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LOTRfan
2011-06-11, 08:54 AM
Alright, so I was reading Goblins yesterday, and I thought that the Goblins from the alternate universe (http://www.goblinscomic.com/06102011/) resembled Rawheads. I feel the need to keep my mind away from real life right now, so I produced this monster.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_J9PlRvGGXS8/SywsybiH_8I/AAAAAAAACrI/logjxntmik4/s400/bloody-bones-2.jpg

Rawhead
Medium Monstrous Humanoid
Hit Dice: 6d8+6 (27 hp)
Initiative: +6
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 16 (+4 natural armor, +2 Dex), touch 12, flatfooted 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+8
Attack: Claw +8 melee (1d4+2)
Full Attack: 2 Claws +8 melee (1d4+2), and Bite +3 melee (1d6+1), or Claws +4 melee (1d4+6) and Bite +0 melee (1d6+4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Rend, Swallow Whole, Ignore Hardness
Special Qualities: Darkvision 120 ft., Vulnerability to Electricity, Goblinoid Blood, Light sensitivity
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +5
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 6, Wis 11, Cha 8
Skills: Hide +10, Move Silently +11
Feats: Improved Sunder, Power Attack, Combat Brute*
Environment: Temperate Marshes
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually Neutral Evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +0
*Complete Warrior

A tall, menacing creature can be seen in the darkness. Its glowing eyes are terrifying to behold, and as it walks into the moonlight, it is revealed that the eyes are not the only scary features; it has an extremely large mouth filled with three rows of terrifying teeth, and razor sharp claws.

Many people wonder why the common races have such an aversion to Goblinoids. It seems that while only the dwarves and the gnomes have a particular reason to hate them, all races share a common distaste with interacting with them. What most people do not know, however, is that this fear and hatred of goblinoids is a primal instinct, which goes back to the time where the current races had not evolved.

During these dark times, ancestors of the common races walked the planet, and used stone tools. All but one such race had to struggle for survival. That one race was the Proto-Goblinoid, the Rawheads. Rawheads were the best hunters of their time. Their matted hair gave them camouflage from their favored prey, and their claws were used to disembowel them. Their favored prey were humanoids, though they preferred children and small-sized humanoids, whom the Rawheads could swallow whole.

Over time, as the humanoids became more advanced, the Rawheads were hunted to near extinction. Only the sneakiest and most cunning could survive. Eventually, the offspring of the survivors evolved into the many Goblinoid subraces. Rawheads are now extinct, but they still live on as boogeymen in legends. Parents still tell their children about Rawheads to scare them into behaving, thousands of years after they disappeared.

Combat
Rawheads commonly attacked alone. They generally waited for nightfall, at which point they would quietly sneak up on their prey before ripping them to shreds in their sleep.

Goblinoid Blood: Rawheads count as Goblinoids for the purpose of determining the effects of spells and magical items, as well as fulfilling the prerequisites for certain feats and prestige classes.

Ignore Hardness (Ex): When attacking an item with its claws, the Rawhead can ignore the item's hardness when making the sunder attack.

Light Sensitivity (Ex): Rawheads are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

Rend (Ex): When a Rawhead hits a target with both claw attacks in the same round, it automatically hooks into the skin and tears the flesh, dealing an additional 2d6+4 damage.

Swallow Whole (Ex): If a Rawhead begins its turn grappling a target at least one size category smaller than itself, the Rawhead may make another grapple check (as though attempting to pin its opponent). Once swallowed, the target takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage and 2d4 acid damage. Each round, the target takes more acid damage. A Rawhead can hold 1 Small creature, 4 Tiny creatures, 25 Diminutive creatures, or 100 Fine creatures.

Skills: Rawheads have a +4 bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks. The hide bonus increases to +8 when stalking creatures at night.

Mulletmanalive
2011-06-11, 06:11 PM
My major comment is "millions of years after they disappeared," seriously?

The heck? Thousands, tens of thousands if you're feeling ridiculous. Humanity doesn't remember the neanderthal in legend, barring possibly relic populations inspiring Beowulf.

Other than that, seems fairly interesting, though what use, exactly, is an extinct race? Slap the fiendish template on them and summon their dead?

Kuma Kode
2011-06-11, 06:31 PM
Yeah, the millions of years thing got me a bit, too. That might be what the legends say, but that's a really, really long time. If that thing evolved into the current goblin races, humans wouldn't have been around when it was, especially given humanity's "quick to change and adapt" hat.

I really like the monster, though, and I've never heard of a Rawhead before (Wikipedia FTW).

I do have a few nitpicks. Their natural weapons all do more damage than is normal for a creature of that size and type, and they have 6 decent hit die, so they maybe be a CR 4 or 5 rather than 3. It would need playtesting to be certain.

