Monster March: Create-a-Monster for Cosmic Crit!


General Discussion


It's a new month, and that means a new fan challenge from Cosmic Crit!

This month, we're asking you to create the most gruesome, terrifying, deadly monsters you can think of for the Starfinder universe.

Our favorite monsters will have a chance to show up in our podcast to try to kill our characters. Their creators will each receive a Paizo PDF (just in time for Pact Worlds release later this month!), and the Grand Prize Winner will also get original commissioned artwork of their creation.

Considering how much fun you guys had with adding to our Critical Fail deck in February (which, by the way, is being finalized for release on our website soon!), I'm willing to bet you'll have fun dreaming up ways to kill us this month, too. -_-;;

Check out our website for details on how to enter and what we're looking for.

---

By the way... make sure you catch our latest episode, 027: The Shape of Slaughter. It's an exciting finale to Book 2: Temple of the Twelve of the Dead Suns Adventure Path.

And if you haven't listened to us before... now is a great time to jump in! Not only are we starting Book 3, but also our next episode will feature a very special interview with John Compton that you won't want to miss.

New episodes come out every Monday. Find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, wherever you get your podcasts, or subscribe however you like with our RSS Feed.

You can also connect with the cast and other Crittermanders on our Cosmic Crit Discord. Join us :)

Grand Lodge

Meet Averno
This cybernetic body has as a power source a trapped fire elemental, this barbaric enslavement has been lost through time, but none the less there are still some wondering around or package away. These fire elemental have gone mad due to the unnatural entrapment in this cold mechanical body, and will more often than not attack any humanoid.
They will charge in and start ripping you apart with their flame power weapon, most commonly a chainsaw (that replaces one of its limbs). When surrounded they will "explode" similarly to a solarian. As bettle extends the increase of heat in one spot with generate a mist cloud that provides it with cover, but the can see through it with no problem. They seem to possess nanites that seem to "heal" any damage taken.
If encounter try to avoid head on confrontation
(Still working on stats, but I'm not 100% with character creation since society makes them for me wink )


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
OtrovaGomas wrote:

Meet Averno

This cybernetic body has as a power source a trapped fire elemental, this barbaric enslavement has been lost through time, but none the less there are still some wondering around or package away. These fire elemental have gone mad due to the unnatural entrapment in this cold mechanical body, and will more often than not attack any humanoid.
They will charge in and start ripping you apart with their flame power weapon, most commonly a chainsaw (that replaces one of its limbs). When surrounded they will "explode" similarly to a solarian. As bettle extends the increase of heat in one spot with generate a mist cloud that provides it with cover, but the can see through it with no problem. They seem to possess nanites that seem to "heal" any damage taken.
If encounter try to avoid head on confrontation
(Still working on stats, but I'm not 100% with character creation since society makes them for me wink )

Oh boy I was on board when I got to "Flame Chainsaw".

I think that it is important to think in visuals and that seems like something that might instill fear in your enemies.


Are you afraid of being chased by an intelligent predator? What about getting crushed to death? And of course, being swallowed whole? And if you are very, very, lucky, they'll do it in that order. Meet the Blue-Tongue Chameleon.

Lore

WhiteWeasel wrote:

These monstrous six-legged chameleon-like animals have garnered a menacing reputation of crushing their quarry alive. Measuring over 14 feet tall, and 17 feet long, a blue-tongue chameleon looks like a thickly built chameleon or iguana with distinctive ridges and spines on it's back and crested skull. It's mouth is filled with it's titular long, blue, tongue that can extend up to twice it's body length with the tip being able to split up into four prehensile tendrils that can aid it's efforts to grapple and drag prey to their violent fate.

These carnivorous hunters have a relatively weak digestive system for their diet, and to compensate for it, their bodies have developed a particularly gruesome workaround; their stomachs are surrounded by it's own, secondary rib cage with articulated ribs that can compress the stomach and crush the victim inside while the stomach itself is lined with gastrointestinal dentata that can be driven into the victim as the ribs constrict the stomach and it's contents. This crushing force also serves to pin down it's understandably uncooperative victim before their body eventually gives in to the pressure and is rather violently reduced in size with a sickening wet crunch of bone and viscera.

