In the world of Earthdawn the horrors are strange, unknowable evil creatures from another realm, which in D&D parlance makes them aberrant, and since they fill the same role in Earthdawn as undead do in D&D, I have applied that keyword as well.Monster Manual 3 introduced new design elements to solo monsters, often providing some kind of daze/stun lock defense, so for Horrific Secrets I borrowed and renamed Arcane Secret from the Dark Sun Brohg Renegage (and added protection against dominate). The Horrific Action power also gives the Wormskull defense against being locked down by letting it clear effects on it when it spends an action point.
My implementation of Animate Dead borrows from a number of sources, including the Spawn Wraith power, the Skull Lord's minion reviving powers, and the Deathlock Wight's Reanimate power
Skin shift and the Nethermancer spell Bone Shatter introduced a new problem, as both make use of Earthdawn's wound mechanic, roughly each wound beyond the first gives you a -1 to all die rolls, and wounds are harder to heal the normal damage. I struggled with how to best implement this, as D&D combat does not typically include death spiral effects, and eventually settled on healing surge damage in addition to hit points damage, to represent the loss of combat resources, without dealing large amounts of immediate damage. Skin Shift deals slightly less than the expected amount of raw damage, and the Wormskull lacks a multi-attack action to make up for the additional "damage" that healing surge losses represent, and also to balance the high damage output that Bone Shatter produces.
Horror Mark and Dominate represent the key method by which the more subtle horrors of Earthdawn wreak their havoc amongst the namegivers of the world, and in toe-to-toe combat with a horror with these powers, players are going to be looking for ways to deal with horror marks to avoid the world of hurt they would otherwise face.
The Terror power is significantly toned down from it's implementation in Earthdawn, which is very similar to the Frightful Presence power possessed by many dragons printed in the early rounds of D&D monsters. As written though, these powers just are not much fun - they leave players unable to act, and so unable to express themselves at the table. Rather then incapacitate the characters, I've tried to capture the idea of the characters being terrified. For a lone Wormskull the power is not that useful, but if should provide synergy with the many monsters - especially skirmishers and lurkers that gain damage dice from combat advantage.
The Wormskull has low hit points for a level 11 solo monster, but does have the Shield Mist power (and the action denial inherent in dominating player characters) to help compensate, and when healing surge loss from Skin Shift and Bone Shatter are counted as damage, it can deal an enormous amount of damage.
Next up, a Wormskull encounter.
