Everyone knows how hungry goblins are. Everyone knows how wide their sharp-toothed maws can open. But there are whispers of goblins that go beyond that—goblins that can unhinge their jaws, that can eat opponents many times their size. Whole. And still be hungry. Some believe they're scions of the great four barghests. Some believe they're goblins touched by Urgathoa. Some even believe they're the product of a goblin and a bag of devouring falling in love. All that is sure is that they're out there. And if one comes to your town...well, there soon won't be a town there.
Skills: A devourer gains Escape Artist and Stealth as class skills.
Powerful Bite (Ex) A devourer gains a bite attack. If small, this primary attack deals 1d6 damage. If medium, it deals 1d8. Regardless, it adds 1-1/2 the goblin's Strength bonus to damage. A devourer's bite is never considered a secondary attack—if she full attacks with both a weapon and her bite, the weapon is considered a secondary attack.
A devourer's bite attack increases one step in damage at fourth level, and every four levels after that, following the natural attack progression (1d6, 1d8, 2d6, 2d8, 4d6, 4d8, 6d6, 6d8, 8d6, 8d8, 10d6, etc.).
Eats Anything (Ex) A devourer can gain nourishment from anything organic, including grass, leaves, raw meat, banana peels, and the wizard's hat. She gains a +4 bonus on Fortitude saves against diseases or poisons she contracts from things she eats.
Rage (Ex) A devourer's rage operates identically to the ordinary rage, except as follows: She cannot use manufactured weapons while in a rage. She gains +10 feet to her base land speed while in a rage. She gains a number of rage rounds per day equal to 4 + double her Constitution modifier. This ability modifies and replaces Rage and Fast Movement.
Grab (Ex) At 4th level, the devourer gains the Grab special attack. She immediately gains a +4 bonus on all checks made to start or maintain a grapple. Whenever she hits an opponent no more than one size category larger than her with her bite, she may immediately make a Grapple check. If she succeeds, her target is grappled. This ability otherwise functions identically to the Grab special attack. This ability replaces the barbarian's 4th-level rage power.
Bonus Feat: At 6th level, the devourer may take Improved Grapple as a bonus feat. If she already has this feat, she may choose between Greater Grapple or Body Shield as her bonus feat. This replaces the 6th level rage power.
Swallow Whole (Ex) At 6th level, if the devourer begins her turn with an opponent grappled in her mouth, she can attempt a new combat maneuver check (as though attempting to pin the opponent). If it succeeds, she swallows her target, and her target takes bite damage. The opponent can be up to one size category smaller than the devourer. Being swallowed causes a creature to take bite damage each round. A swallowed creature keeps the grappled condition, while the creature that did the swallowing does not. A swallowed creature can try to cut its way free with any light slashing or piercing weapon (the amount of cutting damage required to get free is equal to 1/10 the devourer's total hit points), or it can just try to escape the grapple. The Armor Class of the interior of a devourer is normally 10 + 1/2 her natural armor bonus, with no modifiers for size or Dexterity. If a swallowed creature cuts its way out, the devourer cannot use swallow whole again until the damage is healed. If the swallowed creature escapes the grapple, success puts it back in the devourer's mouth, where it may be bitten or swallowed again.
After a devourer successfully swallows a living creature (or until it escapes), she gains one growth point. She cannot possess more than one growth point at once gained from this method.
This ability replaces improved uncanny dodge.
Growth Points (Su) As she grows in power, the devourer can mimic—to an extent—the powers from growing that are possessed by the barghest. This is represented with a growth point pool. She cannot have more than 3 growth points at once. She may expend a growth point at any time to either:
Terrific Hunger (Su) At 8th level, the devourer can swallow whole targets equal to her in size. Every equal-sized target swallowed gives her two growth points. For 1 hour after successfully swallowing such a creature (or until it escapes), she gains a +2 to Strength, a -2 to Dexterity, and 1d8 + her class level in temporary hit points. If all her growth points are used up, she loses these bonuses. The target must be alive at the time of swallowing for her to gain these benefits.
This ability replaces all damage reduction increases past DR 1/—.
