The party braced against the flurry of wings, fangs, and screeching, the fighter throwing up his shield to protect the rogue. With their vision obscured by the fluttering swarm, they could only hear the heavy wingbeats of something massive overhead along with pushing gusts of wind. The ground shook as something landed and the snapping creatures began to recede. As they gathered upon a singular point, the party gazed upon a great dragon covered in dark scales with fins raising along its head. Jagged wings spready from its powerful body and it perched upon powerful limbs that the strange swarm settled upon. It eyed them with an imperious gaze before it raised its head in a roar that seemed to shake the sky.
Sorry for the late post, folks! I had to wake up especially early for work today and it was honestly too early for me to want to put together this post as well.
Quick rundown - the malzeno is an elder dragon from Monster Hunter, featuring in the Sunbreak expansion of Rise. It is built with a high Armor Class but only moderate Hit Points as I included a way for it to restore some of its health. Having survived symbiosis with the qurios for so long, it uses a high Fortitude and is a fairly capable dodger, thus using a moderate Reflex. Its attacks have a high bonus and deal damage from just above low (its tail) to high (its jaws).
Central to the malzeno is its bloodened state, which is usually achieved by the qurios feeding it life energy they sap. To that end, it has Qurio Swarm as a three-action unlimited use ability, which doesn't deal direct damage - it instead inflicts drained to match the concept as well as persistent bleed damage that limits healing, which is meant to resemble its bloodblight. With this ability, as well as Drink Blood based off of its pin attack, it can then use Blood Rush. This is meant to resemble its bloodened state, but has mechanical benefits based on rage though instead of temporary HP, it makes the malzeno quickened. This quickened is meant to play into its Duke's Dash - this appears to be a teleportation effect in MH but is explained as it simply moving so fast that it just likes like it is teleporting. But Pathfinder is a setting of magic and mysticism, so I decided to give this action the teleportation trait. The suddenness of this can leave foes unprepared, making them off-guard to its next attack.
In addition to these somewhat connected abilities, the malzeno has a few other tools in its arsenal. Its breath can superheat the ground, causing it to detonate, which is represented through Detonating Breath. I've used this concept before of a line that blossoms into an area but this time around, I figured there should be some sort of penalty for getting caught in both areas. The malzeno can unleash unleash waves through the ground that, in MH, deal considerable damage and launch the hunter skyward. To differentiate it a bit from Detonating Breath, in feel if nothing else, Erupting Vent is an unlimited use ability with damage to match that and an effect akin to the spell geyser. It can also toss enemies about with its Fling, based off of the same ability of the tyrannosaurus in PF2e as well as how it throws lunagaron during their turf wars. Then, it can catch enemies out of the air with its Impale, a reaction that again, is similar to the turf war against lunagaron. This could lead to some fun interactions - if the malzeno starts its turn grappling prey, it could Drink Blood, Fling away its empty juice box, Impale it just in case there's anything left in it and then Fling it again.
Pathfinder 2e:
As an aside, the teleportation effect of the malzeno is named 'Duke's' in both forms because the weapons made from it bear the same epithet. But this is a fairly faithful translation from 2e to 1e - a lot of the stuff that I added as abilities for the 2e malzeno are instead feats, such as Dimensional Assault and Fling. I did add some DR as I've done for many high level MH monsters because it feels slightly more necessary for monsters in 1e than it does in 2e.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
I'm gonna skip encounter hooks because a lot of creatures at these levels shouldn't just be random encounters. They should be prominent enemies in the campaign, if not bosses in it.
But that is all Three Lords completed! 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.
If you have the time, I'd appreciate it if you'd check out our latest video on this monster, which is again voiced by Blue because I'm still under the weather. The dude is a professional and I honestly might have him do the rest of the month because he's so much faster than me, and I am falling behind!
Have a monstrous Monday!
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