Vrykolakas has horrid visage attack. No description is given. How does it work?

[Wolf Munroe]

The Vrykolakas, a monstrous vampirekin that appears in the bestiary in Pathfinder #29 (Council of Thieves Part 5) has horrid visage listed as a special attack. Its entry doesn't describe the attack so I checked the Universal Monster Rules in Bestiary 1 and Bestiary 2. Horrid Visage has no listing in either book's Universal Monster Rules.

How should this ability be treated? Is there another creature with this ability I could use as a template?

[Wolf Munroe]

Wolf Munroe wrote:

The Vrykolakas, a monstrous vampirekin that appears in the bestiary in Pathfinder #29 (Council of Thieves Part 5) has horrid visage listed as a special attack. Its entry doesn't describe the attack so I checked the Universal Monster Rules in Bestiary 1 and Bestiary 2. Horrid Visage has no listing in either book's Universal Monster Rules.

How should this ability be treated? Is there another creature with this ability I could use as a template?

Also just noticed the Vrykolakas has the Feed ability, which also has no description in the monster entry or the Universal Monster Rules of Bestiary 1 or Bestiary 2.

On the upside, one of the sample monsters from Bestiary 3 has the Feed ability, so hopefully Feed will appear as a Universal Monster Rule in Bestiary 3.

[Are]

I asked this question last year, and the designer of the Vrykolakas answered it like this (from the "Mother of Flies" reference thread):

Timitius wrote:

Yeah, good catch there. Those were from my draft that got cut in the process. Not sure if it was because of space, or that the extra specials made it far too powerful or just too complicated.....

Anyway, Scharlata has the gist of it. My inspirations were actually folklore, but I took a little from the mummy and the barghest.

Horrid Visage (Su): At the mere sight of a vrykolakas, the viewer must succeed on a DC 20 Will save or be paralyzed with fear for 1d4 rounds. Whether or not the save is successful, that creature cannot be affected again by the same vrykolakas's horrid visage for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Feed (Su) When a person dies due to a vrykolakas' pestilence, the vrykolakas steals some of their lifeforce. For every 5 victims, it gains 1 Hit Die, but only once per week, when it must spend a day of repose at its burial site.

[Wolf Munroe]

Thanks.

I'll use the Horrid Visage as-is, but I am going to tamper with the Feed. Temporary hitdice are a hassle and I'd rather it were tied in with blood-drinking since the monster is supposed to be vampire-kin.

I think I'll have Feed tied into the Create Spawn ability instead.

I'll probably do something like this for Feed instead:

Feed (Ex) A vrykolakas may spend a full round action to drink blood from the corpse of an opponent it has slain in the past hour. The vrykolakas heals 5 hit points or gains 5 temporary hit points for 1 hour (up to a maximum number of temporary hit points equal to its full normal hit points) each round it spends drinking blood in this manner. Treat the corpse as having a blood pool equal to its CON score when it was alive. Reduce the blood pool value by 1d4 for each round the vrykolakas feeds on the corpse. When the blood pool is reduced to 0 or the vrykolakas has reached maximum temporary hit points, the vrykolakas can no longer gain nourishment from the corpse. A vrykolakas must feed on a corpse for its Create Spawn ability to affect that corpse.

[Wolf Munroe]

Are wrote:

Timitius wrote:

Feed (Su) When a person dies due to a vrykolakas' pestilence, the vrykolakas steals some of their lifeforce. For every 5 victims, it gains 1 Hit Die, but only once per week, when it must spend a day of repose at its burial site.

Hmm... Just noticed it's not a temporary hit die. That might not be that bad then. Once a week the vrykolakas has a chance to go up 1 hitdie. Actually that sounds kind of powerful.

Not sure if I want a monster that can go up 1 HD a week. I'll have to think about it.