Fiend Factory 5E. White Dwarf Issue 14: Gurgotch

Issue 14  Gurgotch

Once again I’m going to go with a Roger Musson creation, but that’s because the quality of his monsters is getting better, or perhaps it’s better to say that they have more general utility and less novelty/joke value.

But before that, let’s look at the rest.

The Mind Web, by David Taylor, is a pretty neat idea, an incorporeal entity that controls other creatures and forms a kind of monster gestalt. Statistic-wise, it’s pretty tough to actually harm. It’s also a little like the symbiotic jelly (Chaoticus Symbioticus), and also similar to a creature that I’m planning to stat for Issue 21, so although it’s a sound idea, I’m not going to do this one for this issue.

I also like the Energy Cyclone (by the mysteriously name “MC”) although it too is actually pretty tough. Immunity to most magic, immunity to non-magical weapons, an ongoing blindness effect and it counterattacks with an energy strike through attacking weapons. Add to this lightning bolts and a whirlwind attack, and this is one nasty monster. It’s also wrapped up in a Pokeball kind of trap, for added fun. I may come back to this one for a bonus conversion.

David Hicks’ Ice Maiden is kind of a yuki-on’na, the snow woman of Japanese mythology. This particular attempt to recreate such a creature in D&D stats basically gives us a medusa that turns the victim to ice instead of stone. Even her hair is made of icicles rather than snakes. So, in this case, I think it would be as easy to just use the medusa stats, get rid of the snake hair attacks and replace petrification with . um .. glacification? Immunity to cold, vulnerability to fire, and it looks like some kind of blur effect is in place as well.

Again, actually a pretty good usable monster, and there are plenty of Japanese folk tales to draw upon for inspiration. I’ll be willing to bet Slavic mythology has something similar as well.

The Gazer is the creation of Charles Stross, of Githyanki fame. I don’t think this is as successful, despite Don’s enthusiasm for it. It’s a variant beholder, with an attack that’s a little like the Death Star where smaller circumferential eyes can direct their beams into the central eye for a magnified attack ray. These eyes can also fire individually, with the very 1^st Edition effect of doing damage equal to the remaining hit points of the monster (as dragon breath also did).

There’s something about this one that just doesn’t grab me. It’s too close to a regular beholder to seem original, and where it does differ it doesn’t feel like it adds anything or improves upon the original beholder. Or maybe it would be better if it had the same mechanics but not on a spherical eyeball monster? I don’t know. Don mentions that we’ll see more of Charles’ work, so I’ll keep an eye out in case the githyanki were actually a fluke, or if the gazer is a momentary drop in quality.

And so, the Monster of the Month is the Gurgotch (aka Demon Elephant) by good old Roger Musson of Stair Stalker infamy.

This is a pretty straightforward monster; I started with the elephant (and not mastodon) statistics, which gave the gore, stomp and trample attacks already. 50% magic resistance is pretty much the same as 5E magic resistance effect in terms of its effect on saving throws, and so that gets a straight conversion (actually, any monster with 1^st Edition style magic resistance, be it as low as 10%, gets 5E style magic resistance when I convert it. It makes life simple).

I added a trunk grapple (which only grapples and does no damage, since the Gurgotch doesn’t seem to) and borrowed the tentacle slam attacks from the otyugh to enable the gurgotch to smash foes around.

Finally, the breath weapon is a little unusual but I kept the ability damage effects. As a Huge creature, it makes sense to give it the same area of effect as a Young Green Dragon, which is also Huge and breathes poison gas. I made recovery from this damage a little easier in keeping with 5^th Ed standards compared to the super-harsh 1^st Ed stuff, where you’re pretty much stuck with it until you find a high-level cleric.

And so:

Gurgotch (Demon Elephant)

Medium fiend, chaotic evil

Armour Class 14 (natural armour) Hit Points 76 (8d12 + 24) Speed 40 ft.,

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 22 (+6) 9 (-1) 17 (+3) 10 (+0) 11 (+0) 8 (-1)

Proficiency Bonus +3 Senses passive Perception 10

Languages understands Abyssal but can’t speak

Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Magic Resistance. The gurgotch has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. Trampling Charge. If the gurgotch moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hits with a gore attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the gurgotch can make one stomp attack against it as a bonus action. ACTIONS

Multiattack. The gurgotch can make two attacks: one with its trunk and one with its gore. Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 6) piercing damage. Trunk. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: The target is grappled (escape DC 17), and if it is Medium or smaller it is also restrained until the grapple ends. The gurgotch can make a slam attack with a restrained opponent. Slam. The gurgotch slams a creature grappled and restrained by it into a solid surface or another creature. Each creature must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or take 22 (3d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage and be stunned until the end of the gurgotch’s next turn. On a successful save, the target takes half the bludgeoning damage and isn’t stunned. Stomp. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one prone target. Hit: 22 (3d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage. Poison Breath (Recharge 5-6). The gurgotch exhales poisonous gas in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in the area must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is paralysed and loses 4 points of Dexterity and 2 points each of Strength and Constitution. On a successful save, the creature takes half the ability score damage and isn’t paralysed. Creatures immune to poison are immune to both effects, creatures with resistance to poison damage have advantage on the saving throw. The paralysis wears off after 10 minutes, and the ability score damage is restored after the creature takes a long rest.

Optional Extras

The gurgotch is to all intents and purposes a fiendish elephant, and while the “Fiendish Creature” template doesn’t exist as such in 5^th Edition, I’ve adapted it for the Lazy GM books to include some or all of the traits listed below. The gurgotch gets Magic Resistance already, but if you wanted to include the other traits, select any from the ones below. Also, it seemed a waste to have the dramatic-looking trident tail in the illustration, and not use it, so there’s an additional attack for that as well, which it can do at the same time as a gore or trunk attack, but not against the same target.

I’d say bump the Challenge Rating up by one for each of these that you add, and even adding one of them takes its Proficiency Bonus up to +4, increasing all of the attack bonuses and save DCs by one. This has already been factored into the tail attack given below.

Damage Resistance cold, fire; bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Magic Weapons. The gurgotch’s attacks are magical.

Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (1d8 + 6) piercing damage.

Smite Good (1/day). On a successful melee attack the gurgotch can cause double the weapon damage dice to a good-aligned target. It must complete a long rest before it can use this ability again.