Converting prehistoric creatures

[Cleon]

Dire Pangolin

Pangolin, Dire
Medium Animal (Dire)
Hit Dice: 3d8+19 (32 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), burrow 5 ft.
Armour Class: 16 (+1 Dex, +5 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+5 [+15 to resist unrolling, –5 with sticky tongue sweep]
Attack: Claw +5 melee (1d6+3) or tail-slap +5 melee (1d6+4) or tongue +5 melee touch (special)
Full Attack: 2 claws +5 melee (1d6+3) or tail-slap +5 melee (1d6+4) or tongue +5 melee touch (special)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Rock-hard claws, shivering scales, sticky tongue, stink-spray, swallow whole
Special Qualities: Armoured ball, DR 3/–, fortification, low-light vision, scent
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +4, Will +4
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 13, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 10
Skills: Climb +9, Hide +3, Listen +6, Survival +2* (+6 tracking by scent), Spot +4, Swim +9
Feats: Athletic, Endurance, Toughness(B), Track(B)
Environment: Warm forests or plains
Organization: Solitary or Family (2-8)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Neutral
Advancement: 4 HD (Medium); 5-6 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: —

A low-slung beast at least as long as a man is tall, entirely covered with artichoke-like scales. It has four sturdy legs and a long flat tail , with forepaws equipped with massive claws that fold onto its palms when it walks. The animal's head is mostly an elongated conical muzzle, tipped with a rather comically small mouth.

A dire pangolin is a bigger, tougher version of a ground pangolin. These animals are more catholic in their diet than regular pangolins, being omnivores that will also eat grains, berries and small vertebrates as well as a pangolin's traditional diet of social insects.

Like regular pangolins (q.v.), dire pangolins are quadrupeds that fold their great, curved foreclaws into their palms to walk upon their knuckles and the soles of their hind feet. Due to their great weight, they have developed heavily callused, hoof-like knuckles on their forepaws. They can also rear onto their hind legs, propping themselves up with their flat tails.

Despite appearing massive and clumsy, dire pangolins are good climbers and are sometimes seen climbing scree slopes and trees looking for nests of insects. Dire pangolins do not have poor eyesight like normal pangolins.

A dire pangolin can burrow through materials with hardness of 7 or less, such as earth, termite mounds or even soft stone.

A typical dire pangolin is 7 feet long, about half of which is tail, and weighs around 300 pounds. The largest specimens can reach 15 feet and 2500 pounds.

Combat
Dire pangolins are normally placid creatures, but can defend themselves vigorously if attacked with their formidable claws and long, serrated tail. They have a stinking spray like a skunk's they often use when startled or threatened, but would rather just roll up and ignore attackers, especially minor ones.

Armoured Ball (Ex): A dire pangolin can roll into a tight ball as a move action. A rolled-up pangolin loses its dexterity modifier to AC and can take no action apart from Shivering Scales (see below), but gains a +3 circumstance bonus to its Natural Armour and Damage Reduction and the DC of its Shivering Scales special attack, thus increasing its defences to Shivering Scales DC18, AC18 (touch 10, flat-footed 18) and DR 6/–. A Large sized dire pangolin has a +4 circumstance bonus to Natural Armour and Damage Reduction when rolled into a ball.

Whenever a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on a dire pangolin rolled into an Armoured Ball, there is a 50% chance (75% for Large-sized dire pangolins) that the special attack is negated and its damage is rolled normally.

An attacker can forcibly unroll a pangolin with a grapple check, but a dire pangolin receives a +10 racial bonus on its grapple check to resist, and the attacker must continue making grapple checks each round or the pangolin can roll itself back up.

A dire pangolin can unroll from an Armoured Ball into an upright position with a standard action.

Fortification (Ex): Whenever a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on a dire pangolin there is a 25% chance that the special attack is negated and its damage is rolled normally, similar to the effect of armour enchanted with the Light Fortification quality. This chance increases to 50% (75% for Large dire pangolins) when the dire pangolin is curled into an Armoured Ball.

Rock-Hard Claws (Ex): A dire pangolin's claw attacks ignore hardness of up to 7, allowing them to easily claw through termite mounds and wood to find insects.

Shivering Scales (Ex): A pangolin can use a standard action to vibrate its scales to try cutting attackers with their sharp edges. Any opponent that grapples the pangolin or hits it with a natural weapon attack before the pangolin's next turn must make a Reflex save against a DC15 or take 1d3 damage plus half the attacker's Strength bonus (maximum +6). If the pangolin is rolled into an Armoured Ball, the DC is 18. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Example: a lion hits a dire pangolin with a 1d4+5 damage claw. If the lion fails a DC15 Reflex save it takes 1d4+2 damage. The pangolin only takes 1d4+2 damage, due to its Damage Reduction of 3. If the dire pangolin was rolled up into an Armoured Ball the DC would be 18, and it would take only 1d4-1 damage due to its DR being increased to 6.

