The barbarian moves cautiously through the dungeon halls, eyes probing the darkness as he keeps his axe aloft. Behind him, his party moves with similar concern, staves ready, arrows nocked, and spells hovering upon their lips. The halls open to a cavernous room filled with gore and the odor of death. With his back to his companions, the barbarian inaudibly gulps while he hears the sorcerer gagging at the stench and sight. At the other end of the room sits the heavy door that guards their goal and with a barely noticeable shudder, he begins to march resolutely towards it. But as he steps forward, a howling sound erupts from the darkness seconds before a misshapen figure follows it, racing towards the party with arms raised. The arms end in hideous, bony blades and as a chill settles in the guts of the body, more corpses shift and begin to rise.
It was not part of my original plan to build this creature because I thought it was too similar to existing creatures. But enough people asked for it that I figured I should probably get around to building at least the classic form of the necromorph, the slasher from Dead Space. Obviously, this is an undead creature but given its association with an alien artifact, I also liked making it an aberration. A major facet of the slasher is that its body is extremely durable, even able to survive decapitation. However, its Limbs are vulnerable. I took inspiration from the hydra but went a step further and made the limbs uniquely targetable. The body uses only a moderate AC with high HP but also has a minor resistance to physical damage, reflecting that durability. Meanwhile, its limbs use an extreme Armor Class but instead have a tenth of its body's Hit Points with a weakness to slashing to represent how they are cut off. I also wanted to represent the crippling of its limbs, leading to the debilitating effects when removed. Though instead of killing a slasher at three limbs, they are killed at four since Pathfinder 2e has mechanics that can make hitting the limbs very easy.
The slasher's claws use a high attack bonus with moderate damage while I kept the acid spit, an occasional mutation rather than a standard ability, to a low attack bonus. Able to wrap up enemies in its limbs, its claws also have Grab, which leads into the Jaws ability. This is borrowed from the zombie shambler and is based off of the kill screen of the slasher where it devours Isaac Clarke. Rend was a natural fit for a creature named for its claws while its second-to-last ability, Savage, is a sort of intersection between the two. It requires a wrapped-up victim but then gives the slasher two claw attacks, similar to a Flurry of Blows. If it manages to land both of these blows, it maintains its grab, meaning it doesn't have to spend another action on it, and can follow it up with Rend - and still have an action left over. A bit ironically, the last ability I'm going to describe is probably the first one that the slasher will use - Shrieking Rush. This reaction is limited to starting a battle and is meant to represent the jump scares associated with the primary enemy of a horror video game.
Pathfinder 2e:
For the 1e version, I again referenced the hydra to figure out how I wanted its vital limbs to function. In this case, it is a sunder attempt against the slasher's limbs, which obviously goes against its higher CMD rather than its Armor Class. I had to work around and figure out its shrieking approach a bit as it doesn't quite work as a reaction in 1e, but I'm happy with how it turned out. Finally, designing unique ranged attacks in 1e is a bit of a hassle, so I changed spit acid to a small area effect.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Home is Where the Horror Is: A terrible storm forces the heroes to seek shelter while out adventuring, leading them to a lone abode. However, this dwelling isn't as empty as its rundown appearance suggests and the heroes find the markings of a cult within. If they explore the basement, they are beset by a slasher bursting from the dark, the fruits of the cult's worship.
Party Crashing: The heroes encounter a crashed ship - whether an airship or one at sea - and their attempts to explore find only the dead. However, the ship is carrying a terrible artifact, the Marker. This may cause the heroes to make periodic Will saves to resist its influence and also causes the dead around them to rise as slasher that savagely tear at the would-be explorers. This could be a simple encounter or the lead-in to a larger adventure.
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.
I'd also appreciate you checking out the video on the slasher from the YouTube channel I started. It's a nice short one though if you want a bit more, you can also check out the Monster Mash where we tested the slasher.
Have a monstrous Monday!
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