Athach — Three-Armed Giant of the Wild Hills

Run It Tonight

Give the athach room to use its reach. Start it above or beyond the party with rocks in hand, then let it charge through the front line toward whoever looks easiest to crush. Its three arms should make it feel relentless, not elegant: clubs come from different angles, the bite is reserved for the creature that has hurt it most, and anything standing near a ledge is a candidate for a shove.

Rules by Edition

5.5e / 2024
5e / 2014
Pathfinder 1e
D&D 3.5e

Athach

Huge Giant, typically Chaotic Evil

AC 16; Initiative +1 (11)
HP 168 (16d12 + 64)
Speed 40 ft.

STR
25 (+7)

DEX
12 (+1)

CON
19 (+4)

INT
7 (−2)

WIS
12 (+1)

CHA
6 (−2)

Saving Throws Str +10, Con +7, Wis +4
Skills Athletics +10, Perception +4
Senses Darkvision 60 ft.; Passive Perception 14
Languages Giant
CR 8 (3,900 XP); PB +3

Traits

Three-Armed Brute. The athach can manipulate three one-handed objects at once and has Advantage on ability checks and saving throws made to resist being disarmed.

Rock Hurler. The athach ignores Disadvantage for making a Rock attack while an enemy is within 5 feet of it.

Actions

Multiattack. The athach makes three Club attacks. It can replace one Club attack with Bite.

Club. Melee Attack Roll: +10, reach 15 ft. Hit: 15 (2d8 + 6) Bludgeoning damage.

Bite. Melee Attack Roll: +10, reach 5 ft. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6) Piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) Poison damage. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or have the Poisoned condition until the end of its next turn.

Rock. Ranged Attack Roll: +10, range 60/240 ft. Hit: 23 (3d10 + 7) Bludgeoning damage.

Reaction

Catch Rock. When the athach is hit by a ranged attack made with a rock or similar solid projectile, it reduces the damage by 1d10 + 10. If this reduces the damage to 0, the athach catches the projectile if it is small enough to hold.

Athach

Huge giant, chaotic evil

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 168 (16d12 + 64)
Speed 40 ft.

STR
25 (+7)

DEX
12 (+1)

CON
19 (+4)

INT
7 (−2)

WIS
12 (+1)

CHA
6 (−2)

Saving Throws Str +10, Con +7, Wis +4
Skills Athletics +10, Perception +4
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Giant
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Traits

Three-Armed Brute. The athach can hold and use three one-handed objects at once and has advantage on checks or saving throws made to resist being disarmed.

Actions

Multiattack. The athach makes three club attacks. It can replace one club attack with its bite.

Club. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) poison damage. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.

Rock. Ranged Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, range 60/240 ft., one target. Hit: 23 (3d10 + 7) bludgeoning damage.

Reaction

Rock Catching. If a rock or similar projectile would hit the athach, it can make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw. On a success, it catches the projectile and takes no damage from it.

Athach CR 12

XP 19,200
CE Huge humanoid (giant)
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +12

Defense

AC 26, touch 9, flat-footed 25 (+2 armor, +1 Dex, +15 natural, −2 size)
hp 161 (14d8+98)
Fort +16, Ref +5, Will +7
Resist cold 10

Offense

Speed 50 ft.
Melee 2 slams +19 (1d8+11), bite +19 (2d6+11 plus poison) or heavy mace +19/+14 (3d6+11), bite +17 (2d6+5 plus poison)
Ranged rock +10/+5 (2d6+16)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft. (20 ft. with Lunge)
Special Attacks rock throwing (140 ft.), swift claw

Statistics

Str 32, Dex 13, Con 25, Int 7, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +10; CMB +23; CMD 34
Feats Cleave, Improved Iron Will, Iron Will, Lunge, Multiattack, Power Attack, Vital Strike
Skills Acrobatics +1 (+9 jumping), Climb +20, Perception +12, Stealth −7
Languages Giant

Special Abilities

Poison (Ex). Bite—injury; save Fort DC 24; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d4 Str damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Swift Claw (Ex). An athach can make a claw attack with its third arm as a swift action. The claw has the same attack bonus as its slam and deals 1d10+11 slashing damage.

Rock Throwing (Ex). An athach has a 140-foot range increment with thrown rocks.

Ecology

Environment temperate hills
Organization solitary, gang (2–4), or tribe (7–12)
Treasure standard

Athach Chieftains

The older page treated an “Athach Chieftain” as a separate lower-CR creature. That progression has been removed because it contradicted the published CR 12 Pathfinder athach. To build a chieftain in PF1e, use the advanced simple template on the normal athach, then add better equipment, followers and a larger hoard. The role remains useful; the contradictory bespoke statistics do not.

