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Hot off the Playtest Press
🕑 Added 2024-07-19 20:08:17 +0000 UTCIn my last monster post, Mike Shea asked about 4e-style elites. I cooked one up today for my Friday game.
Here are its stats. Keep in mind this is rough writing for a playtest, rather than a fully fleshed out stat block for publication.
I modeled an elite worth two creatures by giving it one counter per round. A counter is an action that creature can use at the end of a character's turn, but it must target only the creature that just took its turn with any attacks or effects.
In play, it worked out well. I ran one elite and three normal creatures (bandits, each worth 1 PC) against a party of three. The party focused their fire on the hydra and killed it pretty quickly, but the three bandits did a lot of work. Since the party ignored them, they got in enough attacks to almost drop 1 PC and badly wound the other.
Sand Hydra
Large elite monstrosity, typically unaligned
Armor Class 14 (scales)
Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft., burrow 20 ft.
Saves and Checks: Str +5, Con +5, Int -4, others +0
Melee Attack Bonus: +4 bite, piercing damage
Ranged Attack Bonus: +3 spittle, range 30/60 ft., acid damage
· Level 3: 44 hit points, 1d10 damage
· Level 4: 56 hit points, 2d8 damage
Head Spawn: The first time this creature is bloodied, it gains another counter each round.
Actions
· Attack: The hydra makes 3 melee or ranged attacks.
· Swarming Bites: The hydra makes 2 bite attacks. If it hits a creature twice, it grapples it.
· Rend and Tear: While the hydra has a creature grappled, it automatically hits with two bites.
· Acid Storm: The hydra makes an area of attack, 20 ft. radius, within range of its spittle, DC 12 Dex save for half. Damage is triple its ranged damage (3d10 or 6d8)
Counter (1)
This creature makes two melee or ranged attacks against the creature that just took its turn.
