The Balancing Act
Needlefang Drake Swarm
Overview
Swarms are easy to visualize as a terrifying foe: a great horde of tiny monsters, pouring over the adventurers, with tiny fangs/teeth/claws finding every tiny chink in their armor. Unfortunately, swarms can easily overpower a party, especially one without a wizard (or one of the few classes that has at-will close or area attacks), due to their taking but half damage from most attacks. In these cases, a DM should be very wary of including more than one swarm in any given encounter, thereby giving the party multiple “minor monsters” that will need to be the target of essentially all encounter powers. Additionally, swarms get ‘free’ attacks against any adjacent characters, difficult enough without doubling or tripling such attacks.
Defensively, the Drake Swarm has a fairly good AC for a level two monster, and, like many low level monsters, has no abilities to defend itself beyond the basic defenses.
Offensively is where this monster becomes an issue, especially against first level characters. Note carefully that Pull Down is a minor action, targeting Fortitude with fairly high accuracy (better than the level 5 Deathrattle Viper’s attack against Fortitude, and comparable to many non-armor defense attacks of creatures twice or more the Drake Swarm’s level). A successful Pull Down is then followed up with a Swarm of Teeth, effectively +10 versus AC against a prone target, dealing potentially 24 points of damage, a devastating amount for a beginning adventurer, made all the worse by Swarm Attack aura getting a free swing as a character starts his or her turn.
General Suggestions for Fixes and Encounters
The half damage against melee or ranged attacks makes sense: swarms, representing a great number of small creatures, should be difficult to damage conventionally. On the other hand, swarms should be much easier to hit—it’s difficult to imagine even a neophyte warrior swinging at 50+ lizards and not hit some by pure luck, if nothing else. Rather than tinker with the defenses (which need to also apply to close and area attacks), the Drake Swarm, and other swarms, should have the following:
Swarm Vulnerability (while not bloodied)
A missed melee or ranged attack can be rerolled, at –2 ‘to hit’. Use the second roll, even if it’s lower.
Bloodied is an under-utilized condition, having an affect on only a small percentage of monsters, and a handful of player abilities. Considering the nature of a ‘swarm’, a bloodied swarm should have visibly less creatures, and this should matter. The ‘extra’ attack might seem generous, but keep in mind the damage will be halved, and thus such attacks are generally made when the character has no other choice. It’s insult to injury for characters to make a desperation attack for at best minimal damage, and then to miss. Once the swarm is ‘thinned out’, this ability leaves play, although now a player might use a ‘mop up’ power to finish it off. An ability that gives the players the option to use tactics to help them win? That’s worth making the monster a bit ‘weaker’ any day.
A real defensive ability a swarm should have is:
Swarm Mobility
A swarm cannot be knocked prone, and ignores difficult terrain.
It doesn’t make much sense for every single tiny drake to be knocked off its feet, and while, say, a table should be a problem for a medium sized creature to navigate, a swarm should easily flow around such obstacles.
Offensively, the Drake Swarm deals a bit too much damage, a bit too reliably for a creature of its level. Granted, some creature will always be ‘the best’, but there’s no other level 2 creature that, considering a prone target, deals as much damage. While this kind of damage is only against a prone target, if there’s a character adjacent to the swarm at the start of its turn, that’s a likely prospect. Once again, the bloodied condition should be meaningful to a swarm, so consider adding the following:
Depleted Swarm (while bloodied)
All attacks are made at –1 ‘to hit.
This very minor tweak puts this creature more in line with the attack bonus of other level 2 monsters (although a case could be made for –2), while still keeping the potential for high damage that can make for an exciting, if less often lethal, combat.
For encounters, the DM should consider combining the Drake Swarm with other monsters, or traps with ‘knock prone’ abilities. Their high damage, general resilience, and good chance of hitting allow them to function in tandem with higher level monsters, so don’t overlook these guys when you have ‘a few’ points left over in the encounter budget and want something different than an extra couple of minions. Since most classes have close or area effect encounter powers, consider having the Drake Swarm be released into the combat after a few rounds, to give those “always use encounter powers first” players something to think about for the next fight.
Balancing for Different Party Size
As the party size gets larger, it becomes less and less likely to lack the kinds of attacks that are specially effective against swarms, even as a larger party is more likely to become subject to multiple ‘free attacks’ from the Swarm Attack aura. That said, placing two Drake Swarms in an encounter creates a brutal synergy that a low level party probably won’t be able to handle. A prone player between two such swarms could conceivably receive 96 points of damage from two attacks, plus two free attacks, over the course of a single round. Granted, he’s more likely to take around 40 points of damage (unless he’s ridiculously heavily armored), but that’s fatal to a second level character, whose probably sole mistake in this situation was to not have a an incredibly high Fortitude defense.