Athach

Huge Aberration

Hit Dice 14d8+70 (133 hp)
Initiative +1
Speed 35 ft. in hide armor (7 squares); base speed 50 ft.
Armor Class 20 (−2 size, +1 Dex, +3 hide armor, +8 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 19
Base Attack/Grapple +10/+26
Attack morningstar +16 melee (3d6+8) or rock +9 ranged (2d6+8)
Full Attack morningstar +12/+7 melee (3d6+8), 2 morningstars +12 melee (3d6+4), and bite +12 melee (2d8+4 plus poison); or rock +5 ranged (2d6+8), and 2 rocks +5 ranged (2d6+4)
Space/Reach 15 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks poison
Special Qualities darkvision 60 ft.
Saves Fort +9, Ref +5, Will +10
Abilities Str 26, Dex 13, Con 21, Int 7, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills Climb +9, Jump +18, Listen +7, Spot +7
Feats Alertness, Cleave, Multiweapon Fighting, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment temperate hills
Organization solitary, gang (2–4), or tribe (7–12)
Challenge Rating 8
Treasure ½ coins; double goods; standard items
Alignment often chaotic evil

Poison (Ex)

Injury, Fortitude DC 22; initial damage 1d6 Strength; secondary damage 2d6 Strength. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Behaviour

Athachs are bullies before they are berserkers. They prefer targets that can be intimidated, isolated or overwhelmed, and they quickly learn which member of a group is least protected. Their cruelty is deliberate, but it is not the disciplined evil of a fiend or tyrant. An athach may destroy crops, foul a burial place, wreck a road or torment captives simply because the suffering proves that nothing nearby is strong enough to stop it.

They are also conspicuously greedy. Gems, crystals, jewellery and polished stones end up tied into furs, shoved into bags or embedded in crude belts. Coins matter less than objects that glitter or can be displayed.

Signs Before Initiative

• Three different handprints appear at the same height on a cave wall or broken gate.
• Large stones have been thrown into roofs, wagons or watchtowers from far outside bow range.
• A raided camp has food and jewellery taken while many practical metal tools are left behind.
• Deep tracks climb directly over difficult slopes rather than following a normal trail.
• Victims show both massive blunt-force injuries and paired tusk wounds.
• Cheap stones and coloured glass have been discarded after being tested and found unworthy of the hoard.

If Violence Starts

An athach opens with rocks whenever distance allows. It does not waste those attacks evenly across the party: lightly armoured targets, spellcasters and clustered groups attract the first throws. Once melee begins, its reach becomes the encounter. It pushes through the front rank, forces defenders to reposition and uses the bite on whoever has caused it the most pain.

Athachs are strong enough to fight on bad ground. Slopes, rubble and cliff paths that inconvenience adventurers are useful terrain to them. An athach defending a hoard is much harder to rout than one met while raiding; away from treasure or kin, it will retreat from an obviously superior enemy and resume throwing rocks from range.

Counterplay

Do not fight the athach on the terrain it chose. Cover cuts down its rock throwing, narrow entrances can deny its 15-foot reach, and effects that slow or restrain it prevent the creature from walking past the front line toward softer targets. In editions where its bite carries ability-damaging poison, antitoxin, poison resistance and restoration magic matter far more than raw armour.

Its greed is also exploitable. An athach will notice conspicuous gems and jewellery, and a believable trail of valuables can redirect it long enough to escape, prepare an ambush or draw it away from a settlement.

Homes and Hoards

Athachs favour temperate hills, broken highlands and caves large enough for an eighteen-foot creature to move freely. Ruined keeps and abandoned mines make equally good lairs if entrances have been widened by force. A typical den is filthy but not empty: food, broken weapons, discarded clothing and heaps of stones surround a smaller cache of deliberately selected gems and jewellery.

They speak a crude form of Giant and may share territory with other giant-kind, although cooperation is unstable. Their relationship with Hill Giants is particularly prone to violence, rivalry and raids.

Using an Athach in an Encounter

The glittering toll. An athach controls the only safe hill road and demands gems rather than coin. Travellers who offer glass or paste stones are remembered.

The broken watchtower. A border tower is intact except for its roof, which has been smashed repeatedly by rocks thrown from a ridge beyond ordinary missile range.

The false hoard. Someone has planted stolen jewels in an abandoned mine to lure an athach toward a rival settlement.

The chieftain’s challenge. An advanced athach has forced several lesser giants into a loose warband. Killing it may scatter them; humiliating it publicly may work even faster.

Lore Checks

For campaigns using 3.5e-style Knowledge checks, the older lore on this page remains useful:

• DC 18: The creature is an athach, a huge three-armed giant-kin horror.
• DC 23: Athachs throw rocks effectively and carry a Strength-damaging poison in their bite.
• DC 28: They prize gems and jewellery disproportionately and can be baited with conspicuous valuables.

Related Creatures

Explore the World Bestiary, the Aberration Bestiary, and other giant-kind such as the Hill Giant. The Athach’s shifting classification between editions is deliberate: D&D 3.5e presents it as an aberration, while Pathfinder 1e presents it as a giant.