Sticky Tongue (Ex): A dire pangolin can sweep a 5 foot square with its sticky tongue. Any Fine sized creature in that square must make a DC15 Reflex save or be stuck to the tongue, they then must beat the dire pangolin in a grapple check or be swallowed the same round (see Swallow Whole, below). A dire pangolin has a –10 circumstance penalty on its Sticky Tongue grapple checks, but suffers no penalty for grappling multiple Fine creatures with its tongue. Affected creatures can make an Attack of Opportunity against the dire pangolin, but if they do they are not entitled to a Reflex save to avoid the tongue. If a dire pangolin use its tongue sweep attack against a swarm of Tiny creatures, it automatically does 1d6+3 damage to the swarm, halved with a DC15 Reflex save.

A dire pangolin can also use its Sticky Tongue as a melee touch attack against a single target, which need not be Fine size. In such a case it does not allow a Reflex save to avoid or provoke an Attack of Opportunity.

The save DC is Constitution-based.

Stink-Spray (Ex): Once an hour, a dire pangolin can spray a 15 foot cone of reeking musk. Any living creature it touches must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or be sickened for 1d6+4 rounds. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes the effect from a sickened creature. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Swallow Whole (Ex): A dire pangolin can try to swallow an opponent of Fine size it is grappling with its tongue by making a successful grapple check with a –10 circumstance penalty; it can attempt to swallow multiple Fine opponents simultaneously at no additional penalty. Once inside, the opponent takes 1d4+3 points of crushing damage plus 2 points of acid damage per round from the dire pangolin’s gizzard. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 10 points of damage to the gizzard (AC 12). Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out. A Medium sized dire pangolin’s stomach can hold 512 Fine opponents.

Skills
Pangolins have a +2 racial bonus on Hide and Listen checks, plus a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent. A dire pangolin has a +4 racial bonus to Climb and Swim checks, and can use either its Dexterity or its Strength bonus on Climb checks.

Training A Dire Pangolin
A dire pangolin can be trained to take a rider. Some gnome communities are especially fond of them as mounts. A dire pangolin makes an excellent steed; they have incredible toughness and endurance and can traverse very rugged terrain with their skill at climbing and swimming. Most domesticated dire pangolins have their scent-glands surgically removed (requiring a DC18 Heal check), since they still have a tendency to spray stink-juice or try to curl into a ball when startled or threatened. These traits make most dire pangolin steeds too skittish to ride into battle, although battle-hardened dire pangolins, many of which are animal companions or paladin's mounts, can make excellent combat mounts.

Domesticated dire pangolins are difficult to feed when they are in areas without abundant large insect nests. They can be fed on minced fresh meat or "ant grits" – a mixture of wild grains soaked in animal fat, finely chopped pemmican and dried insects, flavoured with vinegar. (Ant grits is edible to humanoids, but is definitely an acquired taste.)

Riding a dire pangolin requires an exotic saddle. A dire pangolin wearing a saddle can not use its Armoured Ball or Shivering Scales abilities, due to the saddle restricting their back muscles. This does not prevent a panicked dire pangolin trying to curl up when saddled, which usually results in the pangolin lying half-curled on its side with its rider on the ground beside it.

All dire pangolins are born with the instincts of a wild animal. Even those born in captivity have to be raised from infancy to become domesticated animals, requiring a DC18 Handle Animal check. These animals are surprisingly intelligent, and can learn any trick in the Handle Animal rules (q.v.).

Training a dire pangolin for combat is difficult, requiring six weeks of work and a DC 25 Handle Animal check. A dire pangolin can fight while carrying a rider, but the rider cannot also attack unless they succeed on a Ride check.

Dire pangolin young are worth 100 gp per head and a domesticated adult is worth 500 gp, or 1000 gp for a Large dire pangolin. A combat trained riding pangolin is worth twice as much. Dire pangolins mature at the same rate as horses. Professional trainers charge 200 gp to rear or train a dire pangolin.

Carrying Capacity
A light load for a dire pangolin is up to 114 pounds; a medium load, 115-229 pounds; and a heavy load, 230-345 pounds.

