So I'm crafting some critters to act as the main, and probably only, enemies in an upcoming trek my players will be taking through an uncharted road built by ancient Dwarves in a time predating all current records. I kinda want to make it scary.
These creatures derive from a mutant strain of dwarves born deformed and savage of parents who had fled their ancestral keeps when their experimentation in the arcane unleashed something upon the world.
I'm calling these things Childers.
For (relative) simplicity, I'm opting for only two critters (for now), a childer male and childer alpha. The obvious omission will find a way into the story in a slightly less near future.
The males are horde attackers with stunted legs and long, powerfully muscular arms who pin their prey with claws before tearing the throat with teeth dripping with anticoagulant saliva. It is my intention that they be most dangerous against isolated targets but otherwise easily dispatched when players cover for each other (i.e. their attack-grab-pin-bite routine allows ample time for the grapplee to escape or an ally to knock off the grappler). Furthermore, I went one-up on the standard light blindness by making them outright afraid of the light, so that a wave can be slowed to a trickle with the right amount of daring and planning.
The Alpha, larger, lankier, and yet stronger, possesses more of a savage cunning, and skirmishes with its prey, rending weapons, armor, and light sources so that its smaller kin can attack without reprisal, before fleeing to recuperate via fast healing.
Without further ado, my first attempts at statting these things:
Childer Male
CR ? XP ?
N Medium Monstrous Humanoid
Init+1; Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Scent; Perception +1
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DEFENSE
AC 15, Touch 12, Flat-footed 13 (+2 Dex, +3 Nat)
HP 15 (2d10+4)
Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +2
Weaknesses: Light Blindness*, Photophobia
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OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft., Climb 20 ft.
Melee 2 Claws +5 (1d4+3 plus Grab), Bite +0 (1d6+1 plus 1 bleed)
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STATISTICS
Str 16, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 3, Wis 12, Cha 5
BAB +2, CMB +5 (+9 Grapple), CMD 16
Feats: Sure Grasp
Skills: Climb +15, Perception +1, Stealth +5 (+11 underground)
Language: Barely. A gutturalpidgin derived from ancient dwarven not readily mutually comprehensible with contemporary dialects.
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
Fast Charge (Ex): Can move triple ground speed for a charge or 5x ground when running.
Photophobia: A Childer Male must make a will Save to enter a square more brightly lit than its own. The DC is 20 for bright light, 15 for normal, 10 for Dim. Creatures may take a standard action to brandish a light source to increase the DC of the Will Save to enter any square the source illuminates. This save is made only once per turn and applies to all movement in the round. A Childer Male can approach any creature that has attacked it in the last minute without needing to make a save.
Vicious Bite: The childer male's bite deals damage to pinned or helpless opponents as if he had scored a critical hit.
Anticoagulant Saliva: Any creature taking damage from a Childer Male's bite takes 1 point of bleed damage This damage does not stack with itself or any other bleed damage but is doubled on a critical hit. It can be stopped by any effect that heals hit point damage or by a DC 15 heal check.
Rocky Camouflage: +10 Racial to Stealth underground. Can hide without cover or concealment underground if unobserved and stationary.
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Childer Alpha
CR ? XP ?
Large Monstrous Humanoid
Init +1; Senses Darkvision 60 ft; Scent; Perception +11
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DEFENSE
AC 18, Touch 10, Flat-footed 17 (+1 Dex, +8 Nat, -1 Size)
HP 63 (6d10+30); Fast Healing 5; Ferocity
Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +7
Weaknesses: Light Sensitivity*
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OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee 2 Slams +10 (1d6+11) [PA already factored in]
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STATISTICS
Str 25, Dex 12, Con 21, Int 6, Wis 15, Cha 8
BAB +2, CMB +5 (+9 Grapple), CMD 16
Feats: Power Attack, Improved Sunder, Weapon Focus (Slam)
Skills: Climb +15, Perception +11, Stealth -1, Survival +6
Language: See Childer Male
*: In the context of the campaign, I'm modifying the dazzled aspect of light sensitivity and blindness to trigger in normal light.
Any suggestions? Any idea as to properly setting the CR for these things?
For reference, it's a non-magical party of five gestalt L3s with a few minor SLA's gained from the first exposure of man to magic in millennia. Injury/Strain variant rule to offset crippling lack of curative magic.