Fey of the month (June): The Black Dog

[Krishnath]

O.K. I admit, it's not a fey, it's a magical beast, but it is associated with Unseelie Fey.

Comment's are appreciated.

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Black Dog
Medium-Size Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 2d10+2 (13 hp)
Initiative: +2 (Dex)
Speed: 50'
AC: 14 (+2 Dex, +2 natural)
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+3
Attack: Bite +3 melee
Full Attack: Bite +3 melee
Damage: Bite 1d6+1
Face/Reach:[/b9 5'/5'
Special Attacks: Trip, Spell-like abilities,
Special Qualities: Scent, Enchantment immunity, Shadow blend,
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +2,
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 5, Wis 14, Cha 10
Skills: Hide +4, Listen +5 (+2), Move Silently +10 (+6), Spot +5 (+2), Survival +3*,
Feats: Alertness,

Climate/Terrain: Temperate or cold land
Organization: Solitary, pair, or pack (7-16)
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always Neutral Evil
Advancement: 3 HD (Medium-Size); 4-6 HD (Large)

The black dog is a vicious predator with a taste for human flesh.
A black dog resmebles a large black hound with yellow eyes burning with an almost hellish light. It's fangs and talons are the color of cold black iron.
Black dogs are often used as hunting beasts by unseelie faeries.
Black Dogs speak sylvan.

Combat:
A black dog will stalk a chosen victim for days, waiting for the person to become alone before striking. It is an intelligent and cuning predator that will use tactics. A common tactic among Black Dog packs is to have a few members of the pack drive the prey towards the remaining members.
Trip (Ex): A black dog that hits with it's bite attack may attempt to trip an opponent without needing a touch attack and without provoking an attack of oppertunity. If the trip attempt fails, the tripped creature may not attempt to trip the black dog in response.
Spell-like Abilities: At will - Pass without Trace; 1/day - Cause Fear, Faerie Fire, and Magic Fang. These are as the spells cast by a 2nd level sorcerer. The save DC is 10+spell level.
Shadow Blend (Su): In any conditions other than full daylight, a black dog can disappear into the shadows, giving it nine-tenth's concealment. Artificial illumination, even a Light or Continual Flame spell, does not negate this ability. A Daylight spell, however, will.
Skills: Black Dogs get a +6 racial bonus on Move Silently checks. * A black dog recieves a +4 racial bonus on survival checks when tracking by scent.

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So what do you think?

Later,

 

[Clay_More]

Very very very nice and nasty dogs Mr. Nath. I would.. erm perhaps make the CR 2 when thinking about it. A level 2 group might have a little trouble with one, don't a level 3 group would, even taking into effects its SL abilities and skills... even though it would rock when in a group of fey that were using it to track and attack.. (that rhymes...!)

 

[BOZ]

hey hey mama, said the way you move
gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove

 

[Clay_More]

And the red-headed BBEG of the Creature Catalog Forums strikes again with his rhyme-a-plenty moves...

 

[Krishnath]

Thank you for your comments. For those who keep track of such things, they are from Celtic Myth.

 

[demiurge1138]

Very nice, Krish, but in folk tales of the black dog, they are often credited with the ability to appear and disappear suddenly. Perhaps it wouldn't be too much to give them dimension door 3/day in addition to their current spell-like abilities, which might make them a more powerful CR 3.
Just a suggestion.

Demiurge out.

 

[Krishnath]

Well, see that's why they have the shadowblend ability....

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Are you familiar with how Ravenloft wrote up vampires and such, Krish? That's how I think an entry for black dogs should be... add in a few "salient abilities" that can be used to customize the dog. Black dogs in the folklore of different parts of England seem to have different powers.

For example, the Moddey Dhoo (Isle of Man) had a death attack, the north England dog Skriker (?) has backwards-turned feet (maybe applying a penalty to Track rolls), the dog of Tring (which supposedly resulted from a witch's curse) could explode itself, the dog of Bungay had some pyrotechnic ability, and the dog called Gytrash had a shapeshifting ability (specifically, into a horse). Another dog, Barghest, had an ability to change into a nasty dwarf (source of the DnD monster).

Also, I'd make the alignment different. Most of the old stories about the black dogs have them cast as a sort of protector of grave/consecrated areas or roadways/travellers, albeit one that brooks no infraction on its territory. Maybe just make it any neutral or something, along the lines of the storm giant's alignment entry. Some definitely would be evil.

Just my two cents and like I say, how I would do things. I like black dogs. And BOZ - it's not that one, though it's undoubtedly where Zeppelin got that title.

 

[Krishnath]

The black dog description that I based this black dog on was found on http://www.pantheon.org/ and was described as a stalking black beast with the ability to dissapear into the night (thus shadowblend). It usually attacks lone wanderers.

But I am quite aware that there are many different versions of Black Dogs in celtic myth, but I feel that it would be best to use the most general version for this write-up and leave the other varieties, such as the barghest, to get their own write-ups by whomever feels like it

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Ahh, OK. That's what I figured it was, one version of the dog legend. It's a good monster, though.

BTW, you probably already know this Krish, but one of the earliest (read non-Celtic) versions of the black dog myth is from your very own area. The protector variant I mentioned was the kirkegrimm (churchgrim), which is from the legends of Scandinavia somewhere - I kinda want to say Sweden, though I could be wrong.