Mike Mearls Games

Hot off the Playtest Press

Added 2024-07-19 20:08:17 +0000 UTC

In my last monster post, Mike Shea asked about 4e-style elites. I cooked one up today for my Friday game.

Here are its stats. Keep in mind this is rough writing for a playtest, rather than a fully fleshed out stat block for publication.

I modeled an elite worth two creatures by giving it one counter per round. A counter is an action that creature can use at the end of a character's turn, but it must target only the creature that just took its turn with any attacks or effects.

In play, it worked out well. I ran one elite and three normal creatures (bandits, each worth 1 PC) against a party of three. The party focused their fire on the hydra and killed it pretty quickly, but the three bandits did a lot of work. Since the party ignored them, they got in enough attacks to almost drop 1 PC and badly wound the other.

Sand Hydra

Large elite monstrosity, typically unaligned

Armor Class 14 (scales)

Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft., burrow 20 ft.

Saves and Checks: Str +5, Con +5, Int -4, others +0

Melee Attack Bonus: +4 bite, piercing damage

Ranged Attack Bonus: +3 spittle, range 30/60 ft., acid damage

· Level 3: 44 hit points, 1d10 damage

· Level 4: 56 hit points, 2d8 damage

Head Spawn: The first time this creature is bloodied, it gains another counter each round.

Actions

· Attack: The hydra makes 3 melee or ranged attacks.

· Swarming Bites: The hydra makes 2 bite attacks. If it hits a creature twice, it grapples it.

· Rend and Tear: While the hydra has a creature grappled, it automatically hits with two bites.

· Acid Storm: The hydra makes an area of attack, 20 ft. radius, within range of its spittle, DC 12 Dex save for half. Damage is triple its ranged damage (3d10 or 6d8)