We love the idea of the undead, not only as roleplayers but as geeks. I mean, let's be honest here, who hasn't seen Shaun of the Dead more times than they would like to admit? How many of us have come up with undead apocalypse scenarios or what we'd do and who would be on our survival team? Geek culture has come a long way in the past decade and has infiltrated the mainstream quite impressively. We see comic book based movies like the Avengers breaking box-office records as well as TV shows like The Walking Dead being immensely popular. We've come a long way and we've seen our geek-dom flourish. The undead are huge right now in mainstream culture and there is a reason for that, they are awesome! People like being scared, they like the fear of "what if?"
Today's Legend4ry May of the Dead post took some time for me. Mostly it was debating on which undead monstrosity to update for 4e. I wanted to give the 4e Vampire some real fangs, yes pun intended, but really that would take me a lot longer than I realized. Luckily Robert Waluchow over at Crypt Thing suggested the Bodak to me. He had good reason to suggest it as well; the as-written Bodak just did not have the sheer, terrifying, killing potential that the original had.
I should note that I am using the d20SRD as a baseline for these monster conversion. I am only doing so because I feel that they help capture the more classical feel than their 4e equivalents despite my rather out-spoken love of all things 4e.
Warning: Here Be Dragons! These updated and re-imagined monsters are not for everyone. These monsters represent the deadlier past of D&D. As such, use them at your own discretion.
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| Found at Wizards.com |
The Bodak in D&D lore is known for two things; being completely and utterly tainted by evil and for having a gaze that can cause immediate death. Terrifying, right? When I read up a little on the Bodak I knew it was right for the Legend4ry style of play. But how do we represent this? Well, the death gaze took a lot of effort, to be honest. Save or Die effects are awesome, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to adapt it a little to still make the Bodak a formidable foe but also be terrifying at the same time. Check it out below:
Up next for Legend4ry in the near future is another Legend4ry trap entry, as well as some more re-imagined 4e monsters. On my to-do monster list is the Vampire and the Mind Flayer!
Until next time,
-blob
You can follow me on Twitter @Sorcerer_Blob or via the hash-tag #legend4ry. You can also find my blog and others at the Fourthcore Hub and at the RPG Blog Alliance.
Be sure to check out the other May of the Dead Carnival blogs located here!
Nice; this certainly has more umph to it. Spring these in large numbers against an expended party and watch the looks of horror on your players' faces!
ReplyDeleteA fully rested defender is likely to laugh them off, though.
I'd even consider dropping the recharge and making the death gaze a 1/round at-will.
Either that or make 'em lose a healing surge (save ends).
Well done. The death gaze is brutal, and feels like a bodak, but works within the 4E mindset.
ReplyDeleteI second the above; the recharge could be removed. The bodak should really be using death gaze every single round.
Perhaps the Death Gaze only should work on creatures that are Weakened and is an At-Will (no recharge)?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I like this. (just make sure to make it a 1/turn deal so you don't have them triple gazing on a turn!)
DeleteWith the weakness stipulation, you really don't need to limit it further with a recharge.
I otherwise think it is awesome!
I do think this monster can be stronger. PCs have a lot of surges, and 5 of these monsters will really need to focus fire to drain all of those surges and get even 1 PC to die.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I want the pressure to be more widespread. Perhaps an aura 5 that weakens the PCs and at the start of their turn they lose a healing surge. Then have the melee attack drain a surge and do damage, plus keep the minor attack and remove the recharge. As a tradeoff, lower their Hit Points as if they were insubstantial and remove the resistances. The idea is that each round those near the bodak(s) are losing surges. It is a fight to survive, made harder by the weakening.
For extra brutality, create a leader one level higher that adds a burst area attack that drains a surge, does necrotic damage, and creates concealment. That forces PCs out of "safe" areas and into the auras. But, with enough of these you should be able to pressure the whole room (until the PCs drop a few).
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ReplyDeleteDid you draw this? I'm a writer, I'm looking for someone to help me with my story concept art. Thank you.
ReplyDelete