A chittering, dolphin-like cry ominously echoed through the tall, watery cavern. The party paused in their looting of the ship crashed in the shoals, glancing about in confusion. The forest of bizarre, twisting pillars that surrounded them suddenly grew ominous. Again, the cry resounded around them, bouncing off of the stalagmites surrounding them. As they searched for the source, a creature dropped from above, gliding gracefully towards them. From its spread arms, stone spikes rained down and the party cried out as they tried to take shelter, dropping their loot into the shin-deep water. Above them, the beast nimbly navigated through the air to perch atop one of the pillars, hopping to face the band as it gave another chittering cry.
Presently, there isn’t a lot of information out for the monsters of Wild Hearts at least in comparison to the likes of Dauntless and Monster Hunter. However, at least for some of the simpler monsters, I can watch and read up on them to build the creatures. The spineglider is an early-level monster rated as a two-star monster. Following some conventions from Monster Hunter, I built it as a level 4 creature that is a bit of a skirmisher. As a giant flying squirrel with foliage features, the spineglider has the animal and plant traits. It is a nimble and agile creature that is lacking sturdiness, leading to the decision to use a high Armor Class for its level and Reflex save, but moderate Hit Points and a low Fortitude and Will save. It also has a weakness to a very common type of elemental damage with a weakness to fire. Its attacks, except for its spines, use a high attack bonus but don’t exceed the moderate damage value – unless it uses its Inflate Tail ability.
This ability is based off of the way it inflates its tail in Wild Hearts when enraged and changes its tail to deal extreme damage while lowering its attack bonus to moderate for its level. However, using this leaves the spineglider flat-footed since it becomes more vulnerable in this state as well and it can be knocked out of it as well with a powerful attack, such as a critical hit. Interestingly, Pathfinder 2e already has a giant flying squirrel so I used that to figure out the spineglider’s eponymous Glide ability. Since it has to descend when using this ability, it is limited to using it from high places. While it can scale walls and the like in its environment, it can make its own perches with its Grow Spire ability. This provoke attacks of opportunity, but the spineglider can then clamber up and either fire attacks at foes or prepare for a Strafing Flight. This is similar to its Trample ability being a damage-dealing effect based off of one of its attacks that it performs while moving. Strafing Flight is the safer of the two but has a chance of completely missing targets on a failure. Meanwhile, Trample will deal at least half damage as long as a character doesn’t critically succeed and its damage can be increased for its Trample with the Inflate Tail ability.
Pathfinder 2e:
The HP for the 1e spineglider ended up being a little higher than I wanted it to be so I had it use a standard AC for its level. Its average damage is closer to the low end until it uses its inflate tail. I took some inspiration from the barbarian in how it functions with it inflicting a penalty to the spineglider’s AC since flat-footed is a much worse condition in PF1e. Partially because I based it off rage, it felt weird to allow the spineglider choose when to deflate it, so it lasts for four attacks, which will be four rounds in most cases and should cover most fights. The only other unique ability is has is its grow spire, which is another move action to create a spire. I based the hardness and hit points of the spire on other stone objects in PF1e and it ended up being a hardier structure than I wanted it to be, which led to the inclusion of crumbling to dust after a minute. Its other abilities are based off of universal monster abilities, like trample, or otherwise common ones, like glide. A unique aspect to the 1e spineglider is making it part plant led to me including plant-based immunities, giving it some solid defensive options.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOK
Squirrel Soirée: The heroes are contacted with not so much a threat as a nuisance - strange, stony pillars have been cropping up along roads and across routes, interfering with travel and trade. People affected by the complications ask the heroes to investigate and solve the issue, which is being caused by a mated pair of spinegliders that are attempting to establish their territory and make a nest. This makes them particularly defensive of the area they have claimed, forcing the heroes to potentially devise some means of relocating them. If they face the foes in combat, the spinegliders cover the battlefield with pillars that they swoop between as they rain down attacks upon their foes.
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.
A few weeks ago, I started a YouTube channel called Ready to Die that is about making monsters and essentially just a video format of what I do here. The latest video is about the spineglider, and there is also the Twitch video of the spineglider monster test! 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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