The ranger struggled to move, her limbs lethargic and her mind slipping towards, as she drew back an arrow aimed at the three-headed monstrosity ahead of her. A trio of jagged jaws snapped out at the barbarian with a hunger that its spectral state could never sate. Even in its incorporeal state, the undead beast moved and behaved as though it still carried a clearly absent spark of life. In between the flurry of flesh-tearing bites it made, the spectral turtle retreated into its ectoplasmic shell that deflected the druid’s magic if not the ranger’s arrows or barbarian’s club. While part of the ranger’s heart went out to the simple-minded creature, its undying hunger and destructive instincts meant that the creature had to be put to rest.
I still haven't started playing up League of Legends again, but I have been trying out some of their other games, including Ruined King - A League of Legends Story. It's an enjoyable game with an interesting cast of character, but more importantly, it has some neat monsters. The first that I like is the rather obviously named spectral hydra turtle, the undead form of a creature called a shoal walker. This undead projects an aura of sloth until it gets knocked out of it by a specific type of attack, which is accomplished with its sloth aura that leaves creatures staggered. Its incorporeality helps achieve the resistance needed to break down its aura, but the enemies penetrating the creature's defenses to end its aura didn't sit well with me. Ghastly roar is similarly based off of the ghastly wail ability that it possesses in game but with a slight renaming that felt like a better fit to me. An AoE damage and debuff, I thought the goal was accomplished well through a breath weapon-esque cone that can inflict the shaken condition.
The last part of the creature was working out how its bites worked despite being incorporeal and I landed on them dealing force damage. After that, it was simply a matter of giving them three bites to cover their three heads as well as some appropriate feats that worked with their abilities.
Pathfinder 1e:
In designing the 2e version of the spectral hydra turtle, I looked at a few other multi-headed monsters such as the hydra and mukradi. Its Flurry of Jaws is based off of the hydra while its Pull Apart is drawn from the mukradi, with each of the attacks suited for different situations that the turtle finds itself in. In testing the monster, we felt that it was a little lacking as nothing about it seemed turtle-like. This led to the creation of the Spectral Shell Defense ability, letting it draw into its shell. It didn't make sense to me for this ability to protect against physical attacks since its shell is equally incorporeal, so I had the ability work against spells and magic instead. Building off of that, I decided to have its first attack out of its shell make creatures flat-footed with Shell Shock, leaning into the snapping turtle aspect of the creature.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Crashing Waves: A ship ran ashore in the night, crashing upon the beach and spilling its contents across the shore. The heroes are woken in the night and asked to investigate the scene and save any of the survivors that they can find. However, they only come across shredded bodies and corpses, the source of which soon becomes evident as a spectral hydra turtle arises from the surf. As usual, the ghostly beast is confused by its undead state and attempted to feed upon the survivors, tearing them to pieces but unable to actually feast on them. Frustrated but not comprehending its state, it swiftly attacks the heroes, thinking them to be new prey.
Turtle Power: The heroes are traveling over the ocean or sea when they are beset upon by a crew of undead pirates. At first, the raiders don’t seem to be much of a threat, but when the tides begin to turn against them, the captain reveals their trump card: a spectral hydra turtle that the crew have brought under their control. The hydra turtle mostly fights alongside the crew, but will occasionally grow confused and simply snap out at the nearest prey.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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