Fox woman

[AbdulAlhazred]

Here's a little something I cooked up to entertain my Saturday night group next week. An old monster we haven't seen come back yet and an encounter which can be its own little mini adventure to go with it. Let me know how you like it

 

[DanmarLOK]

Nicely done.

 

[JackSmithIV]

Very interesting concept! A beguiling werefox... very cool! I do have a few thoughts, however. I hope you don't mind my sharing them, from one monster designer to another.

For example the domination is a little easy to recharge. In a large encounter group, she could easily have a party dominated. Perhaps recharge 5, 6? Also, why would she ever be tempted to change form? It seems the only thing she has to gain is loosing powers. When you look at werewolves, for example, each form has an entirely different attack. You seem to have three forms, and three attacks, which is very convenient! Unfortunately, staying in vixen form might be your Fox Woman's best option at all time!

This could be solved easily by splitting the three attacks among the three forms. Longsword for elf, beguile for vixen, bite for fox. That way, there's incentive for the monster to change forms, and separate and interesting strategies.

Keep up the good work!

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Very interesting concept! A beguiling werefox... very cool! I do have a few thoughts, however. I hope you don't mind my sharing them, from one monster designer to another.

For example the domination is a little easy to recharge. In a large encounter group, she could easily have a party dominated. Perhaps recharge 5, 6? Also, why would she ever be tempted to change form? It seems the only thing she has to gain is loosing powers. When you look at werewolves, for example, each form has an entirely different attack. You seem to have three forms, and three attacks, which is very convenient! Unfortunately, staying in vixen form might be your Fox Woman's best option at all time!

This could be solved easily by splitting the three attacks among the three forms. Longsword for elf, beguile for vixen, bite for fox. That way, there's incentive for the monster to change forms, and separate and interesting strategies.

Keep up the good work!

Yeah, that's a good point about attacks. There can be tactical reasons she might want to switch forms, but it would be interesting to have the beguile be only available in vixen form. That might also address your concern about the recharge. Bite could even be limited to fox form as she doesn't need that in elf form certainly. Mainly it seemed like splitting them up made it a bit more complex than even the existing 4e MM Lycanthropes, but then again so what really. It will be interesting to run this encounter and see how it turns out. I'll let everyone know

 

[Rechan]

I'm a fan of the Werefox, and any conversion the 3e did lacked the pizzaz of only effecting female humans and elves. Making it a fey is a great idea. In fact, I'd think it shouldn't be a lycanthrope, but a trickster fae of a certain variety.

While there is a point above about giving her different attacks depending on form, I don't think the beguile should be limited to the vixen form. In fact, an elven woman doing the beguiling sounds just as appropriate.

I also sort of dislike the inclusion of the sword and the magic missile. It feels... out of place. Among other things, I'd anticipate that one of these ladies are more the "hidden dagger up my sleeve" than a longsword.

What I would do?

1) Let her use magic. But her magic is all illusion/beguiling. All of her magic would for instance do psychic damage, and have some sort of effect (Like say, make her invisible to the target until the start of her next turn). Maybe an attack with a dazing power. Check out the Feyborn template, in how it has an immediate interrupt that forces the target to either attack someone else, or stop the attack. Perhaps a power that lets her shunt a power over to an adjacent ally (packaged as her convincing the ally to jump in front of the blade for her).

2) When in fox form, she can't use magic, beguiling or weapons, but she becomes much more elusive (Foxes are sneaky and slippery, after all). A fey-step like power that lets her teleport, or turn invisible. Her bite attack lets her shift after or before doing it. Maybe her bite dazes or blinds the target.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Fox Woman Level 7 Controller
Medium fey humanoid (shapechanger) XP 300
Initiative +3 Senses Perception +8, low-light vision
HP 63; Bloodied 31
AC 21; Fortitude 19, Reflex 26, Will 29 Speed 7
Dagger (standard, at-will) * Weapon
Ranged 5/10 +19 vs. AC; 1d4+7 damage and target is dazed (save
ends). may be used in elven or vixen form.
Bite (standard, at-will) * Weapon
+19 vs. AC; 1d8+2 damage and the target is slowed until the end of
the fox woman's next turn. This attack may be used in vixen or fox
form.
Beguile (standard, recharge 4,5,6) * Charm
Ranged 5; +11 vs. Will; The target is dominated (save ends).
Dazzling Flash (free action; encounter) * Charm, Psychic
Close Burst 3; +9 vs Fortitude; Target is blinded until end of fox
woman's turn; Effect Fox woman can shift 1 square and gains
concealment.
Change Shape (minor; at-will) * Polymorph
A fox woman can change its shape at will to appear as either a unique
elvish woman or an ordinary silver fox. In elvish form the fox woman
looses her bite attack. In fox form the fox woman looses her dagger
attack.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common,Elvish
Skills Stealth +10, Nature +9, Arcana +8, Bluff +13
Str 11 (+3) Dex 14 (+5) Wis 9 (+2)
Con 13 (+4) Int 17 (+6) Cha 20 (+8)
Equipment 5 daggers

This would make her both a bit more magical, loose the somewhat out of character Magic Missle, balance the forms more, and give her a bit more of both a solid control role while not loosing ranged attacks.

Not really entirely sure about the Dazzling Flash power, it COULD be used as an escape tactic. OTOH if it were say immediate interrupt when targeted by an attack then you loose the ability to use it on your own turn. So I'm not 100% satisfied with that, but it may work out OK.

 

[Rechan]

Let us know how it works out!

A nice ally to pair her with would be a lower level Eladrin Fey Knight. They make great bodyguards.