Monster Vault: Threats of the Nentir Vale Review

Packaged in a paper sleeve, Threats of the Nentir Vale includes a 129-page soft-cover book that abides by traditional dimensions of Monster Manuals past, eight sheets of monster tokens, and a poster map that gets referenced in some of the monster entries. Unlike other monster supplements, this book provides regional content for the Nentir Vale and only features monsters in the Heroic and Paragon range (the highest level monster is 20). While the actual book is the proverbial meat of the product, it seems a bit on the thin side: there are only 40 separate entries (Monster Manual 3 had what, over a hundred at least?), with a good mix of monsters and villainous factions with tenuous roots in the Nentir Vale.

In terms of presentation I’m very pleased with the book in spite of the recycled artwork–cadaver collector, mooncalf, and ragewind come to mind, and each monster has several paragraphs of flavor content to give you a foundation for what the monster is about and spark your imagination with adventure ideas. This book is very useful if you plan on running games in the Nentir Vale, but (perhaps) aside from names nothing is stopping you from porting these organizations or locations to, well, anywhere else. For example the Barrowhaunts are a band of undead adventurers that haunt the Sword Downs. You could very easily file off the names and use them for any level 9ish encounter in which undead are warranted.

Portability aside, a lot of the organizations help round out existing monster entries like hobgoblins, orcs, dragonborn, tieflings, and even felldrakes. There are some new monsters, however, by which I mean almost entirely monsters from past editions making a belated return, such as–again–the cadaver collector, mooncalf, and ragewind. Seriously though, there’s also boggles, a werespider nestled in the Hunter Spider faction, penanggalan, liondrake stationed in the Dythan’s Legion entry, peryton, big-ass mimics, and more.

Conclusion
Despite the Nentir Vale subtitle, this book should prove to be almost as useful as any other Monster Manual on your shelf. As I’ve emphasized several times, they are easy to modify and displace assuming you want to keep most of the flavor attached. Even if you detest the implied setting and all that it implies, there’s a good chunk of monsters to round out the existing stock along with new additions. The only downside is the price tag, as $30 formerly got you a hardcover book with almost a hundred extra pages. If you like tokens then it definitely makes it worthwhile. Otherwise, not so much.

Monster Vault Review

The highlight of this month’s releases, Monster Vault is a $30 box set that contains an adventure module for 4th-level characters titled Cairn of the Winter King (with adventure maps), ten sheets of monster tokens, and of course the titular book.

The Tokens
Nothing too fancy, here, especially if you’ve purchased Starter Set and/or Dungeon Master’s Kit. They’re great if you’re just getting into the game or don’t want (or can’t afford to) buy lots of minis. Almost everything in Monster Vault has it’s token (except for stuff like legion devils and rat swarms). They also have rings that you can slot Large tokens in to represent Huge monsters, so you don’t need to have everything at Huge. As with all tokens, they work great for the gamer on a budget or if you’re missing something specific (they have the exact same art as in the book), but don’t deliver the sense of awe that minis do.

The Book
The real treasure, Monster Vault is digest-sized, runs at 319 pages, and purportedly contains “a horde of iconic creatures for any campaign”. Most of the monsters seem to be culled from Monster Manual, though I found plenty featured in Monster Manual 2, such as the rust monster and duergar. It’s got a nice spread of monsters that I’m used to seeing in a “starting” monster book; dragon’s up to Huge, giants, titans, demons, devils, angels, archons, generic minions, the works. The glaring flaw, to me, is the lack of aboleths. They beholders and mind flayers, but no aboleths?

Point deducted.

They’ve all been updated to the new stat block format, have several paragraphs of flavor text, and most greatly benefit from improved design; for example skirmishers have plenty of mobility options, either part of attack effects or by using other actions, while soldiers mark as part of traits or attack effects instead of sometimes on a hit. To make matters worse, enemy marks also allow them to hit you instead of just imposing an attack penalty.

The Adventure
Joe Half-elf was wandering through the Frostjaw Peaks (Nentir Vale), taking refuge in a cave filled with skulls when a storm picked up. As if this wasn’t enough of a red flag to get the fuck out of there, he ventures further inside and eventually discovers a throne with a dead guy stuck to it, holding a magical scepter. Having long-abandoned reason since the entrance of the cave, he takes the scepter, waits for things to calm down, and heads back to Fallcrest, head full of gilt dreams and blissful naivety.

