Playtesting the Laughing Lambchop Lizard

I want to say up front that if anyone has used the laughing lambchop lizard sample encounter as written on a low level 4e party, I'm really sorry if I wiped your party out (and I probably did).

During hiatus I'm revisiting the WWtH monsters and trying them out in actual 4e combat encounters. So far I've done a beelion test and a doppelganger freak test. I ran the sample encounter for the laughing lambchop lizard last week (this post is late because I've been dreading how much rework the monster was going to need). The party is still:
A goliath warden
A gnome bard
A longtooth shifter ranger
A deva invoker

The sample encounter for the laughing lambchop lizard is 4 regular lizards and 2 lizards of lightning. Again, the map was Dwarven Outpost from the Miniatures Game Starter Set. This time the monsters were inside the ruined outpost building and the PCs were coming across the bridge toward it. The party heard the lizards and the ranger managed to sneak up and get a look at them without alerting them.

The ranger used her surprise round to fire arrows at the lizards, but then the lizards won initiative and swarmed her. Before I even rolled the first attack I realized that letting each of the six lizards catch her with a lethal shock would result in instant nasty electrical death. So the first change to the lizards, before they rolled their first attack, was to remove the lethal shock power from the plain laughing lambchop lizards. As a result, most of the lizards didn't attack this round, but moved into better positions. The party moved closer and got in a few hits.

In round 2, one lizard of lightning had the ranger and warden in range for a lethal shock, while the other moved into position to catch the entire party. I quickly realized that adding an attack bonus and damage for each lizard in the burst would spell instant TPK, so lethal shock was toned back to only add bonuses for other lizards of lightning in the burst. Even with that nerf, since the ranger was hit by two bursts she was going to die instantly, so the 2d8 damage per lizard was nerfed to 1d8. The ranger went down anyway, but at least wasn't instantly dead.

With lethal shock nerfed and spent, the rest of the fight was pretty dull, mostly because I forgot to use the cheshire fade power so my lizards never pulled back when damaged like they were supposed to. I think I'll make that one "when bloodied" so there's no question of when to use it. I'm also changing the plain lizards from lurkers to soldiers since they no longer have a big boom attack and their job will be to shield the artillery lightning lizards.

Updated stat blocks:

Level 1 Soldier Laughing Lambchop Lizard Small natural magical beast XP 100 Initiative +5 Senses Perception +1 HP 29; Bloodied 14 AC 17; Fortitude 12, Reflex 14, Will 12 Immunities Resist 10 lightning Speed 7, climb 5 Bite (standard; at-will) +6 vs. AC; 1d10 damage. Sideburn Flare (move; at-will) • Fear +4 vs. Will; the target is immobilized until the end of the laughing lambchop lizard's next turn. Annoy the Weak The laughing lambchop lizard possesses the cat's abnormal talent for finding out who, in a group, will be most annoyed by its presence and targeting that person. The DM should feel free to use all available knowledge of the party members' weaknesses and defense numbers to decide who will be most vulnerable to its attacks, and attack that PC. Cheshire Fade (free, when first bloodied; encounter) The laughing lambchop lizard disappears except for its grin, shifts 4 squares and turns invisible until it attacks or until the end of its next turn. Align. Unaligned Lang. Common Skills Stealth +8 Str 10 (0) Dex 16 (+3) Wis 13 (+1) Con 13 (+1) Int 7 (--2) Cha 12 (+1) Equipment --- Tactics A laughing lambchop lizard will seek out enemies with low Will defenses and exploit their vulnerability to sideburn flare. Source Weekly What the Heck Created with DungeonMastering.com's DM Tools

