Welcome to the King of the Monsters 2 finals (see the list of finalists): the eye of tricks and traps is random finalist 9 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exceptions that all submissions are posted with an image and are standardized to KoboldQuarterly.com style. Let the fight commence!
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The eye of tricks and traps is an enchanted construct that appears as a human skull with an iron cog fitted into its left eye. It lurks in ornate dungeon corridors, rising only to test intruders with obscure riddles laden with curses. If threatened, the eye of tricks and traps conjures traps that transform even the most barren catacombs into a gauntlet of pits, darts, and boulders…
Arcana or Thievery DC 18: The eye of tricks and traps is a servitor construct that guards important chambers in an evil wizard’s stronghold. It is tasked with not only turning away intruders, but also the upkeep of the wizard’s traps.
Arcana of Thievery DC 22: The first eye of tricks and traps is said to have been an homage to a legendary demilich. While most are capable of summoning only the most mundane of traps—pit traps, darts, and rolling boulders—others are rumored to have the ability to call forth pendulum scythes, flame jets, or spheres of annihilation.
Eye of Tricks and Traps (Level 13 Elite Controller)
Tiny natural animate (construct, homunculus); XP 1,600
Initiative +8; Perception +6; darkvision
HP 260; Bloodied 130
AC 27, Fortitude 22, Reflex 25, Will 26
Immune disease, poison, sleep; Resist 10 psychic; Vulnerable 5 rogues
Saving Throws +2; Action Points 1
Speed 1; fly 6
TRAITS
Traps Master • Aura 10
Traps in the aura gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls. This includes traps summoned by the eye of tricks and traps.
STANDARD ACTIONS
[r] Puzzling Couplet (Psychic) • At-Will
Attack—Ranged 10 (one creature); +16 vs. Will.
Hit—2d6+7 psychic damage, and the target grants combat advantage (save ends).
[C] Conjure Trap (Summoning) • Recharge 4, 5, 6
Effect—The eye of tricks and traps summons one of the following traps (choose or determine randomly). Summoned traps disappear at the end of the encounter.
1. Pit Trap—A hidden pit trap appears in an open 2-square-by-2-square area within 5 squares. The pit is 70 ft. deep. Perception and Thievery DC 18.
2. Dart Wall—Several holes appear in one square of wall within 5 squares. Each round on the eye of tricks and traps’ initiative, darts fire from the wall at a single target within 10 squares: +18 vs. AC; 2d8+7 damage, and ongoing 10 poison damage (save ends). Thievery DC 18.
3. Rolling Boulder—A 1-square-by-1-square boulder appears in an open space within 5 squares. The boulder moves 6 in a single direction each round; this direction is set by the eye of tricks and traps when summoned and it may not be changed. Creatures in the boulder’s path are attacked: +16 vs. Reflex; 3d6+7 damage, and the target is knocked prone.
[C] Cursewrought Riddle (Psychic) • Recharge 5, 6
Attack—Close burst 5 (enemies in burst)
Effect—All targets must make an Intelligence check. If the combined result of all checks is less than 45, all targets take 3d8+7 psychic damage and are dazed (save ends). If the result is 45 or greater, the eye of tricks and traps takes 20 damage.
MINOR ACTIONS
[R] Mage Hand • At-Will
As the wizard’s mage hand power.
TRIGGERED ACTIONS
Projected Image (Illusion, Teleport) • Recharge 5, 6
Trigger (Immediate Interrupt)—The eye of tricks and traps is hit with an attack.
Effect—The eye of tricks and traps teleports 6 squares, and the triggering creature grants combat advantage until the start of its next turn.
Alignment evil; Languages Common
Skills Arcana +18, Dungeoneering +16, History +18, Nature +16, Religion +18, Thievery +16
Str 11 (+6) Dex 20 (+11) Wis 20 (+11)
Con 18 (+10) Int 24 (+13) Cha 21 (+11)
I like this monster. I’ve never seen vulnerability to a class before. The Cursewrought Riddle attack is interesting but could be abused. It’s a practical autohit on 2 or less target and also penalizes smaller groups. For my own edification, did you make those up powers or can you point me to powers you are basing those off? I’m definitely going to try this one out on my group.
