Armor Piercing. When the dunkleosteus hits a target with its bite, any armor the target is wearing takes a permanent and cumulative −1 penalty to AC. If this penalty drops to -5 or a lowers a target's AC to a value equal to or less than its Unarmored AC, the armor is destroyed.
Suction Feeding. When a creature is pulled by the dunkleosteus's vortex to a space within 5 feet of it, the dunkleosteus can make a bite attack against that creature as a bonus action.
Water Breathing. The dunkleosteus can breathe only underwater.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 34 (5d10 + 7) slashing damage.
Vortex. The dunkleosteus opens its giant mouth in a fraction of a second, creating a vortex that draws targets in. The dunkleosteus inhales water in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw, being pulled 15 feet towards the dunkleosteus in a straight line towards the cone's space of origin on a failed save, or 5 feet on a successful one.
Description
A dunkleosteus is 33-foot long, 4 ton fish similar in appearance to a shark with heavy bony plates forming shield armor around its head and jaws. Instead of teeth, a dunkleosteus possesses two pairs of sharp bony plates which forms a beak-like structure capable of cutting through the armor of its prey.
Densely muscled and heavily armored, dunkleosteus is a powerful but slow swimmer compared to other predators of similar size. Its diet consists of whatever it can catch, usually meaning other armored organisms (arthropods, fish, and molluscs), likewise slowed by their heavy defenses.
While on the whole it moves relatively slowly, it is capable of snapping its mouth open with such force and speed that it generates a small vortex, drawing prey in towards its jaws.
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Posted Mar 7, 2022Hey. Is it ok if I tell you what to add to your statblock?
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Posted Mar 9, 2022Hey. Is it ok if I borrow your Suction Feeding Trait and Vortex Action from your Dunkleosteus that you made?
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Posted Mar 10, 2022Go for it.
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Posted Mar 11, 2022Thank you. Apparently it can do that. Which is terrifying.
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Posted Mar 11, 2022I would get rid of the Armor Piercing Trait and add Ambusher.
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Posted Mar 11, 2022I don't know why you think that. Current evidence for dunkleosteus shows its jaws were specifically adapted for feeding on armored prey; to slice through shells and dermal armor, destroying it to get at the meat below. This armor-cutting bite is the basis for the armor piercing trait. Ambusher doesn't make much sense, because there are plenty of ambush predators in D&D, and almost none of them get that trait, which appears to have been reserved predominantly for intelligent creatures like doppelgangers. Plus, given its size, heavy armor, and estimated speed, dunkleosteus was likely not very stealthy or quick. Fortunately, it didn't need to be, as its prey wasn't very quick either, and its ability to suction feed negated the need to take prey by surprise.
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Posted Mar 13, 2022Oh. It looks like you did your research. It is also a Large beast and not a Huge. It was 33 feet long and 8 feet tall.
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Posted Mar 15, 2022Orcas have an average range of 16-26 feet long, with the largest specimens reaching 30+ feet and are Huge. White sharks usually measure between 11 and 21 feet at adult size, with the largest ever recorded being 36 feet long. They are also Huge. At 33 feet long, dunkleosteus was of a comparable size to both of these creatures; so it is Huge.
In 5e, the requirements to meet a size category have been reduced to a description of how much space a creature requires: which makes it easy if you're using minis on a grid. However, older editions laid out the size chart based on the measure of the creature's height or length, whichever was the longer. While the size chart doesn't readily appear in 5e publications (at least not that I've found), this latest edition, in general, continues to assign size categories based on the old measurements. Even then, though, the old table is/was just a rough guide, as there were always exceptions.