Day three of Frightful Fridays! All April! brings you a surprisingly powerful behemoth of a tortoise. While this monster seems fairly clumsy, it can traverse a lot of ground, and its shell makes it extremely difficult to strike (and dangerous in the case of ray attacks). After defeating a carnage tortoise, characters might take advantage of the creature's shell to craft their own deflecting armor.
Thanks to Kirk for finding this illustration, and I'll be back tomorrow with a monster that I've alluded to in a few Frightful Fridays! entries. Hopefully, it will live up to the hype. Thanks again for reading!
Illustration by ~arvalis
An incredibly large tortoise with a slender neck rumbles through, bellowing, snapping its mouth and sweeping its tail threateningly.
Carnage Tortoise CR 12
XP 19,200
N Huge magical beast
Init –1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +29
Defense
AC 27, touch 7, flat-footed 27 (–1 Dex, +20 natural, –2 size)
hp 172 (15d10+90)
Fort +17, Ref +8, Will +10
DR 10/magic; Immune electricity, fire
Offense
Speed 50 ft.
Melee bite +23 (4d8+10/19–20), tail slap +18 (2d6+5)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks swallow whole (2d8 bludgeoning and 2d6 acid damage, AC 20, 17 hp), trample (6d8+10, DC 27)
Statistics
Str 30, Dex 8, Con 23, Int 5, Wis 20, Cha 9
Base Atk +15; CMB +27 (+31 sunder); CMD 36 (40 vs. sunder, 40 vs. trip)
Feats Bleeding Critical, Critical Focus, Great Fortitude, Greater Sunder, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Sunder, Point-Blank Shot, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Perception +29
SQ deflecting shell
Ecology
Environment any temperate or warm terrestrial
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure incidental
Special Abilities
Deflecting Shell (Ex/Su) A carnage tortoise’s shell deflects arrows, crossbow bolts, rays and any damage-dealing spell that has a single target. This grants the creature the benefits of the Deflect Arrows feat. Additionally, if a spell requiring a touch attack hits the tortoise’s touch AC, but does not meet or exceed the its total AC, the spell deflects off the tortoise’s shell; the tortoise can then make a ranged touch attack that targets any creature within range with the spell.
A gigantic creature that makes for a surprising weapon of destruction, a carnage tortoise seems to enjoy the feeling of crushing things underfoot and using its powerful jaws to destroy what it cannot crush. A carnage tortoise stands 15 feet tall, has a 12-foot diameter shell and weighs 4 tons.
Creations of war-minded transmuter wizards, carnage tortoises were deployed to various battlefields where they could crush the enemy troops and provide a bulwark for friendly armies. A carnage tortoise’s jaws have incredible strength, allowing the creature to bite through most materials, which renders weapons, armor and shields useless. It uses its tail to sweep away any stragglers it does not catch in its initial rush through a battlefield. Finally, its magically bolstered shell allows it to shrug off most arrows and single-target spells, requiring enemy commanders to resort to large-scale magic to take out the tortoise and some of their own people as well. Unfortunately, as with many of these creations, carnage tortoises escaped their capture and continue to rampage in the wild.
A carnage tortoise enjoys the long-life of a typical tortoise, further enhanced by the magical processes they underwent. The creature can typically live for up to two centuries, but its destructive activities usually shorten that lifespan considerably. A carnage tortoise can breed true with another carnage tortoise, and a mated pair can produce up to a dozen young, which grow to maturity in twenty years.
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Carnage Tortoise Armor
A gifted armorsmith can create masterwork hide armor for a Large or smaller character, masterwork banded mail for a Medium or smaller character, or masterwork half-plate for a Small character from a carnage tortoise shell. Because a carnage tortoise shell is difficult to work with, the Craft (armor) DC is 30 to create armor from the shell. The armor grants the wearer the use of the Deflect Arrows feat even if she does not meet the prerequisites (this does not allow the wearer to choose feats that require Deflect Arrows as a prerequisite). Additionally, once per day, the wearer can deflect a damage-dealing spell that targets her. The spell has to hit her touch AC, but miss her full AC, for her to use this ability, and she can choose to target a creature within range with the spell using her ranged touch attack roll.
Druids can wear carnage tortoise armor without penalty. The armor costs three times the masterwork version of the armor. Finally, the armor has 15 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 10; typical carnage tortoise armor has between 1 and 2 inches of thickness.