Advanced Dire Pangolins
A dire pangolin advanced to Large size follows the normal Advancement rules, except it has a Damage Reduction of 4 (DR 8/– when curled into a ball). This gives it the following stats:

Giant Dire Pangolin
Large Animal (Dire)
Hit Dice: 5d8+33 (60 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), burrow 5 ft.
Armour Class: 16 (-1 size, +7 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+14 [+24 to resist unrolling, +4 with sticky tongue sweep]
Attack: Claw +9 melee (1d8+7) or tail-slap +9 melee (1d8+10) or tongue +9 melee touch (special)
Full Attack: 2 claws +9 melee (1d8+7) or tail-slap +9 melee (1d8+10) or tongue +9 melee touch (special)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Rock-hard claws, shivering scales, sticky tongue, stink-spray, swallow whole
Special Qualities: Armoured ball, DR 4/–, fortification, low-light vision, scent
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +4, Will +4
Abilities: Str 24, Dex 11, Con 23, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 10
Skills: Climb +13, Hide +1, Listen +6, Survival +2* (+6 tracking by scent), Spot +4, Swim +13
Feats: Athletic, Endurance, Toughness(B), Track(B)
Environment: Warm forests or plains
Organization: Solitary or Family (2-8)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Neutral
Advancement: 6 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: —

Combat

Armoured Ball (Ex): While curled-up a giant dire pangolin has 75% fortification against critical hits and sneak attacks, DC21 Sharp Scales, AC20 (touch 10, flat-footed 20) and DR 8/–.

Fortification (Ex): Gives 25% resistance to critical hits and sneak attacks, increases to 75% when in Armoured Ball.

Rock-Hard Claws (Ex): A dire pangolin's claw attacks ignore hardness of up to 7, allowing them to easily claw through termite mounds and wood to find insects.

Shivering Scales (Ex): Opponents hitting with natural attacks take 1d4 damage plus half the attacker's Strength bonus (maximum +8) if they fail a DC18 Reflex save (DC21 when in Armoured Ball). The save DC is Constitution-based.

Sticky Tongue (Ex): Affects all fine sized creatures within a 5 foot square that fail a DC15 Reflex save or a single creature hit by a melee touch attack. Any Fine sized creature struck must win a grapple check (–10 circumstance penalty to the pangolin) or be swallowed the same round (see Swallow Whole, below). The dire pangolin has no penalty for grappling multiple Fine creatures with its tongue. Against a Swarm, a sticky tongue attack does 1d8+7 damage, halved with a DC15 Reflex save. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Stink-Spray (Ex): Once an hour, 15 foot cone, all living creatures within must make DC18 Fortitude saves or be sickened for 1d6+4 rounds. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes the effect. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Swallow Whole (Ex): Only via Sticky Tongue attack on Fine opponents. Swallowed opponent takes 1d6+7 points of crushing damage plus 2 points of acid damage per round from the dire pangolin’s gizzard. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 10 points of damage to the gizzard (AC 13). Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out. A Large dire pangolin’s stomach can hold 2048 Fine opponents.

Carrying Capacity
A light load for a Large dire pangolin is up to 349 pounds; a medium load, 350-699 pounds; and a heavy load, 700-1050 pounds.

 

[Cleon]

The Castle Eater, Kaiju Pangolin

Pangolin, Kaiju (The Castle-Eater)
Colossal Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 33d10+399 (580 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), burrow 30 ft. [60 ft. with four legged drive]
Armor Class: 42 (–8 size, +40 natural), touch 2, flat-footed 42
Base Attack/Grapple: +33/+72 [+84 to resist unrolling, +62 with multiple tongue grapples, +52 with tongue-sweep]
Attack: Claw +44 melee (5d6+19) or tongue-flick +44 melee touch (2d8+9 plus 10d6 acid and special grapple) or tail-slap +44 melee (5d8+28) or thrown rock +25 ranged (5d8+28)
Full Attack: 2 claws +44 melee (5d6+19) and tongue-flick +39 melee touch (2d8+9 plus 10d6 acid and special grapple) and tail-slap +39 melee (5d8+28); or thrown rock +25 ranged (5d8+28)
Space/Reach: 30 ft./30 ft. (60 ft. with tail-slap, 90 ft. with tongue-flick)
Special Attacks: Acid saliva, adamantine claws & scales, constrict 2d8+9 plus 10d6 acid (tongue) or 5d8+28 (tail), rock throwing, rolling devastation, shivering scales, stink-spray, tail sweep, tongue-flick, tongue master, tongue-sweep
Special Qualities: Armoured ball, DR 20/–, dire beast, fast healing 15, fortification, four-legged drive, resist energy 20, scent, spell resistance 33, tremorsense 60 ft., superior low-light vision
Saves: Fort +30, Ref +24, Will +27
Abilities: Str 48, Dex 11, Con 35, Int 6, Wis 17, Cha 10
Skills: Climb +23, Hide –14, Jump +49 [+62 with a four-legged run-up], Listen +15, Spot +9, Survival +3* [+9 tracking by scent], Swim +23
Feats: Blind Fight, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Toughness(B), Track(B)
Epic Feats: Dire Charge, Epic Reflexes, Epic Will, Epic Skill Focus (Jump)
Environment: Warm forests or plains
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 20
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Neutral
Advancement: 34-66 HD (Colossal)
Level Adjustment: —

