Fearsome Critters from Lumberjack Tales - The Windigo Giant
Windigo Giant
Huge Outsider (Air, Cold, Evil, Native)
Hit Dice: 10d8+50 (95 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), fly 80 ft. (clumsy)
Armor Class: 22 (-2 size, +1 Dex, +13 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 21
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+27
Attack: Slam +17 melee (1d8+9 plus 1d6 cold)
Full Attack: 2 slams +17 melee (1d8+9 plus 1d6 cold) and bite +12 melee (2d6+4 plus 1d6 cold) or icicle +11/+6 ranged (1d8+9 plus 1d6 cold)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./ 15 ft.
Special Attacks: Devour, freezing aura, glimpse of madness [3/day], icicles, improved grab
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., damage reduction 10/good, fast healing 10 [equals Hit Dice], howling winds, immunities (ability loss, cold, disease, energy drain, paralysis, poison, polymorph, sleep, starvation, stun, suffocation and thirst), low-light vision, mania [immunity to mind-reading and mind-affecting powers], natural invisibility, scent, spell resistance 20, undying, vulnerability to fire, wanderer's curse, wind walker
Saves: Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +8
Abilities: Str 29, Dex 12, Con 21, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 20
Skills: Hide +6*[+14 in winter, +26 or +34 with invisibility], Listen +16, Move Silently +14, Spot +16, Survival +14
Feats: Alertness, Improved Overrun, Track, Power Attack
Environment: Any cold land
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 10
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral evil
Advancement: 11-15 (Huge); 16-25 HD (Gargantuan); 26-40 (Colossal)
Level Adjustment: —
The air freezes into the rimy outline of a ghastly giant, towering at least five times the height of a man. Naked and bearded with icicles, it is clearly impervious to the cold. The hellish thing has the jutting ribs and bony frame of someone dying of starvation, but it moves with horrible strength and purpose. The worst thing about it is the cosmic emptiness of its icy blue eyes, which threaten to shatter your sanity in their hungry depths.
A typical windigo giant is around thirty feet in height but skeletally lean, weighing only 10,000 pounds.
According to legend, the windigo giants were once cursed humans, turned into evil spirits after breaking the taboo against cannibalism. Whatever the truth of the tale, a windigo giant shows no trace of any humanity they may once have possessed, being little more than a raving, man-eating beast. Windigo giants are perpetually starving, always lusting after human flesh. Eating a victim does not assuage a windigo giant's appetite, merely causing the monster to grow bigger while staying just as gaunt and hungry.
The greatest of all windigo giants is the legendary Ithaqua, a true immortal with at least 60 Hit Dice. This creature has divine ranks and, quite literally, can not be killed by non-divine beings.
Combat
Windigo giants are not subtle combatants. They prefer to land to fight foes, being clumsy fliers, and are so confident in their Undying power that they almost never refuse combat. Their tactics are typically very crude, just disrupting their foes with a Glimpse of Madness and then trying to grab and Devour as many victims as they can catch. They usually only use their hurled icicles when barred from melee for some reason, or in pursuit of fleeing foes.
Due to their Wanderer's Curse, windigo giants can not stay to fight in one place for very long, usually trying to grab a few victims then flying off to devour them. They are as unpredictable as the winds; sometimes they snatch a single victim and vanish, sometimes they returning again and again until an entire expedition or village has been devoured, a few at a time.
The Northern tribes traditionally deal with windigo giants by using abjuration magic to banish it or bar its approach, or by permanently neutralizing them through such spells as imprisonment or flesh to stone. Failing this, fire attacks and flaming weapons are the next best approach, since windigo giants are highly vulnerable to such attacks so can quickly be reduce to zero hit points and dispersed. Actually killing one is far more difficult, requiring a death blow from a weapon of enchanted bone or horn.
Devour (Ex)
On a successful grapple check, a windigo giant can deal 2d6+13 hit points of damage plus 2d4 Con drain to any opponent it is holding in a grapple, by biting off and swallowing great chunks of its foe. A DC 20 Fortitude Save halves the amount of Con damage. The save DC is Constitution based. Don't forget the grappled victim will also suffer cold damage from the windigo's Freezing Aura.
