In the dark of the night, an owl hooted somewhere beyond the rogue’s vision. The fire of their camp had been doused, reduced to smoldering embers to allow those on guard duty to allow their eyes to adjust to the dark. Overhead, the stars and moon basked the forest in silvery light, making the rogue’s job easier but no less boring. She toyed with a shortsword, periodically sighing as she scanned the woods only to freeze as something moved in the corner of her eyes. Flipping her blade into her hand, she turned quickly but found nothing. Turning slowly, in the complete silence of the forest save for the creaking of trees and the occasional pop of the coals, she searched for the threat. Suddenly, a dark shadow rose above the trees, spreading wide wings and a golden pollen down upon her and her allies. As they awoke to the confusion, the malfestio gave a triumphant shriek.
Went back to working on another Monster Hunter creature, using the malfestio this time! I landed on magical beast for its creature type as while its abilities are justified in-game, they seem slightly too fantastical. Given the fact that it is a giant owl, I opted to give the malfestio a greater darkvision range than normal as well as the all-around vision ability to represent its ability to turn its head. Before I dive into more on the malfestio, I wouldn't to cover enrage mechanics. All monsters in Monster Hunter can go into a rage state, but it seems too much for every single creature to have and as such, it is something I often skip. While going enraged often adds a few new moves to a creature's kit, I usually attempt to work them into the larger whole of the monster. This leads to its wing claws attack being part of its regular attacks instead of only occasionally usable.
As for the rest of the abilities, while the malfestio is interesting, it's surprisingly simple. It has its attacks as well as Flyby Attack alongside feats to facilitate flying in and out of combat, such as Mobility. Beyond that, it can spread a confusion inducing powder in a radius with its confusing pollen, the effect of which is decidedly more potent than confusion in Monster Hunter. Its final ability is the line of sleep powder it can fire with its sleep ray.
Pathfinder 1e:
One of the main things I wanted to emulate with the 2e version of the malfestio was the flying attacks it performs, which I accomplished with Circling Attack and Flying Strafe. I originally had the latter hit with a wing claw, but I found that its talon didn't get enough use and wanted to incorporate that attack more into its kit. I also incorporated Scatter Powder to give it a fun reaction built around its pre-existing abilities. Given that both of its main abilities ultimately cause creatures to become flat-footed and its status as a nocturnal predator, I wanted to include Sneak Attack in its kit.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Into the Woods: Stories of bandits, monsters, and worse dwelling in the woods have always existed but have become more prominent and conflicting in the past several months. The heroes are asked to delve into the forest and discover whatever dwells there. The attacks to seem to occur mainly at night and those that have suffered them have very little information to share outside of stories that contradict each other. However, their wounds share similarities, being mainly slashing cuts that they sustained before they managed to flee. They do share that these attacks happened entirely at night. The heroes must set out into the woods at night and attempt to track down the malfestio that has been hunting within them.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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