Monster Arena

have a team that needs tested one of each would be best

Giant Shield Guardian (edited)
Info
HP 50
Traits
-Super Heavy Armor
gain 4 resist and -10 initiative
[+2] Shield bash
Deal 1D4 damage to target
[-2] Cover immediate interrupt
An ally is targeted by an attack redirect the attack to this creature
[-3] Sprit shield
Target ally gain resist 3 and regain 1 for 4 of the ally's turns
[-5] Second Chance free action
An ally creature would be reduced to 0 HP for the rest of the encounter all damage to that ally is redirected to this creature(resist does not apply). This may only be used once per battle and ends when this creature falls unconscious.
[-6] Perfect shield immediate interrupt
Trigger An opponent targets this creature with an attack
Effect negate attack. Triggerer is stuned and takes -2 to save rolls

Condottiero
Info
HP 35
Traits
-Zealot
All allies gain 1 PiP at the start of their turns
[+2] Valor
Target ally deals 1D10 extra damage on their next attack
[+1] Sword slash
Deal 1D10 damage
[-3] Encourage the troops
Increase the the amount of PiPs gained by + moves by 2 for all allies. The effects of this move are removed when the caster falls unconscious.
[-6] Grand Command
All allies may take a standard as a free action. By paying 2 more PiPs the costs of those actions are lowered by 1.

Blaster
HP 10
[+1]Plasmabolt
Deal 1D12 damage
[+1]Plasma cutter
Deal 1D10 damage and ignore resistance
[-2] Fire two Free action
trigger deal damage
effect deal the same amount of damage to a diffrent target
[-4] Rapid bolts
Deal 3D10 damage to target and 1/3(rounded up) damage to adjacents.

Medic
HP 30
Trait
-Consistant Healing
Gain regen 2
[+2]Syringe Stab
Deal 1D8 damage to target and flip a coin if heads target suffers ongoing damage 1 if tails target gains regen 1
[+1] Medic Ray
target ally is healed by 1D20 if target is at full health then the target gains Temp HP equal to 1/4 of their full health(rounded up).
[-2] Quick heal free action
remove one save ends effect
[-5] Overcharge
Target becomes invulnerable to all damage and effects and gains regen 3 until the end of its next turn.

Lunatic
HP 25
Traits
-Hazmat Suit gain +5 to saving rolls
[+1] Joke Gas
all creatures are weakened (save ends)
[+1] Nova Gas
All creatures suffer ongoing 3 (save ends)
[+1] Smokescreen
All creatures are blind (save ends)
[+1] Poison Gas
All creatures suffer vulnerability 3 (save ends)
[-8] Stun Flash
All creatures are stunned blinded and weakened (save separately)

Boss Monster Battle. I'd like to test four boss fights next saturday ( The 1st ) around 8 PM EST. Maybe 2-3 runs for each boss, with people ready with mid to high level characters. Bring your A game and minmax strats.
A brief overview:

Triple Threat:
Three monsters whose fates are linked together. Each starts with a special power. As each one dies, the remaining ones gain the destroyed monsters specials, leading a final fight against the powerful survivor.

Flood:
A series of monster waves. Every attack from them adds a point to your aura. Once your aura reaches a certain point, you explode. Can you defeat them before they defeat you?

The Wanderer:
A swordsunicorn of immense power and skill. He seems to rely on counterattacks and status effects to disable his foes, preferring not to fight and never to kill.

Dark Magic:
A Griffin sorceror of unbeatable energy. She is said to mark targets for destruction, focusing them down quickly. Only a fool would test her...


[b]please PM me if you would like to attend. I will be using IRC and Skype to host this.

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:
For example, variable on the size of the party and their fighting style of course, you are meant to fight about two or three of these bad boys per player in any encounter, probably sometime in the distant future + time travel if you want to stay true to flavor. Already ran a few tests, went pretty well, but my party kept losing, which makes me worry I made these guys too strong. Either that or I was just unlucky with the rolls or chose the wrong kind of party to bring in. We'll see.

These guys'll be pretty tough stuff for smaller parties, especially the type of party I playtested with, and ESPECIALLY if that party gets some bad rolls in.

