I have a confession to make. This isn’t really a new monster. Much like the designers of the Monster Vault, I’ve taken a creature’s stat block from an existing product and tried to work out its flaws. I’ve renamed the creature primarily to keep the differing stats straight, but I don’t recommend using the previous stat block.

The creature I am referring to is the Larva Mage, from the 4e Monster Manual. I ran the Larva Mage in a recent encounter. It was the last encounter in a series, and Larva Mage was supposed to be the mini boss. He was going to present an interesting threat and attempt to run away at the end. He was accompanied by two Vampires and a few Rot Harbingers. He did succeed in standing out as important and attracting attention. However, he was quickly outclassed and dominated. The other creatures put up a much better fight. Serves me right for not updating him ahead of time.

The following will break from the normal Steal this Creature format. I’ll be talking about each power, and the changes I made. If you want to learn more about the creature itself, check out the Monster Manual or Open Grave.

The basics that you need to know is that Larva Mage’s are evil wizards who died, and then inhabit the worms and maggots that were feasting upon their corpse. Its an intelligent swarm, with a humanoid shape. The Mage is an artillery.

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Corrupting Touch was the default, low damage, melee basic that most artillery have. The damage is too low for post MM3. I’ve made part of it default damage and added necrotic as a secondary type, that way Necrotic Resistance is still useful, but not everything. It also gives the creepy feeling that a small swarm of worms has drifted over to the player and is biting. I don’t see either as particularly corrupting. I called mine Soul Leech, because it deals necrotic damage, and it’s a bug theme.

Horrific Visage was supposed to help this epic level artillery avoid being locked down by defenders. The big issue here is that it’s ranged 10, and recharge 5. It’s lucky if he can use it one-third of the time, and if the defender is already in melee, he gets a free basic attack. We all know how much damage a defender can do with a basic melee. The new power is Wave of Horror. Still a minor and still recharge 5. Now it’s close burst 10, target 1. This means no opportunity attacks in melee (which is when it really needs it).

Ray of Cold Death is its main attack. Nothing wrong or even interesting here. It just does solid ranged damage. Damage increased.

Worms Feast was an illusion attack. It does a lot of damage, or produces a stun. The flavor is that the target thinks worms are devouring his flesh. This, to me, makes the enemy a bit lame. Why don’t the worms really eat the target’s flesh? Now they do.

Its now a Close Burst 3, Encounter that recharges when bloodied. It does serious damage and some of it psychic damage, to represent that this attack saps on your will. It’s freaky. If that attack doesn’t kill you, instead of a stun and no damage, the damage stays, but the target gains 10 thp and is dazed. This, to me, is more fun. The player can still do something, but he’s in shock and has built up a bit of a mental wall. Its called Rush of Worms.

Withering Flame was dropped altogether. It has enough damage powers, and Rush of Worms can now affect multiple targets (without provoking OAs). As far as I can tell, this was to make the Mage seem more Wizardly. I thinks we can do this with flavor at the table.

Squeezing Swarm – Like most swarms, the Larva Mage can squeeze through tight places. I think a mass of living vermin can do a bit more than that though. I also think an elite should have opportunities to do damage more than once a turn. Swarm Body makes it so that whenever a melee attack hits, the attacker takes damage. Very easy for the DM.

Swarm Scurry – One new power. At higher levels, I think creatures need to dip into other roles more in order to be useful. Artillery can use a little bit of skirmisher in order to ensure that they can get back into ranged once engaged. Otherwise, they get locked down and then become boring. This ability still allows OAs, but it’s a quick way to negate many defender lock-downs and give some distance. Plus, it just makes sense that it can break down into its component creatures, and reform.

In Summary

We now have an artillery that can deal with melee characters and attack more than one creature a turn. It’s creepy, and all of its abilities reflect that. While it excels at ranged combat, Rush of Worms encourages it to get relatively close twice a fight. It can then use Swarm Scurry to reposition itself. In the end, we have a much more dynamic villain.