Monday, October 22, 2018

Frightful Fridays! Frogtober! Funnel Frog

As promised, here is the Frogtober monster intended for yesterday. The Inktober theme was "drain," and much as I wanted to go with an undead critter that stole some attribute or other from the PCs, I instead went with a different interpretation. The funnel frog creates trap door-style funnels that drain PCs down to its waiting maw. 

Hugo Solis (https://deviantart.com/butterfrog) created an awesome illustration showing the funnel frog getting impatient and bursting through the ground to hunt its prey.

I hope you enjoy the funnel frog, and I'll see you in a few more hours with today's monster!


Here's Froggy!



This stony frog has a long-raspy tongue and a pair of powerful mandibles, not attached to its jaws, but instead attached to its tongue.
Funnel Frog      CR 9
XP 6,400
N Gargantuan magical beast
Init 2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent, tremorsense 60 ft.; Perception +16
DEFENSE
AC 24, touch 4, flat-footed 24 (2 Dex, +20 natural, 4 size)
hp 114 (12d10+48); regeneration 5 (cold)
Fort +12, Ref +6, Will +10
DR 10/magic; Resist acid 10, electricity 10
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft., burrow 30 ft., climb 20 ft.; earth glide
Melee bite +18 (3d6+9/1920), tongue +17 (2d8+9 plus grab)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 15 ft. (30 ft. with tongue)
Special Attacks create funnel, pull (tongue, 10 feet), quicksand patch
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12th; concentration +15)
   At will—create pit[APG] (DC 15), expeditious excavation[APG]
   3/day—soften earth and stone
   1/day—hungry pit[APG] (DC 18)
STATISTICS
Str 29, Dex 6, Con 19, Int 5, Wis 18, Cha 16
Base Atk +12; CMB +25 (+29 grapple); CMD 33 (37 vs. trip)
Feats Bleeding Critical, Critical Focus, Diehard[B], Endurance[B], Improved Critical (bite), Iron Will, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite)
Skills Climb +21, Perception +17, Stealth 10 (+10 in rocky areas), Survival +16; Racial Modifiers +20 Stealth in rocky areas, +12 Survival
SQ stone-crushing mandibles
ECOLOGY
Environment temperate and warm deserts or mountains
Organization solitary, pair, or cratering (38)
Treasure incidental
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Create Funnel (Ex) As a standard action, a funnel frog can create a funnel-like pit that measures 15 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep. Creatures caught in the area may avoid falling in with a successful DC 20 Reflex save. The sand and broken rock soften the fall, so a creature only takes 1d6 points of damage on a failed save. The frog can make an attack of opportunity against any creature that falls into the funnel. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Grab (Ex) If a funnel frog succeeds on its combat maneuver check to maintain a grapple, it can make a bite attack against the grappled target with a +2 circumstance bonus as an immediate action.
Quicksand Patch (Ex) A funnel frog can spend 1 hour to create a 60-foot-diameter, 15-foot-deep patch of quicksand in any soft earth surface. The frog makes a single Survival check opposed by Perception or Survival checks to spot the quicksand before stepping in.
Stone-Crushing Mandibles (Ex) A funnel frog that makes a bite attack against a stone object or structure deals double damage.

Funnel frogs are castaways from the Elemental Plane of Earth, left behind when an antediluvian wave from the earthen plane retreated to its original location. Knowledgeable scholars believe the frogs were left behind, since earth elemental creatures regarded them as little more than destructive vermin akin to gigantic prairie dogs and gophers. Funnel frogs adapted quickly to their subterranean homes and then found their way to the surface, where they continue the destructive behavior that ousted them from their former homes.

Funnel frogs wait 10 to 20 feet below the surface to ambush their prey. Since they only know their prey from footfalls, they are inherently less than discriminating when it comes to choosing their victims. This results in their quick demise when they tunnel under dragons and similarly powerful creatures. However, they are more often successful than not, and prosperous frogs know how to find the best hunting grounds.

Those funnel frogs that haven’t established a permanent lair use their mandibles to quickly drill holes under potential prey. The mandibles are attached to their tongues, which sit in a socket in their throats, allowing the frogs to spin their tongues and the attached mandibles freely. Established frogs spend their time crushing earth into fine grains, so they can create quicksand-like pits to confuse and disorient their prey as they sink toward the waiting frogs.

A typical funnel frog measures 22 feet in length and weighs 2 tons, a weight for which they seem adept at distributing evenly in sandy surfaces. A funnel frog can reach a natural lifespan of 500 years, but it rarely does, as its hunting habits eventually lead to its early demise.