All-Consuming Hunger (Ex) At 10th level, the devourer must eat double her weight every day to survive. As long as organic materials are in plentiful supply, this is little trouble and need not be tracked, but settings such as dungeon cells can be quite dangerous. If a day is spent without eating enough, the devourer is fatigued (no save) and must make a Constitution check each day (DC 10, +1 for each previous check) or take 2d6 points of nonlethal damage. The fatigued condition (but not the damage) vanishes as soon as she eats something large enough.
The devourer can no longer gain growth points from eating creatures smaller than herself.
Horrific Hunger (Su) At 12th level, the devourer can swallow whole targets one size category larger than herself. This gives her 3 growth points (automatically maxing out her growth point pool). In addition, for the next 4 hours, as long as she has at least one growth point left, she is considered to be Medium sized. She gains a +4 bonus to Strength, a +2 bonus to Constitution, a -2 to Dexterity, and 1d8+ her level in temporary hit points.
The devourer can no longer gain benefits from eating a single equal-sized creature, such as in Terrific Hunger. She, however, can gain the same benefits and size increase as in Horrific Hunger by eating six equal-sized creatures.
Walking Meat Grinder (Ex) At 12th level, those inside the devourer's stomach take damage equal to double the devourer's bite damage, including bonuses from Power Attack and Vital Strike (if she has them). Effects that affect natural weapons, such as magic fang, can be cast upon a devourer's stomach. A devourer's stomach is considered adamantine for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
Chilling Hunger (Su) At 16th level, a devourer that has a creature two size categories larger than her grappled in her mouth can begin to swallow it whole. She must spend two full-found actions, succeeding at two Grapple checks with a -5 penalty. If successful on both, at the conclusion of her second turn, the creature is swallowed whole.
The devourer immediately gains two size categories. She gains a +10 bonus to Strength, a +4 to Constitution, a +4 bonus to natural armor, a -4 to Dexterity, and 1d8 + her level in temporary hit points. The size increase and resultant benefits last for the next 4 hours.
She can no longer gain benefits from eating singular creatures only one size category larger than herself. However, she can gain the same benefits and size increase from eating six creatures one size category larger than herself, or thirty-six equal-sized creatures.
World Devourer (Su) At 20th level, the devourer can eat literally anything organic. She becomes immune to poison and disease. Bags of devouring will never target her. Her stomach gains DR 10/epic versus attempts to cut through it, and it never loses its Dexterity bonus against such attacks. She must eat one creature at least two size categories larger than her each day, and she can never gain size increases from a creature only one size category larger.
The devourer may now swallow whole a target of any size category. Targets no more than one size category larger than her can be swallowed as normal. For every size category larger than this, she must take two full-round actions, making one Grapple check per turn. These checks are at -5, but ignore size bonuses to CMD. Assuming full success, she swallows the creature whole.
She instantly takes on the size of the creature swallowed. For every size category larger than one above her own, the devourer gains a +6 bonus to Strength, a +4 bonus to Constitution, a +1 bonus to natural armor, a -1 penalty to Dexterity, and 1d8 + her level in temporary hit points.
This increase lasts for 1 hour.
This ability replaces Mighty Rage.
This archetype isn't goblin-only, but I'd generally keep it to creatures known for their hunger. Medium sizes will have a much easier time of things, too (more creatures to swallow), so it might be best to stick to small races for PCs. Gnomes have famously large mouths, don't they? :P
Incidentally, I originally envisioned this as a druid archetype with a "superior bite" wild shape. As I went, though, I gradually realized it just had too much stuff. I'd have to cut or limit spellcasting and nature bond to make it balanced, and at the end of the day, it just wouldn't be much of a druid. Barbarian fit much better, even though at the end of the day it's basically a whole new class anyways. I was also a bit uneasy about how this archetype basically "outgrows" old abilities, but it seemed fairly fitting considering the theme.
Other abilities I considered included a "true death"-style ability to match the vague bags of devouring vibe, more damage types to counter DR, and more barghest-style stuff with the growth points. They also originally were able to use light weapons in a rage.
Feedback is more than welcome.
Made one correction: World Devourer replaces Mighty Rage.
This is awesome, thanks for posting this.
I can picture this kind of goblin working great with a pc of mine who wants to cook and eat everything. As soon as a player wants to roll a precision damage character we'll have a full Iron chef group.