Monster, Abaasy

You come upon a gang of large, humanoid creatures. In the dim underground light you cannot distinguish all of their features, but their hair appears to be made of whiptails and their sharp fangs shine with a metallic glint in the darkness. Each of the creatures has only one blank, pale eye, which shines as a frozen lake. They immediately charge you, hungrily roaring and brandishing vicious iron lashes.

Monster Encyclopaedia II: The Dark Bestiary
Author J. C. Alvarez
Series Monster Encyclopaedia
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2005

Abaasy are horrid ogre-like monsters that stalk underground tunnels in search of prey, preferably live humanoids. Their long hair, nails and teeth are made of an iron-like substance, which suggests they may be related to earth elementals. They always tie their manes in seven whip-like braids, imitating the iron-shod lashes they use as weapons. However, their most distinguishing feature is their pupilless, pale eyes, which shine with a gloomy blue light.

Abaasy speak their own dialect of Giant. A few of the more intelligent ones also speak Common.

Abaasy
Large Giant (Earth)
Hit Dice	11d8+44 (93 hp)
Initiative	+2
Speed	40 ft. (8 squares), burrow 5 ft.
AC	19 (–1 size, +2 Dexterity, +8 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple	+8/+19
Attack	Iron lash +15 melee (1d6+7) or slam +14 melee (1d8+7)
Full Attack	Iron lash +15/+10 melee (1d6+7) and slam +9 melee (1d8+3) and bite +9 melee (1d4+3)
Space/Reach	10 ft. /10 ft. (20 ft. with iron lash)
Special Attacks	Freezing gaze, iron attacks, iron lash
Special Qualities	Darkvision 60 ft., damage reduction 5/adamantine, Low-Light Vision
Saves	Fort +11, Ref +5, Will +1
Abilities	Strength 24, Dexterity 15, Constitution 19, Intelligence 7, Wisdom 7, Charisma 11
Skills	Craft (weaponsmithing) +3, Hide +2*, Intimidate +8, Listen +2, Move Silently +6, Spot +4
Feats	Alertness, Blind-FightB, Skill Focus (Craft (weaponsmithing)), Stealthy, Weapon Focus (iron lash)
Environment	Any underground
Organisation	Solitary or Gang (2-7)
Challenge Rating	7
Treasure	Standard
Alignment	Usually chaotic evil
Advancement	12-16 HD (Large), 17-33 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment	+4

Combat

Abaasy are brutal bullies, always attempting to overpower their victims via intimidation and sheer size. When forced to engage in melee combat, Abaasy prefer to use their iron lashes to punish their prey from a distance, before closing in to attack with bite and fists.

Freezing Gaze (Su): As a move action, an Abaasy may attempt a special Intimidate check against any intelligent creature looking directly at its glowing eyes. The target is entitled to a Will saving throw (DC equal to the abaasy’s Intimidate check result). If the save fails, the target is stunned for 1 round. A victim that succeeds at this save cannot be affected by that specific abaasy’s freezing gaze attack for the next 24 hours.

Iron Attacks (Ex): The iron-shod claws and teeth of an abaasy allow it to penetrate natural defences easily. All of an abaasy’s natural attacks count as cold iron for purposes of bypassing damage reduction.

Iron Lash: Abaasy wield special iron lashes crafted by themselves. An abaasy’s iron lash deals 1d6 lethal damage with a successful hit and has a hardness of 10 and 30 hit points. It is treated as a melee weapon with a 20 foot reach, though it can be used against foes anywhere within this reach, including adjacent foes. Abaasy can make can make trip attacks with an iron lash; if an abaasy is tripped during its own trip attempt, it can drop the iron lash to avoid being tripped. When using an iron lash, an abaasy gets a +4 bonus on opposed attack rolls made to disarm an opponent (including the roll to keep from being disarmed if the attack fails).

Skills: An abaasy gains a +4 racial bonus on all Intimidate and Spot checks.

Abaasy as Characters

Abaasy characters possess the following racial traits.

* Ability modifiers: +14 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +8 Constitution, –4 Intelligence, –4 Wisdom.

* Large size. As Large creatures, abaasy receive the following modifiers: –1 penalty to Armour Class, –1 penalty on attack rolls, –4 penalty on Hide checks, +4 bonus on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits double those of Medium characters.
* Space/Reach: 10 feet/10 feet.
* An abaasy’s base land speed is 40 feet.
* Burrowing: they can use their iron claws for burrowing through the earth. Base burrowing speed: 5 feet.
* Low-Light Vision.
* Darkvision out to 60 feet.
* Racial Hit Dice: They begin with eleven levels of giant, which provide 11d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +8 and base saving throw bonuses
of Fort +7, Ref +3 and Will +3.
* Racial Skills: Their giant levels give it skill points equal to 14 x (2+ Intelligence modifier, minimum 1). Its class skills are Hide, Intimidate, Listen, Move
Silently and Spot.
* Racial Feats: It’s giant levels give it four feats.
* Bonus Feat: They gain Blind-Fight as a bonus feat, in addition to their racial feats.
* Special Attacks (see above): Freezing gaze, iron attacks.
* Special Qualities (see above): Damage reduction 5/adamantine.
* Weapon and Armour Proficiency: It is automatically proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as the abaasy iron lash (see above). It has no proficiency with any armour or shields.
* +8 natural armour bonus.
* Automatic Languages: Giant. Bonus Languages: Common, Dwarven, Goblin, Sylvan, Terran, Undercommon.
* Favoured Class: Barbarian.
* Level Adjustment +5.