Monster Monday - Jin Dahaad (Patreon)

Thunderous footfalls echoed through the icy cavern, their direction indiscernible through resonating sounds. The fighter called a warning to his companions as he lifted his shield above his head to block the scattered falling of icicles. Huddling beside him, the elfin wizard swiftly chanted and intoned familiar words of abjuration as her eyes darted about desperately. Her worries were finally allayed when the far wall cracked and suddenly crumbled, giving way to a great cavern beyond that was briefly hidden by a fog of snow. However, the swirling flakes swirled and parted before a behemoth that lumbered from the darkness. It was a vast serpentine creature that moved forth on powerful limbs. The incredible length of its body was covered in rib-like structures that vaguely resembled metal pipes coiling with fog. A low, thrumming sound emerged from it that grew in intensity as small eyes, nearly lost to its helm, fixed its dread gaze upon the party of adventurers.

Cold and colossal, this critter crawls across caves and caverns while its curved coverings keep it consumed by cryo that it copiously conveys to crusading combatants.

I'm continuing the trend of building the monsters of Wilds with the largest of the apex predators, the jin dahaad! I love me some cold-themed creatures and characters, and this gave me a great opportunity to expand on those. I typically build elder dragons at level eighteen and from what I was told, this fellow isn't too far off, which is why I designed it at level sixteen. It isn't enough to qualify for a dragon, but I did include the cold trait because I feel like it's suffused enough into its kit to warrant that inclusion. Its sheer size influenced a number of its aspects, most notably its ability scores, but it also plays into its merely moderate Armor Class. I wanted to give it a high pool of Hit Points, but held off on doing so because I felt like the ribs around it should provide it with physical resistance instead, which is why I settled for a moderate HP instead.

It does have an interesting component in the form of its chest, which is noted to be a weak point in Monster Hunter. To represent this idea, I decided to create a component that bypasses its physical resistance if players can hit its high Armor Class in such a state. It also notably has a climb Speed, which is of course based not so much on gripping claws or anything of that sort, but instead, it literally freezes itself to walls and other surfaces to stick to them.

Getting into its actual abilities, there are a few of them pulling double duty. Its Trample can resemble one of the charges that it does to stampede over prey, but you could move a much shorter distance with it to resemble the big body slam that it sometimes does. Likewise, it does a lot of boreal blasts with its Frigid Breath and does them in a variety of ways, even if I have it somewhat limited to a wide line with limited use area damage and a high DC save. That being said, I might have still overtuned it a bit as I also tried to resemble its frostblight with the immobilizing effect feature on it. The Escape DC to get out of this ice uses only a moderate DC and then it goes on a short cooldown. I did further try to resemble the frostblight inflicted by its mighty attacks with Clinging Cold, which also features a fatigued effect based on iceblight as well.

One of the last abilities I added is its Frost Fog. I ended up designing this as a variable action effect that is a bit more defensive in nature as it cloaks the jin dahaad while also forcing a high DC Fort save from enemies or leaving them slowed. I debated including a cooldown on this because it is a rather potent effect, but I instead reduced its range and shifted its action economy a bit and felt like it was fine. I wanted to give it a greater variety of actions because it needs six total actions for its Crystallize. This takes three actions to begin with, which tries to pull in prey with an extreme DC Fortitude save while also shielding the jin dahaad with greater cover. The heroes need to decide quick if they're going to try to take down the jin dahaad or try to push through the difficult terrain and escape the blast that occurs on its next turn. This takes up another three actions, resembling some spells such as horizon thunder sphere, but is paid off by some very high damage with another extreme DC. Though this does also come with considerable cooldown and can be disabled by taking out its Iceplate component.

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Walking in a Winter Wasteland: While on the course of their journey, the heroes have been encountering unseasonably cold weather. They can discover the reason behind it when they come upon a jin dahaad, which has for some reason descended from the colder climates. This could be a more standard encounter or could be the players attempting to corral the jin dahaad back towards its home, after which it may simply return to the more comfortable cold.

Ice Rage: A powerful winter witch, possibly a daughter of Baba Yaga herself, has ensorcelled a jin dahaad to her command, finding the beast easier to control than a dragon. The jin dahaad fights at the best of its master, normally content to disguise itself as the decorations of her throne room and be fed regularly. However, when a fight erupts, it emerges and disrupts the entire battlefield.

Have a monstrous Monday!