Scales the size and shape of a titan's kite shield plate this living behemoth, which towers higher than many temple roofs. Its body and limbs are of roughly human proportion, but the head that stands fifteen times a tall man's height above the ground is a long, conical affair ending in a comparatively miniscule mouth, and a tail a hundred feet long drags along the ground behind it. The creature's hands sport tremendous claws, the biggest of which must be eight feet long , which it clicks against the palms of its forepaws to display callused, hoof-like knuckles.

The Castle-Eater appears to be some kind of pangolin, rendered supernaturally large and dangerous by unknown magic. Its origins are debatable, some say it hails from another world, and was cast into this one by a cabal of Formian conjurers to stop it preying upon their own hive-cities, others it was a humble anteater that happened to be at the epicentre of an Epic spell which misfired. Regardless of the truth, while this terrifying monster prefers to feed off the nests of giant ants and giant termites, when it cannot find such it happily tears open human settlements and devours the occupants; sweeping up men, women, children and livestock alike with its 90 foot long tongue. It has a particular fondness for attacking fortresses, which gave rise to its name.

The Castle-Eater prefers to walk on its hind legs to free its forelimbs limbs for battle, but can drop to all fours to move across the ground more quickly - or tunnel through it! Like its miniscule cousins, this Kaiju pangolin folds its foreclaws into its palms when on all fours, bearing its weight on its knuckles and hind feet.

The Castle-Eater stands roughly 90 feet tall in its hind legs and weighs about 3000 tons. When it drops to all fours it is 200 feet long, half of which is tail.

Combat
Castle-Eater has lost all trace of a normal pangolin's placid nature, and aggressively respond to attacks. It will still roll up when threatened, but only to plot its next move or roll across the field of combat and use its body as a living wrecking ball.

The Castle-Eater demonstrates an unnatural intelligence, and has learnt a number of crude stratagems for dealing with spell-casting opponents such as picking them off with a tongue-flick or approaching them by burrowing to avoid their spells. Being able to leap 60 feet into the air with little effort, Castle-Eater can easily reach a height of 240 feet above the ground with its tongue, a fact that several wizards who thought they were flying "safely above the monster's reach" discovered too late.

Castle-Eater prefers to use its tongue against opponents of Large size or less, who are small enough for it to swallow. The Castle-Eater's tongue attacks use special rules - see Tongue-Flick, Tongue Mastery and Tongue-Sweep for details. Opponents too big to swallow whole are torn into bite-sized pieces with its claws after being slain.

Note that the Castle-Eater's tail has double the reach of a normal creature of its size, and its tail-slap attacks always apply 1½ times its damage bonus from strength. The Castle-Eater can constrict with its tail but its tail does not have Improved Grab, so it must succeed at a regular grapple attempt (without provoking an Attack of Opportunity, since it has the Improved Grapple feat) before caudal constriction can begin.

Acid Saliva (Su): The Castle-Eater's saliva dissolves animal tissue on contact, whether flesh, bone or hide. Any object or creature swallowed by the Castle-Eater, grappled by its tongue or struck by its tongue-flick or Tongue-Sweep attack is affected.

The Castle-Eater can also spit its acid saliva as a standard action, hitting a 20 foot radius spread up to 600 feet away for 20d6 acid damage (Reflex save DC38 for half damage). The save DC is Constitution-based.

Adamantine Claws & Scales (Ex): The Castle-Eater's claw attacks and Shivering Scales special attack ignore hardness of up to 20, allowing it to tear through stone and steel like loose soil.

Armoured Ball (Ex): The Castle-Eater can roll into a tight ball as a move action. While rolled-up it loses its dexterity bonus to AC and can take no action apart from standard move actions, Rolling Devastation and Shivering Scales (see below). While rolled up it gains a +10 circumstance bonus to its Natural Armour, a +20 circumstance bonus to Damage Reduction, a +30 circumstance bonus to Resist Energy, and a +5 circumstance bonus to the DC of its Shivering Scales special attack, thus increasing its defences to Resist Energy 50, Shivering Scales DC43, AC52 (touch 2, flat-footed 52) and DR 40/–.

While the Castle-Eater is in an armoured ball it is immune to critical attacks. It can unroll into a bipedal or quadrupedal standing position with a move action.

