Sorry, everybody! It was an early work call this morning so I had to get up too early for me to even consider posting this. Taking a break from the usual MH style monsters to build something suggested by one of my brothers.
The razorkinder puppet hails from a card game and cartoon called Kaijudo, which given the art I’ve seen, seems to be a rebranded Duel Masters, which I played back in the day. There cards of the creature for me to reference as well as a some appearances in the aforementioned cartoon. All of its cards – Razorkinder Puppet, Razorkinder, and Spiteful Razorkinder – have some effect that causes discard effects and they range from level 5 to 7. I leaned towards the bottom of this range for some more variety among levels that I have monsters built at and themed it around a fear-focused constructed assassin, based on some of its abilities and its appearance in the show.
While I’m not sure how such effects are flavored in Kaijudo, discarding in Magic the Gathering, which I’m more familiar with, is often associated with mental anguish or mind loss. To that end, I designed its Nightmare Blades to deal mental damage instead of the precision damage of a sneak attack. Furthermore, critical hits against creatures that are flat-footed can’t shake their fear, based on the Remorseless Lash feat from the hobgoblin. I kept this effect on crits in hope of stopping it from being too oppressive though keeping creatures trapped in flat-footed and frightened may still feel that way. To inflict the frightened condition, it has a high bonus to its Intimidation skill as well as the Unmasking Terror ability, which is based off of one of its powers in the cartoon. I debated about having it be a one- or two-action ability before settling on a single action since I also included a day-long immunity for affected creatures. Unless there’s more than one puppet around, the razorkinder may not even have a chance to really take advantage of the area fear it creates, but lowering the attack rolls of PCs will helps its survivability.
The other aspect of Nightmare Blades is that the target needs to be flat-footed and the razorkinder has a couple of methods to ensure that. As an assassin-type creature, it borrows a bit from the rogue, including the Surprise Attack class feature. This works in conjunction with its Puppet, which is based on the gargoyle’s Statue, to enter combat with a Deception roll for initiative. With its moderate Deception bonus, it should also be capable of Feinting foes. Finally, the razorkinder can throw out its puppet strings as an attack for Tangling Strings, wrapping up a foe and keeping them flat-footed until they Escape. I decided to make these strings their own effect since having it be grabbed would also mean that the razorkinder is effectively immobilized. In my eternal love of fun and interesting reactions that are found in 2e, I designed Tricky Tangles for the razorkinder, allowing it to wrap up a foe that fumbles their attack against it. This is useful for the razorkinder because it lets it start its turn with an adjacent creature flat-footed to it and the puppet without any multiple attack penalty, increasing the chance of it landing a crit with its Nightmare Blades.
Pathfinder 2e:
I actually built both the 1e and 2e razorkinder way back, but while the 2e version got a bit of a rework based on what I've learned, the 1e version is pretty much the same. The only thing that changed for it is that I changed its size to Medium because apparently its supposed to be like 4 feet tall. It follows a similar design process as the 2e version but focuses slightly more on grappling with feats like Agile Maneuvers and abilities such as rake.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
The Puppets of Peril: The heroes latest endeavors have earned them the wrath of a powerful individual who has sent a razorkinder after them. Depending on the level of the heroes, it may be a single razorkinder sent after them, a collection of the cruel, creepy constructs, or a some razorkinder and their puppeteer. As assassins, they likely wait for the heroes to be in a vulnerable position, but may be drawn to their natural instinct and instead lull the heroes into a false sense of security by pretending to be part of a show before springing their attack.
Pulling the Strings: Townsfolk put out a call for the heroes due to disappearing children and several deaths of parents. When the adventurers begin their investigation, they learn that the crimes have happened at night. Their best bet may be to stake out other families in the area and if they do, they may encounter the culprits - a gang of razorkinder puppets. Canny heroes may realize that razorkinder are not capable communicators, meaning that if they defeat them, they may have to find another way to learn who is commanding them. This may lead into a chase after the razorkinder, which leads them to a local toymaker who, after losing his own child, has made a bargain with a fell force to bring them back - by sacrificing other children.
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've been keeping at making vids for the Ready to Die YouTube channel. If you prefer or know people who prefer listening rather than reading, you can check out the razorkinder video! We had some issues with the stream, but I tried to stitch it together for the Monster Mash! Please check them out or share them with others, and then let me know what you think. Still learning how to best make these.
Have a monstrous Monday!
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