Grick

Grick (CR 4)

Pure Evil - Medium - Aberration

Lore:	K. (Dungeoneer)
8		23
Basic DC		Full DC

Initiative

7

Perception:
17	+7
Passive	Active

Ambush:

10+

on a d20

Senses:

• Standard Senses
• Darkvision 60 ft.
• Scent 20 ft.

Movement Types:

• Walk 30 ft.
• Lesser Climb 20 ft.

Defense

AC

20

Man Def

19

Monster Health
61	30	6
Hit Points	Bloodied	Hit Dice

Saving Throws
Fort:	+2
Refl:	+2
Will:	+7

• Maneuver Defense Notes: +4 vs Trips

Strong Against:

• DR 10/Common (Bludgeoning,  Crushing,  Piercing,  Slashing,  Slime), bypassed by magic weapons

Weak Against:

Offense

Size:	Medium
5 ft.		5 ft.
Space		Reach

To-Hit

+7

Man Off

+7

Action

0

Points

Standard Attack (Melee):

• 1x Tentacle Strike +7 (1d10+4/x2)
  as slashing (physical, common)

Full Attack (Melee):

• 1x Tentacle Strike +7 (1d10+4/x2)
  as slashing (physical, common)
  +1d6+1 precision slashing (physical, common) damage, vs. all creatures within a 10-foot cone

Standard Attack (Ranged):

Full Attack (Ranged):

Siege Damage: Not siege capable

Statistics

14

STR

14

DEX

11

CON

3

INT

14

WIS

5

CHA

Skills:

• Movement: 7 (+4 when climbing)
• Perception: 7
• Stealth: 9
• All other skills: 2 (no ranks)

Languages:

Feats:

Special Abilities

Tentacle Swarm (Ex) Full Attack Action

As a full attack action, a Grick may use Tentacle Swarm to attack all creatures in a 10 x 10 foot square adjacent to its space. It rolls to hit once against each foe in the area of effect, and if it hits, it deals its normal tentacle strike damage, plus an additional 1d6+1 of precision damage to each foe struck. All damage is considered slashing (physical, common) for purposes of resisting it with DR.

Weapon Sense (Su) Automatic

If any grick in a combat is damaged by a magical weapon that pierces its DR, all gricks in the combat know which of their enemies have that magic weapon and will target it if possible. If they cannot reach the foe with the magical weapon safely, they will fight normally. Multiple foes with magical weapons will be targeted as evenly as possible, and if there are more magical weapons than gricks, they will flee the battle if possible.

Grick

Gricks are wormlike alchemical abominations which were created eons ago by the same kind of madmen that thought owlbears and bulettes were a great idea. Gricks have a darkly mottled skin texture rather akin to a garden slug, but unlike a slug, a grick is the very paragon of rubbery durability. Even worse, Gricks can change their color, slowly, over the space of hours, to match the territory they inhabit.

Gricks have four sturdy tentacles at the front of their bodies, liberally equipped with rasping bone scutes and octopus-like suckers. These suckers extend to their pale bellies, as well. Mercifully, the suckers are of little use in combat, instead granting the horrible things a climb speed, and allowing them to drag prey with unnerving ease.

An adult grick is about 8 feet long from the tips of its tentacles to the end of its body and weighs some 200 pounds. Its body coloration is uniformly dark, with a pale underbelly, although the exact color varies with their habitat.

Although of animal intelligence, gricks are inherently and utterly evil, and will attack with cruel intent even when not hungry.

Combat Tactics

Gricks attack when hungry, threatened, or when they feel like killing something. They are vicious killers, but are oddly capricious, sometimes crawling right past prey even when hungry. They hunt by holing up near high-traffic areas, using their natural coloration to blend into convenient shadows. When prey (virtually anything that moves) ventures near, they lash out with their tentacles, seeking to get as many victims in their tentacle swarms as often as possible.

Defensively, a grick's rubbery body seems to shed blows of any kind and they will crawl into melee without fear unless they are attacked by a magical weapon. The wielder of a magical weapon is immediately targeted for death by all gricks in a combat. How they all know when one of them is attacked with magic is a mystery.

Their jaws are relatively small and weak compared to its body mass, so rather than consume prey immediately, a grick normally drags victims back to their lair to be eaten at leisure.

Multiple gricks do not fight in concert. Each attacks the prey closest to it, and breaks off the fight as soon as it can drag dead or unconscious prey away. If foes have magical weapons and don't die in a round of concerted attack, gricks will flee the fight by climbing away if possible.

Out of Combat

Gricks are...weird. Although they look like mindless vermin, they actually behave much more like a social pack animal, like cats, except that they lay eggs carelessly everywhere they go. If there are 'male' or 'female' gricks, nobody has yet figured out how to tell. Gricks will establish territories they use to hunt in their typical loose opportunistic packs, and have been seen banding together to drive away other menaces to protect their nesting areas. Grick young are not given any special care, and are hatched able to eat on their own just fine. Gricks don't seem to have eyes, but they don't seem to be bothered by the lack.

Gricks are quite amenable to domestication by the right sorts of masters, and there are possibly apocryphal reports of gricks 'cultivating' plants and fungi, such as shriekers, and 'herding' slimes and oozes, such as gelatinous parasites and black puddings(!). Gricks are perfectly happy to be kept as 'working animals' by orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, and the like, and have been seen to be kept as 'pets' by ogres.

In general, gricks are likely to show up in all sorts of odd places, and fulfill all sorts of odd roles.

Rewards

XP: 1,200

Treasure: Sellable Goods worth 1,188 gp.

Weight: 40 lbs.     Volume: 1.6 cu. ft.

Optional Treasure Rules: Roll a d20 on Table 1 below once per encounter (NOT per creature). Any items discovered are in addition to the normal treasure for the encounter.

Table 1: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 10	Nothing Found
11 - 14	1 Languid Remnant (tier 1)
15 - 17	1 Pale Remnant (tier 2)
18 - 19	1 Bright Remnant (tier 3)
20	Roll on Table 2
###	Nothing to see here!
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 2: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	3 Languid Remnants (tier 1)
6 - 10	3 Pale Remnants (tier 2)
11 - 14	1 Intense Remnant (tier 4)
15 - 17	1 Blazing Remnant (tier 5)
18 - 19	1 Vital Remnant (tier 6)
20	Roll on Table 3
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 3: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	3 Bright Remnants (tier 3)
6 - 8	3 Intense Remnants (tier 4)
9 - 11	3 Blazing Remnants (tier 5)
12 - 14	3 Vital Remnants (tier 6)
15 - 17	1 Prime Remnant (tier 7)
18 - 19	1 Mythic Remnant (tier 8)
20	1 Empyrean Remnant (tier 9)