The build-up for this session took several weeks after the Don’t Trust a Scarecrow game. Thinking about how Durathrax could influence and corrupt a player, all while not directly taking away the player’s agency was a challenge but so much fun. Once the attack on Grey occurred, we moved forward with addressing the aftermath and who knows how that will pan out.
A big part was giving this “Shadow Durathrax” a compelling set of abilities to play with since I wouldn’t be the one running the monster. It wasn’t the full-blown Durathrax that could level the entire city in one turn, but still gnarly enough to put an entire team of adventure on their heels. We landed on something that was a combination of how a player character works with that monster flavor added in. Shadow Action was definitely my favorite part!
What-Used-To-Be-Sixes / Shadow Durathax
10 Hearts Total*
*Changes per scene. I wanted to have a variety in the scenes and not just a heavy-duty slug-fest.
3 Actions
In the final scene, they’d also gain a 4th action to up the challenge.
+5 All Rolls
I didn’t go too crazy with the bonuses and relied on the extra actions being enough.
Actions
1. Shadow Grasp: Opposed STR or WIS roll, on success target is help firm. A HARD STR or WIS checks to be free. If damaged, hurl target up to far taking WEAPON, or ULTIMATE if colliding with an object
2. Whipping Tail: All enemies NEAR make a DEX Check or take WEAPON damage
3. Gather Shadow Power: Use an action to gather power, doubling all EFFORT done on your next turn
4. Elemental Claw: Weapon strike on a single NEAR target plus an Elemental Claw Attributes*
5. Shadow Action: Roll against a HARD TN, on success use any spell or action used by the players
6. Counter Spell: Cancel any spell cast against you out of turn. Costs on action on your turn. Can be used multiple times per round. After each use, there is a 1-in-6 chance it does not consume the action.
*Elemental Claw Attributes
- Fire: Ignite stuff, add D4 extra damage
- Ice: Root target in place for one round
- Stone: Push target away up to NEAR
- Metal: Reduce the target’s defense by 1
Augments & Powers
Augments
- Wings – Move freely up to FAR. Ignore difficult terrain and elevation
- Tail – Spend an action to destroy a piece of terrain
- Scales – Half all damage done against you UNTIL 3 critical hits are dealt against you
Powers
- Slayer – Deal ULTIMATE EFFORT on enemies you’ve harmed before
- Immune to Fire – Immune to fire in all forms.
Timer Actions
Choose 1 of these every D4 Rounds
- Take Wing – Fly out of reach for 1 ROUND. Regain 1 HEART
- Breath of Fire – All enemies within FAR in front of you roll DEF to avoid. DOUBLE ULTIMATE.
Death Rattle
- gain +1 ACTION per round
- gain EXECUTE action: Slice thru objects, walls, or creatures CLOSE to you. On a hit, creatures/objects are reduced to 0 HP
Watch the Session
Handing over the reins to another person to run your big bad monster is daunting, but Sixes handled it so well! You’ll probably notice that we forgot the Scales bonus in scene one and the Slayer bonus for the entire session. Oh well! It was a ton of fun and while things could have gone differently had we remembered those abilities, I have no regrets. Goes to show that the more complicated your monster is, the more likely you are to forget something.
