Monster Monday: Chalicothere, Prehistoric Clawed Horse-Beast

Today's Monster Monday entry is the chalicothere, a prehistoric creature related to horses and rhinos with long, powerful arms and curved claws.

source: wikipedia

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

Megafauna, Chalicothere        CR 4

XP 1200

N Large animal

Init +1; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +12

DEFENSE

AC 17, touch 10, flat-footed 16 (+7 natural, -1 size, +1 Dex)

hp 52 (7d8+21)

Fort +10, Ref +6, Will +3

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee 2 claws +8 (1d8+4)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.

Special Attacks rend (1d8+6)

STATISTICS

Str 19, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 6

Base Atk +5; CMB +10; CMD 21

Feats Great Fortitude, Improved Natural Attack, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Perception)

Skills Climb + 9, Perception +12

ECOLOGY

Environment warm forests and plains

Organization solitary

Treasure none

This lumbering, horse-headed creature props itself up on two powerful, apelike arms terminating in gruesome claws.  The chalicothere is actually a gentle herbivore, but it is more than capable of defending itself with the same claws it uses to strip foliage from tree branches.  It walks on its knuckles to avoid unnecessary wear to its claws. 

Some chalicotheres have bony, dome-like protrusions on their skulls for mating season head-butt competitions.  Such chalicotheres gain a slam attack at their full base attack bonus (+8 (1d6+4)) and  the powerful charge ability (slam, 2d6+4).  Increase the CR by 1. 

~~~~~

Chalicotheres were prehistoric relatives of horses, rhinos, and tapirs, but looked more like a cross between a baluchitherium and a giant ground sloth, though the largest only stood perhaps 10 ft. tall at the shoulder.  Anyways, I thought they would make a pretty cool monster, so here we go.  I was pleased to learn that some chalicothere species, like Kalimantsia and Tylocephalonyx, had bony head-domes because that meant I could make a variant monster.

In terms of gameplay and ecology, chalicotheres are herbivores, so they won't exactly be stalking the party, but they are powerful beasts with terrible claws - stumbling into one in the woods might lead to combat.  And imagine tamed chalicotheres carrying savage gnolls into battle!   

I like to keep up on paleontology news and read books about prehistoric animals, so expect more primeval Monster Monday entries in the future.

-your perissodactylic d20 despot