I don’t blame the guy so much since most of the time when the player characters rob an ancient tomb there typically aren’t any repercussions (beyond having to kill the occasionally undead rightful owner), so I guess no one saw it coming when the ramifications weren’t upsetting the local economy so much as devastating the local ecology with endless winter.

There are a few minor errors, such as an ettin speaking in Common when it’s only spoken language is Giant or it mentions three dogs instead of two, but ultimately I found this to be a very interesting adventure with some good pacing. There’s some hefty dialogue between the townsfolk of Fallcrest, talking air-boat, and a dungeon filled with sociable sociopaths vying for the Winter King’s favor. Coupled with the other adventures from Starter Set and Dungeon Master’s Kit, this could be the start of a beautiful adventure path.

Conclusion
A definite buy whether or not you’re into the Essentials stuff. All the monsters (and tokens) look a lot more functional and attractive, and the adventure looks like a fun romp. $30 is also a cheap buy for the product.

Monster Vault: Purple Worm

I remember using purple worms as a basis for overworms when running Age of Worms (converted to 4th Edition of course). The result was a boring, drawn-out slugfest; despite being level 16 solo soldiers they could basically make all of two attacks on the third round, assuming they managed to bite, grab, and swallow someone. That’s…well, there’re standard monsters that can do stuff like that.

Let’s Compare
The new purple worm is two levels lower, a brute, and actually lives up to its solo status. I’m just going to skip to the powers, since obviously hit points and defenses are going to be lower.

• It has two traits, ponderous and blooded frenzy, which allow it to take immediate actions while stunned, dazed, or dominated, and grant an extra minor action while bloodied respectively.
• Though lower level, its bite deals 10 more damage on average.
• Swallow is replaced by devour whole, allowing it to eat you in one action instead of three. The attack deals 3d10 + 7 damage on average, and you take 10 more points of acid damage while swallowed.
• Its also got several minor action attacks; fling deals 3d10 + 8 damage and slides the target quite a distance, poison stinger only deals 2d8 damage, but also lumps on ongoing 15 poison damage, and regurgitate lets it barf up a swallowed creature up to 4 squares away, and deal 3d10 + 8 damage.
• Finally, thrash is an immediate reaction that triggers when it gets hit by any attack, targeting up to two creatures, and dealing 3d12 + 5 plus a 6 square push.

So, there you have it. With a Melee range of 3 for all of it’s attacks and plenty of Minor Action options to boot, this guy is going to be slapping the entire party around. While not as resistant to lockdown conditions as say, a dragon, he can still reactively swat you and do some other nasty things in the process. They’re much scarier now, even without some bullshit DC 25 Strength-draining poison attack.

Monster Vault: Otyughs

Not merely an otyugh but a neo-otyugh, which is a psionically endowed super smelly crap-trap. Checking D&D Compendium, it looks like they’d never made it into 4th Edition until now.

I wonder why?

They’re basically otyugh turned up to 11. Like otyughs, they have a stench aura, but these guys are Huge, have a threatening reach of four, deal a lot more damage with their tentacles (with a pull and grab), and instead of having a bite can make a “close blast 2 attack” (two ironically being an odd number in this case). If it bites you, you can also contract greater otyugh filth fever, which causes you to lose healing surges, take defense penalties, and eventually stop being able to heal at all.
Its only psionic ability is disgusting lure, which deals psychic damage and if you don’t move closer to the otyugh you take more damage. Its immediate interrupt, body shield, is kind of a clever way to gain an extra attack in a roundabout way. If it has a creature grabbed, it can cause any type of attack to hit the creature instead.

November and Beyond

November looks like a pretty busy month, weighing in at three products that I want.


Beholders
I’d forgotten about the Beholder Collectors Set, which in addition to a combined expenditure for Monster Vault and Famine in Far-Go promises to weaken my wallet (savings ends). The set runs $35 and has four beholders, and when compared to eBay prices that’s a really good deal.

They’ve also posted up a preview for a (the?) beholder. This one is only level 9 and not a zombie nor drinks blood, so that’s a plus. My only experience with a beholder was back in 3rd Edition, where we slaughtered it effortlessly (perhaps accidentally) thanks to a min-maxed arcane archer that could shoot fireball enhanced arrows modified with Elemental Substitution (ice) because we were going up against a red dragon. The group in my Tendrils of Fate campaign is good enough for a gauth, but I think I’ll hold off and let them gain a level or two before throwing the real deal at them.

