Shivhad

Standing almost 40 feet tall on 8 spider-like legs, this creature has a spherical body aproximately 15 feet in diameter. Its body is covered in eyes peaking through a thick chitin, and has 6 jaws on long, flexible stalks and 3 crab-like claws on multi-jointed arms. While they share traits with other creatures, the combination looks artificial in a way, with skin and other features changing abruptly where the different body parts are attached to one another.

Few of the tundra’s inhabitants can hope to stand against the fortunately rare and mostly passive shivhad. Much of their time is spent within their glacier homes, though what they do is mostly unknown as scrying into these areas is blocked by a powerful magic and entrance is impossible without drawing the shivhad’s rage. Those who approach too close to a shivhad’s glacier home will be quickly confronted, sometimes simply killed and left as an example, other times forced into service to the shivhad to guard its home or patrol the surrounding lands and report back all manner of strange and obscure information. Giants and ogres are more likely to be conscripted than smaller humanoids, likely for their greater size and strength.

When one does choose to travel however, they can tear a swath of destruction across the landscape, almost appearing to be playing with anything that gets within their reach. They are quite capable of speech and discussion, each one knowing many languages it has apparently perfectly learned from its nearest neighbors and speaking it with all six of its heads in perfect unison.

Wherever the shivhad came from, it appears quite recent. There’s no historical records or legends of them, nor of any predecessor or creator that they’re connected with. It’s possible they’re visitors, refugees, or scouts from another existence. Rumors of a creature similar to a shivhad spotted living out of an endless sandstorm in a far off desert has those with great influence and power readying themselves nervously.

Originally from the 3.5 Frostburn book. This post came out a week ago on my Patreon. If you want to get access to all my monster conversions early, as well as a spot on the Paper and Dice Discord server, consider backing me there!

5th Edition

A Shivhad’s Lair:

Shivhads each have their own massive glacier they’ve made into their home, many ranging miles across. They have carved out many chambers from the interior and have arranged them to take advantage of their climbing capabilities so they can attack anywhere in each chamber with their exceptionally long necks.

Lair Actions

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the shivhad takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects: the shivhad can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
• Thick mist fills a 60-foot radius sphere centered on a point the shivhad can see within 120 feet of it. The mist spreads around corners, and its area is heavily obscured. The shivhad can see through the mist without penalty. A wind of at least 20 miles per hour disperses the mist. The mist otherwise lasts until initiative count 20 on the following round.
• The shivhad gains a +4 bonus to AC and Dexterity saving throws until initiative count 20 on the following round.
• The shivhad learns the exact position of all creatures within its lair, including invisible and ethereal ones.

Shivhad
Gargantuan aberration, unaligned
Armor Class 20 (natural armor)
Hit Points 330 (20d20 + 120)
Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft.
Str 27 (+8) Dex 15 (+2) Con 23 (+6) Int 21 (+5) Wis 14 (+2) Cha 12 (+1)
Saving Throws Int +12, Wis +9
Skills Intimidation +8, Nature +12, Perception +9
Damage Immunities cold, bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks
Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Senses passive Perception 19
Languages any 10 languages
Challenge 21 (33000 XP)
Cold Absorption. Whenever the shivhad is subjected to cold damage, it takes no damage and instead regains a number of hit points equal to the cold damage dealt.
Magic Resistance. The shivhad has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Multiple Heads. The shivhad has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious.
No Opportunity. The shivhad can’t make opportunity attacks with its bites or claws.
Actions
Multiattack. The shivhad makes six bite attacks. It can only make one bite attack against each Medium or smaller target, two bite attacks against each Large target, or four bite attacks against each Huge target.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 25 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (4d6+8) piercing damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, all targets within a 10-foot line that can start and end anywhere within 15 ft. of the shivhad. Hit: 17 (2d8+8) slashing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 22 Strength or Dexterity saving throw (target’s choice) or be thrown 10 feet in a random direction and fall prone.
Stomp. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 24 (3d10+8) bludgeoning damage.
Legendary Actions
The shivhad can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The shivhad regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Claw. The shivhad makes one claw attack.
Cold Aura (Costs 2 Actions). Each creature within 60 feet of the shivhad must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or take 10 (3d6) cold damage.
Trample (Costs 2 Actions). The shivhad moves up to half its speed and makes a single stomp attack at any point during that movement.

13th Age

Shivhad
Huge 14th level wrecker [aberration]
Initiative: +17
Vulnerability: Fire (only while staggered)
Stomp +19 vs. PD – 200 damage
Natural 11+: The target is also stuck and hampered (hard save ends both, 16+).
Miss: 100 damage.
C: Gigantic Jaws +19 vs. PD (a number of attacks equal to the escalation die; each against a different nearby enemy) – 100 damage
Natural 14+: The shivhad can attack the target with one of its unused gigantic jaws attacks for this round.
Miss: 50 damage.
C: Sweeping Claws +19 vs. AC (3d2 nearby enemies) – 25 damage
Natural Even Hit: The target pops free from each enemy and is thrown to a random nearby location (roll a die to determine direction).
Limited Use: 1/round, as a quick action.
Enormous: The shivhad ignores opportunity attacks. Attempts to disengage from the shivhad gain a +5 bonus.
Glacier Bond: While in its home glacier, the shivhad knows the location of all creatures in the glacier. It is also immune to invisibility and ignores any illusions. The shivhad has +2 AC and PD against attacks from a creature touching its glacier.
Wall Crawler: The shivhad can climb on cliff faces and inside gigantic glacier chambers easily, though few artificial walls can support its massive weight.
Absorb Cold 16 and Below: When a cold attack targets the shivhad, the attacker must roll a natural 16+ on the attack roll or the shivhad heals 1d6 x 50 damage before taking any damage from the attack.
AC 30 PD 26 MD 26 HP 1550
Nastier Special
Cold Aura: Each nearby enemy must roll a save at the start of its turn; on a failure, that enemy takes 15 cold damage.