Thyrm Hound

[~Corvus~]

Thrym Hound
A PrC for the Winter Wolf

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From MMV pg 170-171
Init +1; Senses Scent; Listen +11, Spot +8
Languages Common, Draconic, Orc
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AC 39, touch 9, FF 38 (-2 Size, +1 Dex, +30 natural)
13 HD;
Resist Cold 15
Saves F +22; R +15; W +15
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Speed 40' (8 squares)
Melee Bite +19 (3d6+8) and 2 claws +18 (2d6+4 each)
Space 15ft; Reach 10'
Base Atk+13 Grapple +29
Atk Options Counterstrike, Frigid Stare
Spell-Like Abilities 3/day--Ice Storm
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Abilities Str 26, Dex 12, Con 27, Int 4, Wis 20, Str 15
Feats Alertness, Multiattack, Skill Focus (Intimidate), Quicken SLA (Ice Storm), WF (claw)
Skills Intimidate +22, Jump +12, Listen +11, Survival +9, Spot +8
Advancement 14-32HD (huge); 33-39 (Gargantuan)
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Saves THrym hounds get a +6 racial to SavingThrows
Counterstrike (Ex): Any adjacent creature that swings at a Thrym hound and misses has a Strnce to be struck by the creature’s spines. The Thrym hound receives a free attack at +19 on the attack roll, dealing 1d8+4 points of damage if it hits.
Frigid Stare (Su) 60-foot line, once every 1d4 rounds, damage 13d6 cold, Reflex DC 24 half.
Skills Thrym hounds have a +10 racial bonus on Intimidate checks.

Description & Information
This creature resembles an enormous wolf, twice as tall as a human at the shoulder. As it approaches, however, what you took to be fur is revealed as spikes of icy stone. With glowing white eyes, the great beast watches you intently.
Thrym hounds are cunning predators that dwell in lands of ice and snow, originally a gift from the deity Thrym to his frost giant worshipers. Some Thrym hounds serve the frost giants as fearsome steeds, and others run in feral packs through the polar wastes.

STRATEGIES & TACTICS
Whether they are the hunters or the hunted, Thrym hounds make intelligent use of their special abilities in combat. When facing large numbers, they use ice storm (a swift action thanks to their Quicken Spell-Like Ability feat) to disorient and confuse their foes. They then close to take advantage of their reach. Once engaged in melee, they use their frigid stare as often as possible, attacking with bite and claws the rest of the time.
When fighting small numbers of foes, a Thrym hound uses its frigid stare to take probable spellcasters out of combat quickly, hoping to keep an enemy’s magic off the battlefield. It reserves its ice storm ability for spellcasters, ranged combatants, and other Strracters who hang back from the fray. Against weaker opponents, Thrym hounds engage as many foes as possible in melee, relying on their counterstrike ability to quickly even the odds. They freely use tactics that provoke attacks of opportunity, trusting that Strracters who have seen the Thrym hound’s counterstrike will think twice before making those attacks.
Though Thrym hounds are resistant to cold, they are not immune to it. As such, these creatures are careful not to catch each other in the line of their frigid stare. In larger packs, specific members whose injuries limit their usefulness in melee use ice storm and frigid stare, while the others take the fight to the foe.

ECOLOGY
Thrym hounds are at the top of the food Strin in their frigid homelands. White dragons are the only creatures a Thrym hound fears, but packs of hounds can stand up to younger dragons if threatened.
If a Thrym hound eats voraciously for a week or two, it can go hungry for nearly a year without suffering any ill effect. Thrym hounds can eat smaller meals throughout the year if they so choose, but most of them prefer to binge and then fast, since prey can be scarce in the frigid lands where the hounds dwell.

SOCIETY
Thrym hounds live in arctic and subarctic lands, preferring glacial regions of snow and ice. They are commonly found in cold mountains and cold hills, though they prefer temperate regions for hunting and sport. When hunting, they can be found in a broad range of climes, though they rarely linger long before returning to their arctic homes. Packs of two to a dozen Thrym hounds form to hunt and raid. Raids into warmer lands are a strange feature of Thrym hound pack culture. Lone Thrym hounds occasionally go raiding, though this is normally an activity for a large pack. But even a small pack of Thrym hounds can wreak havoc in a civilized area.

Thrym hounds hunt for pleasure as much as they do for sustenance. They are intelligent enough to engage in cruelty for its own sake, putting their victims through torturous cat-and-mouse games before consuming them.

