The heavy, spine-covered beast pulled itself from its burrow in the earth, snarls reverberating from its fang-filled maw. Claws dug into the earth as it slid atop the soil and glowing, purple eyes fixed upon the party of heroes. Snarling back, the barbarian tightened his grip on his axe but before he could charge forward, the nayzaga’s back arched and spines soared, whistling through the air. However, they didn’t strike any of the heroes, instead planting themselves in the ground where they crackled with electricity. Bolts arced between them, traveling up the spires before reaching the top and erupting towards the heroes. The ranger pitched to the side, managing to avoid the errant bolt, but the barbarian took the blast fully, stumbling slightly as he did. A rattling sound, akin to a wheezing laugh, emerged from the fearsome maw of the beast as it eyed its prey hungrily.
Man, this monster has such a goofy picture. Looks like it's made out of play-doh.
Anyway, sorry for the late post! Today's monster is the nayzaga from Dauntless, a shock behemoth commonly encountered at levels eight through eleven. I built it in between those levels, designing it as a level 9 animal, based on both the shocker lizard being on animal and the quillshot I've built in the past being an animal. The nayzaga is something of a cross between these two creatures though substantially stronger than either. As a shock behemoth, it is immune to its element but is weak to the terra element. I struggled to represent this in the past, but after looking at the baykok, I was convinced to include a weakness to earth, which should only proc off of spells and effects with the earth trait not just when it's touching the ground.
I built the nayzaga as a brute that has a little more maneuverability than usual since the nayzaga in Dauntless has a strange habit of sliding around and into hunters. This is represented in two abilities - its reaction Slip Away and its Slide Tackle. The former is mechanically based off of the monk's Deflect Arrows feat but its concept is based off of this strange movement that the nayzaga does when its targeted by an attack from too far away where it will slide to the side and dodge the attack. It's a little thing, but I like having these fun little reactions for monsters in 2e, and this was a way to include one for the nayzaga. The nayzaga sacrifices accuracy of its jaws Strike for damage and I mention this now because it is why I ultimately decided Slide Tackle would only be one action. The nayzaga has to almost move its full movement to get the Improved Knockdown from this ability and the lower attack bonus of its jaws discourages overusing it.
As for the nayzaga's electrical abilities, it starts by borrowing the shocker lizard's Greater Electrolocation, which felt like a natural inclusion. But the core of its kit is its Launch Spines ability. In Dauntless, these spines remain in place and will periodically fire lightning balls at players that they can knock back at the nayzaga. This latter feature seemed too difficult to incorporate into the design, so I simply dropped it. As for the periodic release of electricity, requiring the GM to keep track of different cooldowns seemed like a hassle. Instead, it releases this balled lightning when first planted and then whenever it is targeted by an electric effect. I somewhat prefer this because it both encourages interactivity within the nayzaga's kit as well as the potential partnering with other creatures. Over on the Monster Monday Discord, we talked about making this a 1 to 3 action ability with more spikes placed based on actions spent, and I liked that. However, I didn't want it to plant spikes, have them damage a creature, and then have the nayzaga use its ability and trigger them again all in a single turn. Therefore, I built it as a 2 to 3 action ability.
However, because I want the nayzaga to be able to potentially use trigger these spines once or twice in a fight without having to rely on other creatures, and beyond their initial planting, I designed its Storm Strikes with a very low cooldown. This ability is functionally a breath weapon though flavored a little differently to match how it works in game. Finally, the nayzaga has a passive effect related to its electric abilities with Sickening Shocks. The shocked status in Dauntless, strangely, prevents the use of consumables. The condition that inflicts a similar effect in Pathfinder is actually sickened, so I included this feature as a fun nod to the Dauntless shocked effect.
Pathfinder 2e:
In Dauntless, a lot of the nayzaga equipment has some sort of healing effect - whether it be weapons restoring health or its armor pieces having the medic skill. With that in mind, I designed the gear for it to be a Medicine skill item that has an activated effect inspired by defibrillators.
Based off of the 1e shocker lizard, I built the nayzaga as a magical beast though I think it loses out a bit in this version. The Sidestep feat is meant to resemble its Slip Away but unfortunately only triggers off of melee attacks. Sickened doesn't quite work the same way in first edition as it does in second and I kind of kept it for consistency between the builds.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
King of the Shocker Lizards: Recently, a clutch of normally docile shocker lizards have become more ornery, attacking people that come across their territory where in the past, they would let creatures pass as long as they didn't bother the lizards. The heroes are asked to investigate the circumstances and investigating the area uncovers burrows beneath it. By tracing these burrows, the heroes discover that the reason for the shocker lizards acting up is a nayzaga has stumbled upon their nest. Mistaken by the lizards as a member of their species, they follow its will and defend it when the heroes come across it. Likely too weak to menace the heroes, the shocker lizards nevertheless fight alongside their leader, their shocks triggering its spines.
Again, sorry for the late post. I'm working early all this week and I have to wake up way too early to get this posted before I have to go in.
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. I had a good bit of fun making the nayzaga video though for some of these non-Monster Hunter creatures, it can be difficult to get art. There's also the nayzaga test, which was a good time! 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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