An opponent can attack the tongue with a sunder attempt as if they were weapon. An attacker can forcibly unroll the Castle-Eater with a grapple check, but the Castle-Eater receives a +12 racial bonus on its grapple check to resist, and the attacker must continue making grapple checks each round or the Castle-Eater can roll itself back up.

Constrict (Ex): With a successful grapple check, the Castle-Eater can constrict with its tail for 5d8+28 damage or with its tongue for 2d8+9 damage plus 10d6 acid.

Dire Beast (Ex): Despite being of the magical beast type, Castle-Eater is considered to have the Dire subtype. This grants it all Good saving throws.

Fortification (Ex): Whenever a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on the Castle-Eater there is a 75% chance that the special attack is negated and its damage is rolled normally, similar to the effect of armour enchanted with the Moderate Fortification quality. This chance increases to 100% when the kaiju pangolin is curled into an Armoured Ball.

Four-Legged Drive (Ex): The Castle-Eater can drop from a bipedal stance to a quadrupedal stance with a swift action, or regain a bipedal stance as a move action. Neither provokes an attack of opportunity. When in quadrupedal mode, the Castle-Eater can not use its claw attacks, but its land speed increases to 60 feet.

Resist Energy (Su): The Castle-Eater has energy resistance 20 against all forms of energy, this energy resistance increases to 50 when it is rolled into an Armoured Ball.

Rock-Throwing (Ex): The Castle-Eater has learned how to throw Huge boulders. It can tear a suitable chunk or stone out of the very bedrock with a swift action, so is seldom without ammunition. The range increment for its thrown rocks is 200 feet. It uses both hands when throwing a rock.

Rolling Devastation (Ex): While curled into an Armoured Ball, Castle-Eater can roll across the ground, crushing smaller every opponents it hits. Rolling devastation is a full-round action, during which time the Castle-Eater can move up to 120 feet. This is resolved like a Trample attack (q.v.) against opponents up to Huge size, doing 5d8+28 damage, halved with DC45 Reflex save. If the Castle-Eater rolls into opponents that are Gargantuan or larger in size, Rolling Devastation is resolves as if it was making an overrun attack with the Improved Overrun feat. The save DC is Strength-based.

Shivering Scales (Ex): The Castle-Eater can use a move action to vibrate its scales at supersonic speeds in an attempt to slice attackers with their sharp edges. Any opponent that grapples the pangolin or hits it with an attack before the Castle-Eater's next turn must make a Reflex save against a DC38 or take either 3d6+9 damage or 3d6 damage plus the Strength bonus the opponent applied to their attack (maximum +40), whichever is greater. If the Castle-Eater is rolled into an Armoured Ball, the DC is 43. The attacker takes the damage unless they used a weapon, in which case the weapon takes the damage instead. Remember Shivering Scales ignores hardness less than 20, so it can slice through steel like butter. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Example: a sirrush hits a rolled-up Castle-Eater using Shivering Scales with its 2d6+16 damage claw attack. If the sirrush fails a DC43 Reflex save it takes 3d6+16 damage. The Castle-Eater only takes 2d6-24 damage (i.e. nothing), due to its Damage Reduction of 40. If the Castle-Eater was unrolled the DC would be 38, and it would have taken 3d6-4 damage due to its DR only being 20.

Stink-Spray (Ex): Once an hour, the castle-Eater can spray a 60 foot cone of reeking musk. Any living creature it touches must succeed on a DC 38 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1d6+4 rounds. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes the effect from a nauseated creature. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Superior Low-Light Vision (Ex): The Castle-Eater sees five times as far as a human in shadowy conditions.

Swallow Whole (Ex): The Castle-Eater can try to swallow an opponent of up to Large size it is grappling with its tongue by making a successful grapple check with a –10 circumstance penalty; it can attempt to swallow multiple opponents simultaneously at no additional penalty. Once inside, the opponent takes 3d8+19 points of crushing damage plus 16 points of acid damage per round from the Castle-Eater's gizzard and is affected by the Castle-Eater's Spell-Resisting Saliva every round on the Castle-Eater's initiative. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 50 points of damage to the gizzard (AC30, but no DR). Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out. The Castle-Eater's gizzard can hold 64 Large, 256 Medium, 1024 Small and many thousand smaller opponents.

Tail Sweep (Ex): The Castle-Eater can also make a tail sweep attack as a standard action. The sweep affects a half-circle with a radius of 60 feet, extending from an intersection on the edge of the Castle-Eater's space in any direction. The tail-sweep automatically inflicts 4d6+19 damage to all creatures within the affected area that are sized Huge or less, halved if they make a DC 45 Reflex save. The save DC is Strength-based.

