The skies darkened, gathering in ominous clouds that circled above the single point of light. Six wings unfurled around a graceful form as the ground trembled, trees bowing before the majesty of the dragon that rose above them. Violet twisting horns rose from its head and pale, glowing eyes deigned to descend and regard the party of heroes crawling upon the ground before it. Mere mortals stood firm against the living disaster even as the terrain trembled beneath it. Leading the band was the fighter, shield at the ready even as his will wavered – until a familiar warmth alighted upon his shoulder. He spared a brief glance back to the rogue, her smile gentle and eyes filled with a hope that he could not betray. Glancing to the allies behind her, each grim and ready for what was to come, he gave a brief nod, took a steeling breath, and resolutely faced the Wings of Ruin.
Enamored with the elements, this eminent enemy evades encounters by eliminating equals with expeditious eruptions.
This Monster Monday, we’re taking a step out of the mainline Monster Hunter series to explore Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin. This eponymous elder dragon is the final boss of the entire game and has a few phases to its fight. However, I’ve consolidated many of those concepts for the sake of simplicity and designing it within Pathfinder 2e. For example, the oltura changes up its elemental weakness as it progresses through its stages, but I settled on giving it consistent weaknesses to cold and electricity. It also cycles in a weakness to dragon element, but that’s hard to represent in Pathfinder, so I stuck with these two. Another thing that I adapted was changing its elemental bullet into a Strike, but one that it can change the element of on a whim, resembling the different elements that it draws upon through its phases.
A similar idea is shared in the design of its Tempest, based on its Aqua, Blaze, Hail, and Thunder Tempests moves that it can employ during its various stages. I wanted to lean a bit more into the various elements and help make them feel a bit more distinct, leading to the effects on critical failures based on the chosen element. I tried to keep them balanced as best I could, but this is otherwise limited use area damage at a high DC – a pretty standard effect. It’s got a bit more punch with its Luminosity, an attack that it only gains in its final phase in Stories. I could have done something like it can only use when below a certain percentage of health, but decided to keep it as an extremely powerful but highly limited attack. This uses an extreme DC, deals limited use area, and has a minute long cooldown, which it should only get to use once per encounter.
Both of those abilities require Reflex saves, but in interest of having a different range of saving throws and representing some of its abilities, I included Rage Rays. You experience the effects of these in game through encountering monsters enraged by these rays while it doesn’t actually pull it off in the encounter. This raises the aggression of monsters, which is represented through the confused condition it inflicts. Affected creatures can make a moderate save DC, since I refrained from putting a cooldown on the ability. It makes enemies a bit more vulnerable but unless they critically fail, they’ll get a chance to recover every time it damages them. And if they do critically fail, they still get a chance to recover each round. Rounding out the oltura’s features is Inexorable, and there’s a bit of a story behind this. The oltura starts in a larval form that is never fully seen beyond a trio of worm-like heads that extend from the earth. For GMs who want to run the larval oltura, I would suggest using some form of cave worm, modifying it with Rage Rays, and having it occur in groups of three and be unable to leave the earth. With the oltura being unable to be downed in Stories, and feeling a little lacking defensively, I opted to have the Inexorable from the cave worm apply to the oltura as well.
PATHFINDER 2e:
Blue’s D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Founded Among Fey: Due to its physical design, the oltura uses the fey trait. This could lead to it being encountered alongside other fey that have managed to bring it under their control. Fey of a similar level include a wild hunt scout, vilderavn herald, or a hesperid queen, which all might be able to command an oltura. As a caster, a hesperid queen might use an oltura as a mount, imperiously commanding the battlefield from atop her draconic mount.
Stories Untold: The nature of an elder dragon lands to it being a telegraphed boss sort of monster, but this especially true with the oltura, which occurs in a larval state and one that sends other monsters into a frenzy. Such a concept hews unfortunately close to the story for Wings of Ruin, but there could be some solid concepts to use there.
You can check out a video on the oltura over on YT where there's also a playtest of it, which had a fantastic opening I encourage you to check out. If you're interested in joining the discussion on what creatures/builds 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.
Have a monstrous Monday!
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