Cyp-Con (Cybernetic Pony Construct)
HP:10
A pony-shaped creature of robotic genius, the Cyp-Con is a creature of cold logic and heavy weaponry. In any other universe, this would make them quite the formidable and frightening opponent, but in the magical land of Equestria they are considered little more than an annoyance. Pity there's a lot more than one of these annoyances, then...

Traits:
Iron Pony
- Cyp-Cons have Resistance 2 to all attacks (optional: except electricity-based attacks).
Self-Repair Systems
- Cyp - Cons have Regeneration 2.

Attacks:
[+1] Procedure Seven: Direct Combat
- Deal 1d6 damage to target creature.
[+3] Procedure Eighteen: Conserve Energy
- For the rest of the battle, your Trait "Self-Repair Systems" no longer applies.
- This attack can only be used once per battle.
[-4] Procedure Twenty: Fatal Force
- This attack may only be used if you are below 50% Health.
- Target up to three creatures. This attack has one of three effects, dependent upon how many creatures are targeted.
1) If this attack targets one creature, deal 3d8 damage to that creature.
2) If this attack targets two creatures, deal 2d8 damage to one creature and 1d8 to the other.
3) If this attack targets three creatures, deal 1d8 damage to all targeted creatures.

I just did two play-tests of these guys, and 2 per party player is not enough. They become menacing when you use three per player, though the battle itself becomes very bogged down.

The first run through was done in the first round (12 damage fireswath will do that). So I did another, but I was only using 2 Cyber Ponies per character and probably should have used three. In the second playtest, I neglected to use fireswath and used fireball instead. With a fairly balanced team of 4 ponies, fighting 2X their number, the party won easily just before the fourth turn. Only one pony was bloodied in the whole battle.

Overall Danger rating*: 2/10 (1/10 being the easiest of encounters, 5/10 being an equal challenge, and 10/10 being no chance of winning)

Weaknesses of this monster:
1) AoE Damage due to their low HP, (especially with an ally that can add damage to your attack)
2) Low damage output makes them very much non-threatening
3) Lack of choice in moves makes them extremely predictable, and thus easy to throw a wrench in their plans. (Their strategy is most likely all gang up on one pony and try to bring it down)

Strengths:
1)Their Resistance is their single real strength. Helps them overcome being one-shot off the hop. And this means that bad rolls are the determining factor between the party having a breeze fighting these guys or actually having to worry.

Suggestions for this monster, how to implement it / improve it:
1: Maybe have some sort of elite that travels with them.
2: Use no less than 3 of these for every pony in the party (Warning: battles consisting of over 12 combatants that aren't minions will make things sluggish)
3: Beef these monsters up so that they are able to fight in a 1 on 1 fight. (It's easier to run a combat that has an equal number on both sides)
4: Give them more damaging attacks so that you don't have to use so many of them
5: I know their intent is to be a swarm of robo ponies that detain the players, but I wonder also if it may be easier to just make them minions so the Pony Handler doesn't have to write down so many numbers.

*This rating is a new thing I am going to include in all of my reviews, based entirely on my personal observations and may vary from group to group, depending on optimization and tactics.

I'll be doing these rather often. So toss any other monsters you want reviewed and I'll add em to my queue.
Currently in Queue:
1) Tyger's dynamic group
2) Reworked Polaris Bear

Alright, so I did another play test. This time I chose Tyger's 5 archetype team. (Not gonna copy all their stats to here, it's too long)

I only did one run-through because it took a long time. The whole battle lasted a whopping 8 turns. The party of 4 'player ponies' started off with a bang, and the 5 enemy combatants nearly were thwarted by the second turn. However the medic managed to negate enough of the damage until the guardian could use it's permanent protection on the blaster creature. Once there, it was a battle of attrition, until the lunatic managed to pull off it's stun flash. Where upon it became a battle of luck. Sadly the 'player ponies' ended up rolling poorer than the enemies (not by too much, but enough to not save against stun a couple of times) Up until the eighth turn, the player ponies were then quickly picked off by the blaster. All the enemies were bloodied and 2 were dead (blaster at 1 HP)

Overall Danger Rating: 4-6. It's a range because of how random that Lunatic makes the battle. It's a great challenge for a 4 player party who battle tactically.

