Among heavy footfalls was the sound of a rumbling chittering that caused the barbarian to tense, tightening his grip on his axe. His companions had retreated to the cover in the bushes, but the young warrior stood resolute, refusing to cower before the threat. A maned head, taller than the stalwart berserker peered around a tree, pronounced incisors prominent as it snarled at him. He bared his teeth back at the beast as it emerged from the thick forest, revealing a saurian body shape covered in brown fur and patches of silvery scales. Fury blazed in its cerulean eyes and it let out a savage roar before charging into battle.
To fill a request, I have returned to the world of Dauntless to build the gnasher! This is a fairly simple creature, one of the very first that you hunt, and so I had the opportunity to build it as a smaller sort of creature. It’s been a while since I’ve done so and it was nice to get back into it. The gnasher resembles a beaver mixed with a dinosaur, bearing powerful teeth and tail as well as legs capable of creating shockwaves with its stomps. Lacking an element like many creature of Dauntless, the gnasher has a fairly simple kit. It tends to perform long, sweeping swipes with its tail and will wind up a special attack, rolling forward in a somersault to slam its tail down. All creatures in Dauntless have rages that they fly into, but the gnasher seems particularly tied to it as even the gear it grants gives a similar effect to hunters.
Lacking any notable magical traits, the gnasher is an animal lacking in too many special moves. It has its bite and tail slap and grabs the Cleave feat to resemble the great sweeps that it makes with its tail. For its somersault, I created its tail smash, which is a pretty standard AoE sort of ability that lacks a cooldown because it simply doesn’t make sense for it to do so. Its average damage is kept a little lower to compensate for this. In interest of not simply giving it another AoE ability, I built shockwave stomp for it to knock people over so that it can make them vulnerable. Finally, the gnasher has its classic rage ability, which is a pretty standard ability that makes it a physical menace but leaves it slightly vulnerable. Additionally, the gnasher is known to burrow through the earth when escaping hunters and so I decided to include it though at a lower rate since it doesn’t seem to be its primary form of movement.
Mainly to fill up some space since the gnasher was such a simple critter, I also detailed how to make some of the variant gnashers – the deepforst, flameborn, and ragetail gnashers though this is only done through simple templates, so it might not fully match those creatures.
Pathfinder First Edition:
As is tradition these days, the 2e gnasher was built first, and I had some fun putting it together. As part of its powerful, sweeping tail and because I enjoy the unique reactions within PF2e, I designed its Tripping Tail. Highly similar to AoO but with a more limited trigger, it had a few fun interactions in its test. It can slow down enemies attempting to flank around it and when its knocks creatures down with its Thunderous Stomp, standing will provoke its Tripping Tail. As for this Thunderous Stomp, I initially just intended to effectively make it an AoE trip, but one of my test subjects informed me that it also slows hunters hit by it, so I added that into its failure degree. This Somersault Slam is a little bit closer to how I originally envisioned it with the Leap representing the forward flip it performs to build up momentum for its tail. As somebody who really loves the trait system for weapons in PF2e, I felt inclined to add the sweep trait to its tail to represent its typical method of using it. Finally, the gnasher has its rage ability in the form of Feral Frenzy, which its damage and HP are balanced around. Its AC is towards the high end while its HP is closer to lower to account for both the lost AC and temporary HP from Feral Frenzy.
Pathfinder Second Edition:
Blue's Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition:
I unfortunately don’t have any items for this build. I usually try to include something of the sort for Dauntless or Monster Hunter builds, but the gnasher is almost too simplistic. Its gear gives an ability similar to rage, and that isn’t something I want to just hand out on an item. So, nothing this time around, but I enjoy making items so I’ll have something by the time I do the next creature of this sort!
If you're interested in joining the discussion on what creatures 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!
Comments