However, the deadliest aspect of these gruesome predators is that they are not the mere beasts they initially appear to be. These creatures have been reportedly witnessed using complex tactics against intelligent (and thus more dangerous) quarry beyond typical pack animal behavior, going so as far to treat armed quarry with a greater degree of caution and tactical planning. This gives reason to believe blue-tongues – at least to a limited extent, have a degree of higher reasoning. However this would also mean these creatures willingly choose to predate upon other sapient beings for reasons currently unknown. Not many are interested in establishing communications to investigate these claims.

Stat Block

Posting it as a google doc because formatting on this site is a bit basic. Things are open to tweaking if needed.

Tactics
While their intelligence is a mere -4, keep in mind this is an animal - a being with only one goal to accomplish. Survive. Without any "distractions" a more civilized being would have to think about, 100% of their mental faculties are available to accomplishing the task at hand, making blue-tongues deceptively more capable than their minds otherwise would allow. And of course - make them incredibly dangerous, as they are through and through combat pragmatists. While how you play them can be different, these things generally are no-holds-barred killers.

Blue-Tongues are ambush predators that like to sit back and engage targets on their own terms. They are almost always the initiators of combat, and will use stealth to conceal themselves in water, dense foliage, or even hang from gargantuan trees with their thick tails, and either drop down on or tongue grab unsuspecting prey. Blue-tongues are also capable of leaping into action quite suddenly, proving to be a fatal surprise. Blue-tongues are extremely dangerous when hunting in pairs or groups, as they love to pick off and separate members of a group. Some even go so far as to run off with a devoured victim, while the other occupies their current aggressors, or worse yet, mirroring their partner's tactics, forcing attrition losses on their targeted prey.

The fact most reliable recorded observations on blue-tongues were made from post-mortem specimens is a testament to the brutal effectiveness of their tactics. This menacing reputation calls nearly all "missing persons" cases in densely foliated locations (or the entirety of Castrovel) into question.


Sorry, not going to to the bold formatting in this post.

Woolly Worg

A blanket of long brown hair covers nearly every inch of this beast. It steps with cat-like grace, each movement athletic and calculated, toward its prey. It might look ‘cute’ if not for the two large canines emerging from the coat. The individual hairs seem to have a life of their own, moving in undulating waves up and down the body.

Beneath the wool is rippling muscle and sinew. Four powerful legs end in a set of sharp claws, and its teeth are guided by a mind intelligent enough to find the weaknesses in heavy or power armor. After a successful hunt, with its wool matted from blood, it stares into the eyes of its prey as the life fades away.

Each hair follicle can detach and reattach to its skin at will. It uses this ability to exaggerate its size, displace its location, release clouds of hair, and generally confuse its prey. After shedding its wool, it can merely roll around to reform its coat. If the hairs are scattered around a large area, it can lay still as each follicle inches toward its master like worms while it naps on the floor. It will usually sleep on its back with its belly distended from gorging on flesh while waiting for its army of fibers to return.

CR 7
________________________________________
XP 3,200
CN Large magical beast
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision., blindsense 60 ft., darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +14

DEFENSE
HP 105 RP 5
________________________________________
EAC 19; KAC 21
Fort +11; Ref +11; Will +6
Tuft Cloud (Ex)
Woolly Image(Ex)

OFFENSE
________________________________________
Speed 40 ft.
Melee bite +18 (2d6+12 B/P and grab)
Melee claw +18 (2d6+12 S/P)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.

STATISTICS
________________________________________
Str +5; Dex +4; Con +2; Int -1; Wis +0; Cha +0
Skills Acrobatics +14, Athletics +14, Stealth +19

SPECIAL ABILITIES
________________________________________
Grab (Ex) If the creature hits with the indicated attack (usually a claw or bite attack), it deals the normal damage. If the creature's attack roll successfully hits the target's KAC + 4, the creature also automatically grapples the foe as a free action. (If it hits the target's KAC + 13, it instead pins the target.) The creature does not need to have a spare limb free to perform this grapple, as long as it can make the listed attack, and it can potentially grapple more than one target if it has more than one attack with the grab ability. The creature can maintain the grab either with another successful grab attack or by performing the grapple combat maneuver normally.