Tongue-Flick (Ex): The Castle-Eater's tongue has a 90 foot reach and attacks as a melee touch attack doing 10d6 damage. The Castle-Eater can automatically attempt to grapple any creature of Huge size or less that is hit by the tongue-flick attack if it can succeed at a grapple check. The tongue-flick can also make trip and disarm attacks as well as regular grapple attacks against opponents that are Gargantuan or larger.

Tongue Master (Ex): The Castle-Eater can grapple multiple opponents simultaneously with its tongue at only a –10 penalty, instead of the normal –20, so long as none of them are more than Huge in size. Its tongue can simultaneously grapple a maximum of 2 Huge opponents, 4 Large opponents, 16 Medium Opponents, 32 Small Opponents, 128 Tiny opponents or 512 Diminutive or smaller opponents.

An opponent can attack the Castle-Eater's tongue as if it were a weapon when it makes grappling or Tongue-Sweep attacks. The Castle-Eater's tongue is amazingly tough and elastic, it has the same DR and AC as the rest of the Castle-Eater's body. The tongue can not be severed, but if an attacker manages to do 50 points of damage to the tongue, or 20 points in a single blow, they damage it enough that it flinches, releasing all grappled victims within 10 feet of the point the opponent is attacking. If the sundering attack against the tongue triggers an Attack of Opportunity, the Castle-Eater usually uses its tongue, but may employ a claw attack.

Tongue-Sweep (Ex): The castle-Eater can sweep either a 90 foot line or a 40 foot cone with its tongue as a standard action. All creature of Medium size or less in the area must make a DC38 Reflex save or be swept up by the tongue, taking 5d6 acid damage. They must beat the Castle-Eater in a grapple check or be swallowed at the end of the round (see Swallow Whole, above). The Castle-Eater has a –20 circumstance penalty on this grapple checks, but suffers no penalty for grappling multiple opponents with its tongue. Affected creatures can make an Attack of Opportunity against the Castle-Eater, but if they do they are not entitled to a Reflex save to avoid the tongue. Opponents that make their grapple check to avoid being swallowed at the end of the round are released.

If the castle-Eater use its Tongue-Sweep attack against a mob or swarm of creatures of up to Medium size, it automatically does 15d6+28 damage plus 15d6 acid damage to the swarm or mob, halved with a DC38 Reflex save.

The save DC is Constitution-based.

Skills
Castle-Eater has a +2 racial bonus on Hide and Listen checks, plus a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent. It also has a +4 racial bonus to Climb and Swim checks, and can use either its Dexterity or its Strength bonus on Climb checks.

 

[freyar]

Too many pangolins! I've been attacked!

 

[Cleon]

Design Notes

Design Notes
For the Pangolin I started out with the SRD Badger, increased the Con and dropped the Dex, then added various Special Abilities. Stink-Spray is a modification of a Ghast's stench, the other Special Abilities are more or less built from scratch, although I swiped the name Armored Ball from the Wizards' forum version. I dropped Improved Low-Light Vision because pangolin's don't have particularly good eyesight, regular Low-Light Vision seemed more accurate.

The Tree Pangolin and Eomanis is just a straightforward reduction of the base pangolin. I reduced the natural armour bonus from Vorpal Tribble's version because a straight +2 NA bonus is a pretty good treat, you'd usually need an 8000 gp magic item, two Armor Skin epic feats or the like to get it.

The Dire Pangolin is the base Pangolin with my homebrew dire template applied (must get around to posting that), then tweaked with the addition of a Sticky Tongue attack and a riding/training subentry.

Oh, and I couldn't resist statting up a Kaiju Pangolin, the Pholidota's answer to Anguirus.

Speaking of the Castle-Eater, does Challenge Rating 20 seem about right? I have no real grasp of what's appropriate at that scale of D&D so I just gave it the same CR as its buddy the Tarrasque (they play cribbage together when not terrorizing humanity).

I was a bit concerned that the freedom of movement spell renders the Castle-Eater's signature "lapping up human beings like insects" attack useless, so I was sorely tempted to give its saliva spell-disrupting properties. Sorely tempted as I was to have it be able to lick up archmages like termites, I reluctantly concluded that was going just a tad too far. The obvious solution is that the Castle-Eater is secretly the puppet of sinister alien gorilla-cockroaches from dimension Y*, bent on world domination, who will secretly cast a targeted greater dispel magic on wizards trying to spoil their plans. (Obviously, said aliens will use potent enchantments to disguise themselves as oriental looking beautiful young ladies and shifty looking men in black polo-neck jumpers.) What frightened me was I did a Colossal version of my Primal Tyrannosaurus that could kill the Castle-Eater with one bite!

*Dimension X already being occupied.

