Monster Factory Frontier: Monster Manual 2 Review Part 4

Welcome to the 4th installment in my Monster Manual 2 series. I think my past posts on this subject can be quite easily summarized by one picture:

People on random forums I don’t go to theorize that I should “man up” and accept these “challenging” abilities that prevent me from playing my character, because clearly, not being able to do anything is the ultimate challenge in 4e. Sorry guys, no matter what you say, At-Will Daze and Weakened is just a drag on encounters. The Wraith is a great example of this, since he at-will weakens AND is insubstantial. I don’t care whether it’s challenging, I don’t want monsters where I spend hours crippled by it.

See, there’s this thing called individual taste. I know you forumgoers don’t believe it exists, but you should look into it.

Today, we continue our magical mystery tour of Willy Wonka’s Murderbeast Factory!

Devils

•Assassin Devils are nefarious devils used in murder plots, because murder is not too simple a tactic for our saturday morning cartoon-esque villains, the Devils. Assassin Devils have an odd relationship with their powers, which are self-nerfing.

While Shadow Net is active, an area burst 2 which restrains, weakens and gives ongoing 10 necrotic damage to your character gets you to put down your character sheet (save ends), the Assassin Devil can’t use its Shadow Cloak, which turns it invisible.

When Shadow Net wears out, Shadow Cloak recharges and can be used – then you can recharge Shadow Net, but can’t use it while you’re Shadow Cloaked. It also deals huge damage to people it shanks with combat advantage, which it will have because of every other ability it has. An Assassin Devil’s Shadow Sword can do 7d6 damage really easily.

•Remember when Erinyes were sexy? Well, Succubi are devils now, so Erinyes can’t be sexy anymore. It’s a darn shame. They look like she-devil tiefling dwarves. Just imagine that for a second without the help of artwork. You can cry now.

Erinyes are supporting soldiers. They’re kinda boring. Most of their abilities are low damage (for paragon tier) supporting stuff, their at-will being the only really damaging part of it. But hey, not every monster can be quirky and awesome. Some have to grant temporary HP and look hideously ugly.

•Gorechain Devils have a pretty awesome aura. To leave it, you have to succeed on an Athletics or Acrobatics check. This elite brute has a gorechain flail and gorechain strike that gorechains you with gorechains for massive gorechain damage. Ick. It can also dominate you but not often, and it has a limited range on that. Makes a nice piece in a larger devil encounter and adds an interesting dynamic in keeping players glued to it since they can’t leave its aura.

•Hey, you want low level devils for your game? Infernal Armor Animus fits the bill except it doesn’t really look much like a devil at all. It’s just a black suit of walking armor. It’s also a minion. That’s like three strikes against it already. When you kill it, some other enemy gains 15 hit points which is a bit interesting. However, if there’s at least one other demon around that isn’t a minion, it’ll get a bonus to damage for each armor around it. That’s really the best reason to cram a bunch of these in one fight.

Too bad there’s no other heroic tier devils around in this manual! And there’s no more versions of the Infernal Armor Animus, unlike the Legion Devil. That seems like a big waste of an opportunity.

•A pudgy devil that looks like a bourgeois goth-catholic priest with a douchebag grin on his face, the Misfortune Devil teleports around and redirect’s people’s attacks to its other allies or to targets of its choice. It is a level 15 standard artillery and with a big sense of self-importance. If the Infernal Armor Animus had higher level counterparts, it would be nice to have loads of them around with a misfortune devil to redirect damage to them and heal its allies around. But as it stands, although you can cram a million of the level 3 little bastards in a level 15 encounter, it’d be kinda dumb.

•Shocktroop Devil are brickhouses that have a basic attack that smashes once and then gives them a secondary attack to push and daze the target of the first. They can make three of these as a standard action against different targets, and this attack recharges whenever they have full HP, so having a healing devil around would be beneficial (like those armors…I wish they had higher level versions of those though!).

•Hey are your players not weakened enough for you? Is their standard damage not underpowered enough for your tastes? Throw some Withering Devils around. Enemies within 3 squares of one are weakened. And that’s that. Put two of these and four shocktroop devils and watch players squirm and cry.

…what, that’s it? That’s all the devils? Aww, that’s no fun. I thought there’d be a big fat evil devil to end with. Maybe an upgraded version of the Misfortune Devil, called Uncle Sam. He’ll privatize and de-regulate the living crap out of you. And when he does, it’ll count as a pre-existing condition for the insurance companies to deny you coverage. Now THAT is a Devil.

Lesson learned from the MM2