Monster Monday: Giant Ground Bat - Nocturnal Predator

Today's Monster Monday is the giant ground bat, a wolf-sized nocturnal predator that hunts by echolocation. This is a perfect low-level monster for a campaign with a Gothic horror atmosphere. I mean, a giant vampire bat that runs like a wolf? That is 100% something you would run into after your mysterious coachman lets you off at the foot of a twisting road up a darkly forested mountain, saying "That's as far as I can take you, but I'd suggest you get back in the coach and return to town with me. No good can come from going up to that castle. It's cursed, I tell you! Cursed!"

I would have made an illustration for this creature, but nothing I could have drawn or digitally painted would be as cool or terror-inducing as this mounted vampire bat skeleton:

Photo and mounted skeleton by Mokele, via Wikimedia

The direct inspiration for this monster came from an article I was reading about a new species of fossil bat discovered in New Zealand. Check out that rad ground bat illustration in the article. Yeah, apparently ground bats are a thing. They do actually have wings though, they just also spend a lot of time on the ground. Combine that with the future predators from Primeval and maybe a dash of the Varghulf from Warhammer Fantasy and you've got yourself a giant ground bat.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.

This flightless, wolf-sized bat scurries forward on its long limbs, screeching and baring its fangs.

Giant Ground Bat           CR 1

XP 400

N Medium animal

Init +3; Senses blindsense 40 ft., scent; Perception +9

DEFENSE

AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex)

hp 16 (3d8+3)

Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +3

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft.

Melee bite +2 (1d6 plus bleed), 2 claws +2 (1d4)

Special Attacks bleed (1)

STATISTICS

Str 11, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6

Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 15 (19 vs trip)

Feats Skill Focus (perception), Stealthy

Skills Acrobatics +7, Climb+8, Escape Artist +5, Perception +9, Stealth +9, Survival +2 (+6 when tracking by scent); Racial Modifiers +4 Survival when tracking by scent

ECOLOGY

Environment any temperate or warm or underground

Organization solitary, pair, colony (3-8), or megacolony (8-36)

Treasure incidental

The giant ground bat is a large, wolf-sized bat that has adapted to a flightless life of nocturnal hunting. Where a normal bat has wings, the ground bat has long forelimbs with fingers that, while much reduced and lacking a wing membrane, now serve as wicked claws. They hunt in the night using echolocation to find prey. They sometimes bite larger prey and leave it bleeding, later following the blood trail back to the weakened creature. Some ground bats sleep up in trees while others dig out crude burrows in the earth. Megacolonies of dozens of ground bats have been found living in large caves. 

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Plot Hooks and Encounter Ideas

• The floor collapses below you, sending you tumbling into a dark cavern below. Your sudden descent disturbs the cave's denizens - a colony of giant, flightless bats who begin to screech and swarm toward you.
• The goblins are wrapped in flapping black cloaks, blood-red warpaint streaking their pinched green faces. They ride not wolves but giant flightless bats, bared fangs glistening in the firelight as they circle your camp.
• As you approach the ruined pyramid of the bat god, you hear a clattering from the cenote at its gate. Dozens of skeletal ground bats pour forth, clawing forward on flightless wings, blind skulls clacking and hissing. 

-your lesser short-tailed d20 despot