Hateful Hodag
Level 6Attacks
Abilities
A hodag sweeps the ground behind it with its tail as it moves, obscuring its tracks. The DCs of checks to Track a hodag are increased by 10.
Trigger The monster is reduced to 0 HP. Effect The monster avoids being knocked out and remains at 1 HP, but its Wounded value increases by 1. When it is Wounded 3, it can no longer use this ability
The hodag makes two claw Strikes and one jaws Strike in any order.
The hodag deals 2d6 extra precision damage to creatures who are Off-Guard.
The hodag Strides, then makes a Strike against a target in reach. If it moves at least 20 feet and succeeds at its Strike, the hodag deals damage normally and then attempts an athletics check against the creature's Fortitude DC to toss the enemy into the air. On a success, the tossed creature is thrown 10 feet in a straight line in the direction of the hodag's choice and then lands Prone. If the creature is knocked into a solid object, it takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage as well before landing prone. The hodag can instead toss a creature straight up in the air. The creature lands in the same square where it started, takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage, and lands prone.
The hateful hodag vomits a stream of caustic black sludge at a single foe it can detect within 15 feet. The hodag and the target each gain a +1 circumstance bonus on all attack rolls made against each other until the hodag chooses a different target for its Vitriol. The target must attempt a DC 22 will save, with the following effects. The hodag cannot use Vitriol again for 1d4 rounds. Critical Success No effect. Success The target's mind is clouded by feelings of rage and hate, causing it to be Off-Guard against the hodag's next attack. It can't use actions with the concentrate trait unless they also have the rage trait. Failure As success, but the target is off-guard until the end of the hodag's next turn. While off-guard, it is unable to use actions with the concentrate trait unless they also have the rage trait. Critical Failure As failure, but the target is off-guard until the hodag chooses a different target for its Vitriol.
Requirements The monster's last action was a successful Strike that lists Knockdown in its damage entry Effect The monster attempts to Trip the creature. This attempt neither applies nor counts toward the monster's multiple attack penalty.
Description
Because they are often described only in drunken retellings of loggers' or miners' tales, hodags are considered by many to exist only in the local folklore of remote areas. However, some individuals have actually encountered these dangerous beasts firsthand, and even fewer have lived to tell their tales.
Hodags are reptilian creatures the size of bulls. These vicious predators' long claws can tear creatures apart in seconds. Their backs sport dozens of long spines that run from their snouts all the way down the length of their powerful tails. Their wide mouths are full of sharp and twisted rows of teeth not unlike those of a shark. The hodags' rough, scaly hides carry hues of green and brown, allowing them to blend into their forest surroundings where they ambush prey. Only their glowing red eyes reveal their presence, though hodags have learned to use this to their advantage by drawing attention to their eyes in one area, then closing their eyes and stealthily moving to another area to cause their prey to misconstrue their location.
In the wintertime, when snow and ice blankets a region, hodags grow a foul-smelling coat of greasy, dark-brown fur that sprouts in tufts from between their scales. A typical hodag measures over 10 feet long from snout to tail and weighs upward of 700 pounds.