Monster Monday - Doshaguma

A simple grunt escaped the barbarian as the corpse of a vast beast crashed into him, launching the staunch warrior from his feet. Sparing only a glance and a brief curse, the sorceress forced herself to focus on the creature ahead. Even on all fours, it towered over the band of adventurers, a great snuffling beast with eyes lost to the wrinkled folds of its face and tusks jutting from its heavy jaws. Its roar launched a rain of slobber as it slammed the ground with its paws heavy enough that the very ground shook beneath it. Fire roared in the blood of the mage, igniting in her eyes before erupting from her hand, flashing towards the looming beast as the barbarian staggered to his feet behind her.

Doshaguma from Monster Hunter Wilds

A fluffy but ferocious furball, this fearsome fellow flies into a fury at the first fright of a fight, flinging foes with feral force before following with a flurry of fangs and fur.

We recently broke over 700 subscribers on YT (which is a lot for me), so I hope you'll check out the latest video, featuring our burly beastie here!

The doshaguma is designed somewhere between a brute and a soldier, leaning more into the latter once it becomes enraged. It's AC is only moderate but it has a high pool of Hit Points. Hopefully, this is enough considering that it has a weakness to the rather common fire damage as well as a potential weakness to any damage type if players managed to damage its vulnerable underbelly. I've never approached components in this way before, but it fit how it was described to me and it might be an idea that I revisit in the future. On the offensive side of things, the doshaguma is a heavy hitter with melee attacks that have a high bonus and a minimum of moderate damage - most of the time. Its ranged attack uses a moderate attack bonus, but its damage is a little harder to pin down. To really get an idea of what we're looking at, we'll have to discuss...

...Brutal Lob! The doshaguma will occasionally toss corpses around (I've mostly seen this in a cutscene), but the concept of it was neat enough that I wanted to expand upon it. Case in point, aside from throwing corpses, a doshaguma can also hurl creatures that it has restrained, dealing damage to them and their target based on the size of their missile - ranging from low damage for Small creatures to extreme damage for Huge creatures. I did establish that it can only do this to creatures it has restrained, but with an extreme Athletics, it shouldn't be too hard to establish that level of a hold. If the doshaguma hits a creature with this, the collision will knock them prone unless they succeed at a high DC Fortitude save, which could lead into the doshaguma performing a Ravenous Charge. This has significant similarity to Powerful Charge and such abilities, but rather than extra damage or attack bonus, it gets a free attempt to grapple a creature. This is based off of the vicious charges that they will do to knock back or down the hunter with how it provides similar lockdown, but was translated into a grapple to better facilitate its Brutal Lob.

As I mentioned at the start, the doshaguma can fly into an even more aggressive state than usual with Enrage. This turns it from more of a soldier design into a brute as it lowers its AC - like classic Rage - but significantly increases its melee damage, all by about one step. Its claws start dealing high damage and its jaws jump all the way up to extreme damage. This isn't too unusual of an effect and most monsters have an enraged state, but it seems a bit more pronounced in the doshaguma's design and is why I included it here. That leaves us with its Overturn Earth, a single action to create a 15-foot cone that rather than deal damage, since it already has plenty of that, knocks down foes that fail against a high DC Reflex save. This is based on a range of abilities that the doshaguma uses to knock foes up or at least off their feet and, as I said, gives it something in its kit other than damage.

PF 2e Doshaguma

For the gear of the doshaguma, I decided to make it a skill item inspired by the fantastic Athletics of the doshaguma, but the Doshaguma Might armor skill powers up after Power Clashes and Offset attacks. That's a little difficult to translate over into Pathfinder, but I sought to capture the essence by having it increase damage on reactions. This should make it a valued item by fighters, but there's a range of other classes that can gain reactions that would be able to benefit from this item.

PF2e Doshaguma Gear

PF2e Components Rule

Blue's D&D Doshaguma

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Doshaguma Dangers: The heroes may encounter a pack of doshaguma out in the wild. In such cases, the alpha doshaguma should be represented as an elite doshaguma with at least two standard doshaguma fighting alongside it. However, to properly portray the pack dynamics of the doshaguma, they should occasionally turn on each other, snapping and smashing into others even as they try to squash the players.

Rough Rider: Another fun encounter could be giving the doshaguma a rider of some sort - possibly from a brutal clan or tribe of some sort. Their Huge size might make them a favorable mount for ogres and an ogre boss has the same level as a doshaguma. An ogre boss and doshaguma might lead a force of lesser-leveled ogres against the players, but the beast will likely turn on its rider if given the opportunity.

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!