Monster Monday - Blast Beetle

The buzzing of wings grew louder, echoing through the dark caves, just before a creature came careening in from above, crashing among the party. They gawked at the stout beetle that ambled to its feet, a volcano-like horn rising from its head and emitting a plume of smoke. As they recovered from the abrupt arrival of the intruder, it shook itself and charged forth. Its multiple limbs scrabbled across the uneven earth until it crashed into the sorcerer who managed only a brief look of bewilderment before the horn erupted and blasted her across the room with a short shriek. It turned towards the rest of the party, slamming its fists into the ground as a small gout of flame erupted from its horn, signaling its readiness for battle.

Illustration by SethMonster

Blasting onto the battlefield, this burly beetle bashes and batters through belligerents before it goes bowling with baddies in a boisterous bombardment.

With this being an original monster, I wanted to make to give it a good test and a fun video to go along with it! You can also check out the artist who is pretty much my regular - and for very good reason.

This blistering little buggy buddy blasts onto the battlefield as a fairly sturdy little creature given a high Armor Class and Hit Points - as well as its resistances. It does have two saving throws and its Strikes only use a moderate attack bonus, which helps to balance it out a bit. Conceptually, I had this idea for a monster that charges at players and releases an explosion that launches the target backwards but I also wanted to make a lower level monster. I thought the idea could fit around this level and so made the blast beetle as a level three creature since I need to expand on that end of my monsters. As to the blast beetle specifically, I envisioned a subterranean creature that consumes minerals, melting down the remnants into explosives. They're fairly peaceable creatures on their own, but have been captured by others and used as living artillery who are launched into cities to cause havoc.

Getting into the mechanics, the central ability of the blast beetle, by virtue of being a passive effect on the blast beetle's horn Strike, is Pyroclastic Flow. This marks a creature with pyroclastic matter that can be removed with a single action and a moderate DC Reflex save, but it players fall to do so, that matter detonates to deal unlimited use area damage at a high DC. The beetle isn't immune to this effect, but its resistances should help it survive such explosions. However, what the blast beetle wants to do is to hit foes and then knock them backwards so they explode away from it. To that end, it has Launching Charge. This is a three-action ability because it involves up to two Strides, a Strike, and an Improved Push at third level, which is a little nutty. More than that, the Pyroclastic Flow detonates prematurely if the creature gets knocked back into an obstacle, letting the blast beetle batter braves into their band to blast them all.

The blast beetle has a slightly more standard ability in the form of Volcanic Blast, which is a high DC effect that deals limited use area damage. There's not much more to it, I just felt that an effect like this fit the creature quite nicely - an eruption of its volcano-like horn. Another slightly more common ability is Glide, which I specifically referenced the leaf leshy for. The blast beetle is a little too heavy to fully fly, which is why it has this Glide effect rather than a fly Speed. However, it also has an ability to help it get airborne in the form of Blast Off. Aside from this getting the blast beetle into the air or increase its altitude, it also creates an explosion that knocks nearby creatures prone unless they succeed on a high DC Fortitude save as I didn't want to pile on too many Reflex saves for the build. I like to diversify saves that creatures target when they build them, and that's the idea behind this while it also fits with some other features that knock creatures off their feet.

Also, I made an animal companion version of the blast beetle! Like my players said when I was testing it out, it's too cute not to have as a potential buddy, so I decided to try to facilitate that.

PF2e Blast Beetle

PF2e Blast Beetle Animal Companion

Blue's D&D Blast Beetle

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Catapulting Creepy-Crawlies: The heroes have ventured beneath the surface and are visiting a subterranean city when it comes under attack from outsiders. They launch blast beetles into the city and the heroes find themselves facing off against the belligerent bugs. The heroes may have to guard specific shops from the beetles or lead them away from the likes of apothecaries to prevent a greater disaster from happening.

Cascade of Cataclysms: The heroes are venturing through a pass that is blast beetle territory. The beetles ram boulders from up above onto the players, coating them with pyroclastic flow so that they explode upon the players. If the heroes start to climb up to fight the beetles, they could use their Blast Off ability to try to knock them down and force heroes to find an alternate way up.

If you're interested in joining the discussion on what creatures/builds I'm working on or just discussing your own homebrew works, check out our Discord! If you want to get some teasers or help us get to our yet unlisted milestones for extra content, check out the Twitter.

Have a monstrous Monday!