watched fin fin grab a fish in the river, fly all the way over to the forest, and then clamped down on its writhing body to ensure it was dead
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Thrasher Beast
Image © David Gallagher.
[The thrasher beast really reminds me of a fearsome critter, and I wonder if the similarity is intentional. The Fighting Fantasy line is British after all, and fearsome critters are more obscure outside the States (although not unknown; they appear in Borges). In the Fighting Fantasy line, these live in the Arrowhead Islands, which also have whipperwolves, wolves with long tails that they use as weapons. Apparently in this archipelago, mammals have evolved weaponized tails multiple times.]
Thrasher Beast
CR 7 N Magical Beast
This creature looks something like a wolverine the size of a bear, except that its tail is long and muscular, and ends in a solid ball of bone. Its jaw opens too wide, and has dozens of identical sharp teeth.
Thrasher beasts are belligerent carnivores of the lumberwoods. The people who work there have elaborate stories about their parentage—that they are hybrids of a digmaul and a dire wolverine, or are created when a bear cub sleeps inside a dinosaur skeleton. Despite these yarns, they breed true, although infrequently. Thrasher beasts are territorial, and unless spurred by hormones two of these creatures are more likely to fight with each other than to mate.
A thrasher beast does not hesitate to hunt livestock or humanoids. Their trails are often marked by knocked down saplings and broken rocks; a thrasher beast uses its tail to signpost its territory as well as in combat. A creature struck by this tail has the wind knocked out of it, leaving them helpless against the thrasher beast’s claws and teeth. Many natural predators are stronger than a thrasher beast, but few are as pugnacious. Attempts to use magic to calm or frighten these monsters just drive them into an even greater fury.
A thrasher beast stands five feet tall at the shoulders and is about nine feet long. They can live for thirty years, but violence usually fells them before that long.
Thrasher Beast CR 7
XP 3,200
N Large magical beast
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +9, scent
Defense
AC 18, touch 10, flat-footed 17 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +8 natural)
hp 97 (13d10+26)
Fort +12, Ref +11, Will +6
Defensive Abilities furious
Offense
Speed 50 ft.
Melee bite +14 (1d8+2), 2 claws +14 (1d6+2), tail slap +12 (2d6+3/19-20 plus daze)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks powerful blows (tail)
Statistics
Str 15, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 7
Base Atk +13; CMB +16; CMD 27 (31 vs. trip)
Feats Diehard, Endurance, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical (tail slap), Improved Initiative, Lighting Reflexes, Multiattack, Skill Focus (Acrobatics)
Skills Acrobatics +11 (+19 when jumping), Climb +13, Perception +13, Stealth +5; Racial Modifiers +4 Climb, +4 Perception
Ecology
Environment temperate and cold hills and forests
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure incidental
Special Abilities
Daze (Ex) A creature struck by a thrasher beast’s tail slap must succeed a DC 18 Fortitude save or be dazed for 1 round. A creature that is struck by a critical hit from the tail slap and fails this save is stunned for 1d3 rounds instead. The save DC is Strength based.
Furious (Ex) Any time a thrasher beast fails a save against an emotion spell or effect, it gains the benefits and penalties of a rage spell instead of the normal effects of the spell.
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