Golden Ammonite

Large Magical Beast (Aquatic)

Hit Dice: 8d10+40 (84 hp)

Initiative: +3

Speed: Swim 5 ft (1 square)

Armor Class: 18 (-1 size, -2 Dex, +11 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 18

Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+14

Attack: Tentacle +9 melee (1d4+2)

Full Attack: 10 tentacles +9 melee (1d4+2)

Space/Reach: 10 ft/10 ft (15 ft with tentacle)

Special Attacks: Constrict 1d4+2, improved grab, lightball

Special Qualities: Damage reduction 5/slashing or piercing, immunities, resistance to cold 15, spell resistance 29, tremorsense, withdraw

Saves: Fort +11, Ref +5, Will +1

Abilities: Str 14, Dex 8, Con 20, Int 4, Wis 8, Cha 6

Skills: Hide +1, Listen +2, Search +1, Swim +10

Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fight, Improved Initiative

Environment: Cold or temperate aquatic

Organization: Solitary or clutch (1-3)

Challenge Rating: 10

Treasure: None

Alignment: Always neutral

Advancement: 9-12 HD (Large), 13-16 HD (Huge)

Level Adjustment: ---

This impressive golden coil-shelled mollusk creeps along the ocean floor. Its many long dark brown spotted tentacles grasp for anything it can reach.

The legendary golden ammonite is a deep-ocean dwelling octopoid mollusk that lives in a great, golden, coiled shell. The ammonite's soft body and ten long tentacles are dark brown with black spots. These twelve-foot long tentacles allow the monster to drag itself across the ocean floor as well as protect itself. Projecting just beyond the rim of the shell are two very nearsighted, fist-sized, multifaceted eyes, one on either side of the creature's body.

Golden ammonites are adapted to the crushing depths and the deepest, darkest, coldest marine trenches below 1,000 feet in depth. They live in dangerous regions, where all but the most savage and ghastly monsters fear to tread. Most monsters shun golden ammonites, although Eyes of the Deep will occasionally be found living near or working with them. The ammonites spend their days grazing for food, debris, and minerals on the sea floor. The life cycles of these creatures are difficult to calculate, as no young have ever been spotted and their shells have never been found abandoned, but it is estimated that they may live for hundreds or thousands of years.

The golden ammonites do not speak or make any sort of audio communication. Sages speculate that they must have a language based on touch, sound waves, tentacle sign language, or some other method, but there is no proof of such a thing.

COMBAT
Golden ammonites are scavengers, not hunters. They are not particularly hostile, but do protect their territory aggressively. They discourage approach by launching a lightball attack at any creature that approaches within 90 feet of the ammonite, targeting the largest creature in a group first. The ammonite’s eyes rotate independently, allowing it to see and target a creature in any direction if it has a line of sight. These eyes can only see light up to 30 feet away, but ammonites are able to detect heat and very bright light sources up to 120 feet away. These eyes are easily blinded with light spells, but the creature’s ability to sense its environment makes up for any lack of sight.

The ammonite is just as likely to fight an opponent, as it is to crawl into its shell and hide. It will grapple any beings that get to close, and can lash out with all ten tentacles at the same time. The ammonite will constrict until its foe is dead, or the ammonite has been slain or driven back into its shell. An opponent can make sunder attempts against a golden ammonite’s tentacles or eyes as if they were weapons. A golden ammonite’s tentacles have 10 hit points, and its eyes have 1 hit point each. If an ammonite is currently grappling a target with one tentacle, it usually uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the sunder attempt. Severing an ammonite’s tentacle deals 5 points of damage to the ammonite. An ammonite usually withdraws into its shell if it loses four tentacles or either of its eyes, and will hide in its shell until it regrows all missing parts. A golden ammonite regrows severed tentacles in 1d10+10 days and regrows its eyes completely in 4d6 hours.

Constrict (Ex): A golden ammonite deals automatic tentacle damage with a successful grapple check.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a golden ammonite must hit with one or more tentacle attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict.

Lightball (Su): Twice per round, once from each eye independently, a golden ammonite can launch a small globe of magical light, one foot in diameter at its chosen targets. The maximum range of this attack is 90 feet. Victims must succeed at a Reflex save (DC 19) or be struck in the face by the magically guided missile. Any creature hit by this attack is affected as if it were the target of a permanent daylight spell, and is instantly blinded if it has eyes. The save DC is Constitution-based.

The daylight effect can be removed by dispel magic or limited wish. A victim becomes permanently blinded if the effect persists for more than 12 minutes, but magical cures for blindness work normally, as would heal or wish.

Immunities (Ex): A golden ammonite's alien thought processes render it immune to all magical and psionic mind-influencing effects, detections, and illusions.

Tremorsense (Ex): The golden ammonite's fantastically pressure sensitive skin allows it to detect any motion on the ocean floor as well as the vibrations of sound within 600 feet of it instantly.

Withdraw (Ex): A golden ammonite can crawl back into its shell and seal the shell up, to protect itself from attack. This is a move equivalent action, and provokes an attack of opportunity. When sealed up in its shell, the ammonite’s natural armor class increases by +6. In this state, the ammonite is not subject to critical hits or flanking.

Note that any successful physical attack on a withdrawn golden ammonite strikes its shell first. The shell takes half of all damage sustained by the ammonite, and the ammonite itself takes the other half. If the ammonite survives the encounter, its shell will be repaired naturally at a rate of 3d4 hit points per full month.

Skills: A golden ammonite has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

THE AMMONITE’S GOLDEN SHELL
The golden ammonite's shell is composed of pure solid gold, extracted from the sludgy silt of the ocean floor. Somehow, the ammonite deposits the gold on the coiled wonder that the beast is known for. Each shell is six to eight feet in diameter, and weighs between 1,200 and 1,800 pounds. Average shells are worth between 50,000 to 80,000 gp among surface dwellers, and the most rare and beautiful of specimens can fetch a price of up to 150,000 gp, if a buyer can afford it. Some undersea races consider these shells priceless. Damage to the shell causes a marked decrease in value (-1,000 gp to overall value per hit point of damage, unless the ammonite is allowed to repair the shell), to a minimum of 15,000 gp for the smashed up pieces of a totally wrecked shell.

1981 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
Originally found in DRAGON Magazine #48 (“Dragon’s Bestiary,” April 1981, Roger E. Moore), Monstrous Compendium MC11 - Forgotten Realms Appendix II (1991), and Monstrous Compendium Annual Four (1998).