Satiated Slumber (Ex) Out of combat and after a successful hunt, the Woolly Worg can take a short rest that does not cost any RP. Instead, it restores 1d4+1 RP as its hairs return to its body.

Tuft Cloud (Ex) As a standard action, by spending 1 RP, the Woolly Worg ejects a large clump of its coat that obscures the surrounding 20 feet as the spell fog cloud for 10 rounds. It can expand the radius of this cloud by an additional 20 feet per RP spent.

Woolly Image (Ex) As a standard action, by spending 1 RP, the creature creates 2 figment non-magical copies of itself that function as the spell mirror image. The creature can spend multiple RP to create additional images in the same action. These images last for 10 rounds.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Holy jeez WhiteWeasel and JJJ, these are both really amazing, I would love to GM and fight to fight either of those.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Mother's Horror

Though androids do not reproduce sexually, some still feel the desire to raise children of their own from infancy. Most who do adopt orphans of other races. Some, however, give in to promises made by the cult of Lamashtu and join in the mother of monsters' dark rituals.

If anything comes of these rituals, it is the birth of cyborg horrors that resemble infant androids above the neck, before descending into a mass of steel cable tentacles. They are near mindless, and hopelessly violent, attacking any creature near them that does not display Lamashtu's symbol. It is not known if any have yet survived more than a few weeks. If so, they are likely kept a close secret by the cult of Lamashtu.
________
CR 4
XP 1,200
CE Small aberration (technological)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +10

DEFENSE
________
HP 50
EAC 16; KAC 18
Fort +8; Ref +8; Will +3

OFFENSE
________
Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft.
Melee tentacle +13 (1d6+9 B and grab and strangle)
Space 5 ft. Reach: 10ft.

STATISTICS
________
Str +5; Dex +3; Con +1; Int -3; Wis +0; Cha -2
Skills Acrobatics +10, Athletics +15, Stealth +10

SPECIAL ABILITIES
________
Strangle: If a mother's horror begins its turn grappling a foe which needs to breathe, that creature must make a DC 14 fortitude save or take 1d3 Con damage.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

In second edition AD&D, deepspawn were one of the largest creatures in existence. Floating balls the side of large mountains that lived underground in forgotten realms and Greyhawk, mainly. They had mouths and eyes and claws which they could extend as pseudopods at will. That wasn't the scary part, tho. Any living creature they so much as ate a piece of they could duplicate as clones under their nigh-unto direct control, about once every month, I think it was. It wouldn't have the spells of the original, but it would have its supernatural and extraordinary abilities.
--background over--
--begin concept--
What happens when a deepspawn swallows a piece of itself? It forms a deepmaw, a creature that, while not nearly as big, lacks the spell-like ability to store its own creature "data". Without an ability to store its own, it is instead transmitted to the original deepspawn. What this means is, if it deals damage with its bite, the creature it attacked can be duplicated by the deepspawn that created it. Basically, this sets up the PCs to be fighting themselves once they level up sufficiently. For added fun, have it be a quirk of the fact that it duplicated itself that spell-like abilities are erased. Also, I recommend powering down the original deepspawn from being similar to ad&d. In ad&d it was a gargantuan or colossal creature. Unless your PCs are going to be far higher level than they are now, that isn't feasible. Power up, however, the speed of the duplication as needed. If they take a in game 5 month break or something once they reach high enough level, have them fight themselves and it take a month to get their "clones" ready. Don't worry too much about it getting out of hand. It should also be satisfying to defeat themselves as they were 2 or 3 levels ago. Don't deny that to them. If they manage to capture the deepspawn original, make sure the deepspawn is damaged in some fashion so they don't exploit the monster duplication ability. Or just have it fight to the death.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

This would set up the PCs for this encounter and 2 others down the road when they find the deepspawn's hideout.


Just realized, it says that the submissions are to be submitted to their Gmail, I hope I didn't miss out on the contest!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Hi WhiteWeasel, we got your submission as we check here too (and I think we put up a reddit post as well).

Just a reminder to everyone that there are 5 more days to make up a monster. We will make up some art for the grand prize winner and fight it on the show, which will be a ton of fun

Community / Forums / Starfinder / Starfinder General Discussion / Monster March: Create-a-Monster for Cosmic Crit! All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Starfinder General Discussion