"Don't meet its gaze!"
The cry rings out from the wizard as a powerful tongue smashes into the tree immediately behind the rogue, only her quick reflexes saving her. As the tongue retracts back into the hideous maw of the oversized toad with mottled hide, she hears the creak of timber and pitches forward as the tree crashes down. A stray lock of silvery hair falls into her gaze as her eyes cautiously flicker towards the vast beast that sits in a mire of rotting earth. She catches sight of the fighter, standing his ground and menacing the monster that is ambling to face him. Seeing an opportunity, the rogue darts forward, blades flickering in her hands as she vaults over the deadly ground to drive them into its back. A hideous, bone-chilling croak erupts from the abomination and its strange, pulsing eyes turn back towards her.
Illustration by Jason Kang
I didn’t intend to build another foul froggy foe after the toad-headed whowie, but things have been a little rough at work and between that and some creatures requiring further testing, I had to accelerate this amphibious fiend. On that topic, I may be taking a week off coming up just to get a moment to breathe and get caught up on some stuff. Should still be good for next week, but maybe the week after that.
But enough about that, you came here for a monster and being monstrous is something this creature has in spades. The Gitrog monster originates from the Magic the Gathering game, where it is a solidly powerful creature with 6 power and 6 toughness. Its original card has Deathtouch as well as some land chicanery: it requires lands to be sacrificed to it, grants card draw on lands going to the grave, and allows additional lands to be played each turn. Unique to MtG: Arena is ‘Gitrog, Horror of Zhava,’ which gives him the Menace keyword, allows your opponent to sacrifice lands to the Gitrog to keep it out of combat, and gives your lands the ability to be sacrificed for card draw. Finally, Gitrog is partially represented in ‘Thalia and the Gitrog Monster.’ This has First Strike and Deathtouch, allows additional lands to be played, causes the opponents creatures and certain lands to enter the battlefield tapped, but demands a sacrifice when it attacks. Finally, the Gitrog monster was part of a short story entitled Sacrifice that demonstrated some powers not reflected in any of its cards.
Described as a ‘Frog Horror’ and wielding some absolutely unnatural powers, it is a beast and mutant that does rely on some aspects of the giant toad – such as having the Tongue Grab ability. Normally, tongue attacks only have the ability to grab but the Gitrog monster is described as breaking masts and damaging targets with the force of its tongue. It borrows a bit from the cave fisher with its Tongue Drag being based on a similar concept to the cave fisher’s Pull Filament. The final aspect of this is that if it pulls a creature close, it can immediately Swallow Whole, which deals low damage but has a bit of poison flavoring in there for Deathtouch.
I kept its tongue to moderate damage with a high attack bonus while its jaws have only a moderate attack bonus but high damage – along with its venom to represent its Deathtouch. I based its poison off of the giant toad while adding some actual damage to it since Deathtouch kills creatures. Stupefied works particularly well with some other parts of its kit.
To represent its Menace keyword, I gave the Gitrog monster the Menacing Croak ability, an area ability that inflicts frightened and is based on the boggard’s Terrifying Croak. Though, the Gitrog monster is considerably more threatening than boggards and as such has some more potent effects. Its other ability that benefits from creatures being stupefied by its poison is based on the climax of its short story. As the story of Sacrifice comes to a close, the protagonist of the story meets the monster’s gaze – and is brought under its thrall. To represent this, it has Dominating Gaze, which took some work to figure out. I wanted to represent its ability to dominate an entire village while still being something that could affect the heroes without being overly brutal – and controlled is indeed brutal. Hence, it has the incapacitation trait and only inflicts a long-term controlled status on a critical failure.
The final feature of the Gitrog monster that I had to bring over was the land destruction components of his cards. The mechanics of this are so specifically tied to Magic, it was hard to figure out how to do so, but I ultimately settled on its Spoiled Ground aura. This turns the land around it into both difficult and hazardous terrain that deals poison damage, still digging into Deathtouch, to represent it destroying the land around it. Having it create longer lasting terrain of this sort was way too brutal and a concept that I discarded pretty quickly. While not a perfect fit, it might be the best it can get for this type of ability.
Pathfinder 2e:
There are a few differences between the 1e and 2e versions of the Gitrog monster with the most obvious change being the alterations to its spoiled ground. Poison damage isn't a thing in Pathfinder 1e and the form it exists in is often ability damage - which is too much for an aura. In 2e, it can just deal damage to hit points, but if I wanted the 1e to deal damage, it would have to be Con damage and as an aura, that can drain too much too fast. As such, it simply inflicts sickened instead without allowing creatures to become immune to it. I decided to simplify its dominating gaze with the dominate person spell-like ability for 1e because of how complicated controlling a creature is in this edition. Since I did still want the Gitrog monster's poison to still deal damage and make creatures more susceptible to its spell, it deals both Constitution and Wisdom damage.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Feeling Froggy: While passing through a swamp, the heroes fall prey to the traps of boggards. While they may be beset by a troop, if they put up more resistance than the boggards expected, they begin to call for aid. A druid in their midst begins a croak calling their lord - the Gitrog monster. They intend to feed the party to the great monster and while they fight with fanatical ferocity, but the Gitrog monster doesn't hold such loyalty, slipping away into the swamp to continue haunting its dreary demesne.
Amphibious Fanatics: The parties have stopped over in a village during their journeys and have been welcomed with open arms. However, the heroes are drugged and poisoned by the villagers to be presented as sacrifices for the Gitrog monster, which has dominated the village. The heroes awake in the mud, stripped of their gear as the Gitrog monster emerges from the lake. Divested of their equipment, the heroes may be forced to run and make it back to the village where they can find their gear in one of the huts. Denied its meal, the Gitrog monster begins to rampage as the villagers panic and the heroes must either face the fearsome foe or flee in the panic, leaving the Gitrog monster to move on and dominate a new community.
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. Please take a second if you can to check out the latest video for the Ready to Die channel featuring the Gitrog monster. When I'm typing stuff out, I get worried about being a little too long-winded and I was definitely feeling that when it came to detailing this creature. The format of the video lets me dig into certain facets a bit deeper, so it might be worth checking out. Feel free to check it out or share it 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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