Stat Block - Tanarukk

Hellgate Keep & The Scourged Legion

Symbol of the Scourged Legion

The 2E adventure Hellgate Keep introduced us to tanarukka (the plural of tanarukk), tanar'ri-blooded orcs spawned in the dungeons of the titular fortress. These were the basic troops of the Grintharke the balor and later formed the basis of the Scourged Legion - Grintharke and the Scourged Legion both have a role to play in my Neverwinter campaign, particularly if the PCs choose to seek out Gauntlgrym.

They were roughly as powerful as ogres pre-4E; in 4E, they become mid- to late-Paragon threats. I'm returning them to 5th-level, much as they had 5 hit dice in 2E and 3.xE.

I have a few tanarukk miniatures - maybe 4? - which were inspired by this picture by Wayne Reynolds:

Tanarukk & Fey'ri

As fey'ri will also be playing a role in my Neverwinter campaign, this picture will definitely become known to my players as well.

Tanarukk

I've created about 30 stat blocks in the past three days and this one - at least right now - is my favourite.

The ideas are largely stolen from the 4E version of the tanarukk - brutal rampage, abyssal fury (originally indominatable fury) and death burst (originally avenging fire but the name changed to match the similar power of the balor) - while variable resistance was simply copied from other 4E demons.

The pre-4E versions had a bite attack; I changed that to demonic hunger - it's still a bite attack - to boost the tanarukk's damage when bloodied and also to give it a chance to gain temporary hit points, something that could work well in combination with abyssal fury in terms of boosting its staying power (although 5 temporary hit points is going to disappear quickly). I am concerned that the size of the close burst for the death burst power may be too high; close burst 1 or 3 is probably more appropriate.

But my favourite power is brutal rampage. I think it's a perfect power for a brute, particularly one with demonic origins. I can't wait to see these in play.

Edit: For comparison purposes, here's a copy of a stat block from August 2009 that I did for  a tanarukk with the same role and level. Thanks to the vagaries of Blogger, I can't centre it without it simply randomly appearing elsewhere in this post, nor can I add these comments after the stat block. While I definitely prefer my newer version - and don't even recall making the earlier stat block! - I like the slam/grab/bite combination, no doubt inspired by the fact that the miniature is grasping its axe with one hand and has the other hand free (not that this explains why I armed the monster with a falchion).