Glad you liked it. I agree about /cursewrought riddle/, it should probably scale with the number of enemies in the burst. Ideally, the power is supposed to abstract the eye posing a complicated riddle that the dungeoneers need to work together to solve.
There’s a couple other things I might have reworded or tweaked slightly had I not procrastinated on the deadline so much, including the way /conjure trap/ works. It occured to me that the number of traps in play could overwhelm PCs if the DM rolls pretty baller on recharge (I usually roll awful), so I was thinking of putting a cap on how many could be in play at once.
I made up all the powers myself.
Hope the monster serves you well! It was a surprise an and honour just to make it to the finals with what have been really fantastic entries. :)
All-in-all it has some very cool mechanics. I love stuff that plays off of or interacts with preexisting stuff but in a way not ever seen before. 5 Stars for imagination that’s out of the box but still in the game.
Scott – I really like this. It is going to be placed in my upcoming Essentials campaign for sure. I know just the place, but can’t say . . . players may be listening after all.
I like this monster, but if I use him in my game I will make a real riddle and not an abstraction of a riddle. I realize that some people play with only the numbers and dice rolls, but I think that player intelligence and roleplaying ability are worth something in a roleplaying game. Not criticizing your ability, its fine as written for some groups (and for rule books) but I like real riddles in my games :)
@greengod: Thank you! :]
@Matt: Thanks! You’re running an Essentials campaign too? :D
@Mike: Great minds think alike. ;) In the original notes for this monster, I had planned on including a sidebar on using real riddles and puzzles with the eye. It ended up getting cut for space, but I agree with and very much enjoy your insight.
great, inventive post! i like the idea of a trap-wielding mob.
conjure trap sounds right out of indy jones — the best parts :)
puzzling couplet is awesome. maybe even add a few sample couplets to read aloud to the players. mmm… flavor text.
if you had these, a nice twist could be with the couplet and the riddle to allow the player to answer within 5-10 seconds to assist their checks (or automatically make the check). of course, then it would be hard to reuse this creature.
I usually skip over 4th Ed stuff (nothing against it, I just don’t understand most of it but that’s a matter of personal preference) but this is the first 4th Ed monster on this blog I’ve read all of the way through.
Nicely done! Even for someone who doesn’t even know how 4th Ed works this is a very interesting and useful monster, and you have definitely inspired some ideas. The demilich is one of my favorite villains, and this is like his rogue-ish counterpart (although apparently rogues are its bane, but then that’s the way things should be IMHO).
I can see this winning. You’ve got my support (and I don’t even play 4th Ed).
The best thing to do with one of these is sneak it into the PC’s stronghold.
“When did we install a 70-foot deep pit trap in the bathroom?!”
@Demosthenes:
I’ve never played 4e either. Statblocks for “other games” can be intimidating, especially with all the use of shorthand and keywords, but I personally have found 4e mechanics to be fairly transparent. If you take a moment to study it it’s not too hard to figure out what’s going on.
The main thing I have trouble with is knowing how high/low HP and other values are relative to CR. 4e was totally re-tuned in terms of what “10 HP” means for the game, so I can’t exactly eyeball it like I could a 3e critter.
@Demo: It makes me very happy to hear the monster has crossover appeal. :)
@Nic: xD
I like this creature, for variety. I am with @Demo, I don’t play 4e. Is there a Pathfinder or 3.5 write up for it? Could we get a look at the sidebar you talked about? That would be cool. I like to use these kind of creatures to throw off my GM heavy players…
One question though: If Rogues are the bane of this creature, how does that play out? Are they immune to its effects? Would they get their trapfinding score added to damage? HOW are they the Bane of this creature? With the introduction of a new concept, you need to explain this.
Great job!
@Joe: I’m not familiar enough with Pathfinder to do a writeup with any confidence. :(
The creature is vulnerable 5 rogues (see line 5 of the stat block), which, to unpack 4E mechanics, means it takes an additional 5 damage from attacks made by rogues.
Thanks for the positive feedback. :)