For every hit point of damage the windigo giant inflicts with Devour, the windigo can heal one hit point of its own damage. This healing works even for injuries that are normally immune to magical healing.
A windigo giant can rapidly devour the dead body of any Humanoid, increasing its own mass by the body weight of the corpse. For every thousand pounds of weight it gains thereby, the windigo's hit dice increase by one. A Huge windigo giant can eat a corpse of Small size or less as a free action, a Medium corpse as a full-round action, a Large corpse in a single minute, a Huge corpse in 10 minutes, a Gargantuan corpse in an hour and a Colossal corpse in a day.
For bigger windigo giants shift these eating times by one step for each increase in the windigo's size category, so a Colossal windigo would take one minute to devour a Gargantuan corpse. Advanced windigo giants also do increased damage with their devour attack – 2d6 Con drain if Gargantuan, 2d8 Con drain if Colossal.
A windigo giant loses one percent of its total weight every year, during the summer it spends in gaseous form. Thus, it must eat at least a few victims each winter to maintain its body weight. This loss cannot reduce a windigo giant's weight to below 10,000 pounds.
Fast Healing (Su)
Windigo giants possess Fast Healing equal to their Hit Dice. A windigo giant's fast healing does not heal injuries inflicted by fire or enchanted weapons made of bone or horn. The windigo's fast healing can re-attach a severed limb with a full round action. A windigo giant can regrow any and all missing body parts by spending a minute continuously in gaseous form.
Freezing Aura (Su)
A windigo giant radiates the cold of cosmic depths. Within sixty feet of a windigo, the environment is considered one degree colder - so cold weather would become severe cold, and severe cold becomes extreme cold. If the weather is already extreme cold then the chill is so abyssal it inflicts 2d6 lethal cold damage per round, halved with a successful Fortitude save (DC 15, +1 per previous check). Furthermore, the windigo adds 1d6 cold damage to all its attacks or does 5d6 cold damage per round to any creature its body is in contact with, applied at the start of its round.
Bigger windigo giants radiate even more intense cold - Gargantuan windigo giants have a freezing aura emanating to a ninety foot radius and add 2d6 cold damage to their attacks or or 8d6 in a grapple, Colossal windigo giants have a 150 foot radius aura and add 3d6 cold damage to their attacks or 12d6 in a grapple.
Glimpse of Madness (Su)
A windigo giant can reveal the uttermost cosmic horrors of nature while becoming visible for the briefest of instants. This acts as a 60 foot range gaze attack, which the windigo giant can use once per day for every three Hit Dice it possesses. All who fall within its effect must make a DC 20 saving throw against Will or suffer 1d4 Wisdom damage and confusion, as the spell, for the next hour. A Gargantuan windigo giant's Glimpse of Madness causes 2d4 Wisdom damage and confusion which lasts an entire day, while a Colossal windigo giant's causes 3d4 Wisdom damage and permanent confusion, like the insanity spell.
This effect is a Mind-Affecting Compulsion, the damage of which can be completely healed by a restoration spell of appropriate strength - lesser restoration for a standard windigo giant, restoration for a Gargantuan windigo giant and greater restoration for a Colossal windigo giant.
The save DC is Charisma based.
Howling Winds (Su)
A windigo giant can cause the air around it to whirl around its body in a shrieking vortex as a free action. The windigo must employ these winds to use its regular Fly speed of 80 ft. (clumsy). Howling Winds make it impossible for the windigo giant to Move Silently, but protects the windigo as if it were surrounded on all sides by a wind wall spell with a radius equal to the windigo giant's reach. (flying creatures of Small size or less cannot pass through the barrier, Arrows and bolts automatically miss, any other normal ranged weapon have a 30% miss chance, although massive ranged weapons are unaffected. Gases, most gaseous breath weapons, and creatures in gaseous form cannot penetrate the Howling Wind but it's no obstacle to incorporeal creatures.)
Icicles (Su)
A windigo giant can grow up to five icicles anywhere upon its body as a free action, which it can break off and hurl as thrown weapons. These icicles can be used to make iterative ranged attacks, and have a 120 ft. range increment when thrown by a windigo giant, with a thrown weapon's standard maximum range of five range increments, or 600 feet.
