Water Leaper
This vicious monster has webbed wings, a mouth full of sharp teeth, and a long tail ending a black stinger.
CR: 2 XP: 600
CN Small magical beast (aquatic)
Init: +7 Senses: darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision Perception: +6
Defense
AC: 14, touch 14, flat-footed 11 (+3 Dex, +1 size)
hp: 22 (3d10+6)
Fort: +5 Ref: +6 Will: +3
Offense
Speed: 20 ft., fly 20 ft. (clumsy), swim 30 ft.
Melee: bite +5 (1d4+1), sting +5 (1d4+1 plus 1 bleed and jagged sting)
Special Attacks: bleed (1), jagged sting, water leap
Statistics
Str: 12 Dex: 16 Con: 15 Int: 7 Wis: 14 Cha: 13
Base Atk: +3 CMB: +4 CMD: 17
Feats: Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative
Skills: Acrobatics +11 (+15 when jumping), Fly –3, Perception +6, Stealth +11, Swim +9, Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics (+8 when jumping)
SQ: amphibious
Languages: Aquan
Ecology
Environment: any lakes or swamps
Organization: solitary
Treasure: standard
Description
Jagged Sting (Ex) A water leaper’s sting causes dangerous shards too tiny for the eye to see to break off into the target’s flesh and cause bleeding. A successful DC 15 Heal check stops the bleeding and removes the fragments.
However, magical and supernatural healing of any kind doesn’t stop the bleeding and instead seals the fragments within the wound, increasing the bleed damage to 1d4 points and the Heal DC to stop the bleeding to 20. Further such healing still doesn’t stop the bleed effect, but also doesn’t increase the damage or Heal DC further.
Water Leap (Ex) Water leapers get their name from their uncanny ability to ambush prey by leaping out of the water. A water leaper that begins its turn in the water can make a special leaping charge attack. This special charge doesn’t need to be in a straight line with respect to altitude, allowing the water leaper to leap out, up and over the rim of a boat, and down onto its prey. At the end of a water leap, the water leaper can make both a bite and a sting attack. Water leapers are ornery hunters that thrive in lakes, swamps, and other marshy bodies of water. They eagerly ambush much larger targets. Against challenging prey, they make their namesake leap from the water, use their jagged sting to open a wound, and then wait for their victim to bleed out. Although fishermen tell tales of marauding water leapers, in reality, the creatures prefer attacking animals and other less canny prey, since intelligent creatures are both more likely to be able to halt the bleeding from the water leaper’s sting and hold a grudge afterward.
The average water leaper is a little over 3 feet long, not counting its wings or the length of its tail, and weighs between 8 and 16 pounds.
WATER MAULER Much like many other amphibious animals, water leapers grow through several stages before reaching the their adult form. What most don’t realize is that water leapers’ small winged stage isn’t the species’s final form.
Most water leapers don’t live long enough to undergo their final metamorphosis, which occurs at an inconsistent age, but those that do transform into water maulers (considered by most scholars to be a rare separate-but-related species). A water mauler is a Large water leaper advanced by adding HD. It gains two claw attacks, rend (2 claws), and pounce (replacing water leap).
Water maulers, unlike their brethren, are more likely to interact with creatures of other species—particularly natives of the swamp such as boggards— to create mutually beneficial alliances. They can even serve as reluctant mounts, capable of carrying their riders both into the air and beneath the waves. Such water maulers mainly enter into these collaborations to procure themselves steady sources of food, but they occasionally desire something more unusual—typically colorful items they have seen in passing.
Whale, Narwhal This small whale lacks a dorsal fin and has pale, mottled skin. Its most notable feature is the single tusk protruding from its face.