Battlehead (3.5e Monster)
Battlehead[edit]
 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
 | |||||||||
|
Rate this article Discuss this article | |||||||||
| Neutral Medium Aberration (Xenotheric) | |
| Init/Senses | +8/Darkvision 60 ft., Low-Light Vision, Tremorsense 120 ft.; Listen +6, Spot +9 |
| AC | 20, touch 14, flat-footed 16 (+4 Dexterity, +8 natural) |
| hp | 102 (12d8 HD); DR 6/—, Fast Healing 1 |
| Fort/Ref/Will | +8/+8/+10 (+12*) |
| Speed | 40 ft. (8 squares), burrow 20 ft.; Pounce |
| Melee | pincers +17 (1d6+8 piercing and slashing, 19-20/×2) or |
| Melee | Full Attack: 2 pincers +17 (1d6+8, 19-20/×2 piercing and slashing), 1 beak +12 (1d4+4 piercing and slashing and bludgeoning), rend (1d4+12 piercing and slashing and bludgeoning) |
| Base Atk/Grp | +9/+4/+17 |
| Special Actions | Healing Surge, Improved Grab, Magic Drain, Pounce |
| Abilities | Str 27, Dex 18, Con 19, Int 3, Wis 14, Cha 10 |
| SQ | Bio-Energy Pool (7), Energy Resistance 10 (Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire) |
| Feats | Improved Initiative, Track, Healing Surge, Mental Backlash, Improved Critical (pincers), Skill Focus (Spot)B |
| Skills | Hide +19, Listen +6, Move Silently +8, Spot +9, Survival +10 |
| Advancement | 13-16 (Medium), 17-22 (Large) |
| Pounce (Ex) | If a battlehead charges, it can make a full attack, including a rend attack. |
| Improved Grab (Ex) | To use this ability, a battlehead must hit with its beak attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can rend. |
| Rend (Ex) | A battlehead rends with its powerful beak, spinning and rolling to tear apart its prey dealing 1d4+12 damage. |
| Bio-Energy (Ex) | A battlehead's bio-energy pool can hold a maximum amount of charges equal to 3 plus its Constitution modifier (minimum 1), and recharges at a rate of 1 charge per minute. These charges may be expended to facilitate its Magic Drain or used with various Xenotheric feats. |
| Magic Drain (Ex) | A battlehead can expend 1 bio-energy charge as a standard action to absorb the essence of magic within a 30 foot radius around itself. In doing so, it creates a dead magic zone that lasts for 10 minutes. As a full round action, a battlehead may expend 2 bio-energy charges to absorb the essence of magic within a 60 foot radius around itself. An aura of twinkling green sparks marks the boundaries of these zones. A battlehead within a dead magic zone actually becomes more dangerous, gaining extraordinary speed, as if a weight had been lifted off of it. A battlehead gains a +10 foot bonus to its land speed and burrow speeds. A battlehead cannot use its supernatural telepathy within a dead magic zone. |
| Healing Surge (Ex) | By expending one bio-energy charge, a battlehead forcibly speeds up its metabolism to create a healing surge. It heals 1d8 points of damage for every 2 HD and every point of Constitution bonus it has (6d8+4). Performing a healing surge is a standard action. |
| Mental Backlash (Ps) | A battlehead is under a constant nondetection effect (caster level equal to its HD of 12). Furthermore, any attempt to magically divine its location, alignment, thoughts or some other aspect of its being triggers a confusion effect in the scryer unless he succeeds on a Will save (DC 10+1/2 the battlehead's HD + the battlehead's Charisma modifier) of 16. The confusion lasts for 1 round. |
| Limited Telepathy (Su) | A battlehead can communicate only with other battleheads within 100 feet. Doing so, it is only capable of expressing simple thoughts, commands, emotions and concepts, such as "attack the big one", "hungry, time for hunt" and "retreat quickly, follow later". |
| Tremorsense (Ex) | A battlehead is attuned to the tiny vibrations that travel through the ground, granting it tremorsense out to 120 feet. |
| Ability Drain Immunity (Ex) | A battlehead's biology is highly resistant to all forms of damage. Any ability drain, damage or burn a battlehead suffers is automatically negated. |
| Track & Scent (Ex) | A battlehead may track targets by scent. |
| Superior Vision (Ex) | A battlehead gains Low-light vision and Darkvision out to 60 feet. It heals blindness naturally after a full rest. The Spot skill is always a class skill for a battlehead. Battleheads gain the Skill Focus (Spot) feat as a bonus feat. |
| Xenotheric Blood (Ex) | Battleheads have immunity to poison, polymorphing, petrification and form-altering effects. |
| Alien Mind (Ex) | +2 on saves against stunning and mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects). Noted with an asterix above. |
| Meager Subsistence (Ex) | A battlehead may feed off of any organic or mineral material as food and needs only one quarter the amount of food and water per day that a human requires. See: Starvation and Thirst. |
| Endure Atmosphere (Ex) | A battlehead has the extraordinary ability to endure elements, suffering no ill effects from a hot or cold environment. In addition, a battlehead can breathe so long as there is an atmosphere. A battlehead suffers no adverse condition to breathing smoke, volcanic gases or other vapors that are harmful to most creatures. |
| Hold Breath (Ex) | A battlehead can hold its breath for a number of hours equal to 2 × its Constitution score before it risks suffocation. A battlehead that suffocates instead becomes mostly dormant, considered to be taking 10 on any sensory skill check. A battlehead that detects activity may shake off its dormancy, regaining consciousness as a standard action. A battlehead may not become active unless exposed to an atmosphere. |
Skills[edit]
Skills: A battlehead gains a +4 racial bonus on Listen, Move Silently and Spot check and a +8 racial bonus on Survival skill checks.
