Hit Dice, and I added the Advanced and Savage [Mythic] templates. Also gave it max hit points. This critter seems ridiculously strong in some respects (hit points and resistances), ridiculously weak in others (AC, Reflex, and Will saves). Hero Lab estimates it as a CR12/MR 2 encounter. And why does it give this Talonquake zero uses of mythic power per day?
Here's the stat block Hero Lab spat out:
Talonquake CR 12/MR 2
XP 19200
Invincible Advanced Owlbear
N Huge Magical Beast
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +23
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Defense
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AC 24, touch 10, flat-footed 22 (+2 Dex, -2 size, +14 natural)
hp 218 (5d10+108)
Fort +17, Ref +9, Will +6
Defensive Abilities block attacks (1/round), hard to kill; DR 10/epic; Resist acid 15, cold 15, electricity
15, fire 15, second save
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee Bite (Invincible Advanced Owlbear) +20 (1d8+11/x2) and
Claw x2 (Invincible Advanced Owlbear) +20 x2 (1d8+11 plus grab/x2)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks mythic power (0/day, surge +1d6)
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Statistics
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Str 32, Dex 14, Con 26, Int 2, Wis 16, Cha 14
Base Atk +11; CMB +24 (+26 Bull Rushing, +28 Grappling); CMD 36 (38 vs. Bull Rush, 40 vs. Trip)
Feats Awesome Blow, Great Fortitude, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Power Attack -3/+6, Skill
Focus (Perception)
Skills Fly -2, Perception +23, Stealth -6
Languages
SQ surge
Other Gear You have no money!
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Special Abilities
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Awesome Blow As standard action, damage and move smaller foe 10 ft. +1d6 dam if collide with
something.
Block Attacks (1/round) (Ex) When hit by an attack, if you succeed with a melee attack at your highest
bonus vs. the attack result, the attack misses.
Damage Reduction (10/epic) You have Damage Reduction against all except Epic attacks (weapons with a +6 bonus).
Damage Resistance, Acid (15) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Acid attacks.
Damage Resistance, Cold (15) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Cold attacks.
Damage Resistance, Electricity (15) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Electricity attacks.
Damage Resistance, Fire (15) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Fire attacks.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Grab: Claw (Huge) (Ex) You can start a grapple as a free action if you hit with the designated weapon.
Hard to Kill (Ex) Automatically stabilize when dying, and only die at neg Con x 2.
Improved Bull Rush: You don't provoke attacks of opportunity when bull rushing.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Mythic Power (0/day, Surge +1d6) Use this power to perform your mythic abilities.
Power Attack -3/+6 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ feet by sense of smell.
Second Save (Ex) If you fail a save against an effect with a duration > 1r, save again each turn
Surge (1d6) (Su) Use 1 power to increase any d20 roll by the listed amount.
p2
Upon first glance you could practically declare this creature one of the Tane of the First World if you wanted to - it definitely says "City Killer" to me.
Even without any uses of Mystic Power the attack rolls, which with Power Attack should still be hitting easily averages around 20 HP per hit...the secondary save vs any ongoing effect...the damage resistances...the ability to try and block a single attack per round and its DR 10/Epic? Freakin amazing.
Definitely a foe for the ages - it screams "Mythic Encounter".
I'm not too well read on the mythic rules so far but if your players have methods of at least bypassing its DR or Resistances it will probably be a fair, but hard, fight.
Really my only question at this point in regards to making it an encounter with your players - whom you obviously know better than I - is can they actually damage it?
DR 10/Epic is a challenge to most lvl 6 fighters (if they can't bypass it), and Resistance 15 takes a huge chunk of damage away from most spells at that level too (near half on a max damage Fireball or Lightning Bolt).
Actually taking a look at the stats again...it has a Fly Skill modifier? Can this thing fly? Cause that would be hilarious and terrifying at the same time.
Overall, an excellent looking monster.