 

[Cleon]

Too many pangolins! I've been attacked!

It's only the big guy at the end you really have to watch, Freyar. One slurrrrpp of that tongue and you're a goner.

 

[Cleon]

Upon reflection, I should put a cap on how much damage its Shivering Scales attack can do. Max bonus equal to its DR seems suitable, I'll add it in.

EDIT: I keep on finding minor formatting and grammatical flaws in the Castle-Eater's write up and just have to fix them. I quite like the big fella, the write-up isn't based on the Dragon magazine Kaiju article, I just threw together something that looked fun - using the old school DM's definition of "fun", i.e. "likely to put the wind up the players."

 

[xidoraven]

For some reason I read that as "Potatotherium", which led me down a long, dark road pondering Dire Tubers...

Oh dear... I had never considered that, but wow.... Thanks for letting us know. Try not to let yourself be tempted by those long dark roads into the unknown - it could end up very badly.

I'll be happy to stat up whatever anyone tells me to. I'm just confused about which critter we're thinking of.

Looks like Cleon has Pangolin, Tree Pangolin, and Eomanis variations taken care of. I guess reviewing these is the new order, and then I had nominated a review of my draft of Potamotherium thereafter.

Okay, I've finished my take on the pangolin and its variants. I've got to start work, so I'll post them this evening.

These all look really good with a quick scan (and a deep review of the base Pangolin). I am so glad that you balanced the stats in this way, and I am really excited that you paid attention to all those little references to information across the web stating that they did not have wonderful sight - and hence not giving them spot bonuses and Alertness. Very good research work and balancing. The AC, DR, Claws/Hardness, are all excellent and well-considered.

I have a small few more suggestion, and a quick flavor text critique (I'll do that one first):
"Its forelegs are armed with great curved claws [that curl under its paws, as if it walks on its knuckles]." ...Or something similar. If I had no picture and wanted my players to recognize it from their own memories, this point might help. It is a trademark sign of the creature's anatomy.

Also, with Armoured Ball and critical hits, I am of the opinion that giving it immunity to criticals is a bit too polarized. I think maybe lessening the critical range (my suggestion being two numbers lower of a critical threat range, minimum 0 critical threat range) would be better than an outright immunity, as if it were undead or a construct. Ie, if a masterwork sword in the hands of a great fighter has a critical range of 17-20, it would be lessened to 19-20 - and a critical threat range of 19-20 would be no critical threat at all.

One last consideration: would Stink-Spray affect nearby creatures for a period of time following the spray?

PS: This last section I wrote before realizing that Cleon covered this in veritable detail with the additional Dire Pangolin, Giant Dire Pangolin, and Kaiju Pangolin that I did not see before I wrote all this next blob.... But I would still enjoy a little input about it anyway.

I also seem to find myself at odds with other creators and the standards on advancement... My intuition tells me that I should get at least 1-2 advanced HD out of a creature at the same size, and change size thereafter. I am also told often that advancing smaller, <=1 HD creatures is a waste of energy since they're not made for that usage... But if I want a 6 HD Pangolin, aren't I allowed that privilege? Are there rules to HD advancement of which I am unaware when working with low-HD creatures?

My previous encounter with this issue was with Dimorphodon, which we still have not truly resolved - because I wanted to have the ability to advance it to a range that it would be more apt to hold its own around PC characters.... I was told it just didn't work well enough for that, and my HD advancement suggestions were shot down. Any input? If not, oh well...

If I am not way off base, is an advancement of 2 HD (Small), 3-4 HD (Medium) workable, and if not, what makes it so?

And to agree with freyar for a moment: HOLY ARMY OF PANGOLINS, BATMAN! *surrenders*

 

[Cleon]

I have a small few more suggestion, and a quick flavor text critique (I'll do that one first):

"Its forelegs are armed with great curved claws [that curl under its paws, as if it walks on its knuckles]." ...Or something similar. If I had no picture and wanted my players to recognize it from their own memories, this point might help. It is a trademark sign of the creature's anatomy.

Well it's not specific to Pangolins, many anteater-like animals do that, but it's worth mentioning. I'll add it to the write-up though. Oh, and I should mention how they prop themselves up on their tails, and the Tree Pangolin's prehensile tail, too.

Also, with Armoured Ball and critical hits, I am of the opinion that giving it immunity to criticals is a bit too polarized. I think maybe lessening the critical range (my suggestion being two numbers lower of a critical threat range, minimum 0 critical threat range) would be better than an outright immunity, as if it were undead or a construct. Ie, if a masterwork sword in the hands of a great fighter has a critical range of 17-20, it would be lessened to 19-20 - and a critical threat range of 19-20 would be no critical threat at all.

