Monster Monday - Dreadnought (Patreon)

A roar of challenge arose from the barbarian as he charged forward, heedless of the similarly charging armor-encased titan. Each step seemed to shake the earth and as the distance between the two foes shrank, even the burly barbarian realized the difference in their mass. He grit his teeth, refusing to turn from the rapidly approaching challenge, and hefted his axe up. Before he could bring it down, the armored limbs of the dreadnought wrapped around him. Without missing a step, the dreadnought bodily lifted the warrior off of his feet and began to carry him back the way he came - all the way into and through the door of the fortress he was ostensibly guarding. The barbarian gave a shout as he was slammed into a stone wall, which shuddered under the blow but didn't give. Blood welled in his mouth until he spit blood into the visor of the goliath before fitting his powerfully corded legs between them and managing to shove him off. As the barbarian landed on his feet and the dreadnought regained his footing, the berserker gave a bloody grin and hefted his axe, ready for the challenge.

Tucked in titanium, this towering and temperamental titan tramples teams and terrain with total temerity, tending to turn troopers into targets.

There's a Monster Mash for this one!

It has been a minute since I have made an NPC-esque enemy and despite the inhuman size of the dreadnought and the inclusion of the mutant trait, that is what it's kind of meant to be! The whole juggernaut-archetype is one of my favorite characters in comics, games, and shows - those heavily armored hulks that simply smash through everything, and I sought to bring that to life with this Menace Monday. I feel that the only thing that really distinguishes my 'menaces' from my 'monsters' is that they are meant to be a bit more widely applicable to the ancestries of Golarion and worlds beyond even that. I'm biased to imagine a dreadnought as a human initially, but they could just as easily be a dwarf, orc, or even something like a gnome, which is kind of funny to imagine.

My dreadnought features some beautiful art by ArtsVortex, and was a bit of a careful balancing act because I wanted the dreadnought to feel like this hulking brute that has equally, insurmountable-feeling defenses. Therefore, it has a high Armor Class and even has physical resistance, but I only went for a moderate pool of Hit Points and gave it two low saves to balance out the aspects I wanted for it. Because on top of that, it also has a high attack bonus and deals high damage while also being able to inflict its choice of an Improved Grab or Improved Push, making use of its extreme Athletics.

Obviously, Marvel's Juggernaut is a big inspiration for this character, which combines unstoppable mobility with terrifying might. As such, the dreadnought features an Unstoppable passive effect that I maybe should have parsed out into several abilities. There's definitely some connective tissue in there, and it's mostly about the dreadnought using its momentum to move forward and transfer that motion into its blows. While that's covering that aspect, its Bonded Armor covers the armor it is always encased in. Now, as a note, I leaned a bit more into Juggernaut or even Captain Farron from Legends of Runeterra with the armor being a removable thing. I didn't want it to be completely defenseless out of its armor, leading to the instant armor effect, but you might prefer more of a Marvel's Rhino-type dreadnought who is sealed within their suit. If so, feel free to ignore the bit about the instant armor and carry on.

I did reference the barbarian class a bit when designing the dreadnought and was actually in the process of giving it Barreling Charge when I realized that with the dreadnought's size and nature as an NPC, I could just give it Trample with a high DC. That being said, I did return to the barbarian to get my ideas in order for the Sundering Charge, which I referenced Bashing Charge for. However, I did expand upon it a bit, because I loved the idea of the dreadnought crashing through a wall and showering those on the other side of it with debris. Or even charging into a pillar and toppling it on PCs, which deals unlimited use area damage with another high DC Reflex save. Now, rather than a class, I referenced a monster for its Body Strike. This is pulled pretty directly from the doprillu with the only thing of note being the numbers that I used. While it has a high attack bonus, I decided to use a moderate damage value. This is due to the fact that the creature being used as a weapon also takes half this damage, so I didn't want to overload it and have it be blatantly better than its fists. I also just love the image of this.

Finishing out the dreadnought's arsenal, its pièce de résistance, is its Slamming Stampede. After its Trample, this is its second three-action ability, which is a little unusual as a design. However, while the two abilities share similarities, they have some distinct differences and use cases. This action is limited to a straight line and it allows the dreadnought to grab and carry a victim with it. Now, after discussing it with Blue, we thought it would be a little tedious to try to Break Through each wall when doing this. To simplify matters, we changed it to the dreadnought tearing through any wall with Hardness equal to its level or lower, which means the version presented here can't go through more than structures with wooden walls. However, for each wall that it goes through, the dreadnought gets to deal 2d12 bludgeoning damage to its victim at a high DC. This save is a Fort save to try to get some variety in there, and the damage is maxed out at a certain levels for instances where the dreadnought is in a manor or something that has halls and walls every five feet, keeping it at manageable levels.

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

CHAAAAARRRRRGGGEE!!!: I think it was a book in Pathfinder First Edition that talked about rules for running mass battle that included the suggestion of the PCs effectively acting as a special operations squad taking out high priority targets. Rolling with that idea, the heroes might be fighting a war only for opposing dreadnought to start rampaging through their forces. The heroes are called upon to eliminate these titanic threats before they route their allies.

Dread Not: The easiest way to include the dreadnought in a random encounter is to have a deserter - or one that has transitioned from military service to guard or security work. Whether the dreadnought is the centerpiece of a bandit gang or part of a sanctioned brute squad might depend on the type of players you have. In either case, the dreadnought might focus a bit more on capturing and locking down enemies over crashing through the local environs.

Have a monstrous Monday!