I've decided cats have been getting their due to much recently, so I'm switching to birds. The jackdoom is an animalistic amalgam of bird of humanoid, with very little of the humanoid features apart from the grabby arms (as seen below). While it tries to avoid combat, it happily grabs up prey and flings them from great heights.
I hope you enjoy the jackdoom, and I'll see you next week with another monster. Thanks for reading!
This towering creature
is a strange mixture of corvid and humanoid, featuring a raven-like head and
wings, muscular arms and legs ending in powerful claws and talons, and a pair
of long humanoid arms.
Jackdoom CR 12
XP 19,200
N Gargantuan magical beast
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light
vision; Perception +27 (+35 in
normal or bright light)
DEFENSE
AC 27, touch 11,
flat-footed 22 (+5 Dex, +16 natural, –4 size)
hp 168 (16d10+80)
Fort +15, Ref +15, Will +11
Immune fear
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.,
climb 20 ft., fly 60 ft. (average)
Melee bite +21
(3d6+8), 2 claws +20 (2d6+8), 2 talons +20 (1d8+8/19–20)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft.
Special Attacks
extra limbs, rend (2 claws, 2d6+12), rend (2 talons, 1d8+12), screech
STATISTICS
Str 27, Dex 21, Con 20, Int 4, Wis 19, Cha 8
Base Atk +16; CMB +28 (+32 grapple); CMD 43
Feats Bleeding
Critical, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Flyby Attack, Improved Critical
(talon), Iron Will, Snatch, Weapon Focus (bite)
Skills Climb +16,
Fly +14, Perception +27 (+35 in normal or bright light); Racial Modifiers +16 Perception (+24 in normal or bright light)
ECOLOGY
Environment warm
or temperate land
Organization solitary
or pair
Treasure none
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Extra Limbs (Ex) A
jackdoom has an extra pair of arms. It can use items with these extra limbs,
but it cannot wield weapons or shields with them. The arms grant a +4 racial
bonus on grapple checks.
Screech (Su) As a
standard action, or as an immediate action when it knocks a creature
unconscious with a melee attack, a jackdoom can unleash a horrifying screech.
Creatures within 100 feet of the jackdoom that fail a DC 19 Will save become
frightened for 1d4 rounds. Any creature that succeeds at this save cannot be
affected by the same jackdoom’s screech ability for 24 hours. This is a sonic mind-affecting
fear effect. The save DC is Charisma-based and includes a +2 racial bonus.
Ancient hag harpy covens had a fate worse than death for
some of their humanoid prey. They employed rituals to fuse the bodies of their
victims with corvids enchanted to prodigious size, leaving only the arms and
mere traces of the humanoids in the amalgam. While the secret of jackdoom
creation was lost when hag harpies were eradicated, the creatures proved surprisingly
fecund and spawn an ongoing population. Jackdooms are rarely seen, keeping to
remote mountains, primal forests, or blasted wastelands, where they feed on
whatever game shares the land with them. When their food supply runs low, they
make forays into more civilized lands to attack and carry off livestock. They try
to avoid interactions with humanoids but become enraged when targeted by the puny
beings. Jackdooms who engage in battle with humanoids delight in picking up
their foes and then flinging their captured victims to their doom. The massive
bird creatures despise rocs and other large avians and stop what they are doing
to pursue and destroy their hated “kin.”
A typical jackdoom is 35 feet in length from beak to tail.
It has a 70-foot wingspan and weighs roughly 9,500 pounds. Jackdooms live for up
to 40 years.