Weaknesses of this encounter
-Lunatic makes the battle very random as it effects all creatures with all of it's attacks so using this encounter is something of a gamble
-Specific targeting (Specifically the blaster + medic) can really quickly shut down the team's power
-Only one high damage source, negating the blaster's attacks will significantly aid in the battle
-This encounter takes A LONG TIME, (I blame the Lunatic for all the saving throws I had to make and all the effects I had to remember)

Strengths of the encounter
- Very nice, diverse build of monsters and a variety of HP values and traits. Makes for many different ways to approach the encounter and forces the players to work together to try and put a stop to the enemy's own combos. Gives the whole combat a very dynamic feel
- All the monsters perform their role very well and compensate for each other. I think over the course of the battle I used just about every single move that the monsters had which is a very good thing as it means that the monsters were able to compensate for the player's tactics.

Suggestions for implementing this group of monsters
-They are very good as they are now, but if I were ever to use these guys again, I would take out the lunatic and replace him with another blaster. That guy nearly gave me a headache and slowed the game down, (though ultimately turned the tide for them.)

And that's my review on Tygerburningbright's group of 5 monsters.

Next in Queue: Reworked Polaris Bear

Once again, if you have any more monsters, feel free to send em on here. (I feel kinda bad for the double post, but it's been a while)

Cardbo wrote:Polaris Bear
120 HP
Trait:Magnetic Resonance
Gain +1 Pip whenever you're attacked.
Trait:Two-claw style.
Polaris Bear can use two moves during its turn.
[+1] Flatten
Deal 1d8 damage to one enemy or 1d4 to two.
[+1] Stellar Strength: Nocturnal
The next attack will deal an extra 2d4 damage.
[+0] Pound Sand
Any save-end effects are negated at the end of the turn.
[-X] Create Minions
Create X Minions, which are smaller versions of the Constellation. They have 1/10 the HP and
no Resistance or Vulnerability.
[-2] Roar - Free Action
Target and adjacent enemies are weakened until end of next turn.
[-2] Howl
All minions add +3 to their damage next turn.
[-4]Sideswipe
2d8 Damage to all opponents

Its new! And improved! It Two-Claw style gives it an extra turn. Pound Sand gives it a way to remove Save-End effects and Howl buffs any minions its generated.

Alrighty! I'm back with another bout in the monster arena. This time my hoof-crafted party of 4 'players' faced up against the new and improved Polaris Bear. It took a fairly long time to run the encounter, so I only did 1 run of it. The party of diverse ponies started off with a bang, dealing about half the bear's life in damage by the end of the second turn. By the third turn the bear had been stunned for a turn and tossed out of combat for a turn and by the time it got to act once again, it had been reduced to 20 HP. However, even with it's few hitpoints, the bear had a staggering 12 pips. So it created ten minions and howled to amazing effect. Knocking out two of the ponies instantly and severely injured another. The remaining two ponies tried their hoof at a last-ditch-effort but could not slay the beast and it's minions.

Final result: 5 turns of combat
Bear Status: 9 HP / 2 Pips / 9 - 2HP minions / Luck: Average
Player Status: TKO / Luck: Above Average (70% ish)

Overall Danger Rating: 6
This is a fight that I would recommend the party being at least 2nd level so that you had traits to fight on equal ground. Either that or be sure your party is combat-ready explicitly with an anti-solo build.

Weaknesses of the encounter: It's main weakness is that it's a solo creature, and a 1 turn stun does a lot of devastation. Combos are also it's weakness, specifically multi-turn buildups that hit hard in one strike.

Strengths of the encounter: There are more of these than weaknesses. The ton of HP, coupled with it's Magnetic Resonance trait makes this creature devastating. Once it's up to 8 or more pips, it can roll over half the party easily. It's two turns also help a ton to get rid of any built up status effects and to help do a nice combo with it's two +pip moves. Roar is spectacular when timed properly.

Suggestions for this monster: I think it's very well crafted, and I don't think it needs any changing really. It has what a boss monster needs. The feeling of impending doom, that if the party doesn't kill it quickly, they are going to be quickly overwhelmed by it. Though I definitely would suggest using similar yet smaller versions of the constellations be used as a precursor to the bear just so that the players have an idea of what some of the bear's abilities will be (namely the summon minions ability). This is definitely a monster I would use in my campaign. Kudos on the awesome monster build.