Like a few of their kin, beholders cannot be flanked, which sucks for rogues, and their bite is fairly tame (17 damage on average). I don’t think anyone would really bother with it since they can fire two out of ten eye rays at a time without provoking opportunity attacks despite being ranged, and if you start within 5 squares of it? Well, it gets to shoot you. For free. With no action required. I would say count your blessings that it’s random, but they’ve got some nasty eye rays in their arsenal.

I checked, and they have almost the exact same abilities as a 3rd Edition beholder (which is not a good thing, let me tell you), the exception that instead of a charm monster ray they get brilliant ray. Here’s a list in case you somehow aren’t familiar with an older beholder:

• Charm ray: Dominates for a turn.
• Wounding ray: Deals lots of necrotic damage.
• Sleep ray: Immobilizes you, and if you fail the save you fall asleep (save ends).
• Telekinesis ray: No damage, just slides you around a lot.
• Slowing ray: Has only slightly less average damage than the wounding ray, but also slows (save ends).
• Brilliant ray: Minor amount of radiant damage and blinded…save ends. Bitch.
• Terror ray: Good amount of psychic damage and you are pushed your Speed.
• Petrifying ray: You’re immediately petrified (save ends), and when you shake it off you’re still immobilized. Holy save-or-screw, Batman!
• Death ray: Hefty amount of necrotic damage, and also dazes if the target is bloodied before of after you resolve damage. If you fail your first save, you’re also weakened, and if you fail that save, you die. 
• Disintegrate ray: Minor damage, but also causes ongoing damage.

So, hmm. At first I didn’t care for petrifying ray, but really it’s a lot like the stunned condition except that you get a lot of damage resistance, and you can still shake it off so it’s not quite a “save or fuck-off” effect. Immobilized ain’t so bad, especially if you have ranged attacks at any capacity. The really nasty one is death ray, because if you’re bloodied at all it starts the doom counter. In case all of this doesn’t impress you with just how nasty this fucker can be, when you bloody it, it can also use a recharge 6 ability that lets it pepper you with three eye rays instead of two, and its central eye locks down your encounter and daily attack powers for a turn. It can do this as a minor action, whenever it wants.

Famine in Far-Go
The first Gamma World expansion will add more cards, to some’s dissent and other’s delight, that allow you to reflect an allegiance (if temporary) to a “cryptic alliance”. A group can all be allied with the same group, or everyone can draw one at random, but one thing to keep in mind is that its an optional rule. I’m sure many will conveniently overlook that bit. Each of the cards provides you with a benefit that gives your character an advantage to the detriment of the rest of the party. The efficacy of many will hinge on whats going on, such as untapped Alpha mutations or penalizing Omega Charge checks at the end of the encounter.

As for the actual adventure, expect mold, mold men, and aliens. I can’t say that that the prospect of mold particularly excites me, but all the same I’ll be glad to get my hands on more origins, and if nothing else there’s another “high-level” threat, though I find it odd that an alien ship is actually weaker than a much smaller man-made robot. Maybe they used lots of American parts to repair their ship?

The death saucer is an alien ship that fires death rays, drops a neutron bomb, and can teleport in minion shock troopers occasionally. It can make four death ray attacks each round, and has a solo action ability that it can use up to two times during the encounter (which is really another way of forcing the monster to ration the Action Points that it would have gotten in D&D). So, everything one expects from a solo monster. However, there’s one thing I take issue with: neutron bomb. It recharges once bloodied, but when it becomes bloodied it immediately lands (no action), and while it’s grounded it cannot use neutron bomb (or confinement ray).

Oversight, or am I reading it wrong?

December’s Dragon and Dungeon
Not much dropped here, except that modrons are coming back? o.O

Flesh Golems, Vampires, and Werewolves

Oh my.

Flesh Golem
This Monster Vault excerpt has a new stat block for a flesh golem and master vampire, as well as werewolf moon frenzy (complete with a different disease layout). One thing of note is that it looks like they’re taking the lack of fluff thing from Monster Manual to heart, as flesh golems feature seven paragraphs of text dedicated to their creation methods, and lack of biological needs and social etiquette. Aside from that, here’s the rundown of notable changes in the Monster Vault version.

