Monster Monday - Rumblehorn

A snarl announced the presence of a quadrupedal dragon that lumbered into the clearing. Its nostrils flared as its fixed on the party of adventurers that had intruded upon its domain. Golden eyes narrowed and it huffed, fire overflowing from its maw. It pawed at the ground, scratching furrows as it lowered its horns. While the more fragile members of the party scattered, the barbarian swung his axe and laughed heartily, urging the massive beast onward. It responded with a bellow before it thundered forward, which the barbarian responded with in kind.

Rumblehorn from How to Train Your Dragon

A towering titan, this terrific tracker tends to tangle with targets through trampling tosses and terrain-tearing trundling - totaling even terrifying terrors with temerity.

In celebration of my brother's birthday, here's a monster he requested, which you can also check out on video!

I'll be honest - I had to take two passes at this creature to build it properly. A lot of its concepts are rather basic. For example, I gave it an incredible sense of scent and a high Survival score given its nature as a tracker dragon while it's a bit of a brute with moderate attack bonuses but high damage. Its moderate Armor Class goes with its high Hit Points to further fit this idea, but after that, all it originally had was Fire Barrage and Powerful Charge. Its breath weapon is less of a cone or line and more an explosion, which I represented through a burst that deals limited use area damage at a high DC. It fires this off pretty quickly, which is why it uses such a low cooldown though I wonder if I should have gone without a cooldown at all and made it a lower damage effect. As for Powerful Charge, it's a decently standard effect and is based on the classic charge of the rumblehorn making use of its horn with a fearsome damage. While I had this increase up to extreme damage, I didn't change the dice so that it could still make use of its fatal trait.

However, that didn't feel like quite enough to the creature so I took another pass and added a few more features. Twisting Tail is a reaction seen on a few dragons and lets it employ its flail-like tail to disrupt foes. Personally, I think the disruption seems a little brutal to me, but I've seen it on level 6 dragons, so I think it's fine. Sticking with draconic abilities, we've got Draconic Frenzy, which you can also see on drakes though I refrained from including Draconic Momentum though maybe I should have given how quickly it can fire its Fire Barrage. Capsize is an ability found on the likes of the hippopotamus and other waterborne creatures though I mainly envision the rumblehorn slamming into the boats from the air to knock them into the water. As for a unique effect in its arsenal, the rumblehorn has Blinding Flash. In the show, the rumblehorn with give a quick blast that it flies through to burn off its own scent. I thought that was a super cool idea and wanted to represent it, but just having be effective against scent isn't super useful. So instead, I made it so that the rumblehorn could fly through it (or if it does it directly on itself) to surprise foes. This is a great combo with its Powerful Charge but could be used in other surprising ways!

PF2e Rumblehorn

Blue's D&D Rumblehorn

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Dragon Rider: Perhaps the most obvious idea for an encounter with a rumblehorn is to feature it with a rider. A dragon rider that wields a lance or similar weapon might work or something like a flail or whip to trip up foes and leave them vulnerable for the rumblehorn might work. Or an archer or other ranged attacker who pelts foes as it companions soars above could also work nicely though that idea may be better saved for a more nimble dragon.

Crash Course: An aspect of the rumblehorn that I considered but ultimately couldn't quite add was it using its environment to its advantage. For example, the heroes could find themselves in a ravine with stone pillars. The rumblehorn could Powerful Charge one of the pillars to cause it to collapse in a direction, dealing damage and potentially pinning those trapped beneath it. Alternatively, the rumblehorn could roll or knock down boulders into the area where the heroes are stuck until they can find a way up to it.

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!