Volcano Pig

[Blackrat]

Fun concept! I don't know 5E rules at all, but we've definitely had 3.5 critters with similar mechanics to your "Hot Inside." Can't remember which ones, though!

Calzone Golem. Don’t know if you particularly ever used it, but it was in one of those mini-adventures that WotC had on their website back in the day. It would spray around scalding tomato sauce whenever pierced or slashed. So, somewhat similar as Hot Inside. I’ve used variations of the Calzone Golem several times since

 

[Casimir Liber]

Volcano Pig
Large elemental, neutral
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 52 (5d10 + 25)
Speed 50 ft.

Okay, 52 hits is far too few for a Challenge 5 melee monster. A Fire Elemental has 102 hp and an Earth Elemental has 126 gp.

Either increase the Hit Dice to around twice the current number for Hit Points 104 (10d10 + 50) or so or keep the HP/HD and aim for a lower Challenge of around 3.

The speed feels a bit iffy. I'd prefer 40 ft. like a Giant Boar. That's equidistant between a Fire Elemental's 50 ft. and an Earth Elemental's 30 ft. so seems appropriate.

I'd consider giving the Volcano Pig one a Burrow Speed like an Earth Elemental, although maybe a slower one like burrow 10 ft or 20 ft.?

Good points - made speed 40 ft + burrow 15 ft (wanted it a bit faster than 10 ft/round but as not a wombat or xorn felt uneasy making it higher). Adjusted CON to 22 (like a xorn) Adjusted hp to 8d10+48 which gives 92 hp. On CR calculator this gave me a CR 5.

Also made it slightly more vulnerable to water.

 

[Cleon]

Good points - made speed 40 ft + burrow 15 ft (wanted it a bit faster than 10 ft/round but as not a wombat or xorn felt uneasy making it higher).

That's OK by me. There are official 5E monsters with burrow 15 ft. such as the Brass Dragon Wyrmling.

Incidentally, why did you want the burrow speed faster than 10 ft? It's good enough for an Ankheg. Plus, do Wombats even have official 5E stats?

Adjusted CON to 22 (like a xorn) Adjusted hp to 8d10+48 which gives 92 hp. On CR calculator this gave me a CR 5.

Also made it slightly more vulnerable to water.

Hmm… not sure it feels right to make them tougher than the CON 20 regular Earth Elemental, but boars are proverbially tough and maybe their molten internal organs makes them harden to injure than a conventional elemental.

I wouldn't make them more susceptible to water than a regular Fire Elemental though. If anything their rocky skin would insulate their magma middle and make them harder to cool down, like a lava pillow is insulated by its outer layer.

 

[Cleon]

Okay, now for the abilities. It's currently got:

STR​	DEX​	CON​	INT​	WIS​	CHA​
18 (+4)​	10 (+0)​	22 (+6)​	7 (–2)​	7 (–2)​	5 (–3)​

Physical stats are fine, but a Fire Elemental is INT 6 and an Earth Elemental is INT 5, so why is the Volcano Boar more intelligent with INT 7?

If it's an animal made of molten rock I'd think its INT would be closer to a Giant Boar's INT 2.

If it's a bestial hotblooded version of an Earth Elemental it'd likely have the same INT 5.

So INT 3 or 5?

Also, I'd be inclined to give it WIS 9 like a regular 5E Boar.

 

[Casimir Liber]

ok - reduced burrow speed to 10ft (like an ankheg) - no wombats don't have stats in-game, was just musing on ecology.
my idea re CON was boar toughness combined with earth/fire elemental properties - overall structure (also buffing HP a bit)
gone with INT 5 and WIS 9
reduced water damage to that of fire elemental again

 

[freyar]

Calzone Golem. Don’t know if you particularly ever used it, but it was in one of those mini-adventures that WotC had on their website back in the day. It would spray around scalding tomato sauce whenever pierced or slashed. So, somewhat similar as Hot Inside. I’ve used variations of the Calzone Golem several times since

Oh, that is a great one! I still think I was thinking of something else, though. We did a chocolate golem for the CC that had a similar issue when it was damaged by heat, but that's not it either.

 

[Cleon]

That's OK by me. There are official 5E monsters with burrow 15 ft. such as the Brass Dragon Wyrmling.

ok - reduced burrow speed to 10ft (like an ankheg)

I was fine with burrow 15 ft.

No wombats don't have stats in-game, was just musing on ecology.

So if it fills a similar ecological niche to a wombat does that mean the Volcano Boar also have a reinforced backside to protect it from attackers coming up behind it in its tunnel?

Basically, I was just wondering since I vaguely recall seeing D&D stats for Wombats and was wondering if there's a later edition version of them. I think it was an old Dragon Magazine article about fantasy Australia (the one with the Chameleon Men in it), but would have to do a some trawling to dig it up…

…did some digging and I was thinking Mystara's Savage Coast as described in "The Voyage of the Princess Ark - Part 33: Lords of shade and hue" in Dragon Magazine #186 (October 1992).

Checking that article, it mentions wombats but includes no stats for them, although it does have numbers for a bunch of Ozzie fauna: spiny anteaters (i.e. giant echidnas), saltwater crocodiles, dingos, emus, goannas, kangaroos, koalas, kookaburras, termites and wakaleo, plus wild turkeys for some reason.

my idea re CON was boar toughness combined with earth/fire elemental properties - overall structure (also buffing HP a bit)
gone with INT 5 and WIS 9
reduced water damage to that of fire elemental again

Anyhow, I'll update the Volcano Pig with these numbers.

EDITED TO FIX LINK.

 

[Casimir Liber]

No it doesn't fill a similar niche to the wombat..I was just musing on burrowing speed is all. The wombat is a herbivore. Just found that issue online - they picked some boring stuff to give statblocks for. Am working on some Australian homebrew which I will post soon (as I can't find any decent existing statblocks and is interesting)

 

[Cleon]

That's OK by me. There are official 5E monsters with burrow 15 ft. such as the Brass Dragon Wyrmling.

Anyhow, while you decide whether you prefer 10 or 15 for the burrow I'll move on to the next section.

The current draft has the following (I modified the Saves and passive Perception to match the stat changes and tweaked the wording of its Languages):

Saving Throws CON +9, INT +0, WIS +2
Damage Vulnerabilities cold
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities fire, poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, unconscious
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
Languages understands Ignan and Terran but cannot speak
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3​

That all looks fine apart from the Saving Throws:

Saving Throws CON +9, INT +0, WIS +2​

What's the justification for it having them? None of the monsters we're using as models have saving throw proficiencies. At most, I could see it having Wisdom Save Proficiency to represent keen survival instincts and porcine stubborness but that's about it. The Constitution Save Proficiency is especially extraneous as it already has a +6 on CON saves from its exceptionally high ability score.

I'd remove all the Saving Throw Proficiencies.

Oh, and here's one other suggestion.

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9​

Maybe give it some tremorsense? It does spend some of its life burrowing around. An Ankheg, Earth Elemental and Xorn all have Tremorsense 60 ft. but it doesn't have to be that high, I'd be content with 20 ft, 30 ft. or 40 ft. if you'd prefer something shorter.

Although upon reflection, if it relies on tremorsense to detect predators burrowing towards it the Pig should have a tremor range equal to its enemy otherwise a "carnivorous earth elemental" type creature would easily be able to outmanoeuvre it.

So tremorsense 60 ft. might make more sense.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Ok - ditched the saving throw bonuses, left burrow speed at 10ft, added tremorsense 60ft (all these suggestions sound)
Which leaves it looking like this...and I think aligning with the above plus suggestions