And that's my review on Cardbo's Polaris Bear

I look forward to any more monster suggestions.
I currently have none in my queue. 'Till next time

~SilentBelle

I would like to give you this to test

Elite Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. The male is called a buck and the female is a doe; a young rabbit is a kitten or kit. Rabbit habitats include meadows, woods, forests, grasslands, deserts and wetlands. Rabbits live in groups, and the most common species, lives in underground burrows, or rabbit holes.

info
HP 50
Traits
-fast foot
Gain +2 initiative

[+1] Rabbit Kick
Deal 1D20 damage to target
[+1] Whirl Claws
Deal 1D10 damage to target and 1D6 damage to two random enemies
[+1] Dust Cloud
Deal 1D8 damage to target and adjacents and blind them
[-5] Wild carrot
Heal 2D20 HP to target

yes it is that rabbit and if you are useing a party of 4 I'd say 2 should be enough

tygerburningbright wrote:I would like to give you this to test

Elite Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. The male is called a buck and the female is a doe; a young rabbit is a kitten or kit. Rabbit habitats include meadows, woods, forests, grasslands, deserts and wetlands. Rabbits live in groups, and the most common species, lives in underground burrows, or rabbit holes.

info
HP 50
Traits
-fast foot
Gain +2 initiative

[+1] Rabbit Kick
Deal 1D20 damage to target
[+1] Whirl Claws
Deal 1D10 damage to target and 1D6 damage to two random enemies
[+1] Dust Cloud
Deal 1D8 damage to target and adjacents and blind them
[-5] Wild carrot
Heal 2D20 HP to target

yes it is that rabbit and if you are useing a party of 4 I'd say 2 should be enough

Alrighty, I just sent 2 of these rabbits off against the party, just as a side note, I treated their dust cloud move as a blind until end of next turn instead of save ends as I figured it would otherwise be far better than the other 2 +pip moves it had. So here's what happened:

It was a fairly quick encounter, ended before the fourth round was over. The players were able to launch a great second turn team attack that involved putting vulnerability upon one of the rabbits and then dealing it ridiculous amounts of damage. They managed to pull off three attacks against it for around 40 damage as well as leaving it stunned. It died later from splash damage dealt to the other rabbit. 2 turns after that massive team assault, the party thwarted the second rabbit. By the end, one character was at 3 hp, and none of the others were bloodied. A big factor in this was luck.

Final Result: Duration: Two turns into the 4th round of combat
Rabbit's Status: TKO/Luck about 25% lower than average
Player Status: 3 hp for one character, all the rest 22 or higher/ Luck: Above average by about 25%

Overall Danger rating: 3
This fight probably should have had another rabbit in it for the sake of balancing, because at no point did these players feel particularly threatened.

Weaknesses of this encounter: Let's see, I think the biggest weakness this encounter has, is being unable to use a -pip move until the 5th turn (usually the turn when most combats will end). It's other weaknesses would be that it's damage is very random thus hard to gauge just which move would be the right choice, the third weakness is luck, and just how much this creature depends on it compared to many others. (of course I know that's the point)

Strengths of this encounter: These rabbits do have 3 choices of attack going for them which allows them to adapt to their situation fairly well, so they can catch players off-guard. They also have a fair number of hitpoints going for them.

Suggestions for this monster: I think the rabbits could use a little something. Maybe a trait that lets them deal more damage (maybe +3) when bloodied, this would encourage players to try and take them out one at a time. Also, I'd suggest changing the carrot to cost only 3 pips and heal for 3d10 instead. If those changes were made, then I think 2 of these critters would be up to snuff with a 4-player party.

And that's my review of tygerburningbright's Elite Rabbits

As always, I look forward to more monsters to test out.
I currently have none in my queue, so feel free to toss your ideas up here.

~SilentBelle

Desperado wrote:
Changeling Queen - 110 HP
Trait - Royal Decree
Take 2 initiative rolls at the start of combat. Have 2 standard actions.
Trait - Feast of Emotion
Pay 3 HP. Remove from yourself a status effect.
[+1] Metamorphosis
Flip a coin. If heads, gain 1d20 HP. If tails, gain 1d8 HP.
[+6] Love of My Subjects
Flip a coin. If tails, only gain 2 pips.
[-3] Feeding Frenzy
Deal 3d8 damage to target enemy. Steal 1d4 pips from that enemy.
[-5] Demonic Shriek
Flip a coin. If heads, deal 1d20+3 to all enemies. If tails, deal 2d8+4 to all enemies and gain 3 pips
[-8] Dominance of the Matriarch
Flip a coin. If heads, deal 4d10 to target enemy. If tails, deal 1d20 to all enemies.

