Drips and splashes echoed throughout the dark caverns, the chill of the corridors diminished only by the orb of flame that orbited around the druid. He stalked alongside the barbarian, dropping back when the halls grew too narrow, and the ranger and sorcerer kept as close as they could to the bobbing warmth. Between the cold of the caves and the ominous echoes, the party was on edge. Weapons were drawn and fingers twitched, ready to trace arcane marks in the air to summon forth magic. Despite these precautions, none were fast enough to react to the sorceress’s shriek that abruptly cut short, transforming into muffled shouts and struggling. The rest of the band turned to find her engulfed by oversized, leech-like length that led to drake-like body clinging to the ceiling. As the barbarian shouted, the creature released the sorceress, dropping her roughly as a circular, fang-filled maw faced the rest of them, its alien visage devoid of eyes. A rattling shriek emerged from it, answering the challenge of the barbarian’s own shout, before a purple haze erupted from its terrifying mouth.
Illustration by Aeflus
There's a few bookkeeping matters to get out of the way. Firstly, I'm going on a bit of a vacation starting next week so following this week's Full Build Friday, I'll be out until November. Additionally, I was struggling with building the PF1e version of the gigginox. I was searching for something to reference that produces giggi like this creature, but there doesn't appear to be anything in 1e for it. I think ultimately, I need to produce the giggi as a separate creature, which is going to forestall the design a bit.
As for this gigginox, its stats are pretty basic - it has a high AC but otherwise tends to hover around moderate values for its health, damage, and its attacks. It has its Giggi Venom with a moderate DC and even at stage 3, its damage is equal to the gigginox's low Strikes. Design-wise, the gigginox has a lot of little actions, simple one-action abilities that allow it to easily modify and switch up its tactics. The most mundane of these features is Pounce, a very useful but rather standard abilities seen on many creatures that will emulate the gigginox's ability to leap around the battlefield and follow up with swift attacks. Slightly less standard but similarly basic is Extend Neck, based on the elastic neck and tail of this cavedweller. After using this ability, the gigginox extends its reach up to twenty feet for the rest of its turn, letting it get in at least two more Strikes.
Its more unique abilities are a bit more defining of the gigginox's core features, starting with its Billow Poison. It is a standard breath weapon effect with a few defining features - it uses a high DC but lower than limited use area damage because of two reasons - this creates a cloud of poison to conceal creatures and potentially shield the gigginox as well as exposing those damaged by it to the Giggi Venom. This is the only two-action ability in the gigginox's kit with even its other unique actions requiring only one - such as Lay Egg Sac. This is obviously based on the egg sac that a gigginox will lay to create its Giggi Spawn, and has some basing on the amelekana from the Gatewalkers AP. Obviously, the heroes will want to destroy the egg sac - a fairly simple task given its single HP and terrible AC - lest they become overrun with life draining spawn. Once the heroes know to destroy these egg sacs, it is time to Lay Poison Sac. This can only be distinguished with a moderate DC Perception check and when destroyed, it deals unlimited use area damage at a high DC Fortitude save, which also has the chance of exposing enemies to Giggi Venom. Now, if the heroes are smart enough not to pop the poison sac themselves, the gigginox can always use its reach to pop it itself, since it only affects adjacent creatures. It could even do so as a third attack as even with a -10 multiple attack penalty, the gigginox hits on anything other than a 1.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
I'll admit, I struggle to imagine the gigginox working with other creatures, which can make it difficult to think up unique encounters for it. The one idea that comes to mind is a cave becoming infested with gigginoxs during mating season. The heroes may have to venture into the caverns and wipe out the vast clutch of eggs that have been lain. In addition to the gigginoxs that will appear to defend their young, the cave could also be populated by other denizens of the dark and a few gigginox variants.
This video was a fun little one to put together, hope you like it and check it out!
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Have a monstrous Monday and a happy Halloween!
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