top of page

Bonespear

Large Monstrosity, Unaligned

Deva Movanic Male-turnaround.gif

Description

(from Fiend Folio - 2003):


Bonespears are patient predators that live on many different planes. Named for the two long, wickedly barbed horns that grow from their heads, they are a menace to any creature they might perceive as food—a category that includes most anything that moves. Their home plane is Acheron, but bonespears have spread throughout the planes and can be found in even the most inhospitable climates due to their natural hardiness. 


Bonespears resemble large grasshoppers in shape. Their dark, carapaced bodies are 8 feet long, and they stand nearly 5 feet tall at the shoulder. Their heads are capped by a pair of 3-foot-long barbed horns. Only when the creature begins to hunt does it become apparent that the horns are not firmly attached to the creature’s head—long sinews connecting the head and the horns enable the bonespear to launch its horns at prey and reel them in to be consumed. 


Bonespears can sit for days on end, waiting for suitable prey to wander by. They typically choose barren, rocky places to conduct their hunts, and many bonespears lair underground. If more than a week passes without a sign of prey, the creatures move on until they find a food source.


COMBAT: When a bonespear spots food, it reacts quickly. As soon as a target comes with 60 feet, the bonespear launches both horns at it and then attempts to reel it in by retracting the tough sinews that connect the horns to the creature’s head.


Attach (Ex): If a bonespear hits with a horn attack, the horn buries itself in its target, held in place by numerous barbs on the horn’s surface. Each round thereafter that a creature remains impaled by a horn, it takes additional horn damage automatically and incurs a cumulative –1 circumstance penalty on attack rolls, saves, and skill checks. On the bonespear’s turn in subsequent rounds, it attempts to drag its prey closer (see below).


A single attack with a slashing weapon against a tendon (made as an attempt to sunder a weapon) that deals at least 15 points of damage severs a horn from its tendon. A creature impaled by a severed horn takes 1d6 points of damage per round automatically until the horn is removed. Removing a horn (a full-round action) deals 2d8 points of damage to the victim, but if the character removing the horn makes a successful Heal check (DC 20), this damage is reduced to 1d4 points. 


Drag: After spearing a victim, a bonespear attempts to drag the victim closer on the bonespear’s turn in each subsequent round. This activity resembles the bull rush maneuver, except that the bonespear drags its victim 10 feet closer +1 foot for each point by which its Strength check exceeds the victim’s. The bonespear gains a +4 bonus on its drag check if it is set in its immobile stance. Against a Mediumsize victim, the bonespear’s Strength modifier is +10, or +14 if it is set in its stance. 


A bonespear can draw in a creature from a distance of 10 feet or less and bite with a +4 bonus on its attack roll in the same round. 


Horns (Ex): Most encounters with a bonespear begin when it fires its two horns. If a horn misses its intended target, it is quickly reeled in. Reeling in a horn is a fullround action. Each horn has a range of 60 feet (no range increment). A bonespear will always try to hit a single target with both horns, but is capable of attaching to two different targets at the same time. 


Poison (Ex): A bonespear delivers its poison (Fort DC 25 negates) with each successful horn attack. Initial and secondary damage for the first horn is 2d4 Dex. Initial and secondary damage for the second horn is 2d4 Str. 


Fast Healing (Ex): A bonespear regains lost hit points at the rate of 5 per round. Fast healing does not restore hit points lost from starvation, thirst, or suffocation, and it does not allow a bonespear to regrow or reattach lost body parts. 


Immobile Stance (Ex): At will, a bonespear can make itself virtually immobile by anchoring itself to the surrounding terrain with its six large, strong feet. In this stance, the bonespear receives a +20 stability bonus on opposed Strength checks to resist a bull rush or to otherwise be moved, and it cannot be overrun. (This bonus overlaps [does not stack] with the +4 stability bonus for having more than two legs.) This ability can be activated or deactivated as a free action. 


Vermin Traits: A bonespear is immune to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns and morale effects). It also has darkvision (60-foot range).



(from Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix. II - 1995):


Not all the hideous creatures of the planes are fiends. Some’re just natural predators who get by in a dangerous and unnatural setting. The bonespear’s one of these. It appears to be a relative of the cave fisher, and shares some of its cousin’s hunting tactics. Bonespears are found on some of the lawful planes, ranging from Carceri to Arcadia, and on parts of the Outlands a well.


