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Umber Hulks are subterranean, insectoid monsters that have a confusion-inducing attack. Four are found in the De'Arnise Keep and in any place with mind flayers. Six umber hulk elders are featured as the fourth battle in the Black Pits II. They are most often found in caves or other underground locations.

Locations[]

Variants[]

  • The Umber Hulks in the Crypt of Durkon have an enhanced final THAC0 of 5. Otherwise, they are essentially similar to other hulks. Reference OHHUMBER.cre.
  • There are also the Umber Hulk Elder in only a few places in the saga, a more powerful version of the creature.

Gameplay[]

This creature will act with immediate hostility when a party member is detected. It's first action is almost always to use the Confusion (innate) ability which fires a projectile at a single target in range. If the ability works upon the target, they will be temporarily under the Confusion effect.

Their next action is to rush forward toward the enemy and attack with their mandibles and limbs which inflict great crushing damage. Most of this breed can strike three times each round. Umber hulks attack with a adjusted THAC0 of 8 at 1 ft range and a speed of 1, dealing 3d4+8 crushing damage, strength modifications included. Their attack counts as enchanted +3 in terms of what it can strike.[2]

The creature will periodically be able to apply another confusion ability attack as the battle continues, but it doesn't occur if the creature is engaged in melee attacks. If for some reason the party disengages or moves away from the creature it will attempt another innate projectile, and the cycle will continue until it is destroyed or otherwise is made ineffective.

The basic game AI has no ability to determine if the target is protected against confusion or spells in any way, so it will use the confusion attack regardless of if it is futile. It can however determine if a target is already confused, and if so, will not apply another innate confusion attack on a target in that state.

Due to their special innate attack, before engaging them it is advisable to first protect party members from confusion effects. Spells like Chaotic Commands, Enrage or items that protect from confusion will all work. Boosting saving throws against spells is also effective. Magic resistance can block this ability, as well as spell protections such as Globe of Invulnerability or Minor Spell Deflection will also stop it. The innate ability has spell Power level of 4.

Umber Hulks are also notable for their low Hit Die, which makes them vulnerable to Death Spell (no save allowed) and Cloudkill (they must make a saving throw or be instantly killed).

Spell immunity - enchantment- does not protect you from their confusion attacks, as the innate ability is schooless.

Gallery[]

Mod content[]

Mods icon This section is about unofficial content that is only available via fan-made mods.

The Sword Coast Stratagems provides a new default script that controls the behavior of Umber Hulks to better chase down and move toward opponents in a smarter fashion. Such as pursing attackers firing missiles and spells at them from outside their detection range. It isn't perfect, but it assists them being smarter. The script also provides more threat detection awareness, and better tactical movement decision logic.

References[]

  1. UMBHUL01.bcs
  2. 2.0 2.1 UMBER01
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