I agree with you in principle. I had a few qualms when copying over the Armoured Ball critical immunity, but ended up just leaving it there.

I don't much care for your proposed remedy, though. It means an opponent with Improved Critical (pick) would get no benefit from it, while one with Improved Critical (scimitar) would still have two-thirds of their critical range.

I think a better solution is giving a Pangolin in an Armoured Ball something like Fortification. Indeed the tougher varieties of Pangolin could have some Fortification when uncurled.

I'm thinking:

Pangolin, Tree Pangolin, Eomanis: Light Fortification (25% chance of negating Critical Hit)
Dire Pangolin: Moderate Fortification (75% Critical negation), Light Fortification when uncurled.
Kaiju Pangolin (Castle Eater): Heavy Fortification (100% Critical negation), Moderate Fortification when uncurled.

I'm tempted to introduce an intermediate 50% step, we could call it "Mild Fortification", thus:

Small-sized Pangolin, Tree Pangolin, Eomanis: Light Fortification (25% chance of negating Critical Hit)
Medium-sized Pangolin, Dire Pangolin: Mild Fortification (50% Critical negation), Light Fortification when uncurled.
Large-Sized (Giant) Dire Pangolin: Moderate Fortification (75% Critical negation), Light Fortification when uncurled.
Kaiju Pangolin (Castle Eater): Heavy Fortification (100% Critical negation), Moderate Fortification when uncurled.

What do you think?

One last consideration: would Stink-Spray affect nearby creatures for a period of time following the spray?

I think that's too much for the normal/dire versions. I feel only creatures that get the stuff covering their face should be seriously discombobulated by it. Other creatures may be disgusted, but won't be penalized.

Hmm, If I remember correctly the AD&D 1E version of the Skunk applied a Charisma penalty to skunk-sprayed characters until they got the scent off. Maybe something like that, a circumstance penalty to Bluff, Hide & Diplomacy checks?

Besides, a Ghast's stink doesn't work like that, and they smell ghastly.

I like it for the Kaiju Pangolin though - something like:

Any creature that gets with 10 feet of a creature covered in the stink must make a DCX Fortitude check (- 1DC per hour?) or be sickened for 1d6+4 rounds? That also implies the Kaiju's stink has a secondary sickening effect to the primary target.

That works for me, it's evil.

I also seem to find myself at odds with other creators and the standards on advancement... My intuition tells me that I should get at least 1-2 advanced HD out of a creature at the same size, and change size thereafter. I am also told often that advancing smaller, <=1 HD creatures is a waste of energy since they're not made for that usage... But if I want a 6 HD Pangolin, aren't I allowed that privilege? Are there rules to HD advancement of which I am unaware when working with low-HD creatures?

My previous encounter with this issue was with Dimorphodon, which we still have not truly resolved - because I wanted to have the ability to advance it to a range that it would be more apt to hold its own around PC characters.... I was told it just didn't work well enough for that, and my HD advancement suggestions were shot down. Any input? If not, oh well...

If I am not way off base, is an advancement of 2 HD (Small), 3-4 HD (Medium) workable, and if not, what makes it so?

You're the DM, you can do what you like. If you wanted your Small Pangolins to have Eight Hit Dice nobody has the right to nay-say you! Although I'd wonder where they got the experience points from, maybe they get 1xp per ant?

*Ahem.*

More seriously, most D&D creatures with "realistic" anatomies appear to double their Hit Dice with each size category. So there's no reason you couldn't go 1-2/3-4/5-8 Hit Dice. with a Pangolin.

While I put in preferred a more modest 1 HD/ 2 HD for the regular Pangolin, I did dither about making it 2-3 HD (Medium) and would have no objection to changing it.

As for the Dire Pangolin, most dire beast have triple maximum HD with a size increas , which above double HD, under which scheme my version would be 3-6 HD (Medium), 7-9 HD (Large). I deliberately downgraded it because I did not want a Giant Dire Pangolin to be that good a mount.

 

[Cleon]

Okay, I've added the claw, tail-propping etc. to the flavour text.

And to agree with freyar for a moment: HOLY ARMY OF PANGOLINS, BATMAN! *surrenders*

Now I want to do a Pangolin-themed supervillain, The Scaly Ant-Eater, with minions called Aardvark, Claws, Tongue-lash et cetera, who plays his claws like castanets.

 

[xidoraven]

Hehe

Well, I personally can say that I am satisfied with that helping of Pangolins - both modern and primitive - almost to the point of being unsure of whether I want to begin work on the Dinopriminal version of Eomanis...

As far as I can see, these statistics look good. I don't know if I am qualified to comment on their balance and integrity, but they seem super-cool to me. Anyone else on input?
-will