Improved Grab (Ex)
A windigo giant must hit with a slam attack to use this ability. 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 Devour.
Immunities (Ex)
A windigo giant is immune to all forms of ability loss or energy drain, and takes no damage from starvation, thirst, or suffocation; they also possesses immunity to disease, poison, sleep effects, polymorph, paralysis and stunning.
Mania (Ex)
A windigo giant is immune to mind-affecting powers, including enchantment magic. Any mind-reading ability used upon a windigo will only read an insatiable lust for human flesh.
Natural Invisibility (Ex)
A windigo giant is continuously invisible, as the spell greater invisibility. This invisibility can be dispelled, but is automatically reestablished on the windigo's next turn as a free action. Furthermore, penetrating the invisibility allows the windigo giant to employ one of the daily uses of Glimpse of Madness as an immediate action. Such a use of the windigo giant's Glimpse of Madness power only affect those able to see the windigo - so a wizard using see invisibility to view a windigo giant would be the only one affected by the Glimpse of Madness, but one using invisibility purge would expose everyone else to the power.
A windigo giant's Natural Invisibility does not give it an increased DC to hide when holding then when active, since its Freezing Aura power has the side-effect of causing a stationary windigo to immediately be covered by a faint rime of frost frozen out of the atmosphere, which is shaken off as soon as the windigo moves. The six-foot long footprints in the snow are a bigger giveaway to a windigo giant's invisible presence, though.
Spell Resistance (Su)
A windigo giant possesses spell resistance equal to 15 plus half its Hit Dice.
Undying (Su)
A windigo giant can only be reduced to negative hit points by a weapon made of enchanted bone or horn. If reduced to 0 hp or below, a windigo giant is instantly forced to assume its gaseous Wind Walker form and must remain in that state for a month, after which it can assume a solid form once more at full health. Thus, to slay a windigo giant an attacker must reduce its hip points from a positive to a fatal value with a single blow.
Wanderer's Curse (Su)
Although a windigo giant is a Native Outsider, it can be affected by powers that banish extraplanar creatures, such as the dispel evil spell. If successfully 'banished' by such a power, the windigo is forced to wander in Wind Walker form for a month, just as if it had been reduced to 0 hit points.
A windigo giant can also be turned and rebuked by a cleric, but not commanded or destroyed. If the turning is powerful enough to destroy or command the windigo they are banished instead.
Furthermore, a windigo giant is cursed to never stay in one place. Whenever the windigo spends more than two rounds without making a Move action it must make a Will Save against a DC 20, the amount by which it makes the roll is the number of additional rounds the windigo can bear to stay in one place, after which the windigo must make at least three Move actions before spending another round without moving.
Wind Walker (Su)
Windigo giants are also called Wind Walkers, since they possess a supernatural power which may have inspired the wind walk spell. As a standard action, a windigo giant can switch from solid to gaseous form, or vice versa. The windigo cannot carry any objects while in gaseous form, nor can it switch from gaseous to solid form if the weather is above freezing. In gaseous form, a windigo giant can fly at a speed of 10 feet with perfect maneuverability, or summon a magical wind that wafts the windigo along at up to 600 feet per round (60 mph) with poor maneuverability. Wind walker flight does not require the use of Howling Winds, unlike when a windigo giant flies in solid form.
Skills
A windigo giant's white skin and hair gives it a +8 racial bonus to Hide checks against clouds, snow or ice.
Lore Checks
DC 20 - A windigo is a legendary monster of the far North, an invisible giant that flies about and eats people. They are said to only appear in winter, accompanied by howling winds and freezing air. Many of the natives believe in these creatures, they carry amulets and erect totems in their settlements supposed to ward off these windigos. I've heard that some scholars examined a set of windigo 'footprints' the natives discovered, and found they were nothing but the trail of a wasset leaping across the snow.
DC 25 - Don' ye heed any of 'em fool scholars words aboot der bein' no such thing as windigos, dey exist for sure. Dem things were once evil cannibals, doomed to wander the icy wastes forever cause dey broke the taboo 'gainst eatin' their own kin. Cos dey's evil spirits, dey can be exorcised by spells and da faith of holy folks. If ye ain't got the blessings of da gods, da purity of fire can burn a windigo aways. Not that dat wuld get rid of a windigo for good, dey always come back somewhere next moon or next winter. Da damn things are immortal, I've heard nothin' can kill 'un...