Okay, we have another one here. This time I used 5 characters to fight it as was recommended to me. The players I was using were 3 different types of support, a tank, and a damage dealer. To be honest this battle played out a lot differently than I thought it would. So the Queen started off, and there's not too much she can do right at the beginning, as she needs pips to do anything against the players. The battle took only 5.5 rounds, (though it felt longer than that). The group essentially decided to split half it's attention to mitigating the creature's attacks and the other half to doing as much damage as possible. Because of it's trait it was able to avoid stun-locking. During this battle, which I thought was going to be one-sided for the monster, quickly turned in favour of the players. The Queen got off one really solid attack (it's kind of scary that it was the average roll.) But was defeated shortly afterward, simply because of 2 main factors, 1: a specific utility talent, and 2: poor luck for many of the coin flips.

Final Result: Duration: 5.5 rounds
Queen status: KOed/Luck 20% below average
Player Status: HP values: 18/22/15/18/18; Pip Values: 3/1/0/6/0; Luck: Ridiculous, 50% above average (one character did over 35 damage with a double critical)

Overall Danger Rating: 7: The reason why it's so dangerous is because that's what this queen is. Even against 5 players. One single attack landed all the players at near-bloodied.

Weakness of this creature: The biggest factor is the randomness, the queen failed her flips 3 times which was a difference between 18 pips and just 6. But honestly the flipping coins is fine, it's the attack damage range that is what makes this monster either super deadly or not seeming harmful. 1-20 is a very long range for any move's damage value. Another thing I had noticed is that the matriarch has no +pip moves that do damage, which was kind of irksome. Oh, and the move that totally stops this creature's effectiveness is the Stunning Heron's Hoof, if it weren't for that single move, the party would have been destroyed by the 4th turn.

Strengths of this creature: It does a lot of damage and can hit all the opponents. It can soak up a lot of punishment and removes debuffs. I also like the extra turn it gets, that helps.

Suggestions for Improvement: The moves themselves could probably use some different damage values. I'd say replace the (d20)'s with (2d8)'s that would cut down on the randomness a bit. I'd also suggest changing the feeding frenzy to:
[0] Feeding Frenzy deal 1d12 dmg to target creature. Flip a coin; if heads the target looses 2 pips, and you gain 2 pips
This way you keep up the flip-a-coin motif.
Maybe change the shriek to target adjacent creatures instead of the whole party. That way Dominance will feel more satisfying when you roll a tails.
Also, I think you should change love of my subjects to a trait that does this:
Love of my Subjects whenever the Changeling Queen is damaged by an attack, flip a coin, if heads, gain 1 pip.
That would make the players a bit more careful with their attacks.

And that's my review of Desperado's Changeling Queen.
As always, my suggestions aren't necessarily perfect and are intended to offer a viewpoint that my not have originally been considered.
Currently in queue: Nothing

~SilentBelle

These are always so interesting, maybe even more so since it's my creature! I especially liked the idea of changing up Love of My Subjects. Very helpful, thank you.

I've got an odd request for the Monster Arena... I've got a Pair of Super Boss Monsters, that the Party in my Canpaign of Jokers game will soon be fighting, and I just wonder how hard they really hard, they strike me a really hard fights as a whole. But I think their winnable... I'd ask you use the templated party members if possible and I'd request keeping the stats of the bosses and their minions just between us. I'd post their stats myself after the campaign has fought them. And any edits to said stats I'd like to stay just between us... That fine?

*all the unsure*

Xel Unknown wrote:I've got an odd request for the Monster Arena... I've got a Pair of Super Boss Monsters, that the Party in my Canpaign of Jokers game will soon be fighting, and I just wonder how hard they really hard, they strike me a really hard fights as a whole. But I think their winnable... I'd ask you use the templated party members if possible and I'd request keeping the stats of the bosses and their minions just between us. I'd post their stats myself after the campaign has fought them. And any edits to said stats I'd like to stay just between us... That fine?

