Monster Monday: Platybelodon, the Shovel-Tusked Elephant

Today's Monster Monday is platybelodon, the weirdest elephant ever. This prehistoric elephant-like creature is distinguished by its four tusks, the lower two forming a shovel-like growth jutting out below the trunk.

Platybelodon sculpture by Sean Cooper & Martin Garratt, photo by RobinGoodfellow_(m) via Flickr

Platybelodon and related amebelodonts were gomphotheres - elephant-like creatures that roamed the earth 12 million years ago up until the end of the last ice age. While most gomphotheres had four tusks, amebelodonts had these specialized shovel-like plates. It was once thought that they used them to literally shovel up their food, but according to recent reconstructions of their life and diet, these creatures used their shovel-tusks to scrape tree bark and even as a saw to cut down small saplings and shrubs while their flexible trunk held them in place.

It also has one of the most terrifying skeletons of any herbivore:

via Wikimedia

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2017 Jonah Bomgaars.

This elephantine creature has a pair of broad, shovel-like tusks protruding from its lower jaw

Elephant, Shovel-Tusk (Platybelodon) CR 6

XP 2,400

N Large animal

Init +1; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +15

DEFENSE

AC 18, touch 10, flat-footed 17 (+8 natural, -1 size, +1 Dex)

hp 76 (9d8+36)

Fort +10, Ref +7, Will +6

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft.

Melee shoveltusk +11 (2d6+6), slam +11 (1d8+6), gore +6 (1d6+3)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.

Special Attacks trample (1d8+9; DC 20)

STATISTICS

Str 22, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 7

Base Atk +6; CMB +13; CMD 24 (28 vs trip)

Feats Endurance, Improved Bull Rush, Iron Will, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Perception)

Skills Perception +15, Swim +10

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Shoveltusk (Ex)

The platybelodon’s two lower tusks form a flat, shovel-like cutting blade which deals slashing damage

ECOLOGY

Environment temperate forest

Organization solitary, herd (4-18)

Treasure none

The platybelodon, also known as the shovel-tusk elephant, is a large elephant-like creature that stands six feet high at the shoulder and weighs 5,000 pounds. It has a short, flexible trunk and two sets of tusks. Its upper tusks are short and curve outward. Its most distinctive feature is a set of flat lower tusks, which protrude out from its lower jaw and form a shovel-like blade. It feeds by grabbing branches with its trunk and sawing them with its shovel-teeth, which it also uses to scrape bark from trees.

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Plot Hooks and Encounter Ideas

• Skeletal platybelodons have risen from a nearby tar pit and are terrorizing the area.
• A poor farmer needs some young, brave souls to stand guard over his prize squash patch and keep a troublesome herd of platybelodons from trampling them like they have the last several nights.
• Akhinole the scrimshander will pay top dollar for platybelodon ivory, and rumor has it there is a shovel-tusker graveyard somewhere out beyond the Fuming Fens.
•  The druid has asked you to find and reunite a lost platybelodon with its herd. When you find it, it is surrounded by a pack of hungry dire wolves. 

-your amiable amebelodont d20 despot