|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I saw this piece of art about a giraffe/hydra hybrid earlier today, and felt like it deserved some stats. So without further ado, I give you the Hydraffe.
This animal, covered in a spotted pattern, has five heads at the end of five disproportionately long necks. Three heads stretch upwards, vigilant scanning in all directions for threats. The remaining heads browse nearby vegetation.
XP 2,400
N Huge magical beast
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60ft, low-light vision, scent; Perception +13
AC 21, touch 10, flat-footed 19 (+2 Dex, +11 natural, –2 size)
hp 67 (9d8+27); fast healing 5
Fort +9, Ref +8, Will +5
Speed 50 ft.
Melee 2 hooves +12 (1d8+5), 5 slams +8 (1d8+2 plus push)
Space 15 ft., Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks push (slam, 5 ft.)
Str 20, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 7
Base Atk +9; CMB +16; CMD 28 (32 vs. trip)
Feats Alertness, Dazzling Display, Endurance, Run, Weapon Focus (Slam)
Skills Intimidation +8, Perception +13, Sense Motive +4 ; Racial Modifiers +2 Intimidation, +2 Perception
SQ: hydra traits, regenerate head
Environment warm plains
Organization solitary, mating pair (1 hydraffe, 1 giraffe), or mixed herd (1 hydraffe, 3–10 giraffes)
Treasure none
Natural Weapons (Ex) A hydraffe's hoof attacks are primary attacks and its slam attacks are secondary attacks.
Fast Healing (Ex) A hydraffe’s fast healing ability is equal to its current number of heads (minimum fast healing 5). This fast healing applies only to damage inflicted on the hydraffe’s body.
Hydra Traits (Ex) A hydraffe can be killed by severing all of its heads or slaying its body. Any attack that is not an attempt to sever a head affects the body, including area attacks or attacks that cause piercing or bludgeoning damage. To sever a head, an opponent must make a sunder attempt with a slashing weapon targeting a head. A head is considered a separate weapon with hardness 0 and hit points equal to the hydraffe’s HD. To sever a head, an opponent must inflict enough damage to reduce the head’s hit points to 0 or less. Severing a head deals damage to the hydraffe’s body equal to the hydraffe’s current HD. A hydraffe can’t attack with a severed head, but takes no other penalties.
Regenerate Head (Ex) When a hydraffe’s head is destroyed, two heads regrow in 1d4 rounds. A hydraffe cannot have more than twice its original number of heads at any one time. To prevent new heads from growing, at least 5 points of acid or fire damage must be dealt to the stump (a touch attack to hit) before they appear. Acid or fire damage from area attacks can affect stumps and the body simultaneously. A hydraffe doesn’t die from losing its heads until all are cut off and the stumps seared by acid or fire.
The origin of these multi-headed long-necked animals is unclear, though some ancient books speak of experiments with hydras, herd animals, and a demented arcanist with an over-crowded zoo. Whatever the actual case, the rare hydraffe exists today in the wild.
These creatures roam across plains as gentle protectors of herds of giraffes, with rarely more than one hydraffe per herd. They are able to graze quickly with their meany heads, preferring acacia trees. Hydraffes attempt to scare off dangerous creatures by loudly and wildly thrashing their necks into each other. If threatened it attacks ruthlessly, striking with its powerful hooves and bashing back foes with its many heads to let its herd flee to safety before retreating itself. A hydraffe may mate with a giraffe, but in these crosses, only one in twenty offspring are born as hydraffes.
A hydraffe is between 18 and 22 feet tall and weighs 4,500 pounds.
You can make more powerful hydraffes by increasing their Hit Dice—each added HD increases the hydraffe’s statistics as appropriate, but also gives it one additional head and a +1 increase to its natural armor. A hydraffe’s CR increases by +1 for each Hit Die it gains.
Also posted to reddit, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/mkr4ea/the_hydraffe_a_haun ting_new_hybrid_for_your_games/
Inspired by https://www.reddit.com/r/Art/comments/mkdwiu/hydra_or_something_me_acrylic_ 2021/
Which was in turn inspired by https://youtu.be/19JYOVPmwDM
Usage
Content in this post is released under the OGL: https://www.aonprd.com/Licenses.aspx
Awesome.
With disproportionately long necks (and that push ability) I might give it an extra 5' reach with the slams. Also multiattack is almost required to make the attack bonus on the heads matter, as a bonus feat if all the others are required for flavour.
Cute for sure.
|
|
Thanks for the feedback avr! I thought about multiattack, and almost added it. Didn't seem quite right, given the "defender" and "protector" motif, and would have made it challenging to get dazzling display into the design. Seemed to me that seven attacks a round for a CR6 is already pretty good, and the prerequisite weapon focus is about 1/3 of a multiattack, so, I stuck with that. That, and +12 and +8 line up right with CR expectations for primary/secondary to hit, so I left it at that.
After reading this, I told my daughters (6 & 10) that if you cut off the head of a giraffe, multiple heads grow back to take its place... and showed them one of the many online photos of giraffes looking like a hydra.
It broke my 6yo's brain a little bit. Even my 10yo had to look twice before she said it was multiple giraffes standing lined up just right.
So, definitely keep Dazzling Display... even if it means not having Multi Attack... it's a giraffe, after all... not a lion.
nice!
only thing I'd add in the descriptive text is how fast they can de-leaf an area!
|
|
After reading this, I told my daughters (6 & 10) that if you cut off the head of a giraffe, multiple heads grow back to take its place... and showed them one of the many online photos of giraffes looking like a hydra.
It broke my 6yo's brain a little bit. Even my 10yo had to look twice before she said it was multiple giraffes standing lined up just right.
So, definitely keep Dazzling Display... even if it means not having Multi Attack... it's a giraffe, after all... not a lion.
That's adorable :) Glad to hear it's making an impression on someone else!
I know I'd be dazzled if I saw one of these in the wild. I was lucky enough to have a "Giraffe encounter" at a local zoo a few years ago, and it was amazing enough when they had one head!
nice!
only thing I'd add in the descriptive text is how fast they can de-leaf an area!
Oh man. I was theory crafting this with a friend, and at the time mentioned that they probably eat some kind of tree or grass that has fast healing too, because a herd of these moving through an area is probably devastating otherwise!
And then...what happens after five heads eat through an area. All I can say is, there's probably some really happy critters down the food chain that are enjoying what massive volume of droppings these hydraffes leave in their wake. (I'm thinking...Ian Malcolm and the sick triceritops in Jurassic park.)