I'm looking over this thing, and I might knock down the stats a little bit, but not too much. I actually don't want my players to defeat this thing ... by themselves. On the other hand, with the resources of a fledgling kingdom, they could (for example) attack it with armies and/or siege engines. When we go through RRR, I want to get my players thinking not just like adventurers, but like rulers.
The other half of this is that I plan to run the owlbear in two waves. In the first, it will attack while the PCs are off dancing with Hargulka, and my players will take the parts of members of the ruling council (and, potentially, visiting adventurers) who marshal a city defense to drive the Talonquake off.
If your aim is for your players to not be able to take it down themselves, but require a different approach rather than "hit it until its HP hits 0" then I'd say you're definitely on the right track.
This could even work as something driven off by their attacks and coming back later once the group levels up a bit.
Do the stats for Armies account for Damage Reduction?
Quote: If your aim is for your players to not be able to take it down themselves, but require a different approach rather than "hit it until its HP hits 0" then I'd say you're definitely on the right track. I'm still kicking the idea around, but giving this bad boy the fey template (which tie it to the Lonely Warrior's blade) is an option. That doesn't directly bypass the DR (which I would adjust to "mythic AND cold iron," but the fey bane blade would give somebody an edge.
Quote: Do the stats for Armies account for Damage Reduction? Yeah, under the "significant defense" entry, with the option that the GM's discretion, the DR makes it impossible to defeat the DRed army.
I do kind of like the idea that PCs could use an army with siege engines to weaken the thing, then close in to deal with it themselves. If they take a hybrid army/melee approach (say, only bring siege engines), I would probably houserule something on the fly.
Another thought: After the PCs kingdom is nicely established (say, a couple years in), what if Talonquake becomes an additional kingdom event? Say, there's a 5 percent chance each turn that he comes out of his den and randomly wrecks a square>?
pennywit wrote: Another thought: After the PCs kingdom is nicely established (say, a couple years in), what if Talonquake becomes an additional kingdom event? Say, there's a 5 percent chance each turn that he comes out of his den and randomly wrecks a square>? You could list it in the same category as a Dangerous Kingdom Event or even a Dangerous Settlement Event as a creature like that is effectively a natural disaster.
Depending on whether or not your PCs are away when Talonquake begins its attack you could determine how many siege engines are left working by the time they arrive. Distracting and leading it away could be a goal in and of itself (say 3-5 rounds as 'minutes' if you want to while the army mobilizes the remaining engines).
Then you could have the engines do a rolled amount of damage per round while the PCs actively engage it?
If you wanted to reduce its DR but give it Fast Healing or Regeneration/Epic or Fey Bane weapons, that might make it more of a returning hazard as time would become a smaller factor of when it could strike again.
I think CR12 would be a bit much for a party of 6th level adventurers. Gotta tweak this thing. Hmph. I'm looking at this thing, and I'm wondering if its fair to send a critter with a +20 bite attack against PCs who are likely to be level 6 or so. Even though they'll be mythic tier 2 (perhaps 3) by the time it rolls around, that's still a pretty nasty attack. I think I will knock this thing down a bit. I wnt it to be very hard to kill. But I don't want it to fillet a barbarian in three rounds.
I'm using the First Owlbear in my home campaign, with a couple less hit points from having just attacked the town, and perhaps the sickened condition, depending on how up to it the party is feeling. This will hopefully also give them a mythic tier.
I will probably keep this bad boy as above. I reviewed the various rules, and I realized my players will be level 6-7 and MR 2-3 by the time they face off against Talonquake. At that point, they will have:
* Abilities that allow them to bypass damage reduction (path attack abilities)
* Abilities that allow them to bypass energy resistance (mythic spellcasting)
If my players spend their mythic points freely during the encounter (as well they should for an epic encounter!!), then they stand a good chance against the Talonquake.
Here's how I see it going down:
1) I've already mentioned "The Legend of the Talonquake" to my players a couple times. So, they should know it's out there.
2) The Talonquake is slumbering in its den under a temporal stasis effects. In this state, it can't be harmed, although it can be awakened by a) dispel magic or break enchantment (vs. an 18th level caster) or b) a magic flute.
