Saturday, January 24, 2009

Why, that's a Trimandibular Praying Mantelope!

The final comments are in from last week's "Weekly What the Heck". The result is the trimandibular praying mantelope, a ravenous beast with three beautiful singing voices.

I'd like to thank Anonymous, greywulf and Ripper (with special thanks to Anonymous for the name) for their ideas, all of which have been mashed together to create:
Trimandibular Praying Mantelope
Trimandibular praying mantelopes are giant insects with three mouths. These fearsome creatures are created by saeggan dreamcasters through a foul ritual involving dark magic, opera and corn.

Level 3 Brute
Trimandibular Praying Mantelope
XP 150
Medium natural beast (mount)
Initiative +3 Senses Perception +2
HP 55; Bloodied 27
AC 16; Fortitude 16, Reflex 15, Will 14
Speed 6, fly 10, overland flight 15
mBite (standard; at-will)
+6 vs. AC; 1d6 + 3 damage.
MTriple Bite (standard; at-will)
+6 vs. AC; 2d6 + 3 damage.
CDazing Chorus (standard; sustain minor; encounter) * Charm
Close burst 3; Targets enemies; deafened creatures are immune; +2 vs. Will; the target is dazed until the end of the trimandibular praying mantelope’s next turn. The trimandibular praying mantelope must make a new attack roll when it sustains this effect.
Combined Attack (while mounted by a friendly rider of 3rd level or higher; at-will) * Mount
When the trimandibular praying mantelope’s rider makes a melee attack, the trimandibular praying mantelope makes a bite attack as a free action against the same target.
Alignment Unaligned Languages -
Str 17 (+4) Dex 14 (+3) Wis 12 (+2)
Con 15 (+3) Int 1 (-4) Cha 10 (+1)

Trimandibular Praying Mantelope Tactics
The trimandibular praying mantelope tries to get into melee and use its dazing chorus as soon as possible, then sustain it as long as it can.

Trimandibular Praying Mantelope Lore
A character knows the following information with a successful Nature check.
DC 15: The trimandibular praying mantelope uses an enchanting song to lull its enemies, but if the song can be interrupted its charm is broken.

Encounter Groups
Trimandibular praying mantelopes are almost always encountered serving as mounts to saeggan dreamcasters.
Level 4 Encounter (XP 900)
* 2 trimandibular praying mantelopes (level 3 brute)
* 2 saeggan dreamcasters (level 3 controller)
* 3 saeggan genesi (level 1 soldier)
Not bad. I might have done a higher-level dire version or something except:
1) I dunno what would ride it unless I whipped up a higher-level saeggan
2) I don't have a ton of time this weekend.

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