“Would you stop playing with the blasted thing?!”
The grizzled fighter ignored the wizard’s shout, his gaze entirely focused upon the immense beast before him, a saurian monster of crimson scales and cerulean spikes. Its tail ended in a long blade, honed to an edge as fine as the lifelong warrior had ever seen. The man held his own sword before him, sharing a wary glare with the equally scarred creature. For a moment, he almost felt as though he was looking into a funhouse mirror, seeing life as though he had been born a monster. From that, a strange kinship spawned and when the glavenus stabbed out with its tail once more, the two crossed blades with a grim eagerness.
Back with more Monster Hunter creatures, here's the glavenus! I built the creature with slightly lower defenses to account for his damage reduction as well as his attack capabilities. While the glavenus lacks the wings and magic of other dragons, I decided to follow that idea since I built deviljho as such. Building somewhat off of the affinity of the glavenus weapons as well as the effects of his armor, I opted to make glavenus something of a crit fisher with its tail blade, which is a primary natural attack. For a time, I considered having its tail blade function as a manufactured weapon that iterative attacks can be made with to achieve the effects of its double tail slash it sometimes does. While in the games the glavenus can sharpen its tail to increase its damage, I opted to have its sharpen tail increases its critical threat range. This plays directly into its ignition ability that I struggled with for a time before settling it triggering on a critical hit. This ups it damage with its tail but also plays into its pyroclastic spit ability, allowing it to recharge its ability to blast creatures with the molten material it collects in its bursa. Its final ability is spiral slash, mimicking the wide sweeps that glavenus sometimes performs but I gave it drawbacks in that it leaves the glavenus flat-footed and unable to crit. I don't usually work in the exhaustion effects from Monster Hunter, but it going flat-footed falls into that idea somewhat.
The feats of the glavenus focus on its combat capabilities, particularly achieving and empowering its critical hits while also following the Vital Strike line so that it can potentially sharpen tail and still make a powerful attack. Great Cleave plays into the sweeping strikes that glavenus makes without going into a full spiral.
Pathfinder 1e:
Almost all of the abilities of the PF1e glavenus were translated faithfully over to the PF2e glavenus with slight modifications. I used the Twisting Tail reaction from the green dragon to play into its capability as a warrior. It lowers the chance of its hit with its tail, which I lowered the attack roll of after it crit a little bit too much during its test, and also to make the bite slightly more useful. I gave its tail the sweep trait to counter that slightly and its reach trait makes it extremely difficult to approach thanks to its reaction. One unique ability that I gave the 2e glavenus was Frenzied Edge, inspired by the Draconic Frenzy that other dragons possess. Rather than having its Sharpen Tail increase its crit range, I decided to have it grant the fatal trait, increasing the lethality of its critical hits. From the test, I also decided to have Ignition recharge Pyroclastic Spit at the start of the glavenus's next turn to allow characters that identify its abilities to react and potentially diminish its effects. I did increase the power of Spiraling Slice for the 2e version, removing the debilitating effects from it and thought that it felt fine during testing.
Finally, I included a magic item inspired by the glavenus!
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOK
Brothers of the Blade: Rumors have begun to sprout up of a giant dwelling in a mountain pass alongside a monstrous companion. While they haven’t been attacking indiscriminately, the giant has started up a toll and demanding that any who wish to go through the pass must best him and his pet glavenus in a duel. The two fought each other to a standstill once in the past and forged a connection through their battle and now seek others to hone their skill against before they face each other once more. If the heroes don’t find themselves moving through the pass, they are soon approached by local governments who wish for them to clear the pass so that it can open once more and business can resume as normal. While the giant and glavenus started their occupation to improve their ability as warriors, they are eager to face opponents of equal or greater skill. They will surrender and vacate the pass to save their own lives so they may have their final match.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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