Monster Monday - Werebulette

The earth churned before erupting in a spray of sod and fangs beneath the barbarian. Emerging from the earth was an immense figure, its thick grey hide interrupted by wounds splitting it. However, its apparent wounds were not enough to stop it from closing its jaws around the barbarian and hauling him into the air. With a pained growl, the warrior tried to swing his fist into the fearsome visage of his assailant to no avail. Instead, the hulking form of the beast flexed and the barbarian was suddenly flung into the ground with such violent force, the earth cracked beneath him and a spray of blood erupted from his mouth. As he lay there, dazed, a clawed foot landed upon his chest, forcing him even deeper into the ground as the werebulette lifted its vicious maw upwards and roared in victory.

Our March of the Machines has come to an end and to start off April, I have a homebrew monster that I’ve used in my own campaigns! The werebulette is masterfully illustrated by SethMonster and is a creature that I’ve had in my back pocket for a while, uncertain as to whether I should even share it. It is mostly designed as a brute, featuring merely a moderate AC but high HP. Most brutes have a bit more damage to them, but the werebulette has some surprising mobility in its kit. To balance with this extra mobility, some of which will let it easily get behind foes and onto the backline, its Strikes only have a moderate attack value with moderate damage claws and high damage claws that also come with the tearing trait. A centerpiece of its kit, before we get into its abilities, is its Athletics, which uses an extreme bonus and probably has its most use in the form of its Grab action.

As to some of the lore for this creature, the werebulette is an artificial werecreature born from the tampering of a mad alchemist. This has left them flawed creatures that lack the curse common but does mean they are still equipped with a few common features such as empathy with their creature type as well as Moon Frenzy sending them on a rampage. It is worth noting that the artificial nature of the werebulette means that it doesn’t have a normal Change Shape. Instead, it has Revolting Change. This includes the effects of a standard Change Shape, but it also causes creature that see its bones cracking, flesh tearing, and other horrors have to make a high DC Will save or become sickened. I went with sickened over frightened because I wanted a slightly stickier status effect. It can also get into this when a fight starts with Savage Shift, meant to represent the overaggressive nature common among werebulettes. From their creature, werebulettes also pull Powerful Jumper and Leaping Charge which adds some action efficiency and mobility to that kit as I mentioned above. I’m covering these fairly quickly because they already exist and are simply based on the creature types that compose it. However, I want to give a bit more attention to its more unique abilities.

The first of these is Jaws From Beneath, which does admittedly share considerable design components with the standard monster ability, Pounce. However, instead of granting a Stride, Jaws From Beneath is limited to burrowing and also has the flourish trait, which keeps it from behind used more than once per round. With this caveat added to the ability, it felt safe to give this effect a bit more juice. This comes through with the Strike granted by this action allowing the werebulette to make a creature grabbed – and that leads into its next and final ability. Meteoric Slam requires the werebulette to already have its prey in hand, whether it be caught in its jaws or trapped in its claws. Optimally, it uses this at the start of a turn after having managed to keep a hold on a foe after a full round since this requires a Strike from the creature. This is a bit of a gamble, but succeeding on the Strike made as part of a Meteoric Slam drives the enemy into the earth with so much power and so deep that they become grabbed by the earth. This is one of my favorite abilities for the werebulette and it is admittedly a little cartoonish, but it was too fun not to use. It only requires a moderate DC to Escape since it traps the enemy in the prone position and I wanted non-martials to at least have a chance at getting free.

Bursting from below, this burly burrowing behemoth brings bane and blight, bashing buddies in an early bird burial before bounding towards belligerents in a bloodthirsty burst.

PATHFINDER 2E:

Blue’s D&D 5e (he’s back after his month away!):

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Bulettes in the Chamber: A werebulette has managed to bring several bulettes under its command, operating as a bandit. It prefers attacking caravans, letting its pets devour the team while the werebulette plunders the wares. The players may be hired to contend with this threat, be attacked by the band in the midst of their travels, or come across their encampment. This could be expanded upon and have the werebulette operating with a whole gang while keeping its exact nature under wraps until pushed into a corner.

I'd appreciate you checking out the video for the werebulette or the Monster Mash of it. If you're interested in joining the discussion on what creatures/builds 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.

Have a monstrous Monday!