The Whistling Fiend (in 4th Edition)

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

With ol' Toothy going to be a major player in my game, I thought I'd make some stats for him using the Monster Builder (the offline one, can't figure out the online one...). I thought I'd share what I came up with with everyone. The base creature, obviously, is a babau;

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Cool! I can't comment much on the numbers, since my 4e-fu is weak. Just the claws seem odd. when would he use them? I guess if disarmed somehow.

Might be nice to see some sort of "maddening whistle" effect. I can't recall if he had anything like that in 2e, but it might be a cool addition.


Looks like quite the bad-ass, though again, I don't have much of a frame of reference.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

I think it's creepier if his whistle is just an affectation. That way, players can't say, "His magic whistle made me scared." And yeah, he has a claw attack in case he gets disarmed. Also, if he's trapped in a mystik cage, the pike would disappear because it's his phalactry.

The numbers should be balanced because of the MB.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I think it's creepier if his whistle is just an affectation. That way, players can't say, "His magic whistle made me scared."

Fair enough. I suppose it's unnerving enough without a mechanical effect.

Also, if he's trapped in a mystik cage, the pike would disappear because it's his phalactry.

Makes sense. I take it he can't use the Babau's advantage attack in that case as well.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

He could, probably. The original wording was "bite and claw attacks" but I changed it to Pike so he could be more effective.

I've read in a few places it's easy to stunlock a solo in paragon tier. That's why I gave him the Misty Escape ability too.

A babau is a level 13 skirmisher. I changed him to 15 solo skirmiser, which ups his defenses and HP. As a skirmisher, he is supposed to deal a lot of damage, but be easier to hit. The last encounter would probably be him with a few level 12-13 minions, maybe humanoid thralls or dread elementals.

[alhoon]

My memory on the whistling fiend is rusty but... did he did the ritual in so many domains?!?

Also he does quite heavy damage. I suggest taking his hp down a notch. Say, change them to 500?
Dominia's blessing doesn't make clear the recharge.

Also: Brutes deal lot of damage but are easier to hit. Skirmishers are mobile and deal normal damage.

[sndwurks]

From my experience DMing in 4th Edition, it looks good for a Solo. However, do you want the Whistling Fiend as a solo, or as a boss monster? These are two different roles, entirely.

Stun-locks and other forms of Action Denial is abundant in 4E, and it is one of the strongest forms of Solo control in the game. It becomes ubiquitous in late Paragon and into Epic, but early Paragon, you should be safe from some of the more heinous culprits of Boss Lock Down.

The one weakness I see in this version of the Whistling Fiend is that, if you want it to be a scary boss monster? You need to give it another Minor Action attack, or give it two Initiative turns.

The logic behind this is that 4th Edition D&D is a game of resource management in combat. The PCs are racing the Monsters to 0 HP with the winner being the last one standing. Your resources? Are your actions. Every piece on the field gets 3 Actions per turn (standard, move, minor, in order of strength). The biggest weakness that Solos have is that they are given less actions to try to achieve their goal. One solo vs. 4 PCs is at a deficit of 9 actions. This is why Action Denial is so intensely potent in 4th Edition combat. Daze, Stun, and Dominate, or Action Loss (some powers just do that) are hard Action Denial. Slow, Immobilize, and Prone are soft Action Denial.

To mitigate the dearth of actions that a single creature possesses compared to a party of adventurers, Solos typically have at will Triggered and Minor actions that allow them to compete with the Action spending.

Ultimately, it's not hit points and defenses that make a monster a threat in 4th Edition. It's action economy.

[alhoon]

But the WFiend does 2 attacks per round... and each attack counts as 2 from the damage it deals. Add the stunning aura and the abudance of powers that it can use as minors and rob resources and actions and you have a strong solo.

I would say he's tough, and I would still say he needs to drop to 500 hp.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

My memory on the whistling fiend is rusty but... did he did the ritual in so many domains?!?

Yup. He has the Confusion, Corrupt Life, Poison Touch and Cause Insanity powers, and a corruption index of 14.

Also he does quite heavy damage. I suggest taking his hp down a notch. Say, change them to 500?
Dominia's blessing doesn't make clear the recharge.

Also: Brutes deal lot of damage but are easier to hit. Skirmishers are mobile and deal normal damage.

For some reason, the 5+ recharge didn't save.

But the WFiend does 2 attacks per round... and each attack counts as 2 from the damage it deals. Add the stunning aura and the abudance of powers that it can use as minors and rob resources and actions and you have a strong solo.

I would say he's tough, and I would still say he needs to drop to 500 hp.

He only gets 2 attacks if he uses that power, and only if he has combat advantage. Yes, he'll have CA against enemies adjacent when he gets bloodied, but that's only for a minimum of 1 round, otherwise, he'd have to use Dominia's Touch, which is a recharge power, so he wouldn't be guranteed to use it every turn. And he only has 1 minor action power, and that's a standard Babau power. His others are standard actions or require specific triggers.

The numbers are all accurate, the MB is quite good at calculating them. Plus Toothy will be the end-of-campaign villain. A battle against him is not supposed to be easy. He's meant to be a tough battle.

[alhoon]

In that case Drinnik, you need to give him some more powers. Like a recharge once bloodied wipe burst2 power? Or something that hits many people at the same time?

Anyway, from the multitude of monsters I've made for my games, don't trust the tables for the damage. Sometimes they work well, sometimes not.
As for the 500 hp, that's an adhoc reduction.