Monster Monday - Bulgasari

Footsteps like thunder echoed across the land as the fighter solemnly watched the vast, approaching creature. It would occasionally lift its trunk and unleash a trumpet that sounded like armies clashing. With a sigh, the wizened fighter glanced back over his shoulder to the city he and his party stood before - the last barrier between the beast and its destination. For the briefest of seconds, he pondered the possibility of making a break for it before sighing, shaking his grizzled head, and facing towards the encroaching threat once more. A hand landed on his shoulder and he glanced towards the rogue at his side who gave him a smile and wink, as daring as ever. He rolled his eyes but managed a smile back before he watched the lumbering bulgasari crest the last hill before them.

Bulgasari, Illustrated by SethMonster

This metal munching monster makes a mess of metropolises, meting out maulings in multitudes as it makes meals of mail and minerals even when magic makes it more molten.

Huntrix has had their turn on the stage, now it's time for the real star of the show! You can check out the artist here or the video on the bulgasari over here.

This took some looking into when it came to figuring out what to build for the KPop girlies in part because I'm not super versed in Korean myth and also because a bunch of them are already in Pathfinder - such as the dokkaebi, bul-gae, and joseung saja, which might seem a little familiar. The bulgasari isn't even really a demon. In most stories, it starts out friendly enough but grows beyond the people's ability to care for it or too indiscriminate in its rampages. I've adapted it a tiny bit to better fit a Pathfinder sort of setting and actually built it at three different levels to represent its development and the growth within its own stories. No matter which version you're looking at, they use the same values appropriate for that level. So where the copper bulgasari has an extreme Strength, so does the iron and steel bulgasari. With that established, I played it maybe a little safe here. The bulgasari's name roughly translates into 'something impossible to kill,' but I ended up giving it a moderate AC and HP. This is to account for its blanket physical resistance as well as the high fire resistance it possesses, which is inspired by its own ability to survive a fire with seemingly no ill effect.

Its attacks use a moderate bonus and range from moderate damage to high damage on its tusks. But the most important aspect of the bulgasari is perhaps its ability to Devour Metal. The ability to destroy items, such as weapons and armor, is quite dangerous in a game like Pathfinder where it feels like the equivalent of playing land destruction in Magic the Gathering. This is considerably simplified alongside his Rending Tusks because armor Hardness and HP in PF2e doesn't increase with runes. You have to do that through different metals and the like, which is honestly kind of a hassle. So rather than having this deal damage and potentially destroy armor immediately, it takes one to break the armor and another to fully tear it free. With it being two actions, that means it will take at least two actions to get ready to chow down, which should give the heroes time to react and try to rally against it. However, they also have to be wary of it snacking on their weapons as it will try to knock them loose with Twisted Tusks. However, this is a little similar to Rending Tusks where it likely needs to try to Disarm twice since a successful Disarm doesn't actually disarm a foe. This, again, offers some counterplay to facing off against the bulgasari.

Getting into the abilities added by the iron bulgasari, we have Conduct Heat, inspired by the way it often ends up carrying fire it's inflicted with in myths and stories. This merely adds a little bit of extra damage when the bulgasari hits others or gets hit by them. However, it does also come with the ability to counteract it, per the suggestion of my test subjects during the Monster Mash. It also has a rather standard sort of ability in the form of Thundering Trumpet, which was my attempt at mixing its metallic nature with its elephantine form. It deals unlimited use area damage with a high DC but does add the deafened condition, and possibly stunned, to spice things up a bit. That brings us to the steel bulgasari, which adds the universal monster ability Trample as well as the slightly more unique Powerful Toss though this does take heavy inspiration from the doprillu and its Whirlwind Throw. It's a fun little effect that lets it brings its immensity to bear, but I was reaching a bit even by that time, so I decided against building a level 20 version or an even more kaiju-esque critter. Though if you want to make an actual kaiju out of the bulgasari, I'd consider designing it as a series of hazards to make it feel like a more insurmountable threat that they can't directly face.

One other quick mention, the bulgasari might develop unique traits be eating certain valuable metals, akin to the stargut hydra, which I largely designed its sidebar off of. I did make a few alterations where I thought it better fit the bulgasari and its nature, but drew from the hydra quite heavily.

PF2e Bulgasari, Page 1

PF2e Bulgasari, Page 2

Blue's D&D Bulgasari

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Make Mine Meals Metal: A bulgasari has made a mining site into its new hunting grounds. There's enough metal in the area that the threat it poses will swiftly expand pass the mine to other nearby settlements, forcing the heroes to face it. For an added point of interest, the mine could have a specialized metal as detailed in its 'Metal Meals' sidebar, presenting an additional challenge for the heroes.

Castle Crasher: The players have been given a fort or similar emplacement that they must defend against an encroaching bulgasari. This could be an interesting encounter to involve siege engines with, but for this particular one, I would grant the bulgasari a ranged Strike akin to a rock throw, likely basing it off of Powerful Toss but with some better range. Alternatively, in one of the movies featuring this creature, it demonstrated an ability to inhale an incoming bolt and then blast it back at its attackers for another effect.

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Have a monstrous Monday!