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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shade" data-source="post: 5169165" data-attributes="member: 287">This one's barely "psionic", but I had earmarked it for the vermin thread before I realized it was clearly a magical beast.Horseshoe Crab, GiantFREQUENCY: RareNO. APPEARING: 1-10ARMOR CLASS: 3 (top) / 6 (underside)MOVE: 11"//18" (6")HIT DICE: 6 + 6% IN LAIR: NilTREASURE TYPE: NilNO. OF ATTACKS: 2 claws and 1 biteDAMAGE/ATTACK: 1 -4/1-4/3-12SPECIAL ATTACKS: Spell useSPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to will-force spells, cold, electricity; reflects psionic attacks; surprised only on a 1MAGIC RESISTANCE: StandardINTELLIGENCE: AnimalALIGNMENT: NeutralSIZE: L (up to 25 ' long)PSIONIC ABILITY: NilAttack/Defense Modes: Nil/see belowLEVEL/X.P. VALUE: V1/650 + 8/hpThese armored predators roam coastal waters and beaches, feeding on mollusks, worms, plants, carrion, and anything else they can catch. The giant horseshoe crab looks formidable, with its dark brown segmented carapace, fearsome-looking tail, and large compound eyes. The tail, in fact, is never used for fighting and can be safely grasped. It is powerful and highly mobile and is used as a prow when burrowing through sand and to right an overturned crab.On its underside the crab has a sucking mouth flanked by two crablike claws. Behind this are bony, grinding ridges that crush food; all that a crab seizes is passed here by its claws and then transferred forward into the mouth, which will regurgitate undigestible material. (The crushing noise the crab makes while eating has earned it the nickname "chont.") Behind these are five pairs of legs. The first four can be used as pincers and have spurlike spikes to grip and break up food; the last pair sport leaflike "wings" which aid in swimming and clear away mud when the crab is burrowing. If a crab loses its claws, the foremost pair of legs will serve as weapons instead (same damage figures).Behind these, under the second segment of the carapace, are five pairs of gills with long flaps that keep water moving over the gill membranes and aid in swimming. Horseshoe crabs have three pairs of eyes: one set on the underside of its front rim, a large pair on the carapace, and a small hidden pair atop the abdomen. Thus, they can see the approach of creatures out to a 9" range (or the limit of sight in the surrounding waters, if less), and are rarely surprised. These eyes can distinguish movement and masses of color, but not images. Huge numbers of horseshoe crabs come ashore on certain beaches at certain times to mate. The eggs they lay then hatch into marine larvae that slowly grow to full size (treat larvae as having 1-4 HD, with attacks of 1-2/1-2/1-6).Giant horseshoe crabs differ from their smaller cousins in having magical powers. Chonts are immune to all mind-control spells and all cold and electrical attacks, and are able to reflect back all psionic attacks upon the attacker (but otherwise exhibit no psionic powers). They have the ability to cast one shocking grasp spell at will by touch every 10 turns, and the power to cast one 4d6 lightning bolt every 25 turns (range and other statistics as per the spell).Chonts will always defend their smaller brethren if the latter are attacked nearby. Sailors report that these normally placid creatures occasionally attack and smash small craft, attacking in a group by ramming the boat with their armored snouts and then seizing creatures in the water. An undamaged horseshoe crab brain is an ingredient in the magical inks for writing shocking grasp and lightning bolt spells.Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #89 (1984).</blockquote>

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