And why is it that they have a special ability that make sundering a fantastic tactic, and yet have no feats or anything that actually allows them to sunder without suffering attacks of opportunities or penalties?

Mulletmanalive
2011-06-11, 06:40 PM
And why is it that they have a special ability that make sundering a fantastic tactic, and yet have no feats or anything that actually allows them to sunder without suffering attacks of opportunities or penalties?

a) a lot to do with the comic he linked to and b) doors? What doors?

LOTRfan
2011-06-11, 07:04 PM
A couple of changes:

All references to "millions" have been changed to "thousands." I can honestly say I do not know why I choose millions in the first place. :smallredface:

I changed CR 3 to CR 4, as per Kuma Kode's suggestion.

Claw attacks changed to 1d4 (for comparison, the Harpy's claw attacks deal 1d3), and bite attack has become 1d6.

On to questions....

What use is an extinct race? Honestly, I have no clue. I had the idea for a campaign where the goblinoid's common ancestor being an extremely dangerous thing would have been important a while ago. I saw the goblins comic, thought about the resemblance to the Rawhead, and it just clicked. At this point, I homebrewed it mainly for fun, though perhaps I'll make a prestige class that will allow goblinoids to become more Rawhead-like.

Sundering optimization? Sounds good, actually. With a BAB of +6, it qualifies for the Combat Brute feat, so I'll switch the feats to Improved Sunder, Power Attack, and Combat Brute. But yeah, that ability is more influenced by the Goblins in the comic than the Rawhead.

I'm also pleased that no one cared that I listed them as LA +0. I didn't think it would be a big deal, considering its stuck with six levels of Monstrous Humanoid (:smallyuk:), but I was slightly worried someone would care about that.

Kuma Kode
2011-06-11, 08:50 PM
The Level Adjustment and ECL system is so fubar I don't even think about it.

The CR increase was only suggested if it kept its unusually high damage (which, judging by the picture, seems justified). 3rd level characters have a decent chance of hitting it, and its HP isn't super fantastic or anything.

Without Multiattack its bite is at +4 +3 melee, and its primary is +8 without Weapon Focus. You might want to, for ease of reference, toss in an "or" section for its power attacking attack routine. That's what I do with my monsters, since it makes it easy to look up and most monster power attacks tend to be all or nothing, rather than spending time adjusting and fiddling with +3's and such.

Add the Shadow Creature template to this. :smallsmile: "It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue rawhead."

EDIT: That's odd. It appears my typical means of editing my posts only work properly in certain browsers.

LOTRfan
2011-06-11, 09:27 PM
Ah yes, I forgot to edit the attack blocks after the feat change. I'll correct that now, and change the damage back to as it was originally (while keeping CR 4).

I'll also add in the power attack routine.

Out of curiosity, where can the Shadow template be found? I want to say Tome of Magic, but I am unsure....

And thanks to both you and Mulletman for the PEACHes. :smallsmile:

Kuma Kode
2011-06-11, 10:45 PM
Shadow Creature is in Manual of the Planes, and was reprinted somewhere that escapes me at the moment. Heroes of Horror?

Debihuman
2011-06-11, 10:48 PM
You might want to, for ease of reference, toss in an "or" section for its power attacking attack routine. That's what I do with my monsters, since it makes it easy to look up and most monster power attacks tend to be all or nothing, rather than spending time adjusting and fiddling with +3's and such.


Attacks with Power Attack already factored in aren't normally listed in the Stat block. Just sayin'...

Anyhow...

Should this have the Goblinoid Subtype? "Goblinoids are stealthy humanoids who live by hunting and raiding and who all speak Goblin." I realize this is the ancestor of Goblins but that doesn't invalidate it having the proper Subtype.

I'm not sure calling it "large" in the first sentence makes sense since it is Medium sized.

Debby

LOTRfan
2011-06-11, 10:56 PM
"Large" was meant to be a descriptive term rather than mechanical, but I see your point. It shall be changed.

I don't think the fact that it precedes the Goblinoid races invalidates it for the Goblinoid subtype, but its type definitely does; it seems that only Humanoids can have racial subtypes. The best example I could think of at the moment are the Feral Garguns and the Goliaths. Since they are both Monstrous Humanoid, they do not have a racial subtype that identifies them as related, but Feral Garguns have the Goliath-Blood special quality that allows them to qualify as Goliaths for abilities and prestige classes.

Debihuman
2011-06-12, 09:36 AM
Technically, there is nothing in the Monstrous Humanoid type that prevents it from having a subtype. Furthermore, there's no rule stating that Humanoids must have a subtype. However, I concur that that typically Humanoids have a subtype, usually their specific "race" and that Monstrous Humanoids don't follow that pattern. Still, rawhead history (legend if you prefer) as the be the primogenitor of the Goblin race seem a bit improbable without some direct link.

Debby