The stagnant stillness of the verdant marsh was abruptly ruptured as a jungle drake burst from the mangrove trees, frantically scrambling across the wetlands as it sought a break in the canopy. As it found its way out and unfurled its wings, a crimson tendril lashed out from the trees, thicker than a man's arm and dripping with slime, to wrap around the drake's throat. It dragged it to the ground where it struggled before a heavy paw slammed down upon its wings, pinning it in place as the insidious baruragaru revealed itself. The creature's tongue latched onto the drake and it drank deeply, draining the degenerate dragon's vital fluids. Slowly, the drake's struggle diminished while the baruragaru's poison sacs expanded, filling with the drake's venom. When the fight had finally left the prey's body, the baruragaru retracted its long tongue and let loose a thunderous roar of triumph and unceasing hunger.
This will be the first MH critter that I've done from one of the Frontier games and I figured I'd start with the seemingly fan-favorite baruragaru! This bloodsucking monster can weaponize the blood it drains or incorporate the toxins of creatures it drains into its attacks. When not using the fluids it has stolen, it uses water in its attacks. As is the case for many MH creatures, they're not technically magical but the baruragaru felt like such an odd creature with unusual abilities that magical beast felt an appropriate choice. Lacking some of the context that other games in a language I understand has, it was a little difficult to determine a CR for baruragaru but I opted to make it below rathatlos and went for a mid-tier challenge rating. Starting with defenses, given its ability to utilize poison from other creature, an immunity to poison seemed a must while it was listed to have electricity and fire as a weakness. I wasn't sure which was the greater weakness and was hesitant to give it vulnerability to the two most common damage types. Given that its body is covered in a watery mucous that it uses for its attacks when lacking poison or blood, electricity made more sense to me so I selected that for its vulnerability.
Its most prominent attacks appeared to be its claws and its long, sinuous with which it can blood drain. The grab ability works for its multiple means of pinning creatures with tongue lash at least partially representing its area attack that can lead to a pin for hunters. Its main tricks come whenever it successfully uses its blood drain, allowing it to gain a creature's poison with metabolize toxin or turning their blood into a weapon with red tide. The former is based off of both its ability to gain the poison and paralysis status in Frontier as poisons in Pathfinder can lead to paralysis. However, I opted to not include the baruragaru's ability to gain poison from burrowing in swamps because I wasn't sure how to rationalize that in Pathfinder. I did enjoy the idea of the baruragaru taking the exact abilities of a poison it drains but raising it to a CR that the baru can use. As for red tide, in Frontier, a baruragaru armed with blood decreases the sharpness of weapons, which can cause them to bounce off a target ineffectively but they can be sharpened to return their functionality. I wasn't sure how to incorporate that until I settled on a visibility debuff until they take an action to remove or reduce the effect. The final part of the baruragaru's arsenal that I was able to fit in was the area attacks it can make with its water or other fluid it has drained. It can do this in several ways from spreading gas clouds, streams, or radial bursts, which I opted to all adapt into pressurized spray. There are some other abilities that I wasn't able to work in such as its ability to make poison pools, but I think I felt that the baruragaru had enough abilities going on and didn't want to overcomplicate it. Also, as a final note, since it is a leviathan, I figured that I at least needed to give it hold breath.
Pathfinder 1e:
While I've been struggling to find a testing group for my 1e creatures, I can pretty consistently get a PF2e gang together! Not too much changed after testing - some quality of life alterations such as limiting the range of its tongue AoO and having Red Tide function as a free action similar to how its Metabolize Toxin does. A unique ability I added to the 2e baruragaru were its Pinning Slams representing the advancing swipes that it does that leaves hunters completely immobile and victim of the baruragaru's Drain Blood. After the test, the party suggested the addition of Reel In so that the baruragaru can drag in prey that it has captured.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Blood In, Blood Out: An alchemist of some renown believes that he can use the natural ability of a baruragaru to break down poisons as the basis for a powerful type of antitoxin. Given the scarcity of the creature and its far-ranging habits, he approaches the heroes to track one down and collect its blood. However, he needs pure baruragaru blood - one undiluted by the blood or toxins of other creatures. This adds a complication to the quest. The baruragaru's blood needs to be freshly harvested and stored in a specialized container provided by the alchemist, and when harvested, it can't have died while having a metabolized toxin or red tide.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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