Deviantart member ddoodlerstuff is on a 365 day challenge to draw a monster a day. In addition to sending some attention their way, I’m going to work up one of the monsters for 6d6 Magic.
Thunder moths are the largest flying insect found so far. Bathed in the magic that pervades their taiga home they grow up to 4 foot in length and 8 foot in wing span. Their name comes from their defensive response to something getting to close to them or their nests. They produce a massive static charge that breaks across their wings, snapping the very air. This thunderous pulse strikes everything near the moth to the ground. As an encounter, this is a more passive creature that the heroes might encounter whilst travelling through the taiga.
As a moth, Celeoptera is a good path to start with. The moth is brightly coloured, which actually serves as Camouflage in this magical forest. Flight, Sclerites, Wide Vision and Wings give us a basic flying insect to build on.
Element Air is taken so we can add Air Strike to the monster to model the primary attack. To boost this attack, we can add the life advantages Air and Air Pressure.
The definition on the Huge path is that of something five times the size of a man. Thunder moths aren’t that big, but I’m bending the rules for a particular advantage. Crushing Blow does exactly what I want the moth’s thunder attack to do. There is a similar advantage on Large but it requires Brawn which we don’t have.
This is a monster with a powerful single attack and a few extra advantages for it to hide and move. But at only eleven advantages, I think the thunder moth needs to be a little bit more powerful. The attack is actually quite short ranged. This means the party will need to be very close to it to feel the full effects. Nocturnal gives us Freaky, Silent, Stealth and Silent Attack to make a very effective ambush attack.
For metadata, the thunder moth is going to need enough potential to effectively attack. Fortunately, most of its stealth actions are in the narrative phase of play and won’t hinder it in combat. Four dynamic potential and one static allows it to put 5d6 into the air strike. One additional static will help it use any paths the story leader might find useful. For recoup, only 2, as it will take a while for the moth to recharge and it prefers to fly away if its not defending a nest. Its free resists are Sclerites (it has a tough exterior) and Freaky (it’s off-putting to look at, being a giant insect).
Any comments and suggestions, please let me know. An alternative would be a set of electric attacks, but as yet we don’t have a monster path for that.
Image Credit – Thundermoth by Ddoodlestuff – all rights reserved.