The fighter titled his head, allowing the sweat to drip from his brow as he kept his gaze fixed on the snarling beast, weapon at the ready. The vast, crimson monster rose over him, unbothered by the intense heat of its realm, as it met the warrior's glare with its own bright blue gaze. As he tightened his grip on his blade, he felt a light tap on his arm and spared a glance to the rogue who gestured back - towards a creature similar to the one that the fighter faced but blue in coloration with orange eyes. It prowled from behind them, a low growl emanating from its bristling maw as flames licked along its body. With a labored sigh, the fighter set his stance, trying to keep an eye on both creatures as the rogue drew a pair of long, slender daggers.
For this week, I've built the mated pair of elder dragons from Monster Hunter, lunastra and teostra. Despite different names and appearances, they are similar enough that they can use a singular stat block with only a few differences to make them distinct. From what I researched, these changes were mostly implemented in Monster Hunter World.
In some of the work and rework I've done on recent Monster Hunter creatures, I've found level 18 to be a good fit for most elder dragons. With that name, their appearance, and the fact that they are immune to paralysis and sleep, actually making them dragons felt like a solid fit even if most of MH's so-called 'wyverns' wouldn't be considered dragons. Within the game and lore, their body produces intense heat that deals damage through mere proximity and is very easily represented by the Superheated aura. Throughout a fight, lunastra/teostra will build up power, charging up to modify their attacks and unleash even more powerful abilities. To this end, I designed Fire Up, which is designed based off of the psychic's Unleash Psyche in regards to how its triggered though requiring an action with the fire trait rather than a spell being cast.
The lunastra and teostra have only two actions that can initially trigger its Fire Up - its Sparking Fangs and Flamethrower. The former is based on the lore of the creatures where they ignite the blast dust that they create by clacking their fangs together and creating sparks as though their teeth are flint and steel. Mechanically, this raises the damage of their jaws Strike from moderate to high at the cost of two actions. Meanwhile, Flamethrower is just a breath weapon with a fancy name. If the monster saves it for after they become Fired Up, its Flamethrower can also inflict persistent fire damage, ala fireblight from Monster Hunter.
They are fairly mobile creatures, at least in Rise, and so they have two abilities to represent that, both of which locks them into a specific pattern. Its Pounce ability is the more standard of the two, but lacking the usual caveat regarding the creature being hidden since they aren't particularly stealthy creatures. This represents the move where the lunastra-teostra springs across the battlefield, with the fired up aspect of it specifically recalling the blast dust it will sometimes leave behind and then ignite. On the other hand, Divebomb forces the monster into a Fly and then a jaws Strike with its fired up effect adding the explosion it deals upon landing when its aura is charged. Since this ability includes flight accompanied by an attack while remaining a single action, I also added the flourish trait to it so that they can't abuse it too frequently.
Unrelated to its fired up status and the effects it gives is its Scatter Dust ability, which is one of the ways that the pyro pair are differentiated. Teostra scatters his dust around him and ignites it for a simple pop of damage whereas lunastra's dust is a bit heavier and lays upon the ground, which she then ignites to inflict hazardous terrain. Since I wanted to keep this a single action ability, given that it initially deals no damage, I made its duration limited and damage slightly lower since it should be accompanying another pop of damage by whatever triggers it. Another quick little action they can pop off is Powerful Wings, which allows them to knock enemies off their feet or reposition dust they have spread into areas that enemies moved out of.
Finally, the pair each have their own super attack that I felt were distinct enough to have their own name and entries. Going alphabetically, the lunastra wields a Heatwave, which in-game knocks players back while causing them to stumble and dealing persistent chip damage. Conceptually, I liked the drained condition for its effects because while often associated with necromantic effects, I liked the idea of it representing heatsickness/heatstroke. The fatigued of critical failure further plays into this. However, the teostra's Supernova is a simple and massive pop of damage. But the important part of these abilities is that the pair can combine these abilities, based off of their Bond in Monster Hunter World. To build the way these abilities interact, I actually referenced the bison and its Rolling Thunder ability. Having them inflict both effects in the area isn't too great an issue given the general immensity of their effects, but more importantly, it makes the DC of their effects almost to the extreme value.
With their wide array of abilities, lunastra and teostra are slightly less capable tin regular attacks, using only a moderate bonus for their attacks and not exceeding a moderate damage value for their level.
Pathfinder 2e:
I've decided that whenever I design gear for an elder dragon, if its appropriate, I am going to build it as an apex item. Given the majesty of these creatures, I favored designing it as a Charisma item, but its other effects are based on the armors of the pair. Teostra armor offers crit and sharpness-based skills, leading into the deadly trait it grants. On the other hand, the lunastra armor offers a wide array of skills, and I leaned into the wide-range skill with its activated effect.
Lunastra-Teostra Gear:
I was able to use the Buffeting Wings feat in Pathfinder 1e to achieve the effects of its Powerful Wings, but it is otherwise a pretty faithful translation. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good way to do their fired up effect and it was ultimately something I had to abandon. Instead, their ultimate abilities simply suffer a long cooldown.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
Elder dragons tend to be such big creatures that it can be difficult coming up with an encounter hook for them. They should typically be endgame creatures and possibly part of a larger storyline, less a single encounter hook.
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.
A few weeks ago, I started a YouTube channel called Ready to Die that is about making monsters and essentially just a video format of what I do here. Obviously, this week has the lunastra & teostra video as well as the test of the pair. 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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