Monster Monday - Flame Cantor

A harsh cry from the druid was all the warning that the barbarian had before the ranger was roughly grabbing his collar and yanking him backwards. Before he could even recover his footing, a looming figure was crashing into where he had been seconds before. A dark ichor spread from the site of the impact, spilling across the land and spoiling whatever sparse foliage grew there. The barbarian swore as the ranger blanched, brows furrowing at the sight of the despoiling. She fixed a glare on the towering figure, practically a giant, that straightened from the site, hefting a strange weapon that resembled an axe across its shoulder. Its face was hidden by mask and hood alike, but neither could disguise the crimson glow of its eyes as it offered a growling prayer.

"Creator, refine me!"

Flame Cantor from Zenless Zone Zero

This flame-flinging fanatic fills the field with fetid fluids that feast on the force of fools found in their foul flow. It follows such feats with a ferocious frenzy as it fells foes in a fearsome flourish.

I promise the gameplay featured in the MM video is not because I'm bad - it's because I wanted to show off the flame cantor's moves.

I wanted to follow up Friday's ZZZ build with a monster from the same series! The flame cantor is one of the newer enemies added to the game and is actually the reason that I built huskron in the first place as the flame cantors are able to summon them. It is largely designed as a brute, perhaps most prominently demonstrated in the moderate attack bonus but extreme damage of its sole Strike, but has a few more mystical effects. It is a corrupted human rather than a full-on ethereal, which alters its weaknesses and resistances from the usual, and also allows me to design a slightly more savvy and cunning foe.

This extends to the point where the flame cantor even has a few PC-type feats such as Swipe. This pulls pretty directly from the fighter/barbarian, but features a little bit wider range given just how difficult it is to get players to line up properly for this. It also has a few devotion spells which have a moderate DC and attack and pull from the fire and decay domains based on the flame cantor's own thematic. Outside of that, the most central part of the flame cantor's abilities is its Corruption Crash. This allows it to create pools of miasma that corrupt and consume the lives of those that step within them, forcing a moderate DC Fortitude save based on the way that it lingers for a few rounds upon the ground. In addition to this burst area that this creates, the flame cantor can also spread more miasma with Toxic Takeoff. This is based on the dash that it does as it flies through foes, condensing actions for it and leaving behind miasma. It does have to fuel this with a Focus Point, but it can refuel these focus points with its Enflamed Fervor reaction when a creature becomes drained by its miasma - or when it increases its drained value through Miasmic Prayer! This requires a high DC Will save, using a more potent target number but forcing one from a save that isn't penalized by the drained value that it inflicts and encourages. This drained is all meant to resemble the miasma build-up of ZZZ, which occurs as a big burst of damage but I thought was more interesting to demonstrate in this manner.

To wrap up the flame cantor, it does have the ability to Call Huskrons, which I not already alluded to, I flat out detailed. This is super heavily based on the bone prophet down to the level discrepancy and is a fun little ability that may unfortunately limit the range at which the flame cantor can be used. If heroes face the flame cantor while on-level or even higher-leveled, it might be best to go ahead and forget about this ability as the huskrons likely won't even pose a threat to such players.

PF2e Flame Cantor

Blue's D&D 5e Flame Cantor

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Clergy of Corruption: The heroes stop off in a small town on the outskirts of civilization that seems a little standoffish. In the middle of the night, heroes may spot a number of people making for the woods. If they follow them or investigate their tracks later, they can trace them to a site in the forest where corruption has begun to spread. A flame cantor has begun to convert a number of the townsfolk to its foul faith and readily defends its holy site against blasphemers. As an added threat, several of the fresh followers could succumb to corruption in time to attack the players.

Putrid Putter: The heroes are beset by a flame cantor that has developed a special relation with the huskrons it calls. The huskrons summoned by the flame cantor's Call Huskrons are immune to its miasma, and it gains a special ability: Launch Huskron <>> Requirements There is a huskron adjacent to the flame cantor. Effect The flame cantor launches the adjacent huskron at a creature within 30 feet. The creature takes 6d6 bludgeoning damage (DC 28 basic Reflex save) and the huskron takes half of the damage dealt to the target unless it was in Defensive Curl. If the target takes any damage, it is knocked prone.

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Have a monstrous Monday!