Strategies and Tactics[edit]
Battleheads are cunning and patient beasts, holding still in sands and gravels, waiting for prey to happen along. Battleheads burst out of the ground and ambush their prey, using their dead magic zones to hinder any counter measures. With some sense of preservation, battleheads prefer to retreat from a fight than risk their death. If an ambush fails within the first couple rounds of the attack, a battlehead will withdraw, often burrowing away to safety.
A top predator on Messos Myonel, they hunt stray appilons and any other prey worth catching. Highly aggressive, they exhibit tactical reasoning beyond what their intelligence might suggest, always being careful to attack clever appilons, retreating to tend to wounds, or tracking prey across long distances with their keen senses. They employ their powerful pincers, dead magic zones and ambush tactics, singling out foes. Battleheads often lurk in sand, but occasionally, packs rove caves in search of food. Like all complex life on Messos Myonel, they can feed off of minerals and microorganisms to sustain themselves, but they prefer meat, and fresh meat at that.
Ecology[edit]
Environment: Native to Messos Myonel, battleheads are found throughout the planet's surface, as well as underground in cave systems, though they prefer being above ground where loose sand and scree is most common for hiding. Occasionally, a battlehead will find its way into water, often to escape surface storms, where it can hold its breath for hours as it scuttles along the bottom. Battleheads are poor swimmers and prefer to walk along the bottom of bodies of water, where they hunt for aquatic prey.
Typical Physical Characteristics: Battleheads have four main features to their body: a shell, four pincers, a four-part beak and four limbs. They have a hard, cone-shaped shelled body with four dome-like glassy eyes of a dark bluish color. Their shell ranges from greens to browns, grays, rusty reds and pale yellows. From the front of their head jut four large pincers, a pair of large pincers and a pair of small pincers that pinch shut within the arc of the larger pair. In the center is a four-part beak, with each part having a long, rasping and brightly colored tongue. From the narrow end of their shell, four long, muscular limbs protrude, keeping the creature ambulatory. Each limb ends with four blunt, hard nails used for digging and gouging prey.
Alignment: Battleheads hunt for food, and much like animals, they are neutrally aligned. They typically lack the outlook on their world that suggests anything other than survival as a means of taking action.
Lore[edit]
Stories are told of battleheads gathering in large numbers and laying assault to traveling caravans and small appilon colonies. Such tales are rare, but serve as warnings. While battleheads aren't the brightest of beasts, they do tend to coordinate, typically under the loose command of an older and larger battlehead.
Behavior[edit]
Battleheads sharpen their pincers on crystals, chipping off pieces as they grow too large or become blunted after a fight. Their pincers are much like crystal and stone, rather than bone, and when chipped, leave a very sharp and strong edge.
At rest, a battlehead goes into a dormant phase underground, slowing its metabolism down. It still retains its sensory abilities in this state, taking 10 on any necessary check. It shakes out of its torpor as a standard action. A resting battlehead does not employ its dead magic zone, as doing so riles it up. A resting battlehead may employ its dead magic zone to raise itself out of its torpor as a standard action.
Reproduction: Battleheads in mating season tend to become nuisances, as they tend to become highly aggressive and free-roaming. Wandering battleheads will often try to settle into prime areas inhabited by other creatures that they wish to prey upon. In this state, a battlehead may simply kill to mark its new territory and not eat its prey.
Typical Treasure[edit]
Some battleheads hole up in the same territory for long periods of time. The trash of their kills tends to pile up around them. Occasionally, these bits of treasure will be used as lures on the surface to draw in prey eager for a prize.
Advanced Creatures[edit]
Battleheads don't often live long enough to reach full size, but those individuals skilled enough, lucky enough or rugged enough grow into fearsome beasts that are the terror of the lands they stalk. Such creatures are highly reclusive and don't risk unnecessary confrontation. However, such beasts are also highly confident and aggressive. They lay in wait for their prey to come to them, often near areas of key resources where travelers must frequent.
Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Monsters
| Author | Ganteka Future + |
| Challenge Rating | 8 + |
| Identifier | 3.5e Monster + |
| Rated By | Havvy + |
| Rating | Rating Pending + |
| Size | Medium + |
| Subtype | Xenotheric + |
| Summary | An ambush predator capable of making temporary dead-magic zones. Attacks with pincers and a sharp beak. + |
| Title | Battlehead + |
| Type | Aberration + |
