The ranger crouched low, scanning the underbrush as she heard the sounds of her friend elsewhere. They contended with a swarm of large, strangely aggressive crustaceans but in the midst of their battle, a new threat had become apparent. A shot had nearly downed the barbarian, a spout of water that had torn through a tree to pierce straight through his chest. As the druid mended his wound with magic, the ranger took up position, scouting for the sniper. Finally, her eyes alighted on the creature – a beast similar to the one that her allies battled but with an oversized claw in which energy seemed to gather. Its gaze was focused on her friends and, acting quickly, she loosed a shot that struck into the bark right by its head. The impact startled it, causing its shot to go wide before its glaring gaze shifted to seek the origin of the assault, sniper versus sniper.
This was a lot of fun to build in part because I used a clawitzer back in one of the Pokémon games to go all the way through the Elite Four. Using its Mega Launcher ability instead of relying on its same-type attack bonus was a lot of fun – and made its Water Pulse which benefited from both into a crazy move. Bringing this into the world of Pathfinder, I based its level on one of the last levels in which it gains an ability that would be affected by its Mega Launcher, landing on level 8. It is built as a sniper, which isn’t a road map that I get to use often but is a lot of fun. The clawitzer’s main attack is its claw launcher, using a high attack bonus, moderate damage, and a design generally based around a firearm. Most of its abilities are about interacting with this ability rather than providing totally new effects and the like.
Two of its abilities actually are derived from feats found in classes for characters while also resembling some of its abilities. For example, Lock On is based on Hunter’s Aim from the ranger while its increase to accuracy and removing the evasion of enemies can resemble the clawitzer’s Swords Dance. The other option is Mega Launcher. This increases damage rather than accuracy, and is based on the inventor’s Megaton Strike as well as the clawitzer’s unique ability. I also wanted to include Grievous Shots – aside from resembling a firearm’s critical specialization, the stunned can also serve to represent the flinch effect of the Dark Pulse attack. However, the clawitzer’s other pulses are a little bit more difficult to represent. For some reason, Water Pulse has a chance of making a target confused, which didn’t make sense to me.
And that’s where Dimensional Draw comes in. This is an ability that I wholly encourage others who use this monster to get creative with. This lets the clawitzer Reload but more importantly, lets it draw from the boundaries between planes to fuel its weapon. To make the confusion make more sense to me, the first option that it draws from is the Dreamlands, granting it mental damage and inflicting a temporary confused condition. The use of vital energy is based on its Healing Pulse attack while finally, the poison damage from the wood plane is inspired by the poison type moves that clawitzer can learn while also just adding a bit more meat to this ability – it felt a little sparse with only two effects. The last of its activated abilities is Repositioning Recoil, which plays into Aqua Jet as well as some of the descriptions of the clawitzer. This is important for helping the clawitzer’s action economy where it wants to pull off its two-action abilities and reload while staying away from the enemies swarming it. To that end, it uses its Repositioning Recoil to get away from foes that close on it but since this has to be in a straight line away from a target, the players can try to control and corral its movement.
There is one final tool in the clawitzer’s kit and one that ended up with a name that I didn’t originally intend. The clawitzer’s Motion of the Ocean Sense is based on its ability to sense its surroundings with the antennae on its claw, as described in its Pokedex entry. I originally looked at sharks, assuming they would have something like this, but they did not, so I ultimately settled on something based on the motion sense of the ooze. I originally put the name down as a placeholder but the MM Discord was a fan of it and convinced me to keep it in.
Pathfinder 2e:
I’ll admit, I struggled with the Pathfinder First Edition version a bit, pretty much entirely because it is a struggle to create ranged attacks in Pathfinder 1e that aren’t already part of it. The fact that it was a natural attack exacerbated the issue, but I eventually settled on the design of the claw launcher that I think worked out and is mostly based on the cannon of the cannon golem. Baseline, the damage is a little bit below average, but that is before you get into its x4 crit or the use of its Deadly Aim or Vital Shot, which serve to represent its Mega Launcher ability. It keeps its dimensional draw ability, but mental apparently isn’t a damage type in 1e, so I had to sub in the chaotic damage to get that confused effect. My attempt at recreating its Healing Pulse might be a bit questionable with its functionality, but I did throw in some extra options with fire and sonic since poison damage isn’t a thing and I had to replace it.
It has blindsense to cover its ability to sense the world around it through its feelers while the likes of Point-Blank Shot help to sell its accuracy and damage. If it had more feats, I would have loved to delve into options such as Shot on the Run or Precise Shot to better reflect those aspects of it and to reference its Repositioning Reload.
Pathfinder 1e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Sniper's Run: The heroes find themselves the target of a clawitzer and have the abject misfortune of a sizeable distance from it. The players must clear the obstacles to get to the clawitzer while it takes shots at them, which is best run using the rules for a chase scene that the clawitzer periodically interrupts with a Strike. This should be used carefully and likely against players of a slightly higher level to prevent the encounter from feeling oppressive.
Pals in Perilous Places: As a more general usage, an encounter with a clawitzer could play into its origin where it is the pet of another enemy. While this enemy directly engages the heroes, its pet clawitzer fires off shots from a perch, taking advantage of the heroes' distraction.
If you or people in the hobby you know prefer watching videos over reading my walls of text, check out the clawitzer video over on YouTube. Sadly, there's no Monster Mash this time around as real life events prevented me from running a test.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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