Maddened Dictat: Difference between revisions
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<!-- COMBAT TACTICS --> | <!-- COMBAT TACTICS --> | ||
| CombatTactics = | | CombatTactics = Maddened Dictats are absolute juggernauts in combat, with possibly their worst effect being their Corona of Madness. Simply targeting a Dictat from outside their Corona can drive enemies insane on the spot, and even if you avoid this terrible fate, you still gain the Afflicted condition unless you are tough enough to ignore or quickly mend such potent afflictions. If you are within the Corona of Madness, the proximity to the utter Chaos of the Dictat begins to burn out your connections to reality and sanity, not to mention placing you within the massive reach of the fiends deadly Tendrils. | ||
A Dictat makes all of their attacks as touch attacks, both their Tendril of Nothingness and Ray of Nothingness attacks. They are completely content to use ranged and melee attacks, even expending henchmen (usually Maddened Iotas) to gain more attacks on their foes. | |||
In close combat, Dictats like to teleport directly 'above' or otherwise near as many foes as they can, to place enemies inside their Corona and in range of their Tendrils of Nothingness, then seek to attack as many foes as possible, activating Prison of Pain on as many of them as they can. As a swift action they will then use Rampageous Goad to knock more enemies into their Corona, or move paralyzed enemies away from sources of aid. These vast bloated things will then hover above their victims, erasing them from reality with their tendrils and corona. Once caught within the forest of a Dictats horrific attacks, only the mightiest or luckiest have any chance of escape, much less victory. | |||
If a Dictat is pursuing a plan, or a foe, they can and will use their Tendrils of Nothingness to burn their way through obstacles with frightening ease. Similarly, if a powerful Dictat is killed, their mighty Well of Emptiness power will typically be used to target the weakest foes and most delicate and important objects near them, as they spitefully expend themselves in a glory of destruction. | |||
Dictats frequently have Maddened Iotas as their escorting henchmen. these Iotas are usually the remains of their previous victims, and they will act in all ways to destroy the Dictats foes and preserve the Dictats fell existence. | |||
Dictats can be found in many places, but they tend to be found in elaborate lairs, carved in maddening non-symmetry by their Nothingness powers, and in which there are many small caverns and off-tunnels they can teleport into to harry and destroy attackers. Bearding a Dictat in its lair is a terrifying prospect indeed, but meeting one 'on the prowl' might be even worse, as their favorite way of beginning a fight is to teleport fifteen feet above a party and start attacking with aura, tendrils, and their Rampageous Chaos, a one-fiend alpha strike that only the very mightiest can hope to survive. | |||
Dictats will typically want to close the range in any battle, since they cannot really sense anything beyond 300 feet. Granted, inside of 300 feet, they have Mindsense, Lifesense, and Blindsense, so it is nigh impossible to hide from them. Dictats have genius intellects, despite their ghastly appearance, and so they are rarely found more than 100 feet away from something solid, that they can double-move teleport behind or into if they are attacked from beyond their ability to see. Many a Dictat has survived a massive surprise strike from a Mythic party and then vanished into a cavern nearby, to plot their counterstrike at their leisure. If you attack a Dictat, you had better be certain. | |||
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<!-- OUT OF COMBAT --> | <!-- OUT OF COMBAT --> | ||
| OutOfCombat = | | OutOfCombat = Maddened Dictats may be actual avatars of the Outer Madness, or they may simply be extremely powerful followers of that possibly-aware, possibly-deific, possibly-place. As a result, Maddened Dictats are the standard bearers for the Deep Dark, and they each work, separately but toward the same goal, to end everything alive. Indeed, Dictats want to topple the Prime Material, and thus end...everything. | ||
Dictats use Mavens and Iotas with heartless efficiency, often appointing a Magnate or two as their shepherd for those lessers. Dictats appreciate the efforts of the Magnates, and will often deign to lend assistance to those lessers. Dictats seems to like having Iotas around, even going to the trouble of destroying even very weak foes, in order to spawn more of them. | |||
Dictats consider Vampire Thralls to be useful idiots, and will skillfully treat with them to gain more influence on the more 'normal' monsters of the Prime material. Dictats will ally with the Crool as long as they can play them against each other and hide how close they are to their true goals. Dictats will attempt to lure and steer the Helleskrieg in their endless hostility, typically aiming them at Archfiends and the like in the Prime Material's orbit. | |||
Dictats absolutely hate the Atropal. Dictats consider Atropal to be vermin, maggots infesting the purity of the True Night, and the instant the Prime is cast down, the Maddened will begin a war of extermination against the Unbirthed. But not yet. All things in their time. | |||