The barbarian luxuriated in the moment of relative peace as darkness settled over the plains like a blanket. His tired party rested not far from him, asleep save for the wizard who sat by the fire, poring over newly acquired books. As first on watch, the barbarian scanned the seemingly endless sea of grass for lurking predators, well-illuminated by the silvery light of the moon and its stars. Across his lap, his axe sat, its edge gleaming from the whetstone in his other hand. As he took the moment to admire the scene before him, even while remaining vigilant for adversaries, he glimpsed a glow of crimson in the night sky. He glanced up at the streaking comet and called over to the wizard, directing her gaze upward. She looked and her visage turned panicked. He frowned and turned back towards the shooting star - only to find it now unquestionably plummeting towards them. In the center of the blazing light, he could make out a glimpse of silvery features before a sharp cry split over the land.
Valstrax is a creature from the world of Monster Hunter that I have been wanting to make a build for since I saw some videos about crimson glow valstrax. On the defensive side of things, I decided to give it a slightly higher HP pool than normal for a creature of its level to make up for all of its weaknesses. Hopefully its spell resistance, which is meant to represent the dragon energy it vents across its body that can negate elements, can also help protect it a bit in that regard. I wanted to capture some of its more classic moves, including its use of its wings in combat, so I started with razor wings to let it use them as its main weapon while also increasing the crit range on them. That choice, as well as the collection of crit-based feats I took for the build, are actually meant to emulate the weakness exploit skill that its armor grants. Its habit of rocketing across the field is demonstrated through its trample ability while treated its homing barrage as missiles similar to a dragon's breath weapon. They have a higher DC than normal to represent their homing nature, and as I've used antimagic stuff with deviljho in the past, since that feels like an appropriate approximation of dragonblight's effect, I went along with that. Finally, around the world isn't a super impressive ability in my eyes though the movement it grants might be too much. I originally included a cooldown on it, but with it leaving the valstrax dazed for a round, I thought that seemed like enough.
Pathfinder 1e:
Without any spell resistance, I settled on giving the valstrax a status bonus to all saves against magic. As before, I opted to give it a higher HP, but as I went for slightly more middling weakness, and gave it a protective reaction with Wing Deflection (borrowed from the blue dragon), I didn't go into the extreme territory with it. Speaking of borrowed abilities, I grabbed Swiftness from the air elementals to replace the Mobility feat it lost. For its attacks, I tried to balance things out and give each of them a reason to be used depending on the situation. Once again, the deadly d12 trait is representative of the Weakness Exploit skill. As I was porting over its other abilities, I felt like I wanted to give it something a little extra. Something that didn't target Reflex saves. To that end, I created Jetstream as it felt like a fun and appropriate ability, which was inspired by some nightmares I recently ran in my own game with their Flaming Gallop.
Pathfinder 2e:
Given Valstrax's theme as a comet or other celestial object while soaring through the sky, it felt like it was appropriate to build a Starfinder stat block for him. This is only the second Starfinder stat block I've built, so I'd greatly appreciate any feedback you have. Balancing the valstrax's five attacks took a little bit of time, but they should all be at an appropriate place now from what I read. I didn't add any new abilities with this iteration of valstrax and I wonder if I shouldn't have given it feats for its critical and movement stuff, but the Alien Archive suggested that was something that shouldn't be done for monster. Overall, I think I'm happy with the creature, especially since it's a system I've yet to even play, but definitely know your own thoughts on it.
Starfinder:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOK
Around the World in 80 Daze: The heroes are aboard a flying vessel, whether it be an airship of their own or simply one they're riding on, when it is struck by a comet streaking through the sky. The heroes must brace for impact, and possibly help save lives along the way, as the vessel plummets to the ground. After the crash, repairs must be made to the ship, but before those can begin, the accident-causing comet lands next to the vessel, the valstrax roaring its rage with its flight being interrupted. The heroes must defend the crew and passengers of the ship as the enraged valstrax seeks to finish off its 'wounded prey.'
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Until next time, have a Monstrous Monday!
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