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Tripodero

Tripodero
Image © Traci Shepard. See more @crittercompendium

This bizarre creature resembles a flightless bird with a long neck and a muscular, feathered tail.  It turns its tube-like head towards you as if appraising you, and then ratchets upward as its legs expand like a telescope.

Taken from the Creature Codex

Another native of the dry, scrubby chapparal, tripoderoes are weird predators with a surprising level of intelligence. Unlike most uncultured beasts, tripoderoes hunt their prey at range, firing bullets of clay with remarkable speed and force. Tripoderoes manufacture these bullets by rolling clay into spheres and drying them in the sun; it stores a supply of quids in its cheeks for use. Tripoderoes have a strong numerical sense and can keep track of how many quids they have remaining—if a tripodero is running low on ammunition, it will flee from combat and hide. Tripoderoes generally prefer to hunt smaller game than man. Their jaws are fused into a tube, but its power of suction and expulsion are incredible. As such, it feeds by attaching its mouth to the open wounds inflicted by its quids and sucking in all of the prey’s fluids and organs. Due to the level of precision a tripodero needs to make a seal and the time it takes for it to ingest its prey, this ability is useless in combat.

Tripoderoes are generally solitary creatures and defend large stretches of territory. These territories are only unified by the presence of clay-bearing soil, which the tripodero uses to make its ammunition. If a tripodero does not have access to clay, it can use pebbles as bullets, but these are not as well balanced and deal only 1d4 points of damage. Roperites and tripoderos have similar habitat requirements, and they compete for prey. Roperites will hunt tripoderoes if they get an opportunity, but the two creatures are relatively evenly matched. At range, a tripodero can kill a lone roperite with little difficulty, but a pack of roperites can easily overwhelm and consume a tripodero.

Tripodero            CR 3

XP 800
N Medium aberration
Init +4; 
Senses 
darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +14

Defense

AC 16, touch 14, flat-footed 12(+4 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 
27 (5d8+5)
Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +6
Resist 
fire 10

Offense

Speed 30 ft.
Melee kick +5 (1d4+2)
Ranged quid +7 (1d6+2) or +5/+5 (1d6+2)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with kick)

Statistics

Str 15, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 7, Wis 14, Cha 7
Base Attack +3; CMB +5; CMD 19
Feats 
Deadly Aim,Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot
Skills 
Perception +14, Stealth +12; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception
Languages 
Terran (cannot speak)
SQ 
telescopic stance

Ecology

Environment temperate and warm hills and plains
Organization 
solitary or pair
Treasure 
none

Special Abilities

  • Quid (Ex) a tripodero can fire clay pellets from its mouth as if it possessed a projectile weapon. These quid attacks have a 30 foot range increment and have a maximum range of ten increments, but deal damage modified by the tripodero’s Strength score as if they were thrown weapons. A tripodero can carry twenty quids at a time in its cheeks; it takes a minute for a tripodero to reload this supply.
  • Telescopic Legs (Ex) a tripodero can extend or contract its legs as a free action, growing to over ten feet in height or pulling itself flush against the ground. A tripodero can use its legs to gain height in order to fire over obstacles—a tripodero ignores all sources of cover, and treats improved cover as ordinary cover, as long as cover is being provided by an object ten feet high or less. For example, a tripodero would ignore cover provided by a tower shield, but would be affected normally by cover provided by a twenty-foot high tree.
  • In addition, a tripodero can scale obstacles ten feet tall or higher without making a Climb check by expanding and contracting its legs to pull itself up. It treats any obstacle scaled in this fashion as difficult terrain. It also gains 10 ft. reach with its kick attack.
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