...Oh one more thing, 'tis said their invisibility is a blessing for mankind, not a curse. I 'eard a wizzard once used his magic to look through a windigo's invisibility, and whatever he saw turned him into a raving loonatic.
DC 30 - Heed my words! Before Imuchak, greatest of the shamankas, we only had our prayers, our charms and our totems to keep the windigo away. But Imuchak, greatest of the shamankas, used her powers to defeat them! Imuchak defeated them using the powers of earth, by turning the windigo into lumps of stone. When a windigo ate her daughter, Imuchak carved a dagger from her thighbone and spoke spells over it. Imuchak plunged this enchanted bone in the windigo's heart, slaying it forever. The weapon Imuchak made from her own thighbone to kill the windigo still exists, stashed in a secret place. When the windigo return to feast on us, the bone to kill windigo will come out of hiding to help us once again.
Advanced Windigo Giants
For your convenience, here are compact stat-blocks for windigo giants in each available size category:
Huge Windigo Giant (Hit Dice: 10d8+50(95hp); Init: +1; Speed: 40 ft., fly 80 ft(clumsy); AC: 22(-2 size, +1 Dex, +13 natural) touch 9, flat-footed 21; Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+27; Attacks: 2 slams +17 melee (1d8+9 plus 1d6 cold) and bite +12 melee (2d6+4 plus 1d6 cold) or icicle +11/+6 ranged (1d8+9 plus 1d6 cold); Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft.; Special Attacks/Qualities: Devour (2d6+13 hp plus 2d4 Con drain, DC 20 Fort for half Con drain), damage resistance 10/good, fast healing 10, freezing aura (5d6 cold damage in grapple), glimpse of madness (3/day, DC 20 Will else 1d4 Wis damage plus hour-long confusion), howling winds, immunities, improved grab, mania, natural invisibility, spell resistance 20, undying, wind walker; Saves: Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +8; Abilities: Str 29, Dex 12, Con 21, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 20; Skills: Hide +6*[+14 in winter, +26 or +34 with invisibility], Listen +16, Move Silently +14, Spot +16, Survival +14; Feats: Alertness, Improved Overrun, Track, Power Attack; CR: 10)
Gargantuan Windigo (Hit Dice: 16d8+112(184hp); Init: +1; Speed: 40 ft., fly 80 ft(clumsy); AC: 24(-4 size, +1 Dex, +17 natural) touch 7, flat-footed 23; Base Attack/Grapple: +16/+42; Attacks: 2 slams +25 melee (2d6+14/19-20 plus 2d6 cold) and bite +20 melee (3d6+7 plus 2d6 cold) or icicle +17/+12/+7 ranged (2d6+14 plus 2d6 cold); Space/Reach: 20 ft./20 ft.; Special Attacks/Qualities: Devour (3d6+21 hp plus 2d6 Con drain, DC 25 Fort for half Con drain), damage resistance 10/good, fast healing 16, freezing aura (8d6 cold damage in grapple), glimpse of madness (5/day, DC 23 Will else 2d4 Wis damage plus day-long confusion), howling winds, immunities, improved grab, mania, natural invisibility, spell resistance 23, undying, wind walker; Saves: Fort +15, Ref +13, Will +11; Abilities: Str 38, Dex 12, Con 25, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 20; Skills: Hide +8*(+16 in winter, +28 or +36 with invisibility), Listen +22, Move Silently +22, Spot +22, Survival +20; Feats: Alertness, Improved Critical (Slam), Improved Overrun, Lightning Reflexes, Track, Power Attack; CR: 13)
Colossal Windigo (Hit Dice: 26d8+260(377hp); Init: +2; Speed: 40 ft., fly 80 ft(clumsy); AC: 26(-8 size, +2 Dex, +22 natural) touch 4, flat-footed 24; Base Attack/Grapple: +26/+60; Attacks: 2 slams +36 melee (3d6+18/19-20 plus 1d6 cold) and bite +31 melee (4d6+9 plus 1d6 cold) or icicle +28/+23/+18/+13 ranged (3d6+18 plus 1d6 cold); Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft.; Special Attacks/Qualities: Devour (4d6+27 hp plus 2d8 Con drain, DC 33 Fort for half Con drain), damage resistance 10/good, fast healing 26, freezing aura (10d6 cold damage in grapple), glimpse of madness (8/day, DC 28 Will else 3d4 Wis damage plus permanent insanity), howling winds, immunities, improved grab, mania, natural invisibility, spell resistance 28, undying, wind walker; Saves: Fort +21, Ref +19, Will +18; Abilities: Str 46, Dex 14, Con 30, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 20; Skills: Hide +17*(+25 in winter, +37 or +45 with invisibility), Listen +32, Move Silently +33, Spot +32, Survival +30; Feats: Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Improved Overrun, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Track, Power Attack, Stealthy; CR: 18)
Treasure
Windigo giants do not collect treasure. Any precious items their victims may possess are scattered about the wilderness, they are only interested in their flesh.
