Songbird race! (And other stuff.)

[Metastachydium]

Capping the base damage makes sense. I'm still leery of allowing something that heavy to cause solely non-lethal damage. It doesn't fit the rules well. Falling damage is dependent on how far you fall. Most creatures can ignore the first 10 feet, but this ignores the first 40 feet. That's already a bonus. I'd say let the falling damage be 4d6 (and it ignores the first 40 feet so unless it falls off a very high cliff it should be okay)

It would make sense to be all non-lethal if it were spongy (and weighed a lot less).

This could also use better description.

I mean, these things just wouldn't make a lick of sense as suicide bombers that actively risk death ao that they can squash things to death. And Crush attacks provide a precedent for deliberately falling on an opponent to cause damage without taking the same, so I don't feel like the horse mitigating damage to itself (through Innate Cushioning Abilities and technique) is really absurd rules-wise.

At any rate, many thanks once more! I'll insert in the cap on damage suffered and will try to think up a way to tweak the description.

EDIT: Okay, I took a shot at that:

Combat
Creeping horses dread combat and do not engage in it they can avoid doing so. Should they feel an intruder or group of such intruders threatens the caves they dwell in, they will attempt to separate and ambush them one at a time, creeping up and dropping on them from above. The latter attack is generally described as a strange sensation, as though a giant pillow, its fluid weight shifting and bouncing up and down had buried its target underneath itself.

(…)

Drop Down (Ex)
A creeping horse clinging to the ceiling of an enclosed space can drop down on foes below itself as a move action. When it hits the ground (taking falling damage, but treating the fall 40 feet shorter than it was) it covers the 10 feet by ten feet area immediately underneath its previous position. Opponents caught under its soft, blubbery body take 8d6 plus another 1d6 points of nonlethal damage per each 10 feet the body of the horse traverses, unless they succeed on a DC 15 Reflex save, which halves the damage. Furthermore, its odd body cushions the creeping horse's own landing: it never takes more than 4d6 points of damage from landing on an opponent, and it can attempt a DC 15 Fortitude save itself to render half that damage nonlethal. The save DCs are Strength-based.

So, it's very soft and its shifting mass hammers the opponent hit repeatedly, some of it happenin after the horse already landed. I also kind of like how in this version, it can only really hurt itself, though not hard. How's this sound?