Talk:Hexenhammer, Human (3.5e Monster)

Terribly Player Unfriendly

Beside the fact this monster shits on like 3/4 of the PhB classes, some of their abilities are quite over the top. The terminator specifically has an at-will anti-magic field alongside a plethora of powerful anti spellcasters abilities. One of the big problem is that you can get bone by your fucking spell-like abilities, a gnome fighter is just as fucked as a wizard by it offensive abilities. For magic enhancement like magebane it makes sense to be able to damage creatures with spell-like abilities, after all few monsters have spellcasting. But ona monster that completely out of the fucking woodwork and make it far too strong against far too many types of characters.

Firstly the Terminator is CR 13, that is not a CR 21 special angel warrior like the balor equivalent for a human, no it is just CR 13. There is no fighting a terminator with a spellcaster, you are useless. In addition to that, the terminator has the most player unfriendly ability I ever saw, Purge with Fire. This ability kills off your players effectively for real, with no save, only requiring damage. And that is really bad and unfair, because it is a monster they can't fight. The terminator also has host of immunities, resistances, powerful offensive capabilities and the fucking tarraque's carapace (but somehow better). This thing would be miserable to fight for a spellcaster, but trivial for a maneuver-user or say a tome fighter, as long as they don't have spell-like abilities.

Frankly the fact it bombs paladin and ranger is just as bad as insulting. The flavor is clearly directed at arcane casters anyway, why make it work against the cleric, the paladin and a random gnome rogue. As it stands the terminator is so player-unfriendly, a monster that was designed to absolutely stomp some characters with no possible counterplay, that I cannot recommend any GM using this. I am sure it is possible for an optimized spellcaster to deal with it using some obscure combination of spells found in splatbooks, but for the average it is quite impossible even if you vastly overlevel the monster. That terrible design for a monster.

I recommend rebuilding the terminator completely. It is urgent to remove its Purge with Fire ability, and nerf its carapace shield and anti-magic pulse significantly. I would also argue for removing divine spellcasters and spell-like abilities from its Magebane (Hunter)/Smite Spellcaster ability, making it work only against arcane spellcasters and invokers. For what it's worth I don’t dislike the idea, but right now it is way over the top. It feels every anti-spellcasters ability ever designed were crammed in the monster. With little regard on how it would affect the game and those who play it. --Leziad (talk) 18:13, 6 June 2021 (UTC)

This is a niche problem monster. It is on par with the likes of golems vs mages, or rust monsters vs fighters. It is designed as a direct and brutal counter to anyone who qualifies as their target. A DM should recognize this is their nature and use them as the puzzle monster they are supposed to be. Now I happen to know the particular context behind the encounter used for this: I stand by that I thought their use was inappropriate, nevermind multiple of them. Terminators are not an easy thing to handle. They are a boss, and the players involved were certainly not level 13+ where they would be expected to take one on and reliably win (again, nevermind multiple ones). As far as tactics against them, the easiest tactic to take is the same you take with golems: Let the mundane fighters do their thing. Casters stay back and apply indirect fire as you would a golem, via summons, orb of X spells, and buffing the fighter. Even with the antimagic pulse, all it can do is suppress briefly whatever buff or summon you bring to bear. Stay at range if you are not able to take it directly, such as the case with partial casters. This is a good opportunity to employ whatever ranged weapon you have.

However I have reviewed it and found that Purge with Fire is in fact inappropriate and too punishing. It is now removed. I have also increased CR by 1, as there was wiggle room there and I rather err too high than too low.

I would stress that CR 13 (and now 14) should never be considered an easy or even moderate anything encounter unless your party is already exceeding those numbers. CR 13+s are very appropriate for many campaign final bosses or near final bosses. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 04:55, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

I still have some problems, but the buff in CR and removal of purge with fire satisfies me for the moment. --Leziad (talk) 05:23, 10 June 2021 (UTC)