Certain Northern tribes have developed specialized magical items that are of use against windigos, examples of which are listed below.
Amulet of Windigo Warding
The normal design of this amulet is carved from blackened or charred wood set with two pieces of mother-of-pearl. It is marked with swirling patterns that seem abstract at first, but close study reveals it’s a howling face with mother-of-pearl eyes. The wearer of a standard version of this amulet is warded against all forms of windigo as if they were under a protection from evil spell (+2 deflection bonus to AC and a +2 resistance bonus on saves), cannot be infected by the Curse of the Windigo through eating human flesh offered by a windigo cursed (q.v.); receives a +10 competence bonus against the Eat Personality imitations of a windigo beast (q.v.) and cannot be touched by a windigo giant (q.v.) if the amulet beats the giant's Spell Resistance check.
There is a lesser form of this amulet which does not block a windigo cursed's Curse of the Windigo power from affecting the wearer.
There is also a greater form of the amulet which can banish a windigo giant by touching the amulet against the monster. Once a day, the wearer can speak a command word to invoke a power equal to a dispel evil spell, except said power only affects windigos.
Faint abjuration (lesser or standard) or Moderate abjuration (greater); CL 1st (lesser), 5th (standard) or 9th (greater); Craft Wondrous Item, protection from evil (lesser), remove curse (lesser), dispel evil (greater); Price 1,000 gp (lesser), 6,000 gp (standard), 12,000 (greater).
Totem of Windigo Warding
An idol or altar usually carved from fire-blackened wood, a totem of windigo warding must be set in place and activated with a brief ritual including a consecrate spell before it starts functioning. Once activated, the totem's power will protect its surroundings from windigos until it is either moved or desecrated. If the power is deactivated, the totem of windigo warding cannot be reactivated until 24 hours have passed.
When activated, any windigo giant within a 200 foot radius of the totem must make a Will saving throw (DC 16) each round or be forced to spend at least a single move action to move away from the totem that round. The windigo giant's Spell Resistance does not apply to this effect. In addition, the totem creates a 20 ft radius emanation with the combined powers of a consecrated altar and a magic circle against evil which only guards against windigos. (+6 sacred bonus on checks to turn a windigo giant, -2 penalty on attack rolls, damage rolls, and saves to all windigos entering the area, +2 deflection bonus to AC and +2 resistance bonus on saves for all non-windigos within the area)
Moderate abjuration; CL 7th; Craft Wondrous Item, consecrate, magic circle against evil; Price 25,000 gp
Bone of Windigo Slaying
Carved from the charred limb-bone of a victim of the dreaded Windigo Giant, this +3 flaming dagger protects its wielder with cold resistance 20 and does double fire damage (+2d6) against any kind of windigo. Anyone holding the bone also gains a +4 enhancement bonus on saving throws and AC against a windigo's attacks, special attacks and special qualities, and cannot be touched by a windigo giant (q.v.) if the bone beats the giant's Spell Resistance check.
Strong evocation and abjuration; CL 12th, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, resist energy, protection from evil and flame blade, flame strike, or fireball; Price 65,000 gp
