Namazu-Giant Catfish

[dungeonmaster heathy]

In Japanese legends, there's these giant catfish that lived in the mud under the land and thrashed around making earthquakes;
is there anything remotely like this statted up anywhere?

I'd just make it a shark and use d20pfsrd.com to make it colossal and give it a crapload of h.d., but I'm looking for other possible approaches too.

[R_Chance]

dungeonmaster heathy wrote:

In Japanese legends, there's these giant catfish that lived in the mud under the land and thrashed around making earthquakes;
is there anything remotely like this statted up anywhere?

I'd just make it a shark and use d20pfsrd.com to make it colossal and give it a crapload of h.d., but I'm looking for other possible approaches too.

I think you're getting into that epic / mythic bestiary range that hasn't been done yet :) Statting out things like that is why some people want a "mythic" rule book. They haven't done Chinese / Japanese mytholgy since 1st Edition AD&D iirc, and I don't memmber anything like it in the Epic Level Handbook or Manual of the Planes. Still, they might be your best bet for inspiration.

*edit* The catfish from Japanese mythology was singular... if you just want a type of monster / catfish that can cause earthquakes you have a lot more room to work...

[dungeonmaster heathy]

Yeah; the latter.....I see that Namazu was, indeed, singular now.

Heh.

Historically, he kinda generally foretold disaster; maybe he's Nyarlathotep.......

[R_Chance]

dungeonmaster heathy wrote:

Yeah; the latter.....I see that Namazu was, indeed, singular now.

Heh.

Historically, he kinda generally foretold disaster; maybe he's Nyarlathotep.......

OK. So you're talking about a giant magical catfish with a spell like ability similar to the Earthquake spell (level 8 Cleric / Druid)? They would need a burrowing speed (through earth / mud) and would probably use Earthquake to break things up and allow them to move...

Sounds like you need to determine it's size and go from there. There are "armored" catfish and the barbells can be a weapon as well as a bite and tail slap. Swallowing things whole would be a possibility as well. Sounds fun.

[Odraude]

Sounds like a Tarrasque-esque type of creature, making it unique. Although it's not unusual for Paizo to take creatures from mythology that are usually singular and turn them into a species. But yeah, definitely look at the behemoths or tarrasques and go from there.

[YawarFiesta]

Odraude wrote:

Sounds like a Tarrasque-esque type of creature, making it unique. Although it's not unusual for Paizo to take creatures from mythology that are usually singular and turn them into a species. But yeah, definitely look at the behemoths or tarrasques and go from there.

*coff**coff* Minotaurs*coff**coff*

[Trollish]

YawarFiesta wrote:

Odraude wrote:

Sounds like a Tarrasque-esque type of creature, making it unique. Although it's not unusual for Paizo to take creatures from mythology that are usually singular and turn them into a species. But yeah, definitely look at the behemoths or tarrasques and go from there.

*coff**coff* Minotaurs*coff**coff*

Minotaurs have been a staple fantasy "race" since OD&D, but yea... I still see your point. When the Tarrasque was introduced in the MM2 (AD&D) I believe it was a unique creature almost on par with a deity (someone please correct me if I am wrong on that count).

Anyhoo... I was also under the impression that Paizo has included a metric ton of Asian mythological beasties in the setting, particularly in Bestiary 3.

[moon glum]

dungeonmaster heathy wrote:

In Japanese legends, there's these giant catfish that lived in the mud under the land and thrashed around making earthquakes;

is there anything remotely like this statted up anywhere?

I'd just make it a shark and use d20pfsrd.com to make it colossal and give it a crapload of h.d., but I'm looking for other possible approaches too.

I think a colossal megalodon is a good bet, but since its a mud dweller, add a burrow speed and add the extraordinary ability to cause earthquakes (as the spell) by burrowing under a region.

The number of hit dice you add is just icing to level it up to something appropriate to your purposes.

Depending on what you think of it as, you might consider adding DR/magic or epic or chaos (since they are associated with justice), intelligence and telepathic language ability, a continuous rock to mud ability (an aura that turns the rock around it to mud), and some kind of curse that blights the land with drought if it is killed. It should also regenerate as long as its body is moist. Also consider adding tremor sense, what with those whiskers and all.

[Mahorfeus]

For some reason a giant beast that causes earthquakes by thrashing around underground sounds like some serious flavor for a Spawn of Rovagug. Sorry, I just love those guys.

[Odraude]

Was just thinking that. Rereading legacy of Fire and this thread kinda makes me want to do one of Cipactli from Aztec Mythology

[dungeonmaster heathy]

Mahorfeus wrote:

For some reason a giant beast that causes earthquakes by thrashing around underground sounds like some serious flavor for a Spawn of Rovagug. Sorry, I just love those guys.

Yeah; I was thinking about that. Mine's gonna be a few CR's lower than Tarrasque though....but if I'm inspiring people, that's cool too.

I've been reading; in Japan the catfish is kinda a symbol of earthquakes and whatnot due to this mythology.

[Odraude]

Idea for ability:

Subterranean Assault: Essentially, when he erupts from the ground, everyone makes a DC whatever reflex save. Pass and you take half damage and knocked prone. Fail and you take full damage and he swallows you. Imagine the square for this would be 4 x 4 or something

[gbonehead]

As initially described this sounds more like a plot device than an actual creature someone's going to go up and smack with a sword.

Well, in most campaigns :)

Even in the 3.5e book Elder Evils, they hedged on Atropus and the Leviathan, turning them into encounter locations rather than creatures. However, a creature with a lower CR than the tarrasque clearly isn't causing earthquakes by moving, and isn't at the same scale as those two (Atropus and Leviathan), so it's probably a colossal awakened catfish thing with an N/day earthquake ability.

[Sincubus]

Uhm... tell me why the Namazu should be gargantuan and WHY should it be a single creature?

Minotaurs, Hydra's and everything else has been multiplied over the fantasygame-timeperk, so why the Namazu should be put under the same suffer as Tarrasque?

My ideal Namazu is a large to huge catfish creature (multiple creatures) that isn't as big as entire asia and which can be battled like all the other mytholigical-unique creatures that have been paizonized/D&Dnized over the ages.

[Shadowdweller]

Hmm...from a tactical perspective, I personally kind of like the idea of an otherwise deceptively weak creature with a powerful oddball ability like the capacity to use Earthquake at will. Whether has any bearing on the legendary Namazu...well, actually it doesn't.

[Sincubus]

Tanuki's (the Namazu's worst enemy) are often found into battle with Namazu on old pictures... I assume the Tanuki are smaller than humans, so why the Namazu should be country sized?

That doesn't make sense to me sorry...