• Hit points are unchanged
• Defenses are equal to or lower than the older version
• Resist 10 cold
• Fire attacks cause it to flee as a free action, and if it cannot move at least half its speed it grants combat advantage
• When it takes lightning damage it gets to make a basic melee attack
• Slam is slightly more accurate and deals a lot more damage (11 more points on average), and becomes more accurate when its bloodied
• Double attack also causes its attacks to prone targets that it hits
• Golem rampage is reworded, but basically does the same thing. The old version made it clear that it provokes opportunity attacks and attacks friend and foe alike, and while the new version uses the terms “move” and “creatures”, I think it could be easily interpreted incorrectly
• Berserk attack is unchanged

I like this one a lot more because its afraid of fire and gets a boost from lightning, like Frankenstein’s monster (which it is so obviously based off of). I also like that when it gets bloodied it gets a bit more dangerous, not just with the extra attacks it gets (good for an elite), but also because they become more accurate. This lends itself narratively to the idea of a wounded beast frantically lashing out. All these work together to mechanically enforce the core concept, and perhaps allowing players to sympathize with it if you want to make it more intelligent and/or free-willed.

Master Vampire
Vampires get a similar treatment in the fluff department, but since there’s no real cohesive vampire statblock it’s kind of hard to make a direct comparison. For example, sunlight usually destroys minions instantly, but either doesnt do anything to other vampires, or just stops their regeneration. Some are vulnerable to radiant damage, some just dont give a fuck. In the case of this vampire, sunlight deals radiant damage, and all radiant damage stops their regeneration, making it super effective.

Its claw deals more damage than an elite war troll vampire, and while its bite can only be usd on dazed, dominated, or stunned opponents the damage is insanely high (32 average) and heals him by almost a quarter of his max hit points. He can turn into a cloud of bats, making him insubstantial, stealthier, and granting him a fast fly speed. Since its supposed to be a swarm, I’m assuming the insubstantial is a fast method for saying “he takes less damage from attacks”. Dominating gaze takes a standard action to use, still works on one creature at a time, and only lasts for a turn (thank god). His last little trick is that when he is bloodied, he can turn into a mist form, which works mostly the same except that the vampire can only do it after he takes damage while bloodied. It makes him insubstantial and gives him a fly of 12.

I like the concentration of traditional vampiric themes. Other vampires sometimes had one or two abilities, but they were wildly inconsistent.

Lycanthrope
Unfortunately the only statblock is for the new werewolf moon frenzy disease. The differences are slight and only present in stages two and three; during stage 2 the victim only makes one attack when bloodied as opposed to making save each turn, and during stage 3 the victim makes a free attack each time she is struck instead of going for the closest target. To make matters worse, free attacks made in both stages are only against allies. Moon frenzy was already pretty annoying, a nice change from 3rd Edition when it could actually be quite advantageous, but now it’s even worse.

Contrasting Red Dragons

This is the new elder red dragon, which will be featured in Monster Vault.

Both are level 20 solo soldiers, but the older one seems much more durable since it has higher hit points, defenses, and fire resistance. It also can’t hover (unless flight rules got changed) and has no overland flight value (again, unless something got changed). Frankly, people constantly bitched about solo battles taking forever, so I see this as a good thing. Point goes to the newer version.

The new dragon gets a couple of traits that prevent it from being locked down during a fight, which in my experience has greatly reduced the danger, tension, and challenge with just even one bad roll. This involves automatically ending dazed, stunned, and dominated at the end of its turn. I love this. I can’t tell you how many times Beth or Josh has brutally fucked solos through various lockdown conditions. I’m putting this, or something similar, on all my solos from now on. Also, it can make a free bite or claw attack before its turn starts (or instead end a stun or dominate condition in effect).

For the most part, attacks are the same, though in many cases damage is increased to one degree or other.

• Bite initially inflicts slightly less on average, but deals quite a bit more when bloodied.
• Claw deals eleven more points on average, and has a built-in “attack one or two creatures” line, so no need fo double claw.
• Immolate foe deals a lot more damage than it did before, and has a Miss effect.
• Breath weapon also deals substantially more damage, but otherwise works the same.
• Frightful presence is gone.
• Tail strike has improved range and flexibility at the cost of damage; the dragon can target anyone moving anywhere within 3 squares, instead of just those that end in a flanking spot, and while it deals seven damage less on average, it knocks them prone.

While I kinda miss frightful presence, the ability to shrug off lockdown conditions is well worth it.