A bonespear’s a large, insectile creature with a hard, chitinous shell. Its head is a huge, misshapen sphere with a pair of jutting, barbed bone horns. Beneath these horns are the creature’s eyes and a gaping maw full of jagged teeth. Six pairs of thick, clawed legs line its body. The bonespear doesn’t use its legs for fighting, but likes to anchor itself to good, hard rock with its twelve feet. It’d take a basher with the muscle of a fire giant to move a bonespear that’s got itself set.


Combat: The bonespear’s most dangerous weapon are the two horns that give it its name. Buried behind the horn sockets the bonespear’s got a large air bladder surrounded by tough, thick muscle. By suddenly squeezing the bladder, the bonespear uses a powerful blast of compressed air to fire its horns at anything that looks edible. The horns’re joined to the creature’s skull by a tough braid of sinew, and the sinew’s anchored in another muscle that can reel the horns in like a winch.


The bonespear’s horns can be fired up to 40 feet away. If a horn’s attack roll exceeds the number required to hit by 4 or more points, the horn sticks in the victim like a harpoon. Otherwise, the bonespear drags its horn back for another shot — a process that takes a full round. If the horn hits but doesn’t stick, the victim just suffers the listed damage; if it hits and sticks, the victim incurs the damage, and the bonespear tries to reel him in.


The bonespear can retract its horns with an effective Strength of 17. The round after a bonespear hools something, the victim and the monster both make Strength checks. Whoever rolls the highest number wins the contest. If the victim wins, he holds his ground and isn’t dragged any closer to the bonespear. If the bonespear wins, the victim is dragged 10 to 40 feet closer to its mouth. When the victim has been dragged up to the bonespear’s head, the monster attacks with its fearsome jaws.


The bonespear’s barbed horns can be ripped out of a wound, if the creature removing the horns succeeds in a Strength check. Unfortunately, this inflicts 1d4+2 points of damage on the victim. The horns themselves are as sturdy as iron spears, but the sinew connecting them to the monster’s head can be severed. The sinew strand is AC 2 and can withstand 12 points of damage before being severed; only Type S weapons can do this. The bonespear takes no damage from having one horn severed, but if both horns are severed the creature’ll retreat fromthe combat.


Bonespears don't move fast and don't hunt in open ground. They’re naturally inclined to seek good locations for ambushes. A bonespear might conceal itself in a thicket near a waterhole or wedge itself into a crevasse overlooking a path, and then wait for its prey to come near. Because of the creature’s skill in concealing itself and springing its ambush, its victim receives a -1 penalty to any surprise check.


Habitat/Society: Bonespears’re solitary creatures; they don’t take to competition from their own kind, and fight vicious territorial battles over prime hunting ground. They mate only once every 3 years, and the female abandons the eggs as soon as she lays them. Not many bonespears reach adulthood.


Generally, a bonespear’s regarded as a dangerous pest, and few Outlanders’ll rest until the creature’s driven away or killed. Bonespears keep their chosen hunting area clear of the telltale remains of their kills, burying bones, scraps of armor, and other such debris in shallow pits around their hiding places. A bonespear’s horn can make a short, serviceable spear in a pinch, equal to a javelin but not balanced for throwing. The tough, sinewy connective tissue can provide 40 feet of light, strong line for a cutter in need of some rope.


Ecology: Young bonespears prey on birds and common animals such as rabbits and squirrels. As they grow toward their mature size, bonespears begin taking larger and larger prey. They’re not afraid to harpoon anything, and in some places bonespears pose a significant threat to minor fiendlings such as nupperibo or lemures. Despite their natural weaponry, bonespears are preyed on in turn by more powerful fiends. There are rumors of domesticated bonespears in some corners of Carceri or Baator.

Alternate Versions

Size

Hero Forge: 6'2" (XXL)
Lore: Large (8 ft. body)
Suggested: Large

Other Monikers

Harpoon bug

Appearance

Abilities

- Harpoon-like horns shoot 40 feet, impaling victims and dragging them to toothy maw
- Barbed horns inflict damage even as impaled victims free themselves
- Skilled at stealth, camouflage, and ambush

Home Plane

Outlands, Acheron, Gehenna

Stat Block

5th Edition:

- DMDave,com (homebrew)

3rd Edition:

- Realmshelps.net

2nd Edition:

- Mojobob's Website

Sources


- Forgotten Realms Wiki

- Archive.org (Fiend Folio - 2003)

- Planescape: Monstrous Compendium Appendix II (1995)

- Mojobob's Website

bottom of page