Black sand swirled and gathered under the surprisingly nimble paw of the burly, furry beast. Its bulky body resembled an immense raccoon with a tail that more resembled a morningstar, spikes emerging from its dark bristles. As it shaped the swirling sand into a jar, mimicking the others rising from the black sand beach behind it, the ranger motioned the rest of the party to keep silent. They crept behind rocky outcroppings and half-formed structures made of the sand, easing their ways past the territorial gritdog that had claimed the beach. As the fuming barbarian pushed off the sand with a step, it shifted beneath his foot and he pitched forward. He threw out a hand, catching himself on one of the jars before he pitched into view. The ranger shot him a glare, which he answered with a thumbs-up – before his weight caused the sand to collapse, setting off a chain reaction that led to sand spilling onto the gritdog and its latest creation. It watched as it work disintegrated beneath it before its glare flashed towards the barbarian and it unleashed a chittering cry.
The gritdog is a monster from Wild Hearts based on a racoon/tanuki and one of the few not infused with plant matter. Instead, it has lodestones throughout its body that allow it to manipulate magnetic forces – primarily in the form of shaping and wielding iron sand. It periodically has to gather more sand in Wild Hearts to recharge its ability and this aspect inspired a core feature in the gritdog. Rather than having abilities that run off of cooldowns, it has to spend ‘sand points’ on them as defined by its Ferrous Sand ability, causing them to function more akin to focus points rather than more traditional effects. It refreshes them at the start of each day or by using Draw in Sand to restore them during combat – while risking the chance of provoking Attacks of Opportunity since this leave it open to attacks in its home game. Three sand points sounded like a solid number and also allowed me to design Draw in Sand to be 1 to 3 actions, regaining an additional sand point with each action.
When it comes to actually spending its points, it has two damaging abilities to do so. One of its most common offensive abilities is to cause iron spikes to erupt from the ground, which is represented by Erupting Spikes. It does this in various shapes and areas, leading to the different AoEs it can affected and I kept the damage a tiny bit lower since it can kind of spam it with sand points. On the other hand, its Steel Belly Drum requires 2 sand points to use, affording it higher damage. This is a strange in-game ability that I don’t entirely understand the lore behind as it draws in targets before unleashing a powerful burst that down foes. The initial pull uses a higher than usual DC since it doesn’t deal damage while the actual pop, which deals sonic damage to play into the drum, uses a more standard DC.
When the gritdog enrages, it will turn its tail into a riot of blades that it swings around. This seemed like a really cool design that I wanted to expand on with Forge Tail, allowing it to spend a sand point to adapt to the circumstances it’s facing. This was a chance for me to play around with some of the weapon traits of 2e while the in-game effect is represented by the effect it gets from spending 2 sand points. Related, it has Attack of Opportunity so that it has additional opportunities to use its forged tail.
Finally, the gritdog is able to make objects similar to the karakuri of Wild Hearts with the most common option being the wall. As such, it can spend 2 sand points and two actions to create a Wall of Iron Sand. This didn’t prove terribly useful during the test, maybe slowing down the players by an action, but that happened on a beach. In different environments, this could prove a more powerful ability, walling off or completely trapping adversaries. I kept this at 2 sand points because effects like this can be powerful and I didn’t want this to be something that the gritdog could spam heavily without repercussions.
I went for a held item this time around, inspired by its use of sand to give the heroes a chance to do the same. It can magnetically manipulate items with its mage hand effect but you can also scatter its contents over a creature. This effect is based on the charged javelin spell mainly because it works for the concept and is a neat ability.
Pathfinder 2e:
When designing the 1e gritdog, I had to work around its tail slap being a secondary attack, which I tried to do with options such as Weapon Focus and powerful blows. Forge tail was lost in the translation to 1e because of the lack of traits for first edition. I also had to redesign how its sand worked, using cooldowns on its ability that it can reduce by gathering sand. I kept this as a move action but made it provoke attacks of opportunity to represent how doing so in Wild Hearts leaves the gritdog vulnerable.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOK
Ironing Out Some Issues: Lately, strange shapes and structures have been appearing on a local beach that have frightened the locals. Worried about their origin and what they could entail, they hire the heroes to investigate the happenings. Nothing happens during the day, but if the heroes watch the beach during the night, they can discover a gritdog raising these structures. The creature isn't inherently violent and the structures are simply it practicing its ability to shape sand. It defends itself from intruders upon the beach at nighttime and lairs during the day, but is mostly peaceful. The heroes can attempt to chase it off but may also try to communicate the reality of the situation to the superstitious townsfolk.
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.
I've been keeping at making vids for the Ready to Die YouTube channel. If you prefer or know people who prefer listening rather than reading, you can check out the gritdog video! We had some issues with the stream, but I tried to stitch it together for the Monster Mash! Please check them out or share them with others, and then let me know what you think. Still learning how to best make these.
Have a monstrous Monday!
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