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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 4576819" data-attributes="member: 57383">Fearsome Critters from Lumberjack Tales - The TripoderoTripoderoMedium Magical BeastHit Dice: 3d10+3 (19 hp)Initiative: +3Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)Armor Class: 16 (+3 Dex, +3 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 13Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+4Attack: Spit +6 ranged (1d4+1) or kick +4 melee (1d4+1) or bite +4 melee (1d6)Full Attack: Spit +6 ranged (1d4+1) or kick +4 melee (1d4+1) and bite -1 melee (1d6)[Spit attack is +7 ranged (1d4+2) within 30' with Point Blank Shot, +5/+5 ranged (1d4+1) with Rapid Shot, +6/+6 (1d4+2) with both Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot]Space/Reach: 5 ft.(10 ft. in tower stance) / 5 ft.(10 ft. reach with kick, unless in tower stance)Special Attacks: Spit pelletSpecial Qualities: Low-light vision, scent, telescoping legs, telescoping visionSaves: Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +2Abilities: Str 13, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 3, Wis 13, Cha 6Skills: Hide +6*, Move Silently +9, Spot +7*Feats: Point Blank Shot, Rapid ShotEnvironment: Temperate plainsOrganization: Solitary, pair, mated trio or family (3-9)Challenge Rating: 2Treasure: NoneAlignment: Always neutralAdvancement: 4-6 HD (Medium) Level Adjustment: —Rising up out of the undergrowth is an animal with a small but solid body supported by three walking limbs, giving it a resemble to a three-legged stool. Amazingly, its legs extend like the tripod of a painter's easel and the creature grows several feet taller! Its head is set above and before its left and right legs, with a third limb for a tail. The creature's face is dominated by a long tapering snout, set beneath a large pair of goggling eyes and tiny ears shaped like those of a hog's. The animal is covered in short, coarse fur of a grey-brown colour, marked with darker blotches and stripes, plus a boar-like ridge of bristles running down its back.Tripoderos live in areas of dense undergrowth such as chaparral and overgrown prairie, hunting for the birds and other small animals that are its main source of food. They walk upon two legs, which end in bird-like feet, and a highly modified kangaroo-like tail, all three limbs have many joints which can slide within their neighbours like the segments of a spyglass, allowing a tripodero to swiftly vary its height between as short as a jackrabbit to as tall as a giraffe. Tripoderos have superb long-distance eyesight, their eyes can magnify like a good pair of binoculars.A typical tripodero has a compact head and body about two feet long, not including the foot-long protrusion of its narrow snout, and is most comfortable standing between four to six feet in height. It can collapse down to as little as a foot tall, or elevate itself to sixteen feet in height with its legs at maximum extension. They weigh about 150 pounds.The above is an example of the largest species of tripodero, Collapsofemuris geocatapeltes. There are lesser varieties about the height of a bar-chair or foot-stool (size Small or Tiny), but these are too small to pose much of a threat to anything larger than a prairie dog.At maximum height, a tripodero can move at twice its normal speed by virtue of its enormous stride-length. However, they are very reluctant to do so, since they could suffer serious injuries falling from their fifteen foot legs if they should slip or, worse, step in a gopher hole and take a leg-snapping tumble. Furthermore, at full extension a tripodero's legs are easily entangled in the thick scrubland that is their favourite habitat.The Tripodero hunts while roaming about chapparal or grasslands, periodically elongating its legs to tower above the shrubbery and scan around for prey, but pulling in its limbs when it needs to present a compact form for crowding through undergrowth. If the tripodero sights game within a range of ten rods or so (165 feet), it takes aim and blows a pebble or sun-dried quid of clay through its snout. They carry a supply of such ammunition in their left cheek and rarely miss. If the prey is too far off, or the tripodero has no clear line of sight, the animal contracts its legs to conceal itself within the bush, then stalks to a more advantageous position from which to shoot. After felling its prey, the tripodero contracts its legs and bores its way through the brush to its victim, which it devours using a small but sturdy set of jaws concealed below its snout, staying put until the last bone is cracked and eaten.Adult tripoderos often form ménage à trois to perpetuate their kind, like the European dunnock, mated pairs being less successful breeders. The females always produce triplets, so a tripodero family may include one of two litters of three young, depending on whether the bigamist is polygynous or polyandous.CombatTripoderos rarely attack opponents as large as themselves, unless they are defending young or desperate with hunger. They prefer to stalk around opponents and snipe from a distance, using the hunting stratagem described above, resorting to kicks and bites if the enemy closes. When threatened, a tripodero instinctively shrinks to its smallest size and tries to hide, fleeing if this tactic fails.Spit Pellet (Ex)A tripodero's blowgun snout can spit pellets as a ranged weapon with a 50 ft range increment, applying its full damage bonus from strength, giving this natural weapon the same statistics as a sling. Their left cheek can hold up to nine shots in reserve.Telescoping Legs (Ex)A tripodero's telescoping legs provide it with a number of benefits:Firstly, a tripodero can change its height as a swift action, assuming any one of the following four stances, which cover its regular posture and three extraordinary altitudes:Tower stance - -3 circumstance penalty to Hide checks, +30 ft speed.Normal stance - no adjustment to Hide checks or speed.Short stance - +3 circumstance bonus to Hide checks, -10 ft. speed.Belly stance - +6 circumstance bonus to Hide checks, -20 ft. speed.A tripodero in tower stance is considered one size category larger for purposes of what space it occupies and can squeeze through. A tripodero in short or belly stance is considered one size category smaller for the same criteria. If a tripodero in tower stance falls through accident or assault, it adds 1d6 to the falling damage it suffers, as if it fell an additional ten feet. Tripoderos in tower stance that take a Run action must succeed at a DC 10 Reflex or Balance check or fall prone, taking 2d6 falling damage. Difficult surfaces will increase this DC.Secondly, tripoderos that deliberately jump down a drop can shoot out their limbs to cushion the landing, thus subtracting 1d6 from their falling damage.Thirdly, a tripodero's telescoping legs give it a 10 foot reach with its kick attack, unless it is in tower stance, whereupon its kick attack has the standard 5 foot reach, as its legs are already at full extension.Telescoping Vision (Ex)A tripodero can spend a move action to halve the range penalties applied to a Spot check.Skills+3 racial bonus on Hide, Move Silently and Spot checks. *In areas of tall grass or heavy undergrowth, the Hide bonus improves to +6. They gain reduced range penalties to Spot checks when using their Telescoping Vision.Lore ChecksDC 12 - Weird animals that walk about on all-threes, inhabiting terrain with thick, low-lying vegetation. These beasts have compact bodies and a head that is nearly all long, narrow snout. Tripoderos have a pair of forelegs, plus a tail-leg at their back end. They can telescope these limbs in-and-out to vary their height to anywhere from a jackrabbit's and a giraffe's, which allows them to easily creep through undergrowth in compact form, or elevate their bodies above the brush to scan their surroundings.DC 17 - Tripoderos hunt creatures smaller than themselves by shooting mud-pellets or pebbles through their snouts, attacking prey at distances of fifty yards or more. They use their telescoping legs to shrink into the undergrowth and stalk up to prey, then elevate their heads above the brush to shoot.DC 22 - A tripodero can shoot pellets from its blowpipe snout some ten times, using a supply of ammunition stashed in their left cheek. The bulbous eyes of a tripodero can magnify far-off objects just like a spyglass, making it easy for the creature to spot things at a distance.[note Lumberwood Critters generally lack darkvision, unlike standard Magical Beasts]</blockquote>

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