2a) If my players explore its den, they'll certainly find that Talonquake there. It will be asleep. I'm going to play up the skeletal remains all around it. If my players are dumb enough to wake the thing up with a successful dispel magic, it will become a random kingdom event that destroys hexes and settlement blocks.
3) The magic flute is currently in the possession of evil faeries. They will give this flute to Hargulka as a gift.
4) When my players finally defeat Hargulka, he will smile and say, "I've already won." Then ... I will cut to a scene of a troll playing a flute outside a cave.
5) Assuming my players braced Hargulka outside of their capital, Talonquake will make his way to the capital, destroying everything in his way. I will hand my players sheets for prominent NPCs back in the capital -- Kesten, Akiros, the Old Beldame, and others -- and let them play those characters in defense of the capital. The Talonquake will generally rampage about. Doing about 50 points of damage will be enough to drive him off .... for now.
6) The council will beg my players to take down Talonquake. I'm going to let my players be really creative with this, as long as it's a friggin' epic battle.
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I look forward to hearing how the encounter goes Pennywit. I really like #4 here as well, and plan to use a similar situation.
The last moments of Hargulka that I am planning involve a similar "Did you really think I would bet the soul of this country solely on the outcome of a fist fight with you?" in kind of a Joker-at-the-end-of-The-Dark-Knight kind of way.
Then flash to the citizens in the capital city seeing a form moving through the nearby trees snapping them as they move (though I am sorely tempted to pull an "Attack on Titan" moment over any city walls they have.)
It's still a ways off. My players are maybe 1/3 of the way into RRR right now; Hargulka's still waiting offstage, but he's due for a grand entrance soon.
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The end of RRR approaches. This encounter probably won't be on tap for another month or so, but I've had a chance to think and revisit it. A few thoughts:
1) I might give Talonquake the Fey or Fey Animal template. Thanks to some rather intense encounters in my campaign, my campaign has the fey as a pretty significant presence. Making Talonquake a fey creature ties back to that narrative element. It also makes the Lonely Blade (currently in the possession of the baroness) a useful and deadly weapon in this confrontation.
2) I'm going to give the Talonquake a herd, flock, or whatever you call it, of about five to ten normal owlbears. Despite this thing's insane defenses, my players, now at mythic tier 2, are very, very good at pouring on damage. Things like mythic fireball and surprise strike can tear through that Damage reduction. Having other owlbears adds to the challenge without making it overwhelming.
3) I'm going to see if I can swap in the Diehard feat. I like the image of the heroes, near exhausted themselves, carrying the fight to a weakened, wounded enemy.
1) Use the Fey Creature template form Bestiary 3, it could give your Owlbear some useful ability (ie Evasion) you could want its to have a according to your party composition.
2) It depends of your party levels, mythic tiers, and optimization but I'll not give them more than 5 owlbears.
3) Have you considered the use of the Mythic Diehard feat?
My players kind up upended my plans. Instead of a troll war, they attacked Hargulka during a parlay on Candlemere Island. They may have bee incensed when Hargulka presented them with Auchs' bones in a sack. After they barely escaped that combat, Hargulka's minion, Grigori, triggered Talonquake's release. So, instead of Talonquake attacking their capital while they were occupied in a siege against the trolls, my players met Talonquake at the Shrike River.
I used a slightly different version of TQ. This one was slightly lower level, but I gave it the fey template. They ended up encountering it alone; I decided it hadn't gathered owlbear allies to itself yet. The players actually had a tough time with it at the start, but they managed to get on a better footing once the barbarian and wizard starting burning mythic power left and right to power their spells and attacks.
After TQ took about 1/2 its HP in damage, it attempted to flee by flying and teleporting. The party wizard and alchemist, both hasted and flying, gave chase, sending fireballs after the thing. TQ turned around and meleed with the alchemist (knocking him into negative HP territory), but the wizard managed a lucky hit with a scorching ray that overcame TQ's DR.
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If I run this again
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I'm going to give TQ several normal owlbear friends to occupy the party. I keep forgetting about the action economy.
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