The ground trembled as each immense claw of the beast landed upon the earth. These oversized limbs, arising from its back, supported most of its considerable bulk. A second pair of limbs aided its travel, but it hindlimbs dragged uselessly across the ground. As it dragged itself from the crack in the earth that had freed it, it turned its head from side-to-side, coldly regarding the above world it had so long been denied. As the sun warmed its skin for the first time in centuries, it lifted its head heavenwards to unleash a terrible keening cry, its mouth splitting open like a flower.
The Three Lords have been built, which means its finally time to summon the Archdemon of the Abyss. The gaismagorm is a particularly powerful elder dragon, which led to building it as a level 20 creature instead of the level 18 that I usually build elder dragons at. I stuck with the dragon trait but added fiend as I wanted to play into the epithet of the gaismagorm as well as the theming around its parts and gear. As big and bulky as the gaismagorm is, I built it as a brute – featuring low Armor Class, an extreme pool of Hit Points, only a moderate attack bonus, and then at least high damage. Its jaws go all the way up to dealing extreme damage, based on the fearsome, flowering set of jaws it has got going on. This arrangement on its Strike numbers is based on the slow, cumbersome attacks that it has going on that still hit like a train.
I've had issues with monsters that have suck-up abilities in the past (Nidhogg and the hellmaw salamander), but I think I finally figured it out with the gaismagorm's Vortex! This is a single action with an extreme DC that mainly exists simply to force the enemies to move in range, but it does have the added benefit of knocking creatures prone if they would get moved past it. The single action aspect of it, and likely only requiring a single save, if probably the deciding factor in its functionality. Once the gaismagorm has a creature pulled close, it can unleash its Explosive Slam, which is a claw Strike that channels and then explodes with volatile energy in area damage between unlimited and limited use area damage. For a bigger blast, it can use Conflagration, which is a high DC with limited use area damage. It's a pretty basic effect, being the gaismagorm's version of a breath weapon, which just has a slightly different shape than usual.
The first of gaismagorm's bigger abilities is Abyssal Trample. This starts as a standard Trample, but when the gaismagorm is reduced to half health or lower, this starts leaving behind bombs in its path of travel. This deals unlimited use area damage at a moderate DC, which seems to be the standard DC used for Tramples. Chances are, this ability will only catch heroes unawares once, but can at least make them reposition. Finally, the gaismagorm's sort of ultimate ability is its Rain of Fire, which I had some trouble on puzzling out. I ended up adapting an idea similar to the gullinkambi's Wake the Dead from last week, creating a sun that deal unlimited use area damage and has a high DC Reflex save associated with it. The gaismagorm can Sustain this effect but its cooldown doesn't start until the end of the effect, which means that if the heroes can prevent it from maintaining the effect, its a while before it can use it again.
The armor based on the gaismagorm is inspired by the Dereliction skill uniquely found on its armor in MH while also tapping slightly into the Resentment skill it has. I'm a little worried that it's just a damage amping armor and its design might be a bit boring, but be sure to let me know what you think.
Pathfinder 2e:
The three-action economy of 2e definitely helped the gaismagorm's Vortex ability, and I'm worried that my translation of it into 1e might have given a bit too much into it. A swift action effect to pull a whole crowd of people and potentially knock them prone seems a bit much and it may need a longer cooldown to compensate for that effect. I decided to include the frightful presence seen on most dragons. Conflagration is a pretty basic effect here as well, and I also changed the design of its rain of fire by just having it be a standard duration effect that continually bombards the battlefield with blazes. I forwent the inclusion of Explosive Slam and instead focused on the grand sweeping attacks it makes with Cleave, Great Cleave, and the multitude of follow-up feats that it has for it. Like many monsters, it can also daze people since it took Dazing Assault and Gate Breaker will help it in its sieges.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
The gaismagorm is a massive creature - likely an endgame boss and not something that the heroes happen to encounter. But I'm still going to offer some ideas on how to use this creature in a game in more overarching manners. The party could find a region beset by creatures from the Underdark, displaced from their homes by a gaismagorm emerging from the depths of the world. Alternatively, it may be fought as part of a duo, serving as the mount for a demon lord that has been plaguing the players to play into its alternative name. Further exploring that concept, the gaismagorm could also be the goal of a cult to unleash upon the World, actually summoning it from the Abyss or other infernal realm.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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