The burly beast heaved itself from the earth, powerful claws dragging it free from its burrow. As its porcine nose twitched, it paused and turned to glower at the band of adventurers standing ready below its ridge. A growling grumble rose from its throat and it arched its back to push up crystalline spines. The barbarian broke into a sprint only to be brought up short as several of the softly glowing quills whistled through the air and impaled themselves in the ground before him. Gritting his teeth, he glared up at the beast as it lifted its maw towards the sky and unleashed a bone-rattling roar.
The quillshot is a fairly simple monster hailing from Dauntless. There, it is known as a ‘neutral behemoth,’ meaning that it has no association with any particular element or weakness to any element. It is a mix of pig, porcupine, and also has some reptilian qualities. Its eponymous quills are formed from archonite, a solidified form of aether, which is essentially ambient magical energy. It normally eats neutral aether but will use elementally charged aether in some cases, which notably results in the flameborn quillshot. As mentioned, the quillshot doesn’t have a lot going for it – it mainly just smacks people around and fires a bunch of quills all over the place. There is also a variant known as the deadeye quillshot, whose quills shatter to inflict shellshocked. This condition briefly blinds the character and makes them unable to run.
I built the PF2e version of the quillshot first and couldn’t entirely match what it had with the 1e version. The quillshot is designed as a ranged combatant that can still acquit itself in melee combat. With its ability to digest aether, I felt like the quillshot had to be a magical beast and added scent to its senses in reference to its porcine nature. In the description of the quillshot, it is described as a burrower. I don't think I've ever seen the quillshot do that, but decided to include the feature. Its main two abilities are deadeye frenzy and quill barrage. The latter grants him the ability to launch his quills in a wide area, covering different patterns in reference to a few of the arrays that he fires. As a Monster Hunter-esque game, the monsters in Dauntless of course have a means of entering an enraged state. I don't usually feature these unless they're an important part of the creature, but saw this as a chance to include it and reference the deadeye variant. For its particular frenzy, I referenced the primal hunter archetype for the barbarian, and then added an effect based on the shellshocked status of the deadeye's quills.
Pathfinder 1e:
While quillshot is more of an artillery piece, I decided to build it a bit more off of the sniper roadmap. Its been a while since I've built anything of the sort and had a lot of fun with it. It specializes in using its quills, but is still capable with its claws and tusks. A unique ability of the 2e version is its Defensive Perimeter, which plays into an attack that the quillshot will occasionally do while also letting the quillshot set up something of a sniper's nest. It discourages people from closing on the quillshot, leaving it free to fire away at foes. When it misses this firing, it can rely on its Lead the Target to attempt a new attack while further discouraging foes to close on it. The quillshot will actually try to lead its shots in Dauntless, so this is a reference to that and probably my favorite ability that I came up with for this creature. I will almost definitely be recycling that ability for an original monster. Volley Charge is just a fun ability I wanted to include as a reference to it being a boar-like creature, a type of monster that typically has a charge of some sort. Testing the monster actually went very well and we didn't find anything that needed to be changed. It has some lower HP, but is compensated by a higher AC as well as the temporary HP granted its Flashing Fury.
Its gear probably looks a little familiar as it is a very modified version of the spike launcher. I originally wanted to just do a special spike launcher, but the reload 2 is crippling and not something I wanted to build for. So I lowered the reload, range, and removed backstabber while also granting it conducting in reference to the quillshot's consumption of aether. Its activated ability is also a bit different, and more in reference to the shellshocked status that the deadeye quillshot can inflict.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Arcane Artillery: A mage has been using a quillshot to soak up the excess magic of his experiments and creations. However, after too many of his experiments have threatened a town, the heroes are hired to evict the wizard. The arcanist is not willing to go, forcing the heroes to make their way through his tower and the dangers within. At the top of the tower, they find the wizard and his pet quillshot who, from experiments at the wizard’s hand, can absorb the effects of a spell that is cast when it is adjacent to the mage. This has the effects of Bespell Weapon for the Quillshot.
Sniper's Nest: Following the end of a war, a squad of soldiers are displeased with their lot and turn to banditry. They have brought with them a creature they found during the war – a quillshot that became something of the squad’s mascot. With their encampment placed along a cliff wall, they station the quillshot on a bluff, where it fires quills at invading forces. When the heroes come into conflict with the bandits, either after being employed to put a stop to them or running afoul of them on their own, they must devise some means of stopping the tactically positioned creature.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
Love it! More beasts from Dauntless please!