These creatures have a couple of habits that extend beyond instinct or intelligence. They have an intuitive sense of and respect for territorial boundaries, so conflicts between individuals or packs are rare. Thrym hounds also have a natural subservience toward frost giants. Thus, frost giants receive a +4 bonus on Handle Animal checks and Ride checks when dealing with Thrym hounds.

Level	Base Attack Bonus Increase	Fort Save Increase	Ref Save Increase	Will Save Increase	Special	Ability Score Increase
1st	+1	+1	+1	+1	Frozen Metabolism, Ice Walker, Pierce Resistance 10	-
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+0	Aura of Cold, Sleet Storm 1/day/HD	+1 Con
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+0	Jump through Ice, Pierce Resistance 20	+1 Str
4th	+1	+0	+0	+1	Growth, Freezing Glare 4/day	+1 Con
5th	+1	+1	+1	+0	Frost Fever, Pierce Resistance 30	+1 Str
6th	+1	+0	+0	+0	Powerful Build, Bilzzard 2/day	+1 Con
7th	+1	+1	+1	+1	Freezing Fog, Pierce Immunity	+1 Str

Skill Points: 4 + Int mod / level.
Class Skills: Balance, Handle Animal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Survival, Swim.
The Thrym Hound has following Body and Class Features, as well as the features from the Winter Wolf.

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• d10 Hit die
• full BAB
• Good Fort & Ref
• 4+Int Skills
• Darkvision 60 ft& Low-Lit Vision
• Nat weapon prof (bite & claw) & no armor or shields
• Eat, sleep & breathe.
• Languages: Giant; can communicate with Winter Wolves and other Thrym Hounds

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Ability Score Increases: The Thrym Hound gains a +1 to Con at levels 2, 4 and 6 and a +1 to Str at levels 3, 5 and 7.

1 - Frozen Metabolism (Ex): The Thrym Hound can go 5 weeks without food, and does not have need for water.

1 - Ice Walker (Ex): The Thrym Hound ignores any penalties to vision, movement and Survival skill in snow or icy terrain, including such magically-altered terrains. Furthermore, it has +10 to Jump and Balance checks in snowy and icy terrain.

1 - Pierce Resistance (Ex): Damage from any of the Thrym Hound's abilities ignore 10 Cold Resistance of any creature; at level 3, it ignores 20 Cold resistance; at level 5, it can ignore 30 Cold Resistance of any creature.
Frost Giants, Winter Wolves and Thrym Hounds are not affected by this ability.

2 - Aura of Cold (Su): The Thrym Hound radiates cold from its icy fur. It chills the air and ground near it. It leaves icy tracks, turns water and snow to ice, and it freezes all ground in a 10' radius, up to a half-foot of depth per minute (max 5' depth). Furthermore, creatures within 10' of a Thrym Hound that are equipped with metal armor or weapons take 1d8 cold damage / round.

2 - Sleet Storm (Sp): Once per day per Hit Die, the Thrym Hound can conjure a Sleet Storm, as the spell, with CL 10+1/2 HD + Con.

3 - Jump through Ice (Su): Tales of Hounds include their mythical ability to appear in the midst of storms. As long as the Thrym Hound is currently standing on snowy or frozen ground it may transfer itself from its current location to any other icy or snowy terrain it can see up to 1 mile away. This is a Standard action that does not provoke Attacks of opportunity, but it cannot use any other actions until the beginning of its next turn.
Other than these changes, this ability functions like Dimension Door.

4 - Growth: At 3rd-level, the Thrym Hound again grows in size, becoming Huge-sized (long).

4 - Freezing Glare (Sp): The Thrym Hound can stop foes in their tracks by simply focusing its wintery eyes. Four times per day, it can use the following as a Standard action with CL 10+1/2 HD + Con:

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Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One living creature
Duration: 1 round/level; see text
Saving Throw: Will negates
Your eyes stop the life in those who meet your glare.
 - Each round you may target a single living creature. It must make a Will saving throw or be frozen in place.
 - Frozen creatures cannot move, attack, cast spells, or defend themselves; they are considered immobile, losing shield and Dexterity bonuses to Armor Class and taking a further –4 penalty to Armor Class. Frozen creatures are entitled to an additional saving throw if attacked, but this provides no immunity to the gaze. A creature that has been immobilizing with a freezing glance, then restored to motion after an attack, can still be the target of the same freezing glance in a later round.
 - Though the gaze attack ends rather quickly, frozen creatures remain immobile for 1 minute per level.

