Monster Spotlight: Buggane
Chaotic Evil Large Monstrous Humanoid
These dim-witted, completely blind man-eaters are rather unfortunately related to ogres, but long ago moved underground to become terrifying ambush predators. They stalk potential prey through cramped tunnels and caverns alike, deceptively stealthy despite their size, waiting for just the right moment to leap in and dispatch their foes with an efficiency that their surface-dwelling kin would likely find joyless. For the Buggane, though, the thrill is in the hunt, the fight, and eventually the feast.
Unlike normal ogres, Buggane lack cruelty and creativity alike, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because it means captured victims aren't going to be horrifically tortured for hours on end as sadistic entertainment, but it's a curse because it means captured victims are likely to die quickly, making rescues... difficult. Their lack of creativity also extends to their craft; they don't build houses, instead just digging tunnels out of the earth and lining the edges of their territory with bones and broken belongings as warning against trespassers. They also don't wear armor or use weapons, but this is because they don't really need either, going as far as to view armor as a weakness for reasons we'll see shortly.
First of all, let's cover how they get into combat in the first place. As you might expect from looking at them, they're expert burrowers, able to tunnel at 30ft/round at max speed, with enough muscle that they can punch through anything but solid rock easily. What's more is that they're scarily quiet; ogres want their victims to be scared, but Buggane want their victims to be surprised. To this end, they've got a +9 to Stealth that jumps up to +15 if they're underground, whether they're in a tunnel or literally burrowing through the soil. They're utterly blind but they've got noses sharp enough to grant them Scent, and 60ft of Tremorsense to detect anyone that may be scampering around nearby.
Once they're within striking range, the Buggane burst forth from their hiding spot and start swinging. They've got the standard 10ft space and 10ft reach to make them terrors in the cramped spaces they inhabit, and they've got enough potential damage to make players wish they were fighting ogres instead. Their two claws and their gore deal the same damage, 1d8+6, so a Full-Attack becomes 3d8+18 total, enough to worry even a Barbarian. And if both claws hit? The mole-men can Rend the victim for a further 1d8+9 damage, bringing their total damage potential to 4d8+27.
Anyone hit by the Rend is even worse off than you'd think, because it's not JUST damage being done here. Buggane quickly Smash and Bash anyone they Rend, automatically attempting to trip the victim without risking being tripped themselves. Anyone successfully tripped hits the ground so hard they have to then make a DC 19(!) Fortitude save or be stunned for a full round. There's no limit to the times someone can be affected by Smash and Bash, only that the victim has to be hit by both claw attacks and subjected to Rend... but it also can't trigger if the victim is already prone, so maybe staying on your belly (and avoiding the AoO) is your best bet. You lose out on a bunch of AC, but don't worry, that didn't matter anyway!
You see, once per minute as a swift action, the Buggane can invoke the supernatural power to ignore stone and metal entirely. This Earth Distortion lasts for only one full round, but while it's in effect the Buggane to pass through stone and metal as if it were empty air. This lets them walk through solid walls or phase up from the floor to noiselessly sneak up on their prey, swiftly escape any losing situation without leaving a burrow behind, and ignore metal and stone armor with their natural attacks! They ALREADY have a +11 to hit, but ignoring the AC granted by metal armor for even a single round means they can almost certainly hit their lethal Smash and Bash combo on the turn they activate the distortion.
This ability means nothing to someone wearing leather or wooden armor, or someone not wearing armor at all, obviously, but Earth Distortion seems custom made to screw over Fighters specifically, because it also renders the Buggane impervious to metal weapons, which pass right through their bodies like an illusion. It only lasts one round, but that's one round of the Buggane essentially hitting touch AC with its attacks while also ignoring the retributive Full-Attack of anyone using traditional weapons. To an inexperienced party, it might feel like they're fighting some form of elemental spirit, or perhaps trick them into thinking the Buggane is some kind of advanced illusion.
Of course, despite this terrifying ability and their damage output, the Buggane are not without some equally punishing weaknesses. They have 18 AC, pathetic saves (+7/+4/+6), no form of Resistance or immunity, no DR, and no SR. They rely fully on their ambush damage and the potential trip+stun from SaB to keep their foes from fighting back, if not killing them outright, but all of their damage and their frightening smashing prowess vanishes if their targets are 15ft away, robbing them of their frightening Full-Attack. If they can't make all three attacks, their damage drops below that of the average ogre. This is why they fight in cramped spaces!
And then of course there's the mole rat in the room: blindness. They-- wait a second, they're Blind, but they also have Light Blindness? Their lore block notes that they're pained by bright lights, but Light Blindness does nothing to them since they're already blind. I suppose it's just flavor at that point. Anyway, they're explicitly noted in their statblock to be Blind, an impediment that makes them immune to any attempt to baffle them with visual impairment but it also leave them at a tremendous disadvantage against anything not touching the ground. Any creature capable of avoiding their Tremorsense essentially has full cover (50% miss chance) against them, whether that be because they're flying, hovering (via spells like Levitate), or even just sitting on a more sturdy party member's shoulders.
If their target isn't touching the ground or is somehow avoiding setting off Tremorsense, the Buggane has to get adjacent to them to pinpoint them with Scent, otherwise all of their attacks have a 50% miss chance. Levitate or even just Floating Disk both become useful defensive spells for the whole party, and at higher levels Fly essentially renders them non-threats unless the tunnel is only 10ft high. For all their terrific damage potential, all it takes is a single level 1 spell to render them impotent.
You did remember to prepare Floating Disk today, right? What do you mean "I'm not a Wizard?" ... Uh oh. Uh. Well, time for the DPS race!
You can read more about them here.
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