Bonesnapper
"Maxillosaurus" © Antoine Verney-Carron, accessed at his ArtStation here
[Sometimes, inspiration just jumps out of the shadows and sneak attacks you. Yesterday, I was chatting with @abominationimperatrix about the tirapheg, and @goforbrooke gave me feedback about how much she enjoyed when I cover retro D&D monsters. And then I thought to myself, "why not flip through the Fiend Folio and see what I'd be interested in?" Turns out, more than 20 monsters. And these conversions from other games, like the Numenera monsters, tend to be pretty quick to write.
First up is a retrosaur. The bonesnapper is a monster that fits in with the Fiend Folio's overall MO, which is to add a wider, weirder variety of encounters to lower level play. A man sized, 4 HD dinosaur is going to be suitable for a lot more different types of games than a 16 HD tyrannosaurus, after all. The bonesnapper is said to be literally mindless, as are the majority of 1e dinosaurs, but the collecting jawbones speaks to some sort of complex behavior. Which got me thinking about bowerbirds. The art I picked made me think less "dinosaur" and more "rausuchian", but that really only matters for me not putting "dinosaur" before the name for alphabetizing purposes.
If you'd like to support my writing, please check out the Creature Codex Patreon here!]
Bonesnapper CR 3 N Animal This bipedal reptile has a blocky head making up about a quarter of its body length. Its jaws are massive and lipless, with conical teeth protruding when it closes its mouth. Its arms and legs end in stout claws, and a broad tail lashes behind it.
Although they are often mistaken for carnivorous dinosaurs, the animals known as bonesnappers are in fact related to crocodiles. They are habitat specialists of karst ecosystems, as they require access to caves for their elaborate mating behavior. The males are highly territorial, with each male defending and decorating a cave. As the name suggests, bonesnappers use bones, broken and whole, in these decorations, turning their caves into macabre ossuaries of a mix of species. Jawbones seem to be favorite decorations, especially those of humanoids, and male bonesnappers may even raid the caves of their rivals in order to steal prized jaws. Female bonesnappers travel from cave to cave during the mating season, assessing the bonesnapper’s decorations and displays and using them to decide on her mate. After mating, the female leaves the male to his bower and rears her young alone. Female bonesnappers are good parents and stay with their young for about two years. Subadult bonesnappers hunt alongside their mothers when they are large enough.
Bonesnappers are carnivorous, and their prey ranges from lizards and rodents to man-sized creatures. They are not particularly fast, but are agile over uneven ground and decent climbers, and so often make use of the terrain in their ambushes. Bonesnappers aim their bites for the legs of their prey, hoping to slow them down to the point where fleeing is hopeless. Male bonesnappers have a tendency to bring their kills back to their galleries in order to feed there and sort out particularly interesting bones, so these dens may be littered with small treasures. Bonesnappers are seen as dangerous nuisances by humanoids who overlap with their territories, as their desire for bones leads them to rummage through abattoirs, butcher’s shops and cemeteries, and their response to being disturbed in these raids is often lethal violence.
A bonesnapper is about three foot high at the shoulder and eight feet long.
Bonesnappers as Animal Companions Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed 30 ft.; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite (1d6), tail slap (1d3); Ability Scores Str 12, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 10; Special Qualities low-light vision, scent 4th Level Advancement: Size Medium; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite (1d8), tail slap (1d4); Special Attacks hobbling strike (bite, Str based DC)