Level 2 Artillery Laughing Lambchop Lizard ... of Lightning Small natural magical beast XP 125 Initiative +4 Senses Perception +3 HP 32; Bloodied 16 AC 14; Fortitude 14, Reflex 15, Will 14 Immunities Resist 10 lightning Speed 7, climb 5 Bite (standard; at-will) +9 vs. AC; 1d10 damage. Sideburn Flare (move; at-will) • Fear +6 vs. Will; the target is immobilized (save ends). Directed Shock (standard; at-will) • Lightning Ranged 10; +8 vs. Fortitude; 2d6 + 3 lightning damage. Lethal Shock (standard; recharge 6) • Lightning Close burst 5; laughing lambchop lizards are immune; +1 (+1 for each other laughing lambchop lizard ... of lightning in the burst) vs. Reflex; 1d8 lightning damage (+1d8 for each other laughing lambchop lizard ... of lightning in the burst). Annoy the Weak (standard; at-will) The laughing lambchop lizard possesses the cat's abnormal talent for finding out who, in a group, will be most annoyed by its presence and targeting that person. The DM should feel free to use all available knowledge of the party members' weaknesses and defense numbers to decide who will be most vulnerable to its attacks, and attack that PC. Cheshire Fade (free, when first bloodied; encounter) The laughing lambchop lizard disappears except for its grin, shifts 4 squares and turns invisible until it attacks or until the end of its next turn. Align. Unaligned Lang. Common Skills Stealth +8 Str 10 (+1) Dex 17 (+4) Wis 14 (+3) Con 14 (+3) Int 7 (--1) Cha 12 (+2) Equipment --- Tactics A laughing lambchop lizard ... of lightning will target enemies with low Fortitude defenses with directed shock. If forced into close combat it uses the same tactics as a laughing lambchop lizard. Source Weekly What the Heck Created with DungeonMastering.com's DM Tools

Testing Out the Doppelganger Freak

During hiatus I'm revisiting the WWtH monsters and trying them out in actual 4e combat encounters. We tested out the beelion earlier in the week. I ran another encounter Wednesday evening. The party is still:
A goliath warden
A gnome bard
A longtooth shifter ranger
A deva invoker

We got through one encounter again: this time the sample encounter for the doppelganger freak. Again, the map was Dwarven Outpost from the Miniatures Game Starter Set. This time the monsters were scattered around on the far side of the water from the PCs.

This starting position was an abject tactical fail for the monsters. Even though they won initiative, only two of the monsters had any ranged attacks, and they started too far away for even those guys to get a good shot without moving closer. The only advantage the monsters had was that since they were spread out the invoker couldn't mow down all the minions in one blast, but that really didn't matter since the minions came trickling in one or two at a time anyway as their initial position allowed.

The goblins managed to nickel and dime the ranger down by concentrating their ranged attacks on her, but the bard got her right back up. By the time the doppelganger even got near the fight it was basically over. The doppelganger tried to daze the ranger with confusing shapeshift but only got its minion ally and spoiled his ability to flank. The doppelganger also missed its sole good shot at a sneak attack due to a well-timed blades of astral fire from the invoker. After that it got pulled into a flank by the warden and beaten like a red-headed stepchild.

As a fight, this gave the party a chance to kick some ass and take some names, and after the tough beelion battle I think they appreciated that. As a playtest for the doppelganger, it wasn't worth much. I'll probably have to throw another doppelganger encounter at them in closer quarters and with more freaks to get a good test.

Weekly What the Heck Monsters - Now With Playtesting!

I thought during hiatus would be a good time to revisit the WWtH monsters and try them out in actual 4e combat encounters. I've used a few of them before, but probably less than half a dozen out of the over 40 the feature has generated.

So Monday evening the girls whipped up a four-PC party covering the four 4e roles and all four power sources. They brought to the table:
A goliath warden
A gnome bard
A longtooth shifter ranger
A deva invoker

We got through one encounter: the sample encounter I whipped up for the beelion (3 kobold skirmishers and a beelion). The map was Dwarven Outpost from the Miniatures Game Starter Set, with the fight concentrated around one of the corner start areas as the bad guys came at them from ambush. The bad guys won initiative and used all their shifting abilities (the kobolds' shifty and the mounted beelion's guided frenzy) to surround the party and get some hits in on the softer targets (the bard and the ranger).