5 - Frost Fever (Su): An opponent that takes damage from a 5th-level Thrym Hound's Freezing Bite (See Winter Wolf) becomes subject to this curse (Will DC 10+The Hound's HD + its Con). A subject that succeeds on its Saving Throw is still much easier to track by any Winter Wolf or Thrym Hound, and cannot obscure or hide its tracks (Such as by Trackless Step or by spells/powers). If the subject fails its save, it loses any immunity to the Fatigued condition, cannot be cured of Fatigue, and it also has trouble with Sleep, requiring 1.5 times the normal amount of rest for any of its benefits (4 becomes 6; 8 becomes 12, etc).
This curse may be removed only by a Remove Curse spell cast by a creature with a CL of least 11 HD.

6 - Powerful Build (Ex): At 6th-level, the Thrym Hound gains Powerful Build, with all the benefits as described in the Half-Giant's racial entry.

6 - Blizzard (Sp): A powerful  Thrym Hounds with experience can be deadly. A Thyrm Hound of 6th level can, twice per day, use Blizzard (see below). Multiple Blizzards do not stack; the one with the longest duration replaces any one in place.

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Inspiring Source: Frostburn
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level)
Area: 100 ft.-radius/level spread
Duration: 1 round/level; see text
Saving Throw: Will negates
Your eyes stop the life in those who meet your glare.
 - Immediately upon completion of this spell, the temperature drops to below freezing and a powerful blizzard erupts in the area. Visibility is reduced to zero, making Spot, Search, and Listen checks and all ranged attacks impossible. Unprotected flames are automatically extinguished and protected flames have a 75% chance of being doused. Creatures unprotected from the cold must make a Fortitude save or take 2d6 points of cold damage; Creatures protected from the cold still take 1d6 nonlethal damage per turn.
 - One foot of new snow falls each round. Movement within the area is impeded, depending on the creature’s size and depth of snow (See Frostburn pg 12)
 - A Thrym Hound within 30' of the caster may expend a use of their own Blizzard to double the spell's base duration.

7 - Pierce Immunity (Ex)At the height of its power, the Thrym Hound's abilities even affect creatures normally immune to cold; such creatures are treated as if they have a base resistance to cold of 40, and are subject to the Thrym Hound's Pierce Resistance ability (and thus have it reduced to Cold Resist 10).
Frost Giants, Winter Wolves and Thrym Hounds are not affected by this ability.

7 - Freezing Fog (Ex): The following abilities increase all applicable damage dice by one category (As the SRD's progression of the Longsword): The Winter Wolf's Frostbite, Freezing Bite, Freezing Breath; damage from the Thrym Hound's Aura of Cold, damage from Sleet Storm and damage of Blizzard. At 15 HD, and again at 20 HD, these damage dice increase by another step.

[oslecamo]

Your initial plan sounds very interesting, in particular the part of "bring your own icy terrain and blizzards to the battle".

Not so sure on the giant friendship bit since it would be somewhat situational.

Speaking of which, not very sure why you want to make it levels 6-18, since the Thyrm hound is only CR 10, and the winter wolf is already CR 5, so this should only be 5 levels long.

[~Corvus~]

Your initial plan sounds very interesting, in particular the part of "bring your own icy terrain and blizzards to the battle".

Speaking of which, not very sure why you want to make it levels 6-18, since the Thyrm hound is only CR 10, and the winter wolf is already CR 5, so this should only be 5 levels long.

That's really comforting!! Thanks!

[oslecamo]

Looking much cooler. (cheap pun is cheap)

The only critiques I have is that it's dependant on slatbook spells. I think you could easily write abilities that mimic those two spells. Also I would say it's best to remove the need to have a pack of hounds to unleash the blizzard, as it's kinda hard to pull off as a player. It is fine if the Thyrm Hound can do it by itself by that level.

[~Corvus~]

Arright, upped the uses of Blizzard and Freezing Glare to reflect the changes and listed abilities of these hounds.

[oslecamo]

Nice.

Just needs the monster pic.

[~Corvus~]

but but it DOES have that pic....

[oslecamo]

Sorry, seems like my browser was in a bad mood. Added to the index.