The barbarian glanced around warily as he felt his hair began to stand on end, confused even as the ranger tackled him. A twinkling star in the sky grew brighter before descending in a violent beam of crackling energy. Stray bolts leapt from the beam, singing the backs of the duo as they turned and gaped at the beast stepping from the fading light. Heavy feet impacted upon the singed and smoldering earth as the massive creature loomed over them. Pebbly hide peeked from between indigo carapace and its heavy bulk resembled a four-legged beetle. As it glared down at them, two twisted parts of its exoskeleton broke free, hovering next to it as they charged with energy.
It's been a while since I’ve built a creature from the game of Dauntless but I wanted to tap into some non-MH creatures and have been looking deeper into it and its monsters. I thought the valomyr looked particularly cool and I enjoyed figuring it out. That’s not to say it was easy. From watching some videos on the valomyr and reading up on it, I discovered that it had a ton of abilities that it favors over using actual attack, but I still felt as though I should include some attacks for it to use. The valomyr is a radiant behemoth and given its habitat, association with the light spectrum, and alien appearance, I thought it made a good fit for an outsider. Looking specifically to the colors associated with its flash jump and similar abilities, I also tied the valomyr to the aesir – such as the einherjar and Valkyrie – but had it be a beast of the realm. As an energy, I initially wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to represent the valomyr’s radiant element. I considered positive and force damage but neither felt entirely appropriate (even if I do think I would use negative for the umbral behemoths). Instead, I referenced Starfinder, which has plasma damage split between electricity and fire damage, and decided to use that as radiant energy.
Starting with the numbers for the valomyr, I wanted to use a high Perception score in reference to Heimdall, the watchmen of the gods since I also tied some of its abilities to the Bifrost. It uses a high AC and has a moderate HP as a sort of balance. It lacks any resistances because if anything, it should resist radiant energy, but I split that into two different damage types that it can be affected by normally. To keep things simple, I just gave it a solid set of defenses and left it there. Attacks aren’t the valomyr’s forte, as it seems to prefer its laser beams and other powers, but I decided to include a foot and horn Strike so it didn’t end up just feeling like a hazard. It uses high attack bonus for both of its attacks, but doesn’t go above moderate damage for them.
As mentioned, the valomyr has a wide host of abilities to draw from to devastate its foes. The valomyr can launch light from itself in two different forms - a beam from its horn or a significantly smaller burst that it seems to be able to generate anywhere across its body. The first of these is represented by Radiant Beam as a high-damage area line where as the latter if portrayed by Radiant Burst, which uses a much smaller area, lower damage, but can also knock enemies back as it does to enemies in Dauntless. Its speed is a little low for its size and body shape and instead its main way for major movement is the valomyr's Flash Jump. This teleports the monsters in burning blasts of light that damage enemies at its start point and end point. Given the movement potential of this ability and the damage of it, even if that damage is a bit lower for its level, happening in two points, I added a longer cooldown to the ability.
Among its more defensive abilities, the valomyr can create a dome of reflective light that hunters must shatter to pass through. To represent this, I created the Reflective Barrier but didn't want this to be a spammable ability that overinflates its defensive ability. Hence, it is limited to once per hour and can only be triggered when it reaches a certain Hit Point threshold. In Dauntless, the valomyr will create this barrier and then exude glowing motes of light that damage people on impact around it, which is covered by its Swirling Starflies ability. It will sometimes trap hunters in its barrier, fill it with its starflies, and then teleport away with Flash Jump. I couldn't quite do this in my test because my Flash Jump was on cooldown, but I was close and it would've been beautiful. A unique ability I granted the valomyr was its Dazzling Radiance to better match the theme of radiance and light that I didn't feel was entirely conveyed by its plasma damage.
The valomyr's final two abilities are tied together, starting with its Deploy Radiant Drones. It can summon a massive number of these in Dauntless, but to make this ability a little more distinct, I had it function akin to a summoning effect where it creates units that it then gives two actions - which are split between the two. Notably, there's no limit on the number of these that the valomyr can summon, so as long as it keeps spending actions on it, it can keep summoning more. And then, it can command all of them with its Command Drones action. These drones use a very low attack bonus for the valomyr's level and has low damage to keep it from being overwhelming, going for quantity over quality when they are used.
There are two points of order that I can't fix because the page keeps destroying itself whenever I make these edits. Firstly, the valomyr should be a Huge creature. Secondly, there is a type in Dazzling Radiance, which should say 'Creatures that critically fail their saves against...'
Pathfinder 2e:
I built a pair of weapons to go along with the valomyr, basing them slightly off of the Ostian repeaters from game. Valomyr weapons in Dauntless can charge up energy for a powerful attack, but I felt that was already covered by other options in the game in the form of feats. So instead, I based the ability they grant off of the flame wisps spell, except using the plasma damage as I established for the valomyr.
As has become the standard, I built the Pathfinder First Edition version second.
Its armor class is a point behind the standard AC for its level, and its Reflex save is lagging behind as well, but the valomyr has a defensive ability in the form of its reflective barrier. This is based off of the move that the valomyr uses to create an entrapping and impenetrable barrier but with how effective it is, even blocking spells, I didn’t want the valomyr to be able to spam this so it has a daily limit and is something the valomyr only uses when wounded. The valomyr launches both beams of light and frequent bursts of light that knock foes back, which are respectively represented by radiant beam and radiant burst. These are both area attacks, but the burst uses a much lower damage and lacks a cooldown. However, it also lacks the blinding or dazzling ability of the beam and is instead reliant on its knockback effect. Swirling starflies is designed around the floating motes of damaging light that the valomyr summons around itself and a tactic that I almost employed in the monster testing was trapping characters within the reflective barrier, filling it with starflies, and then flash jumping out.
Speaking of which, the valomyr isn’t much for moving and much of its repositioning comes from its flash jump ability. This deals damage and teleports the valomyr, so it uses a particularly long cooldown and a full-round action. Finally, the valomyr has its ability to create carapace drones that can launch beams of radiant energy through infuse carapace. Within Dauntless, the valomyr will summon a horde that it uses to make lines of laser walls or spinning disco balls of death, but that felt like too much for Pathfinder. It can summon two at a time but can continually call forward more of these, so that it can build towards a whole swarm to laser its enemies to death. As for its regular attacks, it normally has a higher attack bonus but below normal damage, which it can augment with the Power Attack feat.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
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Have a monstrous Monday!
Love it, keep it coming.