Monster Monday - Uth Duna

Water sloshed and splashed as the party made their way through flooded forest. At the front of the band, the barbarian forged ahead slowly, using the long haft of his greataxe to test the ground. A misstep had already left him soaked and he wasn't eager to repeat the process. At the back of the line, the druid had managed falling from the narrow pass they travelled along but was no less miserable as he slogged forward. He scrunched his toes in his boots to keep the mud from stealing them, keeping his complaints to himself as they advanced. However, he stopped as a ripple suddenly lapped at his thighs from beyond the party's path. His eyes narrowed as he scanned the water beyond and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Before he could raise a call to his companions, the water suddenly surged before erupting in a spray as a great beast leapt from it. The uth duna twirled with uncharacteristic grace through the air, splattering the team with droplets as its shadow fell over them...

Uth Duna from Monster Hunter Wilds

This super-sized stalker slips through streams and surfs onto the scene with smashes and slams that send suckers sprawling, sinking them into its soul-swallowing swamp.

I'm back to another monster from Wilds with the apex predator of the Scarlet Forest. You can check out the video on it here, and I would certainly appreciate it if you did!

The uth duna is a big, bulky beast and a major threat in its home habitat of the Scarlet Forest, but I was surprised that the MM Discord opined for it to be two levels higher than the last Wilds monster I made. It being an apex predator convinced me to follow their suggestion and thus uth duna was designed as a heavy sort of combatant, probably mostly closely resembling the brute roadmap. In this case, its Armor Class is moderate and its Hit Points are also moderate, which might seem odd. Its immunity to water isn't too limiting for players, and its weakness to electricity is pretty significant, so maybe you'd think its meant to be more of a glass cannon design, but that isn't my intent. Its attacks might have a high bonus with its jaws having high damage, but I wouldn't exactly call it a 'glass cannon.'

However, what the uth duna has is its Water Veil. In-game, the uth duna covers itself in water to help reduce incoming damage, but I thought it was easier to manage, imagine, and use if I made it into a decent pool of temporary Hit Points. In addition to these temp HP, the weight of the water slows the uth duna down slightly while allowing it to deliver heavier blows, which is expressed through a reduction to its attack bonus to merely moderate whereas its damage goes up by one step for each of them - so its jaws become extreme damage and its claws become high damage. Related to that, the uth duna also has Absorb Water, which it will likely only be able to pull off once in a fight before the heroes catch on to what's happening.

One of its other watery abilities is Tidal Dive, which is inspired by the likes of its Twisted Body Slam and Underwater Dive attacks. This has some similarities to the likes of Powerful Charge abilities, but rather than giving an increased attack bonus or dealing extra damage, it ends with uth duna unleashing a wave of water. This wave crashes forward, knocking creatures prone with a save DC that is between high and extreme. Its effects aren't too terrible, which is why it uses this higher DC but I didn't fully commit to an extreme DC because of its next ability . . . Hampering Tides. This was actually my attempt at representing the waterblight inflicted by the uth duna in game. This effect causes stamina to recover at a slower rate, which can be translated as less actions being taken and is why I established it with a slowed effect. I think another option you could consider is the fatigued condition here, but I just preferred slowed in this instance. We can close out on the uth duna itself with Crush, resembling its multitude of body slams and belly flops though I expanded its effects beyond just damage. I like the idea of the uth duna bringing its bulk to bear to entrap creatures beneath itself, dealing unlimited use area damage at a high DC. However, the DC to Escape is kept at a moderate value because I've ran into issues before with certain enemies becoming entrapped by effects and completely unable to Escape thereafter.

The basis of the uth duna armor is inspired by the Uth Duna's Cover skill from Monster Hunter Wilds while also combining a number of its abilities. The armor does gain the aquadynamic trait and I based it on scale mail since the scales in the armor are quite noticeable. I did use resistance for this Water Veil rather than the temporary HP that the uth duna has because players with armor specialization should already be tracking some manner of resistance. I then wanted to express Tidal Dive as well, which happens by dismissing the resistance to cast flowing strike. I liked the idea of combining multiple aspects of the uth duna into its equipment and hope you appreciate it as well!

PF2e Uth Duna

PF2e Uth Duna Gear

Blue's D&D Uth Duna

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Here There Be Dragons: The heroes are journeying by boat, which comes under attack by an uth duna. In such a scenario, it isn't an ability that I considered including in the base design of the uth duna, but it could make some good use of the Capsize ability, as seen on the hippopotamus. If not using that idea, I'd likely have the uth duna threaten to sink the ship by throwing itself upon it with the likes of Crush.

Splash Zone: A water kineticist or a mage focused on using water magic has managed to tame an uth duna but has run afoul of the heroes. The pair fight in tandem with the water-wielding regularly including the uth duna in their water area effects so that it can make use of its Absorb Water.

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Have a monstrous Monday!