Yesterday we featured the Reapervast, a sentient solo controller construct. It’s brutally tough to defeat in combat — so here’s a few options other than the straight smash-and-smash-some-more.

Are you excited about the reapervast but want to give your players more ways to deal with it? Does your group look down their collective noses at the thought of yet another grinding solo combat? Kobold Quarterly is happy to bring you a few alternative options for dealing with this nefarious clockwork foe: these alternative ways to defeat this foe provide roleplaying opportunities for your method actors, offer mechanics that allow your storytellers to use their setting and story knowledge to their benefit, and increase the tactical options so your strategists speed up the killing blow.

These reapervast traits add more than just a level of role-playing to the beast; they also open the door for more creative ways of defeating it. A dynamic combat should reward clever players.

Consider the following skill checks as methods a player character may attempt to hinder or harm the reapervast. Each requires a standard action.

Skill Checks
Arcana Check DC 28 – It may be wholly composed of clockwork gears, but you can easily detect the necrotic magic that suffuses the reapervast. Unwinding such a powerful spell will take time, but you know if you carefully unravel the necromantic energies surrounding the construct, your chances of destroying it are much greater.
    Once your party achieves 3 successes, the reapervast takes 3d10 damage and becomes weakened for 3 rounds. In addition, any attacks that target and hit the reapervast’s Fortitude defense during this time are considered a critical hit.

Diplomacy or Insight DC 30 (1 success only) – The souls of children are bound up in the massive metal monster before you. Every few seconds you swear you hear their plights in the hiss of steam, and see their faces press against the reapervast’s metal exterior. Your best bet is to urge them to fight your foe from within. If you are successful, the reapervast is stunned until the end of your next turn and you are not subject to its Children’s Plight attack. In addition, any successful attacks against the reapervast’s Will defense during this time become critical hits.
Religion Check DC 28 – You realize that unholy energies fuel this machine. With the careful application of divine magic you can free the souls that drive the reapervast, and stop the beast from using those souls as a defense. Once your party achieves 3 successes with this skill, the reapervast loses its regeneration for the rest of the encounter.
Thievery Check DC 28 (1 success only) – A monstrosity made of working gears … you can deal with that. Using your thieves’ tools and your expertise of mechanics, you jam quite a few of them. A successful check means the reapervast is dazed until the end of your next turn. In addition, any successful attacks against the reapervast’s Reflex defense during this time are considered a critical hit.

Other Methods
Damaging the Workshop – The reapervast treats the workshop as an extension of itself. By spending a full-round action destroying the workshop (no roll needed), a PC marks the reapervast until the end of his next turn. The reapervast rages against this approach and focuses its considerable might on stopping the marking character.

Raising the Children – Through the use of magic rituals or items, the PCs may revive the souls that currently fuel the reapervast. For each successful attempt at removing a child’s soul from the reapervast, the beast suffers 10 damage and takes a -1 penalty to all defenses. The most obvious way to assault the reapervast in this manner is through the use of the Raise Dead ritual, but any means the PCs have of reviving the dead could be considered plausible.

Another creation from Nevermet Press will be coming to KQ.com in the next 30 days!