The sorceress grumbled to herself under her breath, pulling her furs tighter about her as she glared accusatorily towards the barbarian and ranger up ahead. They showed no signs of the coldness that bit into her bone, and she resented them for it. However, glaring at them required her to lift her face upwards and that only exposed her to the blistering wind, so she managed only a few seconds of glower before dropping her gaze. She trudged through the snow that reached to her knees, her complaints lost on the keening cry of the wind. Focused on her feet and the frost as she was, she failed to notice her companions halt until the ran into them – and the bard into her. Before she could launch into a fresh tirade, the wind grew harder, its howling sharper. Suddenly, a shape emerged from the swirling snow, a slender shape on wide, flaring wings. A pair of horns grew from a beaked head and a fanned tail caught the wind, holding it aloft in the storm. It roared once more, its cry mixing with the mountain’s howling as golden eyes fixed on the intruders.
I haven’t made a MonHun creature since last year, so it’s good to be back and with one of my favorites! MH is almost comfortable to build within at this point and so I took the opportunity to add something that I started doing with the Horizon Zero Dawn monsters in the form of Components. With the legiana already being designed as a skirmisher, featuring a high Armor Class with Hit Points between low and moderate (which is in turn influenced by its various weaknesses and immunities), the AC for its components is extreme. It only takes one or two hits to break them, but I had a player suggest that it was still too hard to hit them with too little benefit to make it worthwhile. I think they’re fine, but let me know your thoughts – I might have to figure out something else for them going forward.
Keeping true to the legiana’s design, I built it as skirmisher that flits and flies about the battlefield, but there might be times where it wants to stay in place. Given its mastery over flight, it has the Nimble Flier free action ability, which just lets it catch a thermal and hover for a round. At the same time, it does have options such as Freezing Flight, inspired by the nightmare’s Flaming Gallop but allowing flight and dealing cold damage, and Icicle Realm, which actually comes from Monster Hunter Stories. The ability might be a bit weird design wise, since it affects an area below the legiana. This is its big area effect with limited use area damage and a high DC Reflex save. This high value DC is common among its abilities that allow it. In addition to those abilities, it has some effects that incorporate Strikes into them. Of those, its Spiral Dive is the most straightforward. Essentially, it is just Powerful Charge, but it requires the legiana to descend to gain its benefit, which increases the normally high damage of its jaws to extreme damage. Alternatively, it has Frost Flip, which I might have juiced up too much. It does have the flourish trait, which prevents it from being spammed, but this has a tail Strike, unlimited use area damage, and then also creates uneven ground – which is kind of brutal in Pathfinder Second Edition. If you take the legiana for a spin and think this ends up being too much, I think you could drop it to a moderate DC and be good there. Rounding out the legiana’s arsenal is its Shriek Shriek, a high DC Fortitude save that is all about debuffing foes. I don’t usually includes roars from MH because they’re a bit too ubiquitous, but its shrill cry feels distinct enough for the legiana to have an ability based off of it (its variant species is even named after it!). The stunned and deafened is pretty rough, so creatures are then immune to it for a minute.
When it came to designing some gear for the legiana, I was inspired by the armor set skill that increases the charging power of bows and made a legiana bow. Given that I made the legiana a level 8 creature and that I wanted to make its item around that level, I debated including a frost rune on it as that is also a level 8 item. However, it felt too integral to the theme not to include it. The legia snowfletcher gets to actually represent a bit of the bow’s Dragonpiercer with the likes of its Freezing Flight, creating a line effect of cold that should be the right numbers, based off of everything I found. The once per minute activation might seem like a bit much, but I was a bit inspired by a different magic bow I found within the remaster, the splithead bow. That’s a level seven bow with a rune and an ability that doesn’t have any limitations. It also continually heals its wielder, so all of that still kind of feels like less than I gave the legia snowfletcher, but I do like to play it a bit more cautious.
PATHFINDER 2e:
BLUE'S D&D:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Cold From the Mountain: The heroes are hired to investigate a pack of legiana upon a mountain. While these legiana have always been known to be territorial, they've expanded their area recently and have started to encroach upon a trade route running alongside the mountain. The heroes can simply slay the legiana, but that doesn't solve the problem. In a few short months, the legiana become a problem again. To solve the problem, the heroes may have to investigate the mountain itself where they discover that an adult white dragon has taken over the legiana roost and is driving them to harass travelers. If left alone for too long, this interaction may start producing shrieking legiana.
Snowfall: The heroes find themselves beset by a legiana ridden by an archer that has managed to tame it. The rider guides the legiana to go for harassing strikes, diving by with Freezing Flight or making Spiral Dives before rising into the air once more. While it does, the archer continues to take shots at the players, possibly forcing the players to contend with an almost entirely aerial adversary.
This frigid fury flies with finesse and ferocity, its flight freeing frosty flurries to freeze foes until they are forced to flee in fright.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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