Monsters From the Abyss!

And By “Abyss”, I Mean, “A Forgotten Folder on My Hard Disk”

I’m poking around at continuing a Pathfinder 1e project I started in the early twenty-teens and then forgot about. I realized that if I wanted to continue it, I’d need something to help with the monster design process. Unlike Pathfinder 2e, there seems to be a paucity of tools to assist w/1e creature design. However, I distinctly remember doing a lot of creatures for Pathfinder 1e back when I got freelance gigs regularly, and I know I didn’t do all the number crunching by hand. I had the very vaguest memories of an Excel sheet I wrote, and so started digging in to my “Writing” directory.

I didn’t find the precise folder I was looking for, but I did find another one, filled with a dozen or so critters I must have written for some third-party book in 2009. I have no idea if it was published or not, or even what it was. This folder did have some version of the Excel sheet, at least. I also realized, looking at the monster, I had no idea what any of them were. I know I wrote them. My purple prose is unmistakable, and there are no circumstances where I could imagine having an Excel sheet and a Word document for critters that I somehow got from someone else.

So, i might as well use them as a “Quick and Dirty” way to get content for this moribund thing. (My blog is much like my life in that regard.)

For no particular reason, here’s the Riverwrath, a corrupted fey taking revenge on polluters. This is, for the record, an unedited copy from the Word file, so any typos, math errors, etc., remain. (For example, I alternate between “it” and “her” when describing it (or her). I suppose I could look up the style guide to determine which is correct, but that feels like effort, and effort is not my bag, baby.(When I’m not being paid, that is. If I’d noticed this, I would have checked the style guide before submitting. Either I didn’t notice it at the time, or, I never prepared a final submission.))

Riverwrath
The river may have been pure and clean once, but now it is stagnant and befouled. Rubbish from upstream chokes it, and the woods which once stood on its banks have been cleared. There is a disturbance, and a haglike being emerges from the water, her face scarred and twisted, her limbs distorted.  She gestures, and the dark water rises into a whirling spout, heading towards you…

Riverwrath                            CR 6 (2,400 xp)
NE Medium Fey (Aquatic)
Init +8; Senses Low-Light Vision; Perception +18

AC 19, touch 14, flat-footed 15; (+4 Dex, +5 natural)
hp 57 (10d6+22); fast healing 5;
Fort +6, Ref +11, Will +10
Defensive Abilities Resist Fire(10); SR 16

Spd 30 ft., Swim 40 ft.
Melee Slam +5 (1d4), Grab
Ranged Waterspray +9 (6d6)
Special Attacks Drowning Embrace, Waterspout

Str 10, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 16, Cha 16
Base Atk +5; CMB +10; CMD 19
Feats Agile Maneuvers, Alertness, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Toughness
Skills Diplomacy+17, Escape Artist+17, Intimidate+14, Perception+16, Perform+17, Sense Motive+16, Stealth+17, Survival+13, Swim+13,
Languages Common, Sylvan
SQ Amphibious, Riverbound

Environment River
Organization Solitary
Treasure 2000 gp

Drowning Embrace (SU) If the Riverwrath hits with a slam attack, it may begin a grapple as a free action. Any being which begins its turn grappled by the Riverwrath takes 2d6 points of damage unless it can breathe water. The Riverwrath can only grapple one being at a time, but it can use its Waterspray attack while it is grappling.
Riverbound (SU) A Riverwrath cannot travel more than 300 yards from its river. If it does, it loses its Fast Healing ability and will die in 4d6 hours.
Waterspout (SU) A Riverwrath can summon a massive waterspout from her river 1/day. This spout has a 10 foot radius and a speed of 30. Any being caught within the spout must make a DC 16 Reflex save or take 4d6 damage and be knocked prone. The Riverwrath can direct the spout to a specific location as a free action once during her turn.
Waterspray (SU) As a standard action, the Riverwrath can hurl a stream of water up to 90 feet. This is ranged attack.

When a river is destroyed or corrupted by pollution or evil magic, certain fey spirits associated with that river may also be transformed. A riverwrath is a water spirit driven to madness by the destruction of the river she called home. Unable to leave it in order to seek revenge, she lurks within, emerging when anyone comes near in order to kill them. She prefers to attack at range, using her waterspout to keep foes disoriented and her waterblast to smash them to pulp, but if someone gets within her range, she can draw him into her own body and drown them. It is sometimes possible to negotiate with a Riverwrath, usually by offering her a chance to kill someone directly responsible for her state, though other approaches may work as well. Riverwraths consider themselves to be both suffering victims and agents of justice; any implication that this is not so will usually result in resumed hostilities.