Skill Challenge: Stone Colossus
This skill challenge was designed for five 4th level characters. A fountain stands in the center of a city square, a massive statue as its centerpiece. The statue has been enchanted to animate and attack intruders. The stat block for the statue:
Stone Colossus – Level 4 Elite Brute
Large Natural Animate (XP 350)
Initiative +4 – Senses Perception +4
HP –; Bloodied –
AC 16; Fortitude 18, Reflex 14, Will 16
Immune All damage (see skill challenge)
Saving Throws +2
Speed 6
Action Points 1
+Warhammer Smash (Standard; at-will) – Weapon
Reach 2; +9 vs AC; 1d12+4 damage. On miss: all non-flying creatures other than Stone Colossus in a burst 2 from the target; +5 vs Reflex; knocked prone.
Quaking Steps (Move; at-will)
All non-flying creatures other than Stone Colossus in burst 2; +5 vs Reflex; knocked prone. The Stone Colossus may move its speed before or after this attack. Also see Heavy Stomp.
Heavy Stomp (Immediate Reaction)
Trigger: Stone Colossus ends its movement in a square occupied by target creature. Target creature is pushed 1 square and suffers an attack: +5 vs Reflex; 1d10+4 damage and knocked prone.
Alignment Unaligned
Skills Endurance +10, Intimidate +11
Str 18 (+6) Dex 12 (+3) Wis 10 (+2) Con 16 (+5) Int 5 (-1) Cha 5 (-1)
The challenge: Level 4, complexity 2 (6 successes before 3 failures.) Each success represents dealing damage to the statue.
Primary Skills (each success is scored directly towards the challenge):
Athletics (DC 17): As a standard action a character in melee range may attempt to damage the statue. This task is +2 DC for each previous success with this skill, as it gets harder and harder to deal specific damage to the statue.
Arcana (DC 17): As a standard action with a range of 5 a character may attempt to unravel the magical wards holding the statue together. This task is +2 DC for each previous success with this skill, as the magic patterns get increasingly complex.
Secondary Skills (success with these skills are not scored against the challenge unless noted):
History or Dungeoneering (DC 7): As a free action, recognize a building in the immediate area as a storage shed for local mining operations. Inside the shed are kegs of blasting powder. (3 kegs total.) If the Stone Colossus moves into a square containing a keg, the powder explodes, scoring 3 successes towards the challenge.
Endurance (DC 12): As a move action, carry a keg up to your speed. On a failure, carry a keg as if you are slowed.
Bluff (DC 12): As a standard action. Success makes the Stone Colossus immediately move up to its speed towards you, attempting to step on you. If the Colossus does step on you, you may roll Acrobatics vs. the Colossus’ Reflex to shift 1 square out of the way, failure means you suffer a Heavy Stomp from the Colossus.
Nature (DC 17): As a free action, identify a species of moss growing in the cracks along the Stone Colossus. If someone could soak the moss with liquid (with a Dex vs. Reflex attack) the moss would rapidly expand, causing damage to the structure (and scoring 2 successes towards the challenge.) This tactic may only be used once.
Perception (DC 12): As a free action, notice key points of weakness on the Stone Colossus. This grants a +2 to another character’s Athletics or Arcana checks (as from Aid Another.) A success should also suggest other secondary skill uses (such as the History/Dungeoneering check or the Nature check.)
The Encounter: As presented, the skill challenge is about the same as a 4th level elite creature. To spice this encounter up (and make it worthy of a party of 5 characters,) I added flying creatures to round out the XP total. The flying creatures are devious in that they can ignore the Stone Colossus’ effects to knock things prone.
I will detail how this worked out in my After Adventure Report (likely to arrive tomorrow.)
That’s excellent! I’ve actually made rules for a skill challenge dealing with a giant stone colossus as well, but haven’t posted it up to my site. Yours is much more robust and provides for a lot more skills. I like this a lot!
Pretty interesting. I did a Shadow Of The Colossus style combat once where the PCs climbed a very [conveniently designed] large beastie and stabbed its weak points. It used both the normal combat system (for running around on the ground or atop the colossus) and skill challenges (for climbing/dodging/holding on).