Monster Monday - Nezahal, Primal Tide

I started playing Magic around the same time I started playing D&D. I've continued playing both over the years with the occasional hiatus, but both are games that I enjoy playing and, more importantly, have enjoyed the time I spent playing them with my friends. Being able to combine these two hobbies together is a joy, even when it was a creature as tough to puzzle out as Nezahal, Primal Tide.

It was tough figuring out what route to take Nezahal as a Pathfinder creature. His abilities lend very little aid as to what his card should be, but I definitely tried. I started with the base skeleton of an elasmosaurus though that didn't provide too much. I wanted Nezzie to have more than just a bite, so I added in some flipper slaps. A joke one of my friends and I had made during the design process was to give him infinite flipper attacks to reflect his 'no maximum hand size.' This idea was of course dropped. I added in the usual behemoth traits and then started looking at his abilities. 'Can't be countered' - feels like SR sort of covers that. 'No maximum hand size' - this is the one that I couldn't come up with a good ability for. The next ability, card draw when opponents' cast noncreature spells, I did have something for. Mystic Flood is an ability akin to one I've done for another monster I created, and I feel like it feeds into that idea of 'casting magic at him can get him more magic.' Finally came the 'exile' ability. The best idea I had for this was an ability for him to cross planes, I wanted one that made sense so I went with the Elemental Plane of Water, and I wanted it to be more precise than plane shift, leading me to the usage of gate.

Other than that, capsize felt like a fitting ability for him to have, and just by going by the art, swallow whole definitely seems appropriate. Primal tidal wave came early in the design where I wanted to include such an ability and while I like it, I don't think it ended up being the coolest ability in his arsenal. His feats are pretty basic, but I liked the idea of giving him a dip into the Cleave feats, imagining him swinging his head around on his long neck to chomp on multiple foes. I also grabbed Gate Breaker to help him smash up ships sailing through his waters.

Pathfinder 1e Version:

Sometimes bringing a monster over to Pathfinder Second Edition from PF1e requires significant thought on what abilities you want to keep, want to drop, or want to add. If nothing else, these elder dinosaurs have been fairly straight forward. After giving Nezzie the usual behemoth stuff, I renamed mystic flood as primal well and primal tidal wave as crashing waves. The latter is styled after an ability used by PF2e's spinosaurus - specifically its 'staggering sail' ability. Capsize also already existed in PF2e so I lifted that from another creature as well - something I fully suggest doing when making your own monsters. I like trawling through official monsters to see if they have something I can use before I try to make up something new all on my own.

Pathfinder 2e Version:

Blue's D&D 5e Version (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/XSVlrnPq)

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

There Are No Bigger Boats: The heroes are on vessel in a battle with a pirate ship, or maybe are pirates themselves attacking another vessel when Nezahal attacks. As the ships begin to sink, the heroes must use whatever equipment they can to battle the titanic beast that seeks to drag them all into a watery grave. Cannons, harpoons, and other armaments must be brought to bear against the behemoth all while the ships are sinking and threatening to drag the heroes down with them.

Undertow: The heroes are on a diplomatic mission in an underwater city, possibly belonging to tritons or merfolk or even a mix of sea-dwelling races, when Nezahal awakens. The great beast hungers after its long rest and the seafolk city seems a good enough breakfast, requiring the heroes to come to its defense. As they do so, factions within the city claim that Nezahal is awoken due to the surface-dwellers' mistreatment of the oceans, meaning that the heroes must contend with this ancient behemoth and political intrigue to save the day.

This is the last mono-colored elder dinosaur! After this, there's just one more I want to do before moving on to something else - Zacama, Primal Calamity.

We've got a Discord for Monster Monday now, so if you're interested in building, discussing, and sharing monsters and other homebrew content, come check us out: https://discord.gg/W4THAs5

Have a Monstrous Monday!