A cilops, which is a giant centipede with one big angry eye on its head. Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast.

This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.

Crodlus are what Athas has instead of horses. Fans of Final Fantasy might compare them do Darker and Sunnier chocobos.

The Lore

In the wild, crodlus roam the wastes in small herds of about a dozen members, led by a dominant female. Females make up most of the other members of the herd, and are all related to the leader. One of the males will be the leader’s mate, with the others being mostly younger individuals who have not yet reached adulthood. When that happens, the newly adult males set out to seek mates in other herds.

The creatures are omnivores, with herds cooperating to hunt those creatures they judge to be weaker or smaller than themselves, and running away from stronger predators. They’re also frequently beset by human raiders trying to capture their young for training as mounts.

This means that crodlu are a common sight among groups of sapient humanoids. They make for ornery mounts, but that’s a good trait to have in something you want to ride into battle.

The Numbers

Crodlus are Large Natural Beasts with the Reptile tag and a ground speed of 8.

Crodlu

This could represent a typical wild specimen, or perhaps a domesticated one that wasn’t trained as a mount. It’s a Level 3 Brute with 55 HP.

The crodlu can attack with its beak or with claws that do a little less damage. Whenever it can it will use a Pounce, which lets it move up to its speed, and use both Beak and Claws against the same target even if it stands still. If both attacks hit, the target falls prone.

War Crodlu

This one was trained as a mount, and compares to the normal crodlu in the same way a war horse compares to a draft animal. It’s a Level 5 Brute with 76 HP.

The War Crodlu has the same three abilities described for the normal version, and one more: Pouncing Mount. If the war crodlu charges a target while mounted, its rider can make a melee basic attack as a free action against that same target. The Pounce ability does not count as a charge, but this makes the charge of a mounted war crodlu a bit more dangerous than a standard Pounce, depending on who the rider is.

Encounters and Final Impressions

Crodlus don’t strike me as the type of animal who’d attack wandering PCs without provocation, so they’ll mostly likely be found serving as mounts for bad guys or for the PCs themselves. Fighting wild ones would be something that happens when the PCs decide to play hunter and steal hatchlings to sell or domesticate.

Mechanically they’re very simple, about on par with horses really. I’ve been too desensitized by FF chocobos to see terror bird mounts as a mind-blowing innovation, but they’re still kinda cool.