The gnome used fade away to get clear and the invoker slowly backed off as the warden marked almost all the enemies on the field and pulled the mounted kobold off the beelion. The beelion used lion's frenzy to get another hit on the ranger even while marked. The warden soon managed to mark all four enemies at once and got hit by all four for lots of sneak attack damage for her trouble. Impressively, she was still standing. After that round the PCs' attacks started taking a toll and kobolds started to drop. Unfortunately, the beelion's alluring gaze dazed the warden, leaving her unable to get out of the blast area of the invoker's next attack, and that coupled with more hits from the kobolds managed to take the warden down. After the warden had failed one death save, the last kobold (4 hp left) mounted the beelion (11 hp) and they flew away.

I need to make two small tweaks to the beelion. The alluring gaze is way too powerful to be at-will. I'll make it recharge 5 or 6 and drop the attack bonus by 1. Since I don't want two recharge powers on one monster, and lion's frenzy is only useful in specific circumstances anyway (next to 3 or more foes) I'll make that one at-will. The updated stat block is below:

Level 1 Elite Skirmisher Beelion Medium natural magical beast (mount) XP 200 Initiative +5 Senses Perception +1 HP 62; Bloodied 31 AC 17; Fortitude 16, Reflex 16, Will 13 Saving throws+2 Speed 6, fly 8 Action points1 Bite (standard; at-will) +6 vs. AC; 2d6 + 1 damage. Bee's Frenzy (standard; at-will) The beelion makes two bite attacks. Alluring Gaze (minor 1/round; recharge 5 6) • Gaze, Psychic Close blast 3; targets enemies; +1 vs. Will; the target is pulled 1 square and dazed until the end of the beelion’s next turn. Lion's Frenzy (standard; at-will) Close burst 1; targets enemies; +6 vs. AC; 2d6 + 1 damage. Guided Frenzy (while mounted by a friendly rider of 1st level or higher; at-will) • Mount A beelion with a rider may shift 2 squares between bite attacks when using bee's frenzy. Align. Evil Lang. Common Skills Str 13 (+1) Dex 16 (+3) Wis 13 (+1) Con 15 (+2) Int 6 (--2) Cha 8 (--1) Equipment --- Tactics A beelion prefers to begin a fight in the air, choosing a landing spot that gives it a positional advantage. It tries to stay in a flanking position with its allies while surrounding itself with enemies to target with its lion's frenzy. Source Weekly What the Heck Created with DungeonMastering.com's DM Tools

Two other things I took away from this fight:
1) Goliath wardens can soak sick amounts of damage.
2) Maxed-Cha bards make clerics and warlords look like healing amateurs.

Jeffs Phrase of the Day

This is a response to Jeff Rients phrase of the day on Jeffs Gameblog on August 6. Here are some "supplementary amounts of wild ass"...
- ChaoticBlackSheep

The Weekly What the Heck: An Updated Overview

Since I'm on hiatus, this seems like a good time to update the master Weekly What the Heck monster list.

Here's the updated level/role breakdown of all the monsters. The names that are links link to the original post on this site. The level/role links link to the reformatted stat card at tools.dungeonmastering.com (free login required) for easy printing. My plan is to update this post as often as I can until all the monsters have been put in Yax's database and all the names and levels/roles are links:

Laughing Lambchop Lizard		Level 1 Lurker
Eye Mite Midge		Level 1 Minion
Saeggan Genesis		Level 1 Soldier
Beelion		Level 1 Elite Skirmisher
Doppelganger Freak		Level 1 Skirmisher
Laughing Lambchop Lizard ... of Lightning		Level 2 Artillery
Pixie of the Styx		Level 2 Elite Artillery
Emo Monkey		Level 2 Controller
Saber-Tooth Lycotaur		Level 2 Controller
Pixie Trickster		Level 2 Lurker
Ridgeback Loper		Level 2 Skirmisher
Archaic Gastropod		Level 2 Soldier
Trimandibular Praying Mantelope		Level 3 Brute
Saeggan Dreamcaster		Level 3 Controller
Scorpire Vampion		Level 3 Controller
Scorpire Scuttler		Level 3 Lurker
Sapient Sloth Commoner		Level 3 Minion
Nutrition Bulb		Level 3 Minion
Xenomoeba Larva		Level 4 Brute
Goth Emo Monkey		Level 4 Controller
Pyrosphynx Cub		Level 4 Lurker
Spore Bulb		Level 4 Minion
Student of the Path		Level 4 Skirmisher
Undead Chicken		Level 4 Skirmisher
Turkatrice		Level 5 Brute
Wallowing Merhog		Level 5 Elite Brute
Wraithpunzel		Level 5 Lurker
Dire Orcish Knucklewalker		Level 6 Brute
Emo Ghoul		Level 6 Brute
Ridgeback War Machine		Level 6 Brute
Greholdusa		Level 6 Controller
Orcish Knucklewalker Swarm		Level 6 Skirmisher
Merdragoblinborn Ecclesiastic		Level 6 Soldier
Necrotic Xenomoeba		Level 7 Elite Brute
Ravenous Pelicgizard		Level 7 Brute
Monkicore		Level 7 Controller
Scorpire Viscount		Level 7 Lurker (L)
Jamuzavdu (Speed Demon)		Level 7 Skirmisher
Pyrosphynx Sun Lion		Level 8 Brute
Stumper		Level 8 Controller
Sextuple-Finned Hammerhead Fish		Level 8 Lurker
Merdragoblinborn Follower		Level 8 Minion
Were Saber-Tooth Lycotaur		Level 8 Skirmisher
Fireblooded Monkicore		Level 9 Artillery
Merdragoblinborn Schoolmaster		Level 9 Controller (L)
Snake Mahjicocl Soloist		Level 9 Controller
Christmas Treant Shrub		Level 9 Lurker
Cycloptic Elephantaur Gawker		Level 10 Artillery
Treefling Leafwielder		Level 10 Artillery
Conflagrating Pelicgizard		Level 10 Controller
Aquatic Wraithpunzel		Level 10 Lurker
Shellsong Siren		Level 10 Lurker
Green Toothnip		Level 11 Lurker
Embryomace		Level 12 Artillery
Cycloptic Elephantaur Trumpeter		Level 12 Controller
Piscean Tempest		Level 12 Skirmisher
Quizacoatl Contestant		Level 12 Skirmisher
Greholdusa Scourge		Level 12 Soldier
Merhog Steed		Level 12 Soldier
Christmas Treant Bush		Level 13 Controller
Snaketongue Rampant		Level 13 Minion
Snaketongue Restrainer		Level 13 Minion
Firebred Pyrosphynx		Level 14 Artillery
Chanavan Serpent		Level 14 Solo Brute
Piscean Evolutionary		Level 14 Controller
Snake Mahjicocl Principal		Level 14 Skirmisher
Yuan-ti Rampant		Level 14 Skirmisher
Yuan-ti Restrainer		Level 14 Soldier
Demodracosauralisk		Level 15 Elite Artillery
Hemi-Demodracosauralisk		Level 15 Artillery
Abolderithicus Starme		Level 15 Controller
Quizacoatl Host		Level 15 Controller
Treefling Leafmaster		Level 15 Controller
Eye Mite Berserker		Level 16 Brute
Frieghboranean Slimemaster		Level 16 Controller
Frieghboranean Tempest		Level 16 Elite Skirmisher
Squiglet Caretaker		Level 16 Soldier
Sextuple-Finned Scintillating Hammerhead Fish		Level 17 Controller
Ripe Toothnip		Level 17 Soldier
Kruthiguid		Level 18 Elite Brute
Eye Mite Mindraper		Level 18 Controller
Abolderithicus Staryu		Level 18 Minion
Abolderithicus Wistar		Level 19 Artillery
Triclops Manipulator		Level 20 Soldier
Aspect of the Ultimate Dungeon Master		Level 26 Elite Controller
Ultimate Dungeon Master		Level 35 Solo Brute

And here's the updated list of all the commenters and how many times each has contributed.

