Upheaval

Hodag

CR 6, N Large Magical beast

Senses: Perception 7, Darkvision 60, Low Light Vision, ScentThis special quality allows a creature to detect approaching enemies, sniff out hidden foes, and track by sense of smell. Creatures with the scent ability can identify familiar odors just as humans do familiar sights. The creature can detect opponents within 30 feet by sense of smell. If the opponent is upwind, the range increases to 60 feet; if downwind, it drops to 15 feet. Strong scents, such as smoke or rotting garbage, can be detected at twice the ranges noted above. Overpowering scents, such as skunk musk or troglodyte stench, can be detected at triple normal range. When a creature detects a scent, the exact location of the source is not revealed-only its presence somewhere within range. The creature can take a move action to note the direction of the scent. When the creature is within 5 feet of the source, it pinpoints the source's location. A creature with the scent ability can follow tracks by smell with a perception check instead of using the Track skill.

Speed: 30 ft., burrow 15 ft.  Skills: Athletics 8, Stealth 2

Languages: Common

Ability Scores: Str 19 (+12), Dex 14 (+10), Con 15 (+10), Int 7 (+1), Wis 12 (+4), Cha 10 (+3)

INIT: +2  CP: +8  HP: 60 (8d10+16)  SA: --  DC: 19

AC: 19  Touch: 11  Flat-footed: 17 [+2 Dodge, +8 Natural, -1 Size]

SR: --  Vulnerable: --  Resistant: --  Bypass: --

Immunity: --  Effect Immunity: --

QUALITIES

Ferocity (ex) - When the Hodag reaches 0 hp and is dying, it remains conscious, though it is staggered. It continues to make saves and take constitution damage until it stabilizes.

Power Attack (ex) - A Hodag may choose to take a penalty to its attack roll (up to -5). For each point of penalty, the Hodag does one extra point of damage. The Hodag must decide to use power attack at the beginning of its turn and it applies to all attack made until the start of its next turn.

Trackless (ex) - This creature does not leave tracks and cannot be tracked .

Toss (ex) - A hodag charging 20 feet or more that damages a foe with an attack can throw its foe with a special combat maneuver check. The opponent must be corporeal and at least one size category smaller than the hodag. If the combat maneuver check succeeds, the hodag's opponent is thrown 10 feet through the air in a direction chosen by the hodag and falls prone. The hodag can only toss its opponent in a straight line. If an obstacle prevents the creature's movement, both the creature tossed and the object struck take 1d6 points of damage, and the creature falls prone in the space adjacent to the obstacle. A hodag can also toss an opponent 10 feet up into the air. The victim lands in the same square it started in, falls prone, and takes 1d6 points of damage.

ACTIONS
Attacks

Vital Strike (ex) - As a standard action, the Hodag can make one attack at full bonus that deals additional damage. Roll the damage from the attack twice before adding other damage bonuses. This extra weapon damage is not multiplied on a critical hit but is still added to the total.

DESCRIPTION

Environment: temperate forests or marshes

Organization: None

Treasure: incidental

Spikes cover the body of this vaguely reptilian creature. Its fearsome face features dagger-sharp teeth and glowing red eyes.

As stout as a bull with a reptile's scaly, spiked body, hodags are legendary forest predators that hunt along the edges of civilization in thick woods. Green, gray, and black scales cover the beasts, helping them blend in amid underbrush, and sharp spikes stand along their backs and run down their powerful, dangerous tails. Loggers share stories of being followed by hodags and seeing their glowing red eyes in the otherwise oppressive darkness of the deep forest. In the wintertime, when snow and ice blankets the region, hodags grow a foul-smelling coat of greasy, dark brown fur that sprouts in tufts from between their scales. Many believe that hodags are not simply strong beasts but rather unique and specific terrors that have lived and hunted certain woodlands for ages. Others living near such wildernesses, however, consider hodags a myth, nothing more than the sort of tall tale that is typical of excitable rural folk. A male hodag measures 10 feet long and weighs 700 pounds.