To keep the flavor of a swarm, consider making a ‘double swarm’, that occupies two squares, has double the hit points (along with the abilities given above), dealing the same damage and with but one aura, so no stacking of free attacks. Add in the restriction that the two squares must be adjacent (even caddy-corner), and there’s still a ‘swarm region’ adventurers will want to avoid, but just one ‘creature’ that could be pushed around via various effects: any forced movement is applied to one square of the swarm, and the other square follows along through the squares vacated by the first.
Smaller parties generally shouldn’t be subjected to Needlefang Drake Swarms unless they contain a controller class capable of handling them; the potential for high damage that the adventurers cannot return in kind is otherwise just too high.
The ability to only take half damage is a powerhouse, effectively more than doubling a monster’s hit points (since rounding is always ‘down’). Another monster with a similar resistance, but a bit more powerful than its level indicates is the:
Mad Wraith
Overview
The days of level draining undead are long over, but there’s still a good fear factor with non-low-level undead, especially if they’re insubstantial. Insubstantial creatures are created using a completely different set of rules than ‘normal’ creatures, and with the Mad Wraith, a level six controller, we’re lucky enough to compare it easily with the level five Wraith.
Apparently level six is key for monsters, since by going up just one level, the Mad Wraith gets a +2 bonus to AC, Fortitude, and Reflex, and a +3 bonus to Will, as well as getting 50% more hit points, over the Wraith. It also gets a devastating aura that counts as offense and defense, dazing and damaging nearby party members. Granted, it no longer has regeneration, although the larger pool of hit points and better defenses compensate well.
Offensively, the Mad Whispers aura is awesome, quite capable of dazing and damaging the entire party every round. Its basic attack doesn’t weaken like a (sane?) Wraith, but Touch of Chaos provides a semi-domination effect that can also move a troublesome melee character away, and generate some extra damage as well.
General Suggestions for Fixes and Encounters
There’s only one thing unbalanced about this creature, and that’s Mad Whispers. The aura effect is very problematic, and makes this undead enemy far more difficult to fight than any non-elite should be. Auto-daze effects are just cruel to party members, and 5 damage a round can add up fast. Yes, bad things should happen to players from time to time, but an aura affecting quite possibly the whole party, every round, with no chance of failure, can make for a long, slow, frustrating battle. Granted, the aura is shut down if it takes radiant damage, but a DM should consider making it just a bit weaker:
Mad Whispers (Psychic) aura 3; deafened creatures are immune; any enemy in the aura at the start of its turn is subject to the following attack: +9 vs Will; 5 psychic damage and target is dazed until the start of its next turn. (If the mad wraith takes radiant damage, the aura is negated until the end of the mad wraith’s next turn.)
The aura is still very strong, but now it dovetails with the Touch of Madness ability, and gives players a chance to escape being hit with it every round. There’s nothing wrong with creature abilities complementing a creature’s other abilities; in fact, it rather makes sense.
For encounters, the DM should create confined places, or use difficult terrain to make it inconvenient for players to get out of reach of the aura. A few damaging traps or spaces can add greatly to the effectiveness of Touch of Chaos; use them, but be sure to leave space so players can ‘plan ahead’ to avoid being forced into a trap as well as attacking their friends. A DM should also exploit the phasing ability; a Mad Wraith might not escape with a phase, but would surely use it to attack from the rear. A 2 square wide hallway, with a wraith ‘hiding’ safely behind the walls, might get many rounds of free aura attacks before the players figure out what’s going on.
Exploiting the Spawn Wraith ability might seem problematic, since adventurers are so hard to kill. Consider instead throwing in a few Minion-type monsters for the wraiths to slaughter--they can give a surprise addition to the encounter if the players are not careful to dispatch the minions quickly. Since even a humanoid skeleton or zombie can be affected in this manner, the potential for excess here is strong, so DMs should be careful when doing so.
Balancing for Different Party Size
As the number of players increases, the aura is likely to just affect more players, so the Mad Wraith scales modestly with party size. Adding a few more undead is fine, but the DM should be reluctant to add another Mad Wraith, however, as 10 damage a round can deplete party healing in just a few rounds.
Alternatively, the Touch of Chaos ability should be recharge more quickly; just add 1 to the die roll for every player over five. This lets the wraith use its most powerful ability more often, to compensate somewhat for the party likely having a great deal more radiant attacks to shut down the aura.
Undersize parties might have a difficult time dealing with an encounter involving a Mad Wraith, and DMs should avoid putting a Mad Wraith in with regenerating creatures (like the Wraith), since small parties have even harder time dealing with the aura over the long battles regeneration can cause. A DM who really wants to use a Mad Wraith should consider reducing the hit points by five per party member below five, and should avoid using Spawn Wraith at all costs, unless destroying the entire party is a goal (more realistic exceptions include party members level 8 or higher, or most members having several radiant attacks).
