The aged fighter knelt by the stream, scooping handfuls of water to scrub his face as he glanced around the idyllic spring. With a contented sigh, he sat back against a nearby tree and reached into his knapsack. He withdrew a dainty handkerchief wrapped around a small object that he unfolded to reveal a sandwich prepared for him by his wife. A smile spread across his lips as he lifted the top slice of bread, finding honey and goat cheese beneath it. Before he could tuck into the sandwich, he heard the snapping of branches and a great shuffling. Rounding the tree emerged an arzuros, its body covered in thick scales and plush fur. A tongue wagged from its maw, but a gluttonous fury lit its crimson eyes that were fixed upon his sandwich. Narrowing his own gaze, the fighter gave a discouraging shake of his head to the bear. In response, the great beast reared back, standing on its hindlegs, and unleashed a menacing roar that echoed through the clearing.
The arzuros is a fairly simple creature and one that I debated on building in the first place given the existence of a variety of bears already in Pathfinder. However, in both editions, bears cover a range of CRs/levels with an absence in their midst. For example, bears in Pathfinder 2e cover levels 2 through 6 in various forms but are lacking a bear at level 4. And having faced the arzuros several times in Monster Hunter Rise, I thought it had enough interesting moves to make a new stat block for it. I decided it was easiest to fill the gap in the bear family, giving me a starting level which matches the level of many early MonHun creatures I make. It follows a lot of classic bear abilities such as Mauler and using similar number arrangements, but instead of its claws having the classic agile trait, sweep felt more appropriate for how the arzuros attacks with its claws. The arzuros feels a little clumsy to me but it seems even dumber, so I gave it a higher Reflex save than a Will save. Its weakness to fire, a very common elemental damage type, allowed me to tap into a high Hit Point value for its level. Additionally, its attacks have a high attack bonus but don’t exceed a moderate damage value unless the arzuros has a grapple, at which point his jaws increase to a high damage value.
The arzuros has a charge ability where it shoulders into a player and launches them into the air, which I translated into Thunderous Charge. It’s a pretty standard action efficient charge with a Strike at the end of it, but instead of increasing damage or accuracy like other Powerful Charges, it throws the character backwards, as it does in-game. This does have a chance of adding some damage to a character, but requires a critical failure. Somewhat unintentionally, the arzuros has another attack and move ability that has much more limited mobility in the form of Advancing Swipes. This is based on the attack where the arzuros rears back on its hindlegs and moves in between claws swipes, which is what inspired me to give its claws sweep rather than agile. The arzuros is limited to Steps here and accrues its multiple attack penalty normally between attacks, meaning that it is going to want to be targeting different creatures between swipes to take advantage of its trait.
In addition to the Grab ability on its claws and Mauler, the other two abilities of the arzuros play into it being a grappler. I’ve run into the attack where, when attacking arzuros from behind, he will simply back up and try to sit on you. To represent it as an original ability that wasn’t just an AoO, I devised Pinning Sit that specifically triggers when a creature moves into a flank – when a creature gets behind the arzuros. This prevents flanking against the arzuros, which is one of the reasons I went for a moderate AC for the arzuros. Obviously, I also had to include an ability to represent the arzuros’s pin where he shakes a hunter down and steals their honey. This led to the creation of Plunder, which I expanded to steal any meal the character is carrying. In Monster Hunter, this provides a large window of opportunity for the hunters to wail on the arzuros, which I incorporated by having the action to eat the meal be a manipulate action, which will provoke AoOs.
Its weapon is based off of the fact that I've always wanted to be able to wield its claws as weapons in Monster Hunter. The effects of the grisly gauntlet are based on the defensive abilities provided by the arzuros armor in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate.
Pathfinder 2e:
In Pathfinder First Edition, bears cover a CR range from 4 to 8, but are lacking a bear in the CR 6 range. Therefore, I decided to build the arzuros in that slot! I did have to switch up a few abilities for the arzuros. To gain the effects of its thunderous charge, it has the powerful charge universal monster ability to get some more damage on it, which it combos with Awesome Charge to send foes flying. The Cleave feat is unfortunately the closest I can get to his step and swipe. I did manage to figure out a fun way to do its plunder ability for the 1e version. In this case, it relies on its rake ability. Normally, you can only make a single attack when grappling a creature, but rake allows it to make multiple attacks. Plunder follows how rend functions, requiring two successful hits to steal a meal rather than deal extra damage. It can then use a standard action to eat it, which is more punishing in Pathfinder 1e over 2e due to how the action economy works, and thus doesn’t provoke AoOs intrinsically.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue’s D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOK
Behind Bears: This encounter hook functions best after the heroes have suffered a loss against some sort of organized group, such as bandits or an enemy legion. At a point where the heroes have established themselves a nuisance but aren’t taken seriously by the majority of their foes. Rather than killing them, the foes bring the heroes back to their base and pit them against an arzuros that they have kept captive. The monster is not happy with confinement but fights savagely knowing that it will be fed if it does so. The heroes can attempt to calm the beast down, which may earn them some lashings from their captors. As long as the heroes showed some manner of mercy or kindness to the arzuros and it survived, when they eventually escape imprisonment, they can unleash the arzuros and it will cause chaos in the camp.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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