Monster Monday - Nef-Garmat

I've been away for a bit but am finally back! I missed you all, but I haven't been doing nothing - I made a Patreon! If you're interested in early access to what we make and some extra content, please check it out. That being said, let's get into it.

The rogue struggled through the sands, her feet sinking with each step before she managed to wrest them free. She grumbled, earning a deep chuckle from the fighter ahead of her who pointedly ignored her glare. Glancing down at her feet, she trudged forward only to find herself bumping into the broad back of the warrior mere seconds later. Stumbling slightly, she began a retort before noting the rigidness in his stance. Tilting her head, she signaled to the cleric and wizard behind her before coming alongside the fighter. At the top of the dune, they gazed down into what was supposed to be a fertile valley. What they found instead was sunbaked earth filled with cracks, the remnants of plant life, and an immense, draconic beast. Its hide was golden, glimmering in the light, but its face was an ominous, dark hue that almost resembled a canid death mask. Glowering red eyes fixed upon the intruders and as its grand wings spread and its tail swept through the air, it unleashed a deafening roar.

Nef-Garmat from Monster Hunter Explore

As for this supreme sultan of the sands, it seeks sublime, sparkling stones to sustain a supercharged state that is certain to send shocks and shivers through the staunchest of surveyors.

In designing the nef-garmat, I found myself having to create some very interesting abilities that I would not have expected from a creature on a phone game. We do feature some familiar abilities with Frightful Presence and Draconic Frenzy being fairly common abilities seen on true dragons if not other creatures. As is the standard for auras, I opted to use a moderate DC for it so there isn't much to talk about there but I did decide to have its Draconic Frenzy feature a tail Strike to make that a slightly more prominent part of its kit. This is because the nef-garmat makes frequent use of its tail, wielding it to search the sands for crystals to empower itself with. This comes through in its Drain ability, which I have dealing unlimited use area damage at a high DC but since it's only a single action, I made sure that it had the flourish trait to keep the monster from spamming it. A perhaps more important aspect of this ability is that it lets the nef-garmat search for a Bio-Crystal.

I wasn't quite sure what determined the nef-garmat finding one of these crystals in Explore, so I sought to represent it with a flat check that is reduced by multiple uses of this - and its Sap Succor. I'm always a fan of fun reactions, and this encourages the nef-garmat to make tail Strikes against a multitude of enemies. Now, once a nef-garmat has a Bio-Crystal, it gets a sizable buff that is a bit of a cross between haste and a heightened heroism. However, while the nef-garmat starts with this crystal, it can be taken from the dragon and seized by the players. As long as they're fine with earning its ire.

There are some Bio-Crystal reliant abilities, but before we get to those, we should look at its Sand Trap. This takes heavy inspiration from the antlion trap spell and features an extreme DC since it's more crowd control than any actual damaging effect. Now, if a nef-garmat has one of its Bio-Crystals, we can explore another aspect of this with Detonate Trap, something that the nef-garmat can be observed doing for some AoE damage. In this case, it's between limited and unlimited use damage at a high DC. Honestly, it isn't the nef-garmat's BIG ability, so I used a more standard damage and just give it a low cooldown. However, the BIG ability is its Rising Earth. The nef-garmat is limited by its Bio-Crystal for this. Each Bio-Crystal only has the energy for one use of this so after the nef-garmat has used this, it needs to accept that it's one and done or go digging for a new crystal. This deals deal that limited use area damage but given its highly limited usage, I opted to use an extreme DC for its effects. In my mind, this just encourages the players to do what they can to deprive this dune-dwelling dragon of its treasure.

PF2e Nef-Garmat

Blue's D&D Nef-Garmat

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Honestly, when it comes to cooking up scenarios for elder dragons like these, I'm not certain 'encounter hook' is the right word. These are creatures deserving of having an entire section of a campaign being based around them. You shouldn't just drop one in on your player and honestly, when designing an encounter for it, I would tailor their arena to enhance the encounter. That may be something it can make use of or maybe something that the heroes can interact with. In a desert environment, you may have stone pillars that can be toppled for damage if they're struck with enough force or you could even having stone landings that the players can stand on that aren't subject to the Sand Traps as some fun features.

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Have a monstrous Monday!