Welcome to the first article in our new series: Monster Optimization. Players might have all of those fancy character optimization forums and wikis with seventeen rulebooks worth of ways for their paladin to hose every challenge you pit him against. Why can’t we DMs have the same?
Of course, our goal isn’t for the PCs to die, just think they’re going to die!
In this series we’re going to find some of the best combinations to truly challenge your players. We’re not out for annoying with monsters that can seem to avoid all possible damage like weakening insubstantial ghosts that take 1/4 damage. We’re out for blood. We want creature combinations that hit your players like a rock golem and make them rock back in their chair.
Our first example is a great one: Bodaks and Wights.
Bodaks, shadowy demon undead nasties from some gawd awful corner of the Shadow Shadow Bo Badow, have a really tough attack: Death Gaze. This target can only hit a weakened creature but if it DOES hit, it drops that creature straight to 0 hit points. The only problem is, how do we get them weakened in the first place?
That’s where the wights come in. Most wights, like the Slaughter Wight, have a basic melee attack that weakens their target. Throw four wights into a battle with a pair of bodaks and you’re sure to get a chance to invoke that death gaze. To make matters worse, the wights also drain a healing surge every time they hit (damage equivalent to 1/4 their hitpoints give or take).
But that’s not all. Here’s the real killer combination – the delayed action of death!
A pair of bodaks stand in the back or on a rise in the back of your kill room. Up ahead, four to half a dozen slaughter wights wade into your PCs. On the Bodaks’ turn, they ready an action with the following trigger “The first enemy within 10 squares that becomes weakened will eat my Death Gaze”. Worse yet? The Bodaks get that as an at-will attack. Update: It looks like there’s an error in the D&D Compendium online which lists it as at-will when every other source lists it as “encounter”. This is likely meant to be an encounter power. I’d likely change it to a reliable encounter power so it doesn’t get wasted. Thanks to Manuel for pointing this out.
So your PCs wade into the room and get attacked by six or so slaughter wights. The bodaks ready their delayed action of death. As soon as a wight weakens someone, the bodak’s delayed action triggers and bam – down the PC goes. A couple of these will put any party into a big scramble. Use six slaughter wights and two bodak reavers for a level 21 encounter that will knock your PC’s socks off.
Of course, we don’t do this just to be mean. This combination, like all monster optimizations, should only be used when your group really needs a tough challenge. Hang onto it for that special day or keep it in your back pocket just so you know that, if you really need to, the party can eat the dirt.
If you have your own Monster Optimization combinations, feel free to send them to mike@mikeshea.net where they might get added to a future article.
Have fun!
SWEET! I agree with the first full lines compleatly. DMs need to have forums on how make the PCs sweat more.
The new Primal Power book has some pretty impressive buffs, and I can’t see the players becoming any LESS powerful.
I will definitely be saving this combo for a rainy-day.
This is a good idea for a series! I’ve been playing for almost a year, and so far the only MO I’ve seen are the Trolls + Redspawn Firebelcher in the P1 module. This is a great start; will look forward to the next one!
Very nasty combo that will wake up any party that has been running on cruise control.
Oh I LIKE that!
Looking forward to more combos. I love things like this. Keep ‘em coming!
You are a very evil man, Mike. VERY evil. I will be following this series closely.
Definitely a good idea, so I hope to see more articles on this, but what interests me the most is the line, “our goal isn’t for the PCs to die, just think they’re going to die!” There’s always a push and pull within the DM’s roll. I’ve always been confused by how power gamers enjoy the game when there’s no challenge. If that’s what they like, that’s fine, but my preference is to know there’s a real danger. Otherwise, we should just call combat, declare the PCs the winner, and move on. Accordingly, I’ve traditionally DM’d the game aggressively, killing characters if that’s what happened, but even pure role-players don’t like character death, even in LFR where it’s relatively meaningless. About a year ago, though, I started to cheat myself, letting players off the hook, and that makes for a more enjoyable game. You’ve helped me shape my thinking on this issue.
For the most part, this post was off topic, but I wanted to say that I like the thinking.
That sounds excellent, I look forward to more from this series!
I’d especially like some lower level Monster Optimization ideas as my group is just starting out (getting toward the end of first level) so it’ll be a looooong time before I can throw anything like a level 21 challenge at them, and have it still be something they could even hope to survive, but I would love to have a few sweat inducing encounters for them in my back pocket to bring out any time I want over the next few levels.
I accidentally came upon one of these combos in our weekend game, and it’s not even a deviously clever one – the Foulspawn Seer (at-will ranged attack dazes target) and the Foulspawn Mangler (encounter Dagger Dance power, it makes 4 dagger attacks, shifting 1 square between each attack. Power also recharges when bloodied.)
The big kicker is that the Mangler deals +2d6 damage when it has combat advantage, which is NOT limited to once a round like a rogue’s sneak attack, because, well, it’s not sneak attack.
I didn’t think too much of this because if the Mangler was flanking and used its dagger dance ability, it would only get one flanking attack before being forced to shift to a different square. It could then attack, shift back to its original square and get CA again, but that’s still only twice.
Of course, that was before the Seer dazed the party spellcaster, who was also being approached by the Manger. And the realization that the Mangler could shift all around this dazed PC, dealing its +2d6 combat advantage with every attack…it was brutal. I felt really guilty, as it reduced the party sorcerer from about 90% health to DYING in a single round.
Still, if you’re looking for a harsh combo, the Mangler’s a great choice with any monster that bestows a CA status to the PCs. If you want the Mangler to dance through the party, “sneak attacking” multiple PCs, the Gibbering Beast’s gibbering effect is also great synergy (and fits well thematically, too).
This is full of Awesome Sauce.
@Rob Bodine: Combinations like the one above should be used very sparingly. I find that players need a good mix of challenging fights and fights that let them show off their power. A couple of games back my group fought some creatures that were significantly under their level and they really enjoyed it. The key is to have a combination like this in hand for those times when you really need the battle to be difficult.
@DrOct: I’ll do a heroic monster optimization next.
@mike: That sounds like a great combination. I may steal that idea for a future Monster Optimizatin article.
All: If you have other ideas for future Monster Optimization articles. Post them here or email them to me at mike@mikeshea.net
Glad you like the article!