Stomiitaw
Stomiitaw, 1st-Level Warrior
Small Monsterous Humanoid (aquatic)
Hit Dice: 1d8+1 (5 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: Swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 15 (+2 dex, +2 natural, +1 size), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-3
Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d6) or javelin +4 melee (1d4)
Full Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d6) or javelin +4 melee (1d4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, reflexive snap, swallow whole
Special Qualities: Bearded light, darkvision 120 ft., scent
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +2
Abilities: Str 11, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 15, Cha 6
Skills: Spot +6, Survival +6, Swim +4
Feats:
Swim-by Attack, Weapon Finesse
Environment: Cold Aquatic
Organization: Clump (49), school (10100 plus 100% noncombatants plus 1 3rd-level sergeant per 20 adults and 1 leader of 4th6th level), warband (1024 with seawolf mounts), or clan (40400 plus 100% noncombatants plus 1 3rd-level sergeant per 20 adults, 1 or 2 lieutenants of 4th or 5th level, 1 leader of 6th8th level, 1024 , and 24 dire barracudas)
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually chaotic evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +1
A stomiitaw's proportions are eerily exagerated an is easily one of the most grotesque creatures you could encounter. Its wide, heavily wrinkled head is larger than its body with grinning jaws large enough to swallow the rest of itself. These jaws are filled with a horrifying array of inwardly curving teeth below enormous black eyes. Dangling from the enormous chin is a fleshy beard of glowing polyps.
The head is attached to a thin, almost atrophied body with four, stick-thin limbs rippling with small fins and ending in tiny manipulative digits. The belly though is capable of immense stretching to hold its meals. The thick spine concludes in a mobile fluke to propel itself.
Stomiitaws are one of the most numerous of deepwater peoples, living in thousands of interconnecting caves cut into the sides of trenches. They have a violent, almost homicidal nature, lashing out at the slightest provocation. All stomiitaws release faint pheromones, with families producing similar scents that suppress their killer urges. Meetings between other families however are tense, often bloody affairs, though it is common for different families to exchange sons to prevent inbreeding. Those who are traded instinctively change their scent to match the new family over a period of several days.
Stomiitaws tend to be ruled over by a matriarch, the largest and strongest mother with the most children. When this matriarch dies their is a great battle amongst the daughters for supremacy.
Stomiitaws have nocturnal habits despite the fact they never see the sun, sleeping during the daylight hours far below and awaking and often rising to near the surface in the night to hunt. Female stomiitaws are generally significantly larger than the males, and thus become the hunters as the smaller males are bullied into domestic tasks.
Stomiitaws rarely stand above two feet in height and weigh some 25 lbs. They speak t*o*w, a language consisting solely of the subtle manipulations of hues and illumination of their bearded lights. They have no tongues and thus cannot speak spoken languages.
Combat
Stomiitaws prefer to fight in great numbers, taking huge aquatic beasts down by sheer weight and ferocity. Occasionally a party will go after a ship passing above their trench in the night, using sharp stones to drill holes in the ship and waiting for it to sink. As a stomiitaw's weak limbs are unable to support it upon land its attacks are always at sea.
Bearded Lights (Ex):
A stomiitaw may produce light at will that can be seen out to 100 feet in complete darkness (or half that far in shadowy light levels), but illuminates an area no farther than his personal square.
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a stomiitaw must hit a Medium or smaller foe with a bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity.
Reflexive Snap (Ex):
Whenever a stomiitaw rolls a 1 on his bite attack he may immediately make a second bite attack as a swift action at a -5 penalty.
Swallow Whole (Ex): A stomiitaw can attempt to swallow a grappled opponent of Tiny or smaller size by making a successful grapple check.
A swallowed creature takes 1 point of acid damage each round from the stomiitaw's gut. of A swallowed creature can cut its way out by dealing 2 points of damage to the stomiitaw (AC 11).
The stomiitaw's body can hold 2 Tiny, 8 Dimunitive, or 32 Fine creatures.
Skills: A stomiitaw has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It also has a +4 racial bonus on spot and survival checks. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.
RSS Feeds: 
[Creature] A deep hunger...
