Monster Monday: Gegenes, the Six-Armed Giant

Today's Monster Monday entry is the gegenes, a six-armed giant that packs powerful punches in its many limbs, scales cliffs with ease, and throws over-sized rocks at its enemies.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is (C)2013 Jonah Bomgaars.

Gegenes       CR 11

XP 12,800

CE Large humanoid (giant)

Init +0; Senses low-light vision; Perception +4

DEFENSE

AC 24, touch 9, flat-footed 24 (+3 armour, +12 natural, -1 size)

hp 152 (16d8+80)

Fort +15, Ref +5, Will +7

Defensive Abilities Rock Catching

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft.

Melee unarmed strike +18/+13/+8 (1d4+6) and 5 unarmed strikes +18 (1d4+3)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.

Ranged rock +12 (2d8+9)

Special Attacks Constrict (1d6+9), Multiweapon Mastery, Rock Throwing (120 ft.)

STATISTICS

Str 22, Dex 10, Con 20, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 9

Base Atk +12; CMB +19 (+21 Bull Rush, +23 grapple); CMD 29

Feats Iron Will, Power Attack, Cleave, Improved Unarmed Strike, Combat Reflexes, Endurance, Improved Bull Rush, Weapon Focus (unarmed strike)

Skills Climb +19, Intimidate +6, Survival +5; Racial Modifiers +8 Climb

Languages Giant

ECOLOGY

Environment mountains

Organization solitary, pair, gang (3-6), or tribe (7-18)

Treasure standard (large studded leather armor, other treasure)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Multiweapon Mastery (Ex)

A gegenes (plural: gegenees) never takes penalties to its attack rolls while fighting with multiple weapons (and with Improved Unarmed Strike, its hands count as weapons).

Gegenees are six-armed giants who live near rocky cliffs or outcroppings, scaling sheer faces with alarming speed and tearing off chunks of rock to throw down the mountain at enemies.  In close combat, their six arms swing wildly, knocking scores of enemies down like trees in an avalanche.  A gegenes in a grapple is particularly vicious.  

Gegenees live in loose tribal organizations but are inherently chaotic, seeking to wreak havoc on nearby civilizations for the pure joy of it.

~~~

Gegenees come from Greek myth, specifically the Argonautica.

So no, it is not just my proposed final evolution of Machamp.

In the story, the gegenees are a "fierce and lawless tribe" of six-armed giants who lived on an island that the Argo visits.  The giants seek to block up a harbour by throwing boulders into its mouth, but they are defeated by Herakles and the rest of the Argonauts after a fierce battle.

In your game, a small tribe of gegenees may prove a threat to a mountain village or coastal town, prompting the local authorities to call on adventurers for aid.  When running gegenees, make sure that they take full advantage of the terrain.  Gegenees have a climb speed, and should make use of that to retreat up cliffs and fight at a distance by casting large boulders.

As always with Monster Mondays, I encourage you, the reader, to use this monster in a game and report the results back to me below in the comments.  I don't get to play enough D&D to playtest all of my monsters, so I appreciate any help I can get though crowd-sourcing.  If I've calculated anything incorrectly or made the monster's CR too high/low, I would like to know.

-your hexabrachial d20 despot