Name	Comments
Ripper	21
Scott	15
ReverendMike	12
greywulf	10
Gomez	8
Jeff	7
wyattsalazar	7
benpop	5
ChaoticBlackSheep	3
jermwar	3
dicemonkey	2
DoctorCheckmate	2
joeskythedungeonbrawler	2
mthomas768	2
RPGIke	2
AlexSchroeder	1
Ameron	1
Anonymous	1
Bartoneus	1
BenPop	1
d7	1
DawnRaven	1
Donny_the_Dm	1
FatAlibert	1
icosahedron	1
JeffRients	1
Jerm	1
Ravyn	1
rcarbol	1
Rekres	1
TheRecursionKing	1
thievescant	1
Viriatha	1
Will	1
Wyatt	1

I only had to add one new name for the past two months, which doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Weekly What the Heck - Hiatus

I got no comments on last week's What the Heck, and it's been over a month since I got more than two (but props to Scott and Ripper for hanging in there with me). I'm going on hiatus for a while. If everything goes according to plan there will still be WWtH-related content popping up on the blog from time to time, and I might finally get around to updating the master list of WWtH monsters and moving/converting all the stat blocks to the dungeonmastering tools site/format.

I've felt like a fraud keeping it going as long as I have, actually. I haven't DMed a game in almost six months and have played once in the past four months. The good news is, that might change today. We'll see.

Why, that's a Doppelganger Freak!

There was only one comment on last week's What the Heck, but I really didn't expect a barefoot dude in a wig and miniskirt to really generate much interest anyway. Now an angry plant, on the other hand...

I'd like to thank Ripper for his ideas, which have been mashed together with some brainstorming by me and the missus to create:

Doppelganger Freak

Sometimes a doppelganger just.... fails.

Level 1 Skirmisher

Doppelganger Freak

XP 100

Medium natural humanoid (shapechanger)

Initiative +5 Senses Perception +0
HP 29; Bloodied 14
AC 15; Fortitude 13, Reflex 15, Will 13
Speed 6

mShort Sword (standard; at-will) * Weapon

+6 vs. AC; 1d6 + 3 damage.

MConfusing Shift (move; at-will)

The doppelganger freak shifts 2 squares then makes a melee attack; +4 vs. Will; the doppelganger freak gains combat advantage against the target until the end of the doppelganger’s next turn.

CConfusing Shapeshift (minor; recharge 6)

Close burst 2; +1 vs. Will; the target is dazed until the end of the doppelganger’s next turn.

Combat Advantage

The doppelganger freak deals an extra 1d6 damage against any target it has combat advantage against.

Alignment Unaligned Languages Common
Skills Insight +8
Str 11 (+0) Dex 16 (+3) Wis 11 (+0)
Con 13 (+1) Int 10 (+0) Cha 13 (+1)

Doppelganger Freak Tactics

A doppelganger freak moves among its enemies, using its confusing shapeshift to daze as many as possible if it gets surrounded.

Doppelganger Freak Lore

A character knows the following information with a successful Nature check.
DC 17: Occasionally a doppelganger will lose control over its shapeshifting abilities, like a human with a degenerative disease losing motor skills. These doppelganger freaks change shape constantly and randomly.

Encounter Groups

Doppelganger freaks are often found aiding lower humanoids like goblins that will hang out with anybody.

Level 1 Encounter (XP 500)
* 1 doppelganger freak (level 1 skirmisher)
* 2 goblin warriors (level 1 skirmisher)
* 1 goblin blackblade (level 1 lurker)
* 4 goblin cutters (level 1 minion)

Creative DMs can probably have a lot of fun with this one describing its random changes in shape from round to round...