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And an interpretation question for you: Do you read the Earth Furrow ability as allowing the Bullette to attack more than one PC per Furrow? I’m a little unsure about the use of the term “a”.

1) Saving throw should be at +5, I always forget to adjust it.

2) Frenzied Chomping does not include the +1 bonus that seem to be implied because of the long jump included in the normal bite attack… I based the bonus on the Rising Burst attack. I might have gotten it wrong.

3) It’s not actually very domesticated, that was more the Wizard trying to phrase but making a Skill Challenge to calm or knock out some of its ‘enhancements’ is a great idea and I will try to flesh this out more!

4) Yes, I need to change his Burrow to Burrow (tunnel), thanks for the reminder.

As for your last 2 questions, that remains for the PCs to find out. But I wouldn’t refuse to consider such possibilities.

@Eric: The monsters were designed to fight PCs of equivalent level. They are made based on simpler mechanics and some residual guesstimation to gauge powers. You’ll find that there are no monsters in the various 4e books that weren’t made to fight against PCs, with the exception of mounts in Adventurers Vault.

So while you can design monsters/NPC to act as allies to the PCs, its not the game’s basic assumption. Plus I happen to highly dislike NPC on NPC action. I find it odd that the DM plays against itself.

@Warlord: I do love a bit of silliness in my games, it does provide a change of pace for sure.

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You mentioned that to me earlier to day as well… along with the fact that the DM can disregard this rule at will.

Are you aware if there are any reasons for this… other than to simplify balancing (which, in itself, is quite a good reason, believe you me!)

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Spurt gets a +2 to his (her?) saving throws.

Why does frenzied chomping only have a +13 to hit? Shouldn’t it be the same as Bite ?

According to the scroll: “It’s a completely domesticated Land Shark that responds to the name of Spurt”. What happens if a PC says “Spurt” to the bulette during combat? I’d consider building in a section of the stat block that has an effect on Spurt if the PCs say his name

Command Spurt (occurs when someone says Spurts name; encounter)
Spurt reverts temporarily to his domesticated behavior; Spurt is dazed (save ends)

If you really wanted to give the PCs options, you could even let them engage in a skill challenge (social). Since the Dungeon/Primal awoke and perhaps partially subverted Spurt, a social PC could maybe re-assert his domestication. Of course this would probably have to happen during combat, making this more interesting. If you did this, I’d tie each success in the challenge to a specific combat benefit: lower defenses, loses access to some powers (save ends), etc.

Is one of the silver runes on Spurt the symbol of the dungeon/primal in captivity? The symbol could fade or become clearer based on the level of control the dungeon/primal has on Spurt.

Also, you’re map (from a prior blog post) implies that Spurt is leaving a tunnel behind him when he burrows. Your stat block lists Spurt as having the standard burrow power, which does not leave a tunnel. His stat block should say burrow (tunnel) I think if he leaves a tunnel behind. The description in the back of the monster manual explains this.

Does the use of the Arcana skill (to detect magic) detect the presence of Spurt? Since he’s got silver runes on him.

Can the runes on Spurt be disabled or otherwise de-powered?

@Asmor: Ha ha! Since 4e monsters weren’t made to attack other monsters, I could rule that it kills lycantrophe easily. In fact that would make it a very valid reason for the crazy wizard to have created it. Maybe he had a Wererat infestation in his cellar!

@Kaosdad: It was! I loved writing it!

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