Welcome back, adventurers!
This week I am back with an exciting creature and map - the Owlcrab and a small bridge over a river. This stat block and map are everything you need to plan a unique encounter on the road.
The Owlcrab!
This idea came from my fantastic community, as we have been bouncing ideas of owl-hybrids this week. I am filling an entire planet full of "furthered" (fur and feathers) creatures for my spelljamming groups to explore, and the thought of a crab and owl is both hilarious and terrifying.
This medium creature can pinch onto an animal as long as it is medium or smaller. Instead of relying on standard grapple mechanics, I added a feature that this pinch is painful and distracting, so one would have disadvantage in doing anything but escaping the grapple. The DC is relatively low, but this should slow down some action economy and create a challenging dynamic fight for folks. Adding to the challenge, they are perceptive and tend to hide in the water and cliffsides with a decent swim and climbing speed.
The map and encounter:
Rated roughly CR3; plan on using about 3-4 of these creatures against a high T1 or low T2 group. Then have a d4 +2 more from underwater for the second round. I am a big fan of waves of creatures to keep things dynamic, and the map I made this week has plenty of hiding spots for Owlcrabs to hang out, ready for help.
Downloads:
A quick word about AI art:
I took a step back here, making creatures and maps to evaluate how I used artwork to bring you tokens and monster drawings. With my first few creations, I leveraged advancements in AI to help create images of the creatures I dream up, but I decided to step back and consider the ethics of how I wanted to proceed. I decided that although my colorful drawings are not as flashy as the AI tools can spit out, I would use art created by humans rather than have an AI grift reference online and spit something out. I am committed to making my own original art for you or hiring talented folks to help, so buckle in and enjoy!
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