Hooting howls echoed through the canopy of the jungle, a chorus taken up by the legion of kokomoa hanging from the leafy branches. The band of adventurers looked cautiously at the primates, the young creatures little threat to them. But the sound of snapping branches and shaking trees rumbled deeper, more than the slight beasts could manage. A gogomoa erupted from above, shooting towards the party with a swiping claw. It landed with thunderous force, shaking the ground as it unleashed a bone-shaking roar. Riding atop its towering parent was a kokomoa that leveled a finger at the intruders and unleashed its own, shrill shriek.
Tapping into the seemingly endless well of Monster Hunter creatures, the gogomoa is a literal spider monkey from the Monster Hunter Frontier, which never really made it over here. In a game full of absolute insane creatures, the gogomoa's greatest claim to fame is that it can launch lines of silk from its palms, akin to Spider-Man with his webslingers. It uses this ability for impressive maneuverability despite its bulk and from what I observed, doesn't even attack that frequently with its claws. Instead, it pulls itself into tree tops before crashing down on foes, flings boulders and occasionally poisonous plants with its webs, and launches itself by making an impromptu slingshot with its webbing. Gogomoa are also known to carry their children, known as kokomoa, on their back and will fly into a terrible rage that leaves them very vulnerable.
Given how basic the gogomoa's abilities were, keeping it as an animal rather than building it as a magical beast felt appropriate. Defensively, the gogomoa is listed as having a weakness to both fire and cold damage but the fire weakness disappears beyond a certain level, so I decided to only include the more consistent of the two weaknesses. As noted above, it's a surprisingly nimble creature with a decent speed and an ability to climb like any self-respecting primate. Nevertheless, it is a beast that is largely reliant upon its strength, and so leans into that. Its style of dropping on foes from above is achieved with feats such as Branch Pounce and Death From Above. I wanted to include Rhino Charge so it could ready a treetop charge as foes walk under it, but couldn't fit in the prerequisite Improved Overrun. I couldn't figure out a good way to achieve its slingshot and settled for simply achieving its effects with the trample universal ability. Clinging child gives it the kokomoa child, which can be knocked off in game by targeting it. I'm not one to encourage violence against children which is why it's simply knocked off by a crit here and then it immediately flees. Some GMs might want to play out the PCs chasing down and murdering the baby monkey, but that's up to them. However, landing that crit and knocking that child off will trigger its parent's wrath, allowing it to draw upon greater might at a heavy cost to its AC. Finally, to mimic the effects of the gogomoa using its webbing to grab objects and throw them at the player is its web hurling. The gogomoa can throw a variety of objects in MH, including poisonous plants and giant boulders that it tears from the ground, and rather than making an ability that took up half the page to explain all that, I just aimed to represent the latter. Web hurling also covers its ability to move about rapidly and in a three-dimensional space with ease.
Pathfinder 1e:
When a kokomoa is riding on its parent's back in Monster Hunter, you can see it pointing out targets to the gogomoa, almost signaling who to attack. The PF2e Protective Parents plays into that a bit, the kokomoa granting an attack bonus to its parent, and it ended up becoming a central part of the gogomoa's design. Its primary attacks have a moderate bonus to hit for its level and moderate damage with its anchored object having a low bonus but high damage. With the kokomoa mounted, its bonuses increase to high and moderate, and knocking the kokomoa often brings that bonus back down again - but increases its damage to high and extreme, respectively. This is balanced by it also taking a hefty hit to its AC.
Rather than have it charge from the treetops as the 1e version does, the gogomoa borrows from the barbarian's Impressive Landing with its Heavy Landing reaction. This deals much heavier damage but only has a chance of causing a foe to become flat-footed. Aside from being able to web up a single target, the gogomoa can web up an entire area thanks to its innate web spell. I was also able to better design its web slingshot ability in the form of Swing Shot allowing it to launch itself while using a claw swipe to deal its damage. Also, the alternate Smash and Grab ability is just me playing into monkeys being classic tricksters and when mixed with spiders, they obviously have some sticky fingers.
Pathfinder 2e:
In my effort to include some stuff with each MH critter, I ended up building a kokomoa animal companion as a more dexterous primate in comparison to the ape while mixing it some spider-like abilities. I initially did this because I wasn't sure how best to make gear for it, but then I had an idea to build a gear based on its abilities rather than the actual armor and weapon built from it.
And that item is the swing sling gauntlets for all players who want to be Spider-Man! This was a fun one to figure out and me and my testers felt they were balanced, but feel free to share your thoughts.
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Perturbed Parents: A battle with poachers causes the heroes to come into possession of a kokomoa that has been far removed from its natural habitat. Alone and scared, the kokomoa quickly bonds with the first party member to show it kindness. However, since its baby was stolen, a gogomoa had been tracking the poachers and quickly switched to the party. When it finally confronts them, it launches itself into battle with the assumption that they have stolen its young. If the heroes realize that the gogomoa is attacking them to retrieve its child, they can try to return the child to it, but such communication is difficult. The players might attempt Nature checks or use abilities such as wild empathy to successfully communicate their friendliness to the beast.
Monkey Business: A gang of kokomoa have been plaguing a town for some time, more a nuisance than an actual threat, but the townsfolk have grown tired of their antics. Some feel reluctant about ordering the actual killing of the creatures and simply ask the heroes to find their nest and chase them off. In tracking down their grove, the heroes discover that it is a collection of orphaned kokomoa under the guidance of a gogomoa. This gogomoa is especially protective of its wards, and should the heroes fight it on its home turf, the kokomoa will throw fruits, stones, and other random objects at the heroes.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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