Art by Danny Rupp
A dragon of the underdark, Etherkai in his youth wielded his psychic and eldritch powers with a brash and reckless pride. Etherkai felt that the power he possessed made him the natural ruler of the underground realms. Following this belief, Etherkai began his empire -building, establishing himself as the god of a people long banished from the surface. After establishing himself to them as a god of the underground, Etherkai contented himself with taking tribute and sometimes assisting his worshippers in conquering a new area of the vast underground realms. For centuries, he ruled from a distance.
Etherkai ruled from such a distance that he was unaware of a new god being worshipped amongst his people. In their explorations, they had unearthed an altar to an actual god. Out of curiosity they offered small sacrifices and offerings to this god of pain and torment, and saw immediate response from the god. Hungry for worshippers after having been all but forgotten, the Lord of Pain spoke directly to each new convert, giving them tastes of power for their worship.
Worship of this true god spread throughout Etherkai’s people. Soon their new god had only one sacrifice left to ask: Depose the fake god, and offer his body and mind to the Lord of Pain’s unrelenting torture. Etherkai was ambushed andi imprisoned during a tribute visit. The dragon was shackled in metal that had been ensorcelled to weaken his physical strength and psychic gifts. His torture began that day, and persisted for a hundred years.
It is unclear how Etherkai escaped, but he is now free of his tormentors. He roams the underground realms, his mind as warped as his body by the horrors inflicted upon him. He seeks revenge against this god of pain and his former worshippers, but he also seeks to spread his pain and insanity to all unfortunates who cross his path. His once-mighty draconic roar has been replaced by a hyena-like cackle echoing through vast caverns.
Etherkai is now known to denizens of the underground realms as the Nightmare Dragon.
Please refer to this article for the most up to date rulings on the Worldbreaker.
A Jack of All Trades ,or if you prefer, an extreme example of multi-classing, Gamefiend, a.k.a Quinn Murphy has been discussing, playing and designing games straight out of the womb. He is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of this site in addition to being an aspiring game designer. As you would assume, he is a huge fan of 4e.
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Your worldbreaker mechanics get tighter and tighter with each iteration. Well done, and I have only one critique. This creature has WAY too many “lose a healing surge” abilities. Unless you state somewhere in the description that this creature is intended as the only encounter for the day, it is likely that, as a dragon and a solo, a GM will use him as a “boss monster”" after the PCs have been worn down a fair bit. With as many healing surge loss abilities as this thing has, he’s a walking TPK, and frankly will lose a lot of the fun factor for the group. In a way it’s like an ability denial. In an Epic creature, I think this many healing surge loss abilities might be appropriate, but not Paragon–especially a LOW Paragon that could be used against characters still in the Heroic Tier. Perhaps swap all but one of the healing surge losses with daze (SE), stun (EONT), weakened (SE), or knocked prone + another status. All of these can be used to effectively model madness or assaults on a character’s mind without setting a group up for failure as much as this dragon does RAW.
First, thanks for your feedback!
So one thing you’re seeing is a typo: The Nightmare Tribute is supposed to be a worldbreaker attack, and players specifically get an option to block healing surge loss during the worldbreaker (In case it isn’t explicit, characters should know their options during the opening). The claw attack is the equivalent of a wight, and all the other healing surge loss can be stopped during the worldbreaker if a player wants to and can make the check. If a player chooses not to make themselves immune to healing surge loss, well….
I would not suggest putting Etherkai up against heroic tier characters, either. I haven’t found the right way to express levels and difficulty with the creatures yet, but usually they run pretty well at about equal level to the PCs they are facing. Too high and characters can’t deal skill check attacks or do the openings, in addition to general defense/offense skills. If you want to do it at Heroic, definitely level down the character and his damage.
But, having said that, I will keep an eye out for these matters as I get to playtest him a little more. Thanks again!
Also, I’ll fix that typo ASAP so it reflects how Nightmare Tribute is supposed to be played.
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