Mud sucked at the boots of the adventurers as they waded through the sodden marsh, each step accompanied by a wet, sucking sound. Water rushed into to fill the prints left by their steps and the sorcerer struggled, almost plunging into the muck only to be saved by grabbing the nearby barbarian. Each time, he grunted and pushed her upright, but during once such instance, as the pair were tangled together, a globule of putrid green slime sailed through the air and splashed into the caster. As she hacked and coughed, gangly figures with dark craggy skin dropped from the mangrove trees as a deep bellow resounded from beyond. Crashing and barreling through the foliage was a burly, hunchbacked figure that resembled a bulkier version of the spitting creatures. Holes filled its back and it glowered at the party with small eyes before it unleashed another challenging roar.
Sometimes, the source material can make it difficult to determine the CR of a creature. For example, the grim family of creatures hail from the new God of War game and are a regular enemy fought throughout the game. Kratos is a god-killing deity but these critters can slay him. Should they be all CR 20+ abominations? I don’t think so. Because raiders can also slay Kratos. So the grim are a much more reasonable level/CR for early-level critters.
The grims are a fairly simple race of creatures who are referred to as ‘gas-monsters’ and marked by a terrible stench. They start as a wretch, a tadpole-like creature that wriggles and bites after player. Occasionally, their animation has them latching onto Kratos but their only noticeable trait outside of that is that some of them explode after being slain. They are known to congregate in great groups, which I decided to represent as a wretch swarm. Wretches eventually develop into grims, which have more variations than wretches. They are highly capable burrowers and climbers and become frenzied when a target is poisoned. Cursed grim are able to spit poisonous saliva as a projectile while wicked grim have a long, frog-like tongue. Finally, grims will grow into bergsra, burly beasts who are most unique in the form of bergsra mothers, who can launch their spawn as projectiles.
All grims have the stench ability to fit their gas-monster theme though only the wretch and the swarm are swimmers. The wretch doesn’t deal much damage, unless it manages to affix itself to a victim with attach. Then it can gnaw on the target, hanging in place to inflict amping bleed damage. It isn’t hard to finish off a wretch, but doing so leaves them liable to pop, a death throe type effect that happens one round after it dies. The wretch swarm is very basic though it might be the first swarm I’ve made. The only thing it really has going for it is its rabid swarming, a sort of evolution of the wretch’s gnaw ability. Grims lose out on the swimming ability of their young stage to instead become able climbers. They also gain a pair of claw attacks and can unleash their poisonous saliva with their toxic bile ability. This is the only way it can inflict its poison, which inflicts Dex and Con damage. The latter is meant to represent the damage poison deals in GoW whereas the former lowers AC, making it easier for the grim to unleash a frenzy of attacks against this poisoned target.
Finally, we come to the bergsra. While the basic bergsra is distinct from the bergsra mother, I rolled it into one as I did for much of the other variations of other grims. The bergsra is the burliest of its kin, dishing out powerful blows and having the most pungent musk, but it can also launch wretches in a spawn salvo.
Pathfinder 1e:
The fact that poison damage exists in Pathfinder 2e made the building of the grim somewhat easier on a concept level, as did the general monster building rules in 2e, but that's a given. The wretch's Gas Buildup as such deals poison damage and its Stench borrows from the xulgath. Gnaw gives it a means of dealing damage without relying on an attack while its Attach is taken from the bloodseeker. I was able to play a bit more into the swarm, but I was struggling on how to make it distinct. Picturing a true swarm of wretches to be similar to pirahna, I envisioned them mobbing creatures that fall into their clutches, so their Devouring Jaws deal more damage to creatures downed in their midst. They get creatures in such a condition when some unlucky sort critically fails their save, allowing them to Drag Down those victims. This is kept as a reaction so that a spate of bad luck can't slaughter an entire party.
As said, the poison damage really helped out with this build, particularly when it comes to the noxious spit. I'm able to represent it as an actual attack rather than an ability with a cooldown, which gives the grim a chance to inflict its poison. Once a creature fails that save, its Delight in Debilitation comes online, based on the Predator's Advantage of the 2e deinonychus. Except instead of bleeding, it goes into a frenzy against diseased and poisoned foes, playing into the frenzy that they fly into against such targets. I think the bergsra benefited the most from the transition to 2e, giving it a regular spawn missile that it can launch and saving the Macross missile massacre for its Spawn Salvo. Targets struck by its spawn missiles suffer a similar effect to the Attach and Gnaw ability of the wretch that can only be ended by tearing the wretch off. The more potent musk of the bergsra increases its range and causes targets that critically fail their save to be slowed.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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