Friday, December 23, 2011

A New 4e Monster Type: The Savage

I have been playing around with a new monster type, the Savage. A Savage is an Elite monster that is buffed up enough to challenge a party as a Solo. They can hit hard without taking without taking all night to run. Since they die more quickly than a traditional Solo monster, you can afford to be a little swingy with their offensive power; their lower hit points are balanced by their "savagery".

 A Savage will typically have many, if not all, of these features:

-Immunity to status effects such as stun and dominate
-Saving throws at the beginning and end of turn
-Attacking at their Initiative and Initiative + 10
-Multiple attacks per turn as a single Standard Action and/or Minor and Free Action attacks
-Elusiveness
-Free Action attacks when bloodied and/or dying
-2 action points
-An auto-damaging Aura or the equivalent

I'm using them in Ravenloft currently and they can hit you hard without taking all day.

Look for some example Savages on my blog soon!
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,

5 comments:

  1. Sorcerer BlobJuly 24, 2012 at 1:37 PM

    How do they stack up against a Solo? They sound very familiar in many mechanical regards, and I'm intrigued, but just from reading it I don't really understand what you're going for. Would it be at all possible to post an example stat block? I think seeing the mechanics laid out like that would help me understand why you are using a Savage over a Solo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jeremy "frothsof" SmithJuly 24, 2012 at 1:49 PM

      Hi Blob! They are very much like a Solo, only with half (or less than half) the hit points, plus a little extra nastiness. So think of them as a very nasty Elite that you can run against a party as a Solo. The point is to be able to run quick, challenging "Solo" monster encounters that do not take all night. They feel good!

      Here is an example:

      http://frothsof4e.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-monster-type-example.html

      Middle-aged DM did a cool one here

      http://middleageddm.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/brown-note-moments/

      And there will be several in my upcoming zine!

      Delete
    2. Sorcerer BlobJuly 26, 2012 at 1:20 PM

      Hey man, I loved this tweak, I ended up giving it a shot last night. I wrote a review of it today over here: http://legend4rydnd.blogspot.com/2012/07/legend4ry-reviews-savage-monster.html

      It worked well, but I had to make some tweaks. Overall, I like it and will be using it again, soon!

      Thanks, man!

      Delete
  2. Jeremy "frothsof" SmithJuly 26, 2012 at 1:39 PM

    I am glad you checked it out, I left a comment about your experience with it

    ReplyDelete
  3. SimonJanuary 13, 2013 at 3:02 PM

    I halve all monster hit points already and use post-MM3 style damage; this basically looks identical to my nastier Solos. :) I ran a fight with a 12th level green dragon recently that had every single one of your listed features. The 7 9th level PCs took it down, but it took down 3 of them first. :)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)