Today’s Epic Monster entry is surprisingly, terrifyingly historical, drawn from the mythologies of the Māori—a monstrous bird able to kill creatures as big as 500 pounds. If you said Haast’s eagle you’d be right, but we’re calling it by its ancient name: the poukai!
As mentioned above this was an actual animal that really lived, soaring above the skies of pre-settled New Zealand picking up giant, flightless birds for what must have been some really good eating. Unfortunately however once the Māori made it to the sunken continent, between the burning of land and the predation of its food source the poukai went extinct.
Design Notes: You could easily just dumb down a giant eagle to get one of these but I thought this was a ripe opportunity to put together an avian foe in between that and rocs—which is precisely what the statblock for the poukai does, straddling its smaller and bigger cousins in most respects. To keep it alive I gave it Flyby, and considering that it’s unlikely to make many opportunity attacks I tossed in Retributive Strike so it has something to do with those reactions. So all things considered: let’s do the numbers. The DMG rubric boils down the poukai into an 8.166 (5prof+4ac+6hp+16atk+7dam+11dc=49/6) and the Blog of Holding isn’t far away with an 8.5 (3ac+9hp+10atk+9dam+12dc+8save=51/6) so this badass bird clocks in at a comfortable, agreeable CR 8. Anyone so inclined could easily make this a CR 7 monster by lowering its Strength score to a +5 or even +4 bonus (and accordingly dropping attack bonuses, damage rolls, and escape DC).
Poukai
Huge beast, unaligned
Armor Class 14
Hit Points 147 (14d12+40)
Speed 25 ft., fly 100 ft.
Saving Throws Con +7, Wis +4
Skills Perception +4, Stealth +7
Senses passive Perception 19
Languages —
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)
Flyby. The poukai doesn't provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach.
Keen Sight. The poukai has an advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The poukai makes two attacks: one with its beak and one with its talons.
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8+6) piercing damage.
Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (2d6+6) slashing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the eagle can't use its talons on another target.
REACTIONS
Retributive Strike. When a creature hits the poukai with a melee weapon attack, it can use its reaction to make a beak attack as an opportunity attack against that creature.
As mentioned above this was an actual animal that really lived, soaring above the skies of pre-settled New Zealand picking up giant, flightless birds for what must have been some really good eating. Unfortunately however once the Māori made it to the sunken continent, between the burning of land and the predation of its food source the poukai went extinct.
Design Notes: You could easily just dumb down a giant eagle to get one of these but I thought this was a ripe opportunity to put together an avian foe in between that and rocs—which is precisely what the statblock for the poukai does, straddling its smaller and bigger cousins in most respects. To keep it alive I gave it Flyby, and considering that it’s unlikely to make many opportunity attacks I tossed in Retributive Strike so it has something to do with those reactions. So all things considered: let’s do the numbers. The DMG rubric boils down the poukai into an 8.166 (5prof+4ac+6hp+16atk+7dam+11dc=49/6) and the Blog of Holding isn’t far away with an 8.5 (3ac+9hp+10atk+9dam+12dc+8save=51/6) so this badass bird clocks in at a comfortable, agreeable CR 8. Anyone so inclined could easily make this a CR 7 monster by lowering its Strength score to a +5 or even +4 bonus (and accordingly dropping attack bonuses, damage rolls, and escape DC).
Poukai
Huge beast, unaligned
Armor Class 14
Hit Points 147 (14d12+40)
Speed 25 ft., fly 100 ft.
STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
23 (+6) | 19 (+4) | 18 (+4) | 5 (–3) | 12 (+1) | 8 (–1) |
Skills Perception +4, Stealth +7
Senses passive Perception 19
Languages —
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)
Flyby. The poukai doesn't provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach.
Keen Sight. The poukai has an advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The poukai makes two attacks: one with its beak and one with its talons.
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8+6) piercing damage.
Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (2d6+6) slashing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the eagle can't use its talons on another target.
REACTIONS
Retributive Strike. When a creature hits the poukai with a melee weapon attack, it can use its reaction to make a beak attack as an opportunity attack against that creature.