*all the unsure*

Sure thing, just PM it to me and I'lldo a private runthrough of it and PM you back with my critique. Just send me the monster stats and tell me where I can find the templated chars (In the sign up section or the charactersheet section?) I can get it done later tonight, gotta run to work now

I'm glad to help in whatever way I can.

The List of all six of my party is on the first page of my sign up/OOC doc Canpaign of Jokers. Just one little note, the Werewolf can shift between forms gaining it's three templated moves but trading three moves that have been decided beforehand and stuff... I'll send you the first Boss Monster to test... The second one I've still got some final tuch up with it's minions and a few combat moves to finish up. I'll send you that one when I'm finished.

I didn't receive any PMs as of yet... is there glitch in the system or something. You might want to send the info to sleepingsilentbelle@gmail.com if the PMs aren't working.

I'm just doing some late second touch ups, I fear not having all of my thoughts be as clear as they can be for you... And the second boss I've only got half-finished. Don't worry you will get it by the end of the day. Well you'll get the first boss at lest.

Alrighty, I thought it had messed up or something. Cool, I'll check back in a while

I have The First Boss sent it some time ago... And I cant wait for your reply... :3

I'd like to request three different fights for the Monster Arena:
Stats found in my Monster Topic.

Fight one: Three Clockwork Alicorns and two Robotic Super-Swarms (level 5 fight)

Fight two: Five Clockwork Alicorns (level 5 fight)

Fight three: Five Robotic Super-Swarms (level 5 fight)

The party fighting them I believe need not to have any templates, I think they're balanced as is. But I wanta also see just how my monsters would do at full HP and stuff.

Also I've sent my second boss to you. Deal with the boss fights before the other fights, please.

Xel Unknown wrote:Also I've sent my second boss to you. Deal with the boss fights before the other fights, please.

Yeah, I'm gonna finish off the first boss tonight, and then tackle the other one tomorrow. So I'll get around to those other monsters afterward, depends on how much free time I have.

SilentBelle wrote:

Xel Unknown wrote:Also I've sent my second boss to you. Deal with the boss fights before the other fights, please.

Yeah, I'm gonna finish off the first boss tonight, and then tackle the other one tomorrow. So I'll get around to those other monsters afterward, depends on how much free time I have.

Take your time. I can wait. :3

I'm not sure how this works exactly so sorry if I do something wrong. But could someone test some monsters for me for a potential campaign I'm working on building?

Group1
Ambusher - 15 HP
[+2] Blinding-Powder
Target creature is blinded (save ends).
[-1] Dark Blade
Deal 1D6 damage to target creature. Deal max damage if target is suffering from a save-ends condition.

Ambushers can be of any playable race, for the purposes of this we'll assume earth ponies. They usually wear concealing clothes like hoodies or masks in dark colors and prefer to attack at night. They typically attack in groups or 2 or 3 depending on enemy party size. Their strategy is usually to try to spread blind throughout the party and then take advantage of Dark Blade. If one particular player seems like more of a threat than the others they might all gang up on that one. They're intended to be a mild challenge, but nothing too epic.

Group2
Greater-Arachne - 20 HP
[+2] Twin-Strike
Make two attacks. Each attack deals 1d4 damage to target creature.
[+1] Consume
You may destroy one allied Mini-Arachne if any are available to gain 5 HP.
[-3] Twin-Fangs
1d12 damage and target creature suffers 4 ongoing damage (save ends).

Mini-Arachne- 1 HP
Trait - Chitinous
This creature has Resist 2.
[+1] Bite
Deal 2 damage to target creature.

Mini-Arachne are basically just largeish tarantula-sized Black-widow spiders. They spawn in very large groups of about 6 to 8 and attack in waves. I figure each wave comes after 2 rounds, which should be enough time to wipe out the previous one. They're just hatchlings, still too young for their venom to even effect a player character, they scream when they die.

After a couple waves of Mini-Arachne, the screams attract an adult Greater-Arachne who will spawn with a handful more Mini-Arachne. Greater-Arachne are basically just giant, Celestia-sized versions of the Mini-Arachne in appearance. It's main strategy is to build up pips for two turns to use its Twin-Fangs skill on the third and repeat. It'll also consume Mini-Arachne to heal itself during that build up turns if its hurt and there are minis available. Mini-Arachne continue to spawn every two rounds but only in waves of 2 as they're generally afraid of the Greater-Arachne. Once the Greater Arachne is dead, the Minis will flee from the party and the battle ends.

