The aged fighter breathed a sigh of relief as he settled in the sand of the dazzling beach, settling into a much-needed vacation alongside his companions. The wizard had settled in the shade of a tree with a thick tome, the rogue floated in the crystal blue waters, and the cleric contented himself with building a castle out of sand, carefully molding and sculpting it. With a careful glance at all of them and a quick check to his side to ensure his trusty sword was still there, the tired man leaned back and let himself drift into sleep. He was swiftly awoken by a shout from the rogue and he shot up, sword flying into his grasp. She charged into the beach, smashing the cleric’s architectural endeavors, but there were no time for complaints as the water surged after her. Breaking from the crest of the wave was a reptilian head, resembling an alligator with a hooded, sinuous neck. A long, powerful body covered in cerulean scales followed after it and arcs of electricity leapt between red spines emerging along its heavily armored back. Its roar of challenge shook the earth and the fighter sighed as he readied his blade – once again putting his vacation on hold.
I wanted to take a crack at building the lagiacrus from Monster Hunter, an aquatic monster with considerable electrical powers. In researching lagiacrus, I noted that many of its powers were about area control, used to funnel foes for its powerful AoE attacks. I settled on CR 13 for lagiacrus as it readily tangles with everything from rathalos to nargacuga to deviljho and even comes out on top of several of those fights. Lagiacrus notably has lower initial defenses, AC and HP, and a weakness to the most common element (as is true to the lore), but I balanced this with multiple AoOs thanks to Combat Reflexes as well as the ability to more frequently trigger jolt to punish the people that hit it. Jolt is meant to resemble the lagiacrus's ability to surround its ability in electricity though I altered the implementation of it somewhat to better fit the Pathfinder system. The tail attacks of the lagiacrus seemed too few for me to make it a regular attack, so I left it with a single bite attack, making it a primary natural attack that it buffs with its Vital Strike. Since a number of lagiacrus weapons have an affinity score, I wanted to include that concept in the lagiacrus itself, which led to the inclusion of the Critical Focus, Improved Critical, and related feats.
Lagiacrus has three attacks that allow it to control its environment and manipulate the battlefield - charged spittle, lightning spheres, and vortex. The first of those is meant to resemble its ability to spit crackling electricity on the ground for a short period while lightning spheres covers the circling balls of electricity that it can summon. Making it function like greater flaming sphere worked well with its Vital Strike feats as it can manipulate its lightning spheres and still make a bone-crunching bite in a single turn. Finally, I couldn't find a video that demonstrated its vortex ability but multiple pieces of lore and information I looked up talked about it, so I decided to include it. Fortunately, there were already some rules behind this complicated ability, meaning that I didn't have to reinvent the wheel or anything. In particular, I based the lagiacrus's whirlpool creation power off of the lorelei.
Pathfinder 1e:
Given that the lagiacrus has one of the most easily exploitable weaknesses in the game, I placed its HP towards the high bracket though its AC remains moderate. I opted for a lower save for its Defensive Jolt since it can trigger it against any melee attack. I also wanted to include a penalty on saves for enemies wielding or encased in metal as some attacks and spells already have. I debated making the penalty bigger and still think maybe I should have. While I had something to rely on for the 1e vortex, I had to mostly build the 2e Whirlpool from the ground up. I'm happy with what it is, but would appreciate any feedback that you have on it!
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Shock Therapy: A mad scientist has managed to capture a lagiacrus that she is utilizing as a power source for cruel experiments. When the heroes are tasked with infiltrating the scientist’s laboratory and putting a stop to her, the route in they are given leads up from the basement. This puts them on a direct route with the lagiacrus who they can free to ruin her operations. However, the torment heaped upon the lagiacrus has hardened it while also blinding it with rage and pain, driving it to lash out even at its saviors. Those who have the ability to communicate with beasts or animals might be able to somehow calm it down and even unleash it upon the rest of the castle if they can, but doing so is difficult and dangerous.
Shock and Jaw: A coastal town is beset by a lagiacrus that has recently taken up habitation along its shore. With an upcoming annual fishing tournament that helps the town sustain itself on the horizon, the leadership of the town turn to the heroes to remove the lagiacrus. The first challenge to this is discovering the lagiacrus's lair as the beast only ever surfaces to feed and will disappear back there to rest and heal if the heroes drive it off. Further complicating matters, there is a time limit on their hunt - they need to remove the lagiacrus before the fishing tournament and before it devastates the local fish population too deeply. On top of that, entrepreneurial locals and other hunters have also shown up to claim the bounty on the lagiacrus but mostly just end up in the way.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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