Hello and welcome back for Frightful Fridays! I've got two monsters for you this week, each fitting a loose theme of mounts. The elyftephant itself serves as a mount, primarily to undead creatures. It tramples everything in its path and provides protection for the creatures ensconced in its chest cavity, not that the undead elyftephant needs organs after all. This week's second offering, the octoquestrian, is an octopus-like aberration that likes riding horses, to mitigate its inability to get around on land. Woe betide anyone who kills an octoquestrian's mount, though, since the octoquestrian will turn the killer into its new horse.
I hope you enjoy the elyftephant and the octoquestrian. I will see you Monday for the start of the month-long Frogtober celebration. Thanks for reading!
Here are the links to the inspiration images for this week's monsters:
Elyftephant
Octoquestrian
Despite the emaciated
frame of this obviously undead elephant, it moves with a powerful stride.
Elyftephant CR 6
XP 2,400
NE Huge undead
Init –2;
Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception
+16
DEFENSE
AC 20, touch 6,
flat-footed 20 (–2 Dex, +14 natural, –2 size)
hp 76 (9d8+36);
fast healing 5
Fort +7, Ref +1, Will +6
Defensive Abilities
channel resistance +4; DR 5/magic; Immune cold, undead traits; Resist acid 10, electricity 10
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee gore +14
(2d8+10), slam +14 (2d6+10)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks increased
damage against objects, trample (2d6+15 plus 2d6 negative energy, DC 24)
STATISTICS
Str 31, Dex 6, Con —, Int —, Wis 11, Cha 19
Base Atk +6; CMB
+18 (+20 bull rush); CMD 26 (28 vs. bull rush, 30 vs. trip)
Feats Improved
Bull Rush[B], Power Attack[B]
Skills Perception
+16
SQ riding chamber
ECOLOGY
Environment any
land
Organization
solitary or war unit (2–24 plus 2–12 skeletal champions or other
intelligent undead)
Treasure
incidental
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Increased Damage Against
Objects (Ex) An elyftephant that makes a full attack against an object or
structure deals double damage. If the elyphtephant charges an object or
structure, it deals triple damage against the object or structure.
Riding Chamber (Su) An elyftephant’s chest cavity is
carved out, leaving space for 2 Medium or 1 Large creature to sit in relative
comfort. Creatures within this cavity gain cover from attacks and benefit from
the elyftephant’s elemental immunities and resistances. Additionally, these creatures
take half damage from spells or effects that affect an area. The elyftephant’s
riding chamber is suffused with negative energy however. At the beginning of
the elyftephant's turn, it deals 2d6 points of negative energy damage (DC 18
Will save halves) and heals 2d6 damage to creatures healed by negative energy.
An intelligent undead creature within the riding chamber can spend a move
action to command the elyftephant. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Elyftephants are undead engines of war created by powerful
liches and other undead transmuters. Rather than exposing riders atop their
creations as living creatures are forced to do so with elephants, these
creators built in a chamber to comfortably house other undead creatures. On
occasion, these cavities are filled with mindless undead that leap into battle
after the elyftephants batter down obstacles, but the elyftephants creators
wanted undead generals and the like to control the battlefield from the safety
of the larger creatures’ interior. These riding chambers are inimical to living
creatures, so elyftephants cannot be turned against their masters very
effectively.
Uncontrolled elyftephants charge at the largest object or
collection of living creatures, and they always use Power Attack when in
combat.
An elyftephant stands 11 feet tall and weighs 8,000 pounds.
It can be created with create undead
using an elephant’s corpse. The caster must be at least 15th level, and the
elephant’s corpse must have taken negative energy damage before it died.
--------------------
This dark purple
octopus sits atop a white steed and seemingly guides the animal with its
tentacles.
Octoquestrian CR 5
XP 1,600
CN Medium aberration (aquatic)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception
+12
DEFENSE
AC 19, touch 15,
flat-footed 14 (+5 Dex, +4 natural)
hp 59 (7d8+28)
Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +7
OFFENSE
Speed 10 ft.,
swim 60 ft.
Melee 4 tentacles
+10 (1d6+1)
Special Attacks
insurmountable
Spell-Like Abilities
(CL 7th; concentration +11)
At will—mount
3/day—charm animal (DC 15), phantom steed
STATISTICS
Str 13, Dex 21, Con 18, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 19
Base Atk +5; CMB +6; CMD 21 (29 vs. trip)
Feats Animal
Affinity, Mounted Combat, Ride-by Attack, Spirited Charge, Trample[B], Weapon Finesse[B]
Skills Acrobatics
+15 (+7 to jump), Escape Artist +15, Handle Animal +16, Knowledge (nature) +14,
Perception +12, Ride +17, Stealth +12, Survival +12, Swim +15
Languages
Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Sylvan; speak with
animals (horses only)
SQ amphibious,
emergency mount, tentacled rider
ECOLOGY
Environment any
Organization
solitary, pair, or cavalry (3–20)
Treasure standard
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Emergency Mount (Su)
An octoquestrian casts mount as a
standard action, rather than taking 1 round. Additionally, it can expend two
uses of phantom steed to cast it in 1
round rather than 10 minutes.
Insurmountable (Su)
Once per day as a standard action, an octoquestrian can make a touch attack. If
it strikes a living target, the target must succeed on a DC 17 Fortitude save
or transform into a light warhorse. This is a similar effect to baleful polymorph, so a victim that
fails its Fortitude save must also make a DC 17 Will save. If this save fails,
the victim loses all its extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities
(as well as its ability to cast spells, if applicable), and uses the stats for
a light warhorse. It still retains its class and level (or HD), as well as all
benefits deriving from them, such as base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and
hit points. It retains any class features other than those listed above. The
save DCs are Charisma-based.
If the octoquestrian does not strike a target after
activating this ability, it can effectively hold the charge until it
successfully strikes a target, or it uses a spell-like ability (in which case,
it loses the charge).
Tentacled Rider (Ex)
An octoquestrian takes no penalty on Ride checks for riding bareback.
When the dread kraken sent its octopus armies to land to
invade, those octopodes who did not question the order (and thus survived the
dread kraken’s unspeakable wrath) worked out methods to adapt to land. Many of
them turn to magic or spontaneously mutated, some transforming their tentacles
into legs and some gaining the ability to fly. A rare few retained their
original forms and used the available resources found on dry land to move
about. One such species used horses as their mode of transportation and adopted
the moniker octoquestrian. Octoquestrians possess innate animal empathy and a
small suite of magic powers to control or conjure horses. They prefer living,
tentacle-trained horses to those summoned or created with magic, but make do
with what they have. If they lose a horse they have reared themselves, they
employ their most devastating magic to permanently transform the killers into
horses, which they ride in their previous mounts’ stead.
Despite their generally chaotic nature, octoquestrians work
exceptionally well together and employ sound battlefield tactics. Octoquestrians
often take levels in cavalier to improve their skill with horses and to bolster
their ability to conduct battle effectively as part of an octoquestrian
cavalry.
A typical octoquestrian measures 4 feet tall, while its
tentacles extend for 6 feet, and it weighs 150 pounds. An octoquestrian can
live for up to 125 years.