Strings-Bridge-Our-Web Nezraanve, Anadi Bard for Pathfinder and his Kora. A strange, stubborn and wily teacher of the Magaambya.
Initially my player wanted a "bit of hair that looks like a spider leg", but we resolved that it looked weird. The beads dividing up a loc of his hair echo that idea still, though.
He was also gonna have a little hat that matched style of agbada he's wearing, but it made him look bizarrely like Dumbledore.
"Living boulders roll and glide through the Plane of Earth, gathering gemstones and metal shards until their surfaces resemble a ship's hull covered in barnacles. Barely more intelligent than many animals, living boulders fill much the same role on the Plane of Earth as the great herd animals found on Material Plane worlds." - Pathfinder Bestiary, pg. 146
So, the living boulder from Pathfinder has no art, but today we're fixing that.
On the surface it seems like it might just be a bumpy rock, but once you start looking at it's stat block...
Perception +6; darkvision, tremorsense 30 feet
Ok, at least one eye if it has darkvision instead of blindsight-
Melee [one-action] jaws, Damage 1d8+6 piercing
-And a mouth. Notably a jaw is involved, but we're stretching that idea a bit for a clean and interesting design.
Under the cut, lengthy design choice ramblings:
For this design we're keeping the following points in consideration
Should not have a clear 'correct' way up if it's a rolling boulder
Eyes need to be reasonable for rolling around
No visible flesh
Mouth for bite attack
Gems and metal shards like barnacles
Method to get un-stuck when rolling
So, in order to give the little guy (I may say little, but this guy is maybe 5ft tall!) a workable body shape, we're going to take some inspiration from Mexican Jumping Beans. Sure, it has earth glide to move about, but taking inspiration from the natural world is a great way to lend interest to a design. We're giving them a few flat-ish sides so that its not impeded while rolling (like bean!), but still has options to wiggle up slopes if needed (like bean!!!). I've also designed it with slight fissures to imply that the outside of the creature is made of plates- just to give it wiggle room if it needs more leverage.
Now, this guy is spending all day rolling around, but it also has an eye that it notably sees with (remember, no blindsight, only darkvision). A lidded eye wouldn't be much help while rolling, so we're forced to consider an eye that would survive the punishment of rolling around the elemental plane of earth. The only reasonable answer I can think of is a tough, crystalline eye so it can stay open while moving. As for how it sees while rolling about is anyone's guess - perhaps it stabilises in its socket? I've also opted for a triangular pupil to help confuse which way is supposed to be up on this creature, in spirit of it being a little rolly boy. The pupil is slitted due to the darkvision note. Think cat eyes.
We also have a mouth to think about. I've made this a trap-door-sort-of mouth, as a hinge risks popping open while rolling. Now, as an elemental I don't really need to think about the biology of this part too hard, but in my head (and perhaps against the spirit of being an elemental) there is a fleshy rope in the centre coming down from the eye which pops the whole thing open in order to scoop rocks into its stomach. And then maybe it rock tumbles it down into something digestible or something.
Like, why else would it have a mouth if not to eat?
Finally, we need to consider the coating on the... carapace? I guess? I've stuck on some rocks, some small gems (the same colour as the eye, just to keep the palette cohesive) and also some shellfish-looking shards of rusty metal. I thought about just adding patches of rust, but leaning into the mention of barnacles and stylising it a bit really makes the metal pop at something interesting, I think. And then I slapped on some algae-ish bits to really sell it. Don't ask me what it actually is though.
And that's about it! All in all this wound up being more interesting than I expected when I just needed to make a token for my Pathfinder game.
If I'm wont to do anything, it's spoil my players.
A Redraw of Binji the Grimple from Pathfinder 2e's Strength of Thousands AP - now sporting a little sock dress and slightly regrown fur. My players rescued her and now shes just... around (and thriving).
I made this to celebrate the end of our Rime of the Frost Maiden 5e campaign. I wanted to acknowledge the two player characters that died and settled on snow-people.
Old, old drawing of some kinda Dwarven woman I did while extremely sick in ~2017. I had a thing at the time about dwarves having thick eyebrows, eyelashes and sideburns with turned-over ears and long thick hair - seemed smart for a subterranean mining peoples to have features to keep out dust and dirt. Really should revisit that.
Concepting for a Triton for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Gender was left open for the entire design process. Was inspired by a goldfish in a bowl as translated to a genie on a bottle.
germansingergirl
yousharknotpass
kianamaiart
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