Monster Monday - Davy Jones

All around the water-slicked deck of the stranded ship, sailors fell under the blades and assorted weapons of their monstrous assailants. They bore humanoid features mixed with those of various sea creature in hideous amalgamations and carved through the crew with a ferocity befitting their animalistic appearance. The captain of the merchant vessel fought valiantly but soon found himself forced to his knees as the battle reached its end. Those that hadn’t been slain in the conflict were lined up on their knees before a dreadful anticipation filled the air. It was broken by heavy, thudding footsteps across the deck as a towering, swaggering figure came into view. He stalked through the rank and file with dreadful deliberation until he stood before the trembling captain of the vessel.

“Tell me…do you fear death?”

In something of a celebration of the resolution of the Depp v Heard trial, I have a special Monster Monday and Full Build Friday for this week. To start off, I have a creature stat blocks for the wicked Davy Jones. In designing him, I took the lore of Davy Jones being a psychopomp in service of Calypso to elevate him to the position of her herald. Most deific heralds in Pathfinder are CR 15, so I figured I'd start there. Further exploring his lore, Davy Jones is a shoe-in for a sahkil, a type of outsider known to be psychopomps that abandon their duty to torment mortals. This did lead to the inclusion of some abilities that didn't entirely fit what we know of Davy Jones (its the source of much of his resistances and his look of fear), but I didn't want to pass on how perfectly sahkil fit as a concept. I didn't want to simply make Davy Jones unkillable so I instead opted to give him the rejuvenation ability, always restoring himself upon his ship whenever he is felled unless, much like a lich, his heart is slain. Naturally, I had to include his inability to walk upon land with bound to the sea and I wanted to include captain's heart to reflect the emotions that affect him when he's in proximity to his heart, as seen when Beckett brings it close.

For his weaponry, Davy Jones obviously wields his cutlass with aplomb, and I added a claw attack mainly to include snapping claw - referencing that in the climatic battle, Davy Jones breaks three or so swords throughout the course of it. The best way I could figure to include his infamous ship and crew was the part of the ship ability to give him a bone ship he controls. Some GMs may wish to have his crew be more involved than what the bone ship offers, but I leave that up to them to come up with. I also sought to include his control over the kraken with master of the deep, which will allow him to spread his influence over sea creatures farther than just that. The inclusion of spells likely seems odd, but for as crazy as it gets, Pirate of the Caribbean is a low-fantasy setting whereas Pathfinder in its base form is not. I wanted to translate that over while staying true to the character, which led to the inclusion of spells such as black spot and black mark. I also picked up aboleth's lung and forced mutation for him to reflect the bizarre and inhuman transformations that his crew has undergone.

His last ability of interest is ship stride, giving him his power to teleport between ships that he demonstrates several times throughout the movie. As for his feats, I decided to have a slight focus on critical hits since it worked well with the cutlass. Given his penchant for snapping swords, I also wanted to include Improved Sunder and then tossed in Position of Strength so that he can take advantage of divesting foes of their weaponry. And also because it was a feat introduced alongside a pack of pirates.

Pathfinder 1e:

In building the 2e version, there wasn't too much to change. I had to recreate Black Spot as an ability that he can inflict since it isn't a spell in 2e and struggled slightly with 2e spells in general. I expanded a little bit beyond my initial ideas but tried to keep it focused on the thematics of the sea and fear. In my mind, spells such as black tentacles and grim tendrils can be envision as the kraken reaching up to aid Davy Jones in his battle. I included maze of locked door to give Davy Jones the ability to banish somebody to his eponymous locker. Given the range of AoE spells I ended up giving him, some of my playtesters suggested also giving him an ability to not murder his own crew, which led to the inclusion of Part of the Crew. In my initial pass of the 1e build, I included a tentacle attack only to realize from watching the movies that he only ever really utilizes them in such an extent once or twice. As such, they were left out of the 1e iteration to keep his damage balanced, but in 2e, I was able to add it as an attack with the Constrict ability reflecting how he killed Ian Mercer. After including much of these abilities, I realized that Davy Jones was a bit more of a caster and a bit less of the magical striker I wanted him to be. To help him out with that, I included Sweeping Slash so that he can unleash his spells and then Strike at a pair of foes within range.

Pathfinder 2e:

Blue's D&D 5e:

I am going to specifically refrain from listing encounter hooks here as I don't think Davy Jones is really the creature you just spring on your players. Inclusion of him in a game, especially with all the tools he has at his disposal, is something that should be built-up and telegraphed. Players should have a chance to learn about and prepare for a fight against him even if they can't initially seize his heart.

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Have a monstrous Monday!