Ansur/combat

Overview

Combat

Ansur
Huge Undead
Level 17 Undead dragon
Stats
Armour Class	19
Hit points	400 (Balanced) 600 (Tactician)
Movement speed	12 m (40 ft)
Weight	4000 kg (8000 lb)
Initiative	0
Ability scores
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 25 (+7) 10 (0) 23 (+6) 16 (+3) 15 (+2) 19 (+4)
Proficiency bonus	+6
Saving throws	Str +7 Dex +4 Con +10 Int +3 Wis +6 Cha +8
Resistances
Immune	Lightning, Poison
Resistant	Necrotic
Conditions
Legendary Resistance: Incapacitation	+10 bonus to your next Saving Throw against an incapacitating condition.
Legendary Action: Draconic Fury	This great drake will use Lightning Breath on the next creature that attacks it.
Stormheart Resolve Honour	This creature begins  Hoarding Energy, gains 100 temporary hit points for 1 round and loses all Incapacitating Conditions after losing all its hit points.
Features
Legendary Action: Draconic Wrath Tactician	The dragon can retaliate against an attacker with its breath weapon once per round.
Greater Wyrm's Scales Tactician	All incoming damage is reduced by 4.
Immutable Form	Spells cannot alter your form, +5 to saving throws against Banishment.
Magic Resistance	Advantage on Saving Throws against Spells and other magical effects.
Opportunity Attack	Automatically attack an enemy moving out of your reach.
Turn Resistance	Advantage on Saving throws against any effect that turns undead.

This page focuses on Ansur's behaviour during combat encounters.

Attacks and abilities

This section briefly describes Ansur's abilities, and how he uses them. See their individual pages for more information.

 Lightning Breath ()

12d6 (12~72) Lightning damage

Breathe bolts of lightning that strike and possibly  Shock your foes.

DEX Save

 Range: 60 m / 200 ft

AoE: 6 m / 20 ft (Radius)

 Multiattack ()

4d8 (4~32) Bludgeoning damage

+

3d8 (3~24) Piercing damage

Ravage your foes with claws and rotted draconic fangs.

 Range: 4 m / 13 ft

 Slam ()

6d8 (6~48) Bludgeoning damage

Slam the ground, possibly knocking nearby targets  Prone.

 Range: 4 m / 13 ft

AoE: 3 m / 10 ft (Radius)

Fly (Ansur)

 Gather Power ()

Take flight, land, and begin to gather power.

 Range: 30 m / 100 ft

• Ansur gains  Hoarding Energy for 2 Turns, after which he will use Stormheart Nova.
• While this status is active, he takes no other actions and his animations show him flying in the air above his position.
• He gains resistance to all damage types, but can still be attacked while in this state.
• There is no means of interrupting or cancelling this state.
• Any enemies in range of Stormheart Nova will have the condition  Ansur's Ire; if this condition is removed (by taking cover etcetera), the character will not take damage.

 Stormheart Nova ()

18d10 (18~180) Lightning damage

Blast the entire arena with an explosion of lightning, possibly  Shocking your foes.

DEX Save

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

AoE: 40 m / 130 ft (Radius)

• Ansur uses this ability when Hoarding Energy wears off.
• All creatures and destructible objects are hit for 18d10Lightning. Ansur will then begin to use Bout of Storms at the start of each round thereafter.
• Local visual effects will change; it will start to rain and there will be frequent lightning flashes. The rain is superficial and does not cause entities to become  Wet. In Honour mode, the rain gives a permanent  Wet status and makes the characters vulnerable to lightning damage.

 Bout of Storms

6d10 (6~60) Lightning damage

Ansur calls down tines of lightning that strike all around him in wild erratic patterns.

 Range: 99 m / 325 ft

• Ansur gains condition  Legendary Action: Draconic Wrath at the start of each round. While this status is active, he will use  Lightning Breath on the first creature who attacks him.

Conditions

This information is not specified on Ansur's Examine page, but has resulted from contributor testing.

Immunities

Immunities include Conditions that, according to in-game UI messages, cannot be afflicted onto this character. Conditions that are not explicit "Immune to" messages can still go in this section, but please provide more detail about what combat actions are prevented.

Ansur is immune to all of the following Conditions:

•  Command
•  Dazed
•  Frightened
•  Hypnotised
•  Paralysed
•  Prone
•  Wet
•  Hideous Laughter
• Steeped In Bliss
• Is marked as an "Invalid Target" when attempting to use the melee abilities Backbreaker or Soulbreaker, for reasons unknown.

Vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities include specific named Conditions that can be afflicted onto this character, even if the chance of successfully afflicting this condition on the character is very low.

Ansur can be affected by all of the following Conditions:

•  Bane
•  Blinded
•  Compelled to Duel
•  Confused
•  Entangled
•  Mental Fatigue
•  Shredded Armour
•  Corrosive Spit
•  Silenced
•  Stunned
•  Open Hand Technique: Staggered
•  Moonlight Butterflies

Allies

• 2x Water Myrmidon

Encounter

Phase one

When combat begins, all party members in the area automatically enter combat, even if they are hiding or located in the previous room when the conversation ends.

Ansur will generally use  Lightning Breath,  Multiattack (Ansur), or  Slam on nearby party members before flying to a nearby location. He will repeat this process until his hit points have been reduced to around 2/3 to 1/2 of his maximum hp.

Once Ansur's hit points has been sufficiently reduced, he will use  Gather Power to begin hoarding energy. While in this state, he will not take any other actions, and will be resistant to all damage types. After hoarding energy, he will release  Stormheart Nova, dealing enough Lightning damage to potentially kill the entire party in one hit. This attack will only hit creatures that have the condition  Ansur's Ire, which can be removed by taking cover.

Phase two

After using his Stormheart Nova, Ansur will summon five lightning strikes each turn with his attack Bout of Storms. Any creatures standing inside the strikes will take damage at the end of the round. On Tactician or Honour difficulty, rain will begin to fall on the battlefield and make every party member permanently  Wet.

Tactics

Ansur is a challenging opponent with high AoE damage, a large amount of hit points, and dangerous reactions. All of his attacks can hit multiple targets, punishing party members that stay close to one another or large armies of summoned creatures. Furthermore, his massive hitbox can make it extremely difficult to avoid taking his AoE Opportunity Attacks.

Ansur is also very difficult to incapictate. As an Undead he cannot be targeted by many spells, and most of his saving throws are extremely high. However, his INT saving throws are by far the weakest which makes  Mind Blast and other Illithid powers an effective option to deal with him.

The two Water Myrmidons he summons can be quite problematic since their  Healing Vapours ability covers a large area in a  Water that Ansur can turn into an  Electrified Water surface. It is generally best to kill them first before they become too much of a nuisance.

Ansur's Stormheart Nova can be survived by hiding near the various Attuned Crystal structures on the battlefield, though these structures will themselves be destroyed by the Nova.  Globe of Invulnerability will also protect party members from the Nova.

Since the majority of Ansur's damage is Lightning, it can be reduced via sources of lightning resistance:

• The Sparkswall (can also prevent electrocution on electrified surfaces)
• Elixir of Lightning Resistance (can be thrown on the ground to hit multiple allies standing near each other)