The ground rumbled and quaked under the footfalls of the immense, insectile creature until it came to a sudden halt upon impact with the barbarian. An undignified scream left the burly warrior as he was launched through the air, and the sorceress watched as he just barely managed to catch himself, skidding to a halt nearly twenty feet away. As he did, arrows were loosed from behind him to strike into the carapace of the creature - not even leaving a scratch. A few marks had been made by the barbarian's axe, but they were shallow and the beast moved without any sign of impairment. Gathering herself, the sorceress channeled the mystical might that lay in her blood, fire gathering in her hands and flickering around her before she launched it towards the seemingly unstoppable creature.
I've always been fascinated by bugs and insects and wanted to build some more monsters based on them. While I spend time cooking up some original ideas, the terminids from Helldivers were suggested to me, so here is, at least, the very first of them I'll try my hand at!
The charger is a very simple creature with perhaps the most complex part being the working out of how to represent its unprotected bits. I settled on a moderate AC and HP for it while giving it maximum physical resistance for its level. However, characters can target the charger's Soft Spot at an extreme Armor Class to ignore its resistance. This may be important because the terminid has actions to make the party lose their own. It normally deals low damage, but if a charger can get unleash a Tumultuous Charge, it can deal extreme damage instead. This does leave it off-guard since impact does seem to stun the charger briefly, but two things follow on from here. Firstly, the charger can use this momentum to Launch a creature as a reaction (instead of having to spend an action to Push like it normally does), and it can knock the creature farther than normal thanks to Ragdoll. Critically succeeding at this Shove, which shouldn't be too hard with its extreme Athletics, also leaves a creature prone. This means that a creature will have to spend an action to Stand and another to Stride back into range, presuming a melee character. When the charger can't line up a Tumultuous Charge, since it needs a straight line and twenty feet to really make it worth it, it can Trample enemies at a high DC with moderate Strike damage since I wanted it to have a bit more punch than its regular headbutt.
Pathfinder 2e:
When it came to figuring out the PF1e charger, I wasn't sure how to represent its soft spot as numbers don't have nearly as much meaning as they do in PF2e. The numbers are far softer, and ultimately I just settled on a boost of equal value to something like shield, a nice little +4. Balancing that a little bit is some higher damage reduction that is bypassed by adamantine. Powerful charge stands in for its Tumultuous Charge, which features a much smaller damage boon, but can allow it to trigger its thunderous impact, dealing more damage if the creature impacts with some sort of obstacle. This keeps in line with its feats like Awesome Blow, Awesome Charge, Improved Bull Rush, and then Bristling Bull Rush to enhance its damage a bit if it happens to be in difficult terrain. It rounds out its abilities with a trample, just like its Second Edition version did.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
I will likely make more terminids in the future, but in the meantime, you can run them as solo threats or maybe include them as a unique or specialized variant of an ankheg. Its level/CR are right on par with the anhrav queen and if the heroes are attempting to remove a hive, they could have a pair of chargers or something as her guards.
I tried to get some footage for this week's video, but I was having issues actually downloading it. I'll try to be a bit better set up next time!
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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