The idea is to get players to realize they need to take out the Minis quickly so it can't heal while also dealing damage to the Greater. This one is meant to be fairly challenging.

Yeah, I'll check 'em out. It's in my queue. Do you have a set date you need these finished by? I like to do these based on how urgent they are. I'd hate for these monsters not to be tested by the time you started your campaign.

I don't think my campaign is anywhere near ready yet so take your time. I'm still in the process of building a list of NPCs and plot lines.

Alright I think I'll get 'em done sometime early next week, or maybe this Sunday.

Alrighty, I just did a quick run of your spider monster Dr Blight
Greater-Arachne - 40 HP
Trait - Swarm
At the beginning of each round, 1d4 'Mini-Arachne' spawn as allies of this monster.
[+2] Twin-Strike
Make two attacks against either a single or two enemy creatures. Each attack deals 1d6 damage to target creature.
[+0] Web Spinner - Immediate Reaction
Trigger: 4 or more allied creatures are defeated by a single enemy attack.
The triggering creature is stunned. (save ends)
[+1] Consume
You may destroy one allied Mini-Arachne if any are available to gain 10HP.
[-3] Twin-Fangs
1d10 damage and target creature suffers 4 ongoing damage (save ends).
-OR-
[-3] Twin-Fangs
1d12 damage and target creature suffers 3 ongoing damage (save ends).

and the minions:
Mini-Arachne- 1 HP
Trait - Chitinous
This creature has Resist 2.
[+1] Bite
Deal 2 damage to target creature.

Now I took the liberty of not fighting the waves of minions and decided to face the monster off against a party of 5, the Arachne started the battle with 4 minions.

The 'players' started quickly with a fireswath that resulted in a stun to that player, knocking him out for a turn. Another player put vulnerability on the Boss. On the spider's turn it's able to do a fair amount of damage, and with focused attacks against the one player who was suffering from it's own vulnerability talent. This nearly knocked the player unconscious. However on the next turn, a Judo Throw killed the Spider Boss.

All in all, the battle was over before the third turn. It was far too easy for the players, this boss needs some work.

Overall Danger Rating: 2/10
Reason: The Spider, while it does have a fairly decent set of abilities, if the party pulls of a combo, it's going to lose very fast.

Weaknesses of the Encounter: Let's see, we have AoE damage, I do like the nice touch on stunning the player who kills off the minions, but still AoE is a Must in this encounter. Also the Spider has fairly low HP for a Boss monster, so adding vulnerability to the boss can be quite effective against it. Low damage output: this monster does fairly low damage with it's basic attacks.

Strengths: Swarming, with the spawning of minions it can swarm the players on it's turn very well, also to best utilize this, the spider and it's minions should focus down one player at a time.

Suggestions for improvement: Let's see, I'd say there are a couple ways to address the certain issues:
1 Issue: The stunning of players when they kill 4 or more minions: The problem is the rarity in which that move will trigger, once all the minions are dead, there's a 25% chance of even having a chance to activate that move again. So I'd suggest changing the trigger to: 'An opponent makes an attack that includes the Arachne and kills one or more of it's minions' That way the players are encouraged to use their splash damage only on the minions as well as being encouraged to use single target attacks against the boss.

2nd Issue: The low HP of the Arachne, normally I would suggest raising it, then a thought occurred to me: 'why not change one of it's abilities instead?' So here's my suggestion, change the spider's consumption to be a [-1] talent that's a free action. That way another way the players can fight the beast is dealing it a lot of damage and the spider will eat it's own units instead of the player having to kill them.

3rd Issue: The low damage output. Suggestion: Give the minions a new trait, Whenever a minion is killed, it gives the triggering player vulnerability 2 until end of next turn. It also adds the flavour that the swarm of spiders are more aggressive toward the player that's damaging their horde.

(Keep in mind that these are all suggestions made on the premise that the player will be at full health (or near enough) when they face this boss, as well as with the idea that 5 players would be facing this monster, as I am not too sure as to how many players you will have facing this in your campaign.)

So that's my review of your Arachne Dr Blight

What's up next? I'm not sure, I have a few that I'll aim to do, but I have no particular order to them, I'll be pretty busy until early next week.
Until then,

~SilentBelle