Continuing the trend of Asian monsters I've been working on, we come to a creature that I'm not sure is actually from Chinese mythology. I can only find two sources for this creature - one that provided the art and one that provided the scant information I could find - but I guess I'll run with it regardless. So hold steady and behold - the lili!
What little information I could find on the lili detailed it as a sort of chimeric creature - a boar-like gremlin with the talons of a bird and the vocalizations of a canine. They're known to be mountain-dwellers and are said to be portents of earthquakes. Armed with this miniscule info, I set about building this bizarre little critter.
Working off one of the passages I found, I knew I wanted to give these things burrow, so tremorsense was a must-have. I didn't add scent until late when I decided that I wanted them to trigger avalanches to hunt sometime and I needed someway for them to find buried corpses so they could get at them and eat them. Basing some of the basic ideas for the creature off of a boar, I game the ferocity but decided not to push their hit points to far beyond average for their CR. For a brief period, I was considering giving their talons rend, but ultimately decided against it as that's not really the way I envisioned this creature fighting - it's more of a skirmisher that uses its full array of attacks only when backed into a corner. To feed into this skirmisher idea, I took Mobility, making it easier for them to dart in and out of combat. Tying into the stories of them being portents of earthquakes, I decided I wanted them to actually make earthquakes, but that seemed too big a task for a single CR 5 creature. Drawing upon the stampede ability seen on aurochs, I built earthshaking stampede, allowing them to create quakes that knock prey or foes prone and can bring down structures. I also included their howl ability as a sort of last-minute thing suggested by some of the viewers while I was building the monster, but I am quite happy with the ability.
Pathfinder First Edition
The hardest part about making a 2e version of the lili was determining how to make earthshaking stampede work. I ultimately put it on a reaction and kept its limit to once per round so that if one lili starts a stampede, another one can't at the end of their first one and bring everybody along again. I was going to put mountain stride under the first section of the stat block, but boggards have their swamp stride under the third section, so I decided to follow that example. Given the lower number of AoO's in 2e, I wasn't as worried about giving the creature some defense against them though I did ponder a while on whether I wanted the powerful charge to give a bonus on the to-hit, like with a boar, or some extra damage as with the sabosan. Obviously, I ultimately decided on the latter, and I think it sets the lili up for a nasty combo, consisting of opening with an earthshaking stampede, then the other two powerful charge creatures that were knocked prone by it, getting it then extra d6 while also using vicious gore.
Pathfinder 2e Version
Blue's D&D 5e Version (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/XSVlrnPq)
PLOT HOOKS
Rumble in the Streets: A nefarious individual lures a pack of lili into a small city before unleashing them to wreak havoc upon the settlement. The lili rampage through the town, causing untold devastation among the buildings and people. As the person behind unleashing the lili uses the confusion to enact their own machinations, the lili strike periodically, digging through the rubble to get at prey. The heroes must deal with the lili, but may also be called upon to help save people trapped in collapsed buildings. Even after slaying the lili, the heroes may be able to inspect their corpses to find hints that they were brought in from somewhere else.
Rock and Roll: While trekking through the mountains, the heroes cross into territory roamed by a pack of lili that begin hunting the intruders. The lili can be reasoned with if the heroes manage to come in contact with them, but they prefer staying back and creating pitfalls or other traps to waylay or hamper the heroes. Once they feel the heroes are tired out enough by their traps and other effects, they trigger an avalanche, forcing the heroes to flee or otherwise escape the avalanche before attacking them directly, even if they survived.
This was a fun little dude to work on. Next week, we're covering some more Monster Hunter creatures while I continue to work on more Asiatic beasts. I also have something special whipped up for Halloween. If you want to join in on the discussion about these ideas or just chat with people about some homebrew ideas, come check out our Discord: https://discord.gg/W4THAs5
Have a Monstrous Monday!
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