The party has been lost for days, wandering the woods in search of a town that had skipped out on paying its taxes for decades now. Their journey has been plagued with fitful sleep, horrific nightmares, and visions of terrors they had long thought pass. It had been offered to them as a simple job, merely collecting the dues of a frontier town that had skipped out on them for so long. Directions had been admittedly vague but the party had been confident enough when setting out. They aren’t sure how long it’s been since, but that confidence has vanished as has their patience. The wizard’s claims of seeing something in the woods that were once met with mocking jokes of paranoia are now met with open derision and insults. Their latest discovery has only worsened the mood but they all struggle to tear their eyes away from the grisly sight. Hanging from the trees, impaled upon a stout branch, was the disemboweled body of a man, his blood long since dried. As they stared at the entrails that spilled from the corpse to the forest floor, they began to wonder if they would ever escape the forest.
Art by David Romero
Received a request to build a monster from the horror film The Ritual, which is a pretty decent watch if you have about an hour and a half to spare. When it came to deciding her CR, I wanted to build her at a level akin to other divine beings that are related to a specific deity. In designing her, I initially wanted to give her some manner of DR but then remembered that within the movie, she was injured by an axe even if it didn't seem to slow her down that much. I instead settled for a higher HP pool, resistance to mental effects, and spell resistance while including the same weakness it displayed in the film - an inability to leave its domain. Its myriad of natural attacks are drawn less from what it actually displays and more from its appearance though I wanted it to be able to grab creatures so that it can do its habit of hanging and impaling them in trees, which is obviously represented in her impale ability. While this is normally how she executes creatures or otherwise displays her kills, I wanted to work this into being a regular part of her arsenal that she could use in combat while keeping it balanced.
Given the state of her victims, I wanted to include the rend ability as well as trample to cover some of her actions towards the end of the film. Her assortment of spells cover the cruel tricks and effects she does throughout the film and are all geared towards giving her that horror movie feel, which is fitting because I think several of them came from Horror Adventures. Her feats are a mix of several combat abilities and spell stuff, such as Traumatic Spell-Like Ability, which lets her leave those that survive her phantasmal killer with nightmares. I had considered going deeper into spell feats for her but did run into issues with spell-like abilities not actually being spells and, honestly, it's very ambiguous whether Spell Focus even applies to her spell-like abilities. Rounding out her design, I gave her woodland stride for the ease with which she moves through the woods she makes her home as well as camouflage to reflect her ability to meld seamlessly into the background as she demonstrates several times throughout the film.
Pathfinder 1e
With the 2e version, I didn't try to change much. I did want to work in her being something related to outsiders given her otherworldly origins and thought I could work that in by giving her the Fiend typing since 2e has less of an issue with multi-type creatures. I opted for making her innate spells occult in nature as I wanted them to have more of an esoteric, horror vibe to them and that tradition suited that idea best in my eyes. As always, I had to try to do a balancing act of her various attacks, making all of them worth doing either through their own traits or with related abilities, such as her claw, Improved Grab, and Impale. I think I managed to do so decently enough, but I did want to give it a few more tools in its arsenal. With the finale of the movie in mind as well as its followers, I decided to add Demand Supplication. While not exact to what her cult receives from her, I personally like how to interacts with the world around her.
Pathfinder 2e
Blue's D&D 5e:
No encounter hooks this time around because her limited range means that it's a little hard to come up with ideas that aren't just going to be the movie she starred in again.
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.
Until next time, have a Monstrous Monday!
Commenti