Manticore, Fell

Rochester Bestiary miniature detail of a manticore. — Manticore, Rochester Bestiary, Royal MS 12 F XIII / Wikimedia Commons.

Armor Class: 4 [15]
Hit Dice: 5
Attacks: Bite or Claw (1d6+1)
Special: undead
Move: 18 Fly 30 (6)
HDE/XP: 7/600

Description

A Fell Manticore is an extremely aggressive but smaller and faster breed of the common manticore, while very similar in appearance. Its fur and skin are jet black, and it also possesses a mental power resembling that of a deceiver.

When encountered, a fell manticore's reaction will never be better than unfavorable, and inside their lair they will always attack without hesitation. If there is a pair of them in the lair, it will be a mated couple, and there is a 1 in 3 chance of 1d6 offspring being present. Divide 3 HD among them as evenly as possible, with a minimum of ½ HD (or a +1 to HD). The young will fight amongst themselves until only the strongest of the litter remains. The adult fell manticores will fight with a +1 attack and morale bonus when defending their offspring.

A fell manticore also shares the ability to shoot spikes from its tail with the common manticore, but only causing 1d4 points of damage per attack; they can have up 20 spikes, and regrow 1d4 spikes per day. Fell Manticores also have a mental ability causing those attacking it to believe the creature is about 3 feet from its true location. A fell manticore fighting an opponent for the first time will gain a +2 initiative and attack bonus, though against opponents who have encountered them before they will get a +1 bonus to initiative rolls and attack bonus. Any character fighting a fell manticore for the first time will miss their first strike regardless of the die roll. All attacks against a fell manticore will be at a penalty of -2 to the attack roll. This is not cumulative with the penalty for fighting blind. As a mental power, this ability does not affect mindless creatures, constructs such as golems or living statues, or any sort of undead. Living creatures which are not mindless will be affected even if they do not use sight to target the fell manticore.

Source note: This creature is converted from The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign – Omnibus Edition, 1st Edition Release 4, © 2010–2025 Chris Gonnerman, R. Kevin Smoot, James Lemon, Matt Sluis, and Contributors. The Basic Fantasy Field Guide textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.