Water Leaper Working Draft
Water Leaper
Small Magical Beast (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 1d10 (5 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: Swim 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 12 (+1 size, +1 Dex), touch 12, flat-footed 11
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-3
Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d4)
Full Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Shriek, swarmfighting, water leap
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., water dependent
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +1
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 13, Con 11, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2
Skills: Hide +9, Jump +10, Listen +3, Spot +3
Feats: Weapon Finesse (B), Weapon Focus (Bite), Improved Bull Rush (B)
Environment: Temperate aquatic
Organization: Pack (4-24)
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral evil
Advancement: —
Level Adjustment: —
A grotesque creature resembling a legless, winged toad with a long tail. The beast has a broad mouth filled with sharp teeth, slimy skin, and a body covered in warts. Its flattened tail is like an eel or lizard, and ends in a barbed fork. The wings are shaped like a bat's, but have a transparent membrane and fan of rays like a fish's fins.
Water leapers, known as llamhigyn y dwr in their native land, are named after their propensity for leaping out of the water to attack passers-by. These half-fish, half-frog creatures are much loathed for their destructive habits. They prefer to live in lakes, but are also found in slow-flowing rivers and freshwater swampland such as bogs, fens or marshes.
Llamhigyn y dwr prefer to eat land animals, but mostly have to satisfy themselves with fish. Their favorite meats are human, sheep and cattle. Water leapers are malicious creatures who often attack livestock, fishing folk and swimmers. They regularly destroy nets and fish traps, as much out of spite as to eat any fish caught in them.
A large school of water leapers will attack almost anything, and its appetite is so voracious they can quickly decimate their lake or river's fish stocks. They prey on animals who come to the water to drink. No normal animal eats water leapers, their only enemies are more powerful water monsters and hostile humanoids.
A water leaper is some 3 feet in length from nose to tail and weighs about 20 pounds.
COMBAT
A single water leaper poses little threat to a human-sized victim, but a school of water leapers attacks like a wolf pack. One member of the pack stands aside and uses its shriek attack every round, while the others make bite attacks. They typically concentrate their attack on a single victim.
Water leapers can use their Water Leap special attack to attack an opponent within 60 ft. of the water. However, water leapers prefer to fight in the water. They have many tricks to get a victim into the water, such as pulling on a fishing line, making a bull rush attack against an opponent on a boat or bridge, or using a shriek special attack near the bank of a river or lake and hoping the startled prey will fall in.
Swarmfighting (Ex): Water leapers can coordinate melee attacks against a single target and are adept at fighting side by side in close quarters. When a water leaper engages a Small or larger creature in melee, and at least one other water leaper occupies the target's space, it gains a +1 morale bonus on the attack roll. This bonus increases by +1 for each additional water leaper beyond the first that occupies the target's space.
Shriek (Su): Water leapers can emit a horrible shriek as a standard action. All creatures within 30 feet of a shrieking water leaper must make a successful Fortitude save at the start of their next initiative count or be stunned for 1 round. Only one saving throw per round is required, no matter how many water leapers are shrieking, at the highest DC within range of each victim. A typical water leaper's shriek is DC 11. Each round that the shrieking continues, victims must make another successful Fortitude save at the beginning of their initiative to be able to act. This is a sonic effect. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Water Dependent (Ex): Water leapers can survive out of the water for 1 hour per 2 points of Constitution (after that, refer to the drowning rules).
Water Leap (Ex): If a water leaper jumps out of water it can fly for 1 round at a speed of 30 feet (poor maneuverability). It can make a charge attack as part of a water leap. A water leaper can also use its wings as airbrakes, negating falling damage from a fall of any height.
Skills: A water leaper has a +4 racial bonus on Hide checks and a +10 racial bonus on Jump checks. A water leaper 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.
