Rules
Boggards
Boggards
Living in soggy, disease-ridden marshes, boggards are often isolated from other humanoids—a condition that breeds suspicion of foreign visitors, ideas, and technology. This marginalization has distilled their brutality to the point where the strongest members subjugate and often consume their weaker kin. At the top of the food chain stand the boggards' priest-kings (a term that applies to both male and female rulers)—tyrannical prophets who rule over their uneducated subjects.
A boggard's life begins in a spawning pool as one of roughly a dozen gelatinous eggs laid in a frothy clutch. After a month-long gestation, the tadpoles gnaw their way out of their eggs and spend the following 9 months feeding on anything they can find—including weak and unlucky siblings. During this time, the tadpoles grow stubby arms and legs that quickly elongate and strengthen enough for them to crawl out of the pools. This feat isn't enough to secure them a place in boggard society, since caretakers cull the weakest and any showing signs of deformities.
The exceptions to this rule are the priest-king's offspring, who are fed meals of poisonous dragonflies. This diet kills most, and those few who survive develop differently from other boggards. Some have greater mental capacity and spell-like abilities, marking them as potential future priest-kings. But many survivors mature into the stunted, barely intelligent horrors known as bogwiggles.
Young boggards live in cadres that comprise a dozen or more adolescents led by a handful of more experienced warriors. The youths receive a modicum of care and protection during the first year out of water, during which they learn the practical skills necessary for life and service to their ruler. Virtually all boggards receive the same type of training, which emphasizes athletic prowess, hunting skills, and a broad set of rudimentary crafts.
When boggards reach roughly 3 years of age, they are considered adults and are sent away from the community for a month-long ritual hunt. Those who return with the corpse of a sapient humanoid earn approval, a place in the society, and a grand celebratory meal. Those who fail are exiled or consumed.
Priest-kings are typically larger than their kin, sometimes growing so bloated and ponderous he seems to belong to a different species entirely. Their effective monopoly on divine magic further reinforces the gap between rulers and their subjects. When the reigning priest-king dies (often from violence), the heirs compete to claim the throne. The victor almost always kills off her siblings to reinforce her claim.
Boggards are extremely fertile, and their culture encourages them to reproduce as often as resources permit. Despite the large number of young, systemic cannibalism keeps the boggard population in check. Boggards embrace this practice as a way of weeding out the weak and empowering the strong, though the fact that even the youngest offspring engage in it suggests cannibalism is instinctive—an expression of the species' ravenous appetite.
Nonetheless, as survivors of numerous broods born in competitive environments, boggards are highly adaptive, capable of weathering ecological disasters and evolving to exploit new environments—much to the frustration of other intelligent creatures that compete with them. What many think of as the "typical" boggard is well adapted to life in marshes, yet boggards also thrive in rainforests, where they often develop more colorful skin patterns. Like the amphibians they resemble, some boggards have developed the ability to estivate, allowing them to survive extended droughts and food shortages. As a result, it's rare but not impossible to find boggards exploiting periods of rain in deserts, during which time they are especially aggressive.
Boggard settlements are usually arranged in a manner that reinforces the hierarchy. The priest-king's dwelling stands near the center on a low, ziggurat-like mound of compacted mud, and those mounds claimed by direct subordinates radiate outward. The higher the mound and the closer it is to the monarch's home, the greater the resident boggard's status. The creatures further display their importance by studding their homes with bones, shells, reeds, and various exotic materials. Stealing a neighbor's ornaments often leads to violence—but if the thief is victorious, then clearly she was right to take what she wanted.
Hunting and gathering make up the bulk of the boggards' way of life, and their crafts are typically limited to simple constructions of stone and organic matter. Some priest-kings intentionally rotate who is working on a project to keep any one boggard from becoming exceptional. What boggards can't make or gather, they steal from other humanoids. Metal items are rare in boggard society—most metals simply can't withstand long-term exposure to a damp environment. Magic weapons and armor are therefore prized for their resistance to corrosion.
Two beliefs are central to boggards' religious and spiritual experience. First, the weak should be recycled to empower the strong, from cannibalizing the infirm to claiming the weapons of a fallen comrade to stealing a neighbor's home. Second, might makes right, especially for the priest-king, whose divine power is typically bestowed by an evil god or demon lord. Common boggards' reliance on their leader for spiritual guidance breeds a debilitating superstition in many. Those who can't abide by the beliefs of boggard society are cast out, and boggards who hear tales of these hermits respond with a mix of disdain and uneasiness.
Metamorphosis fascinates boggards, from the development of their young to the transformation of priest-kings. Those who parley with boggards can sometimes awe the creatures with transformative magic.
Full statistics for boggards can be found in their <i>Bestiary</i> entry.
New Rules
The following rules include racial traits, favored class options, feats, spells, and magic items all specially tailored to boggards.
Alternate Racial Traits
The following racial traits may be selected instead of existing boggard racial traits.
Estivation
Not all marshes are wet year-round, and some boggards have adapted to life in seasonal swamps where hot, arid conditions are common. A boggard with this racial trait can spend 1 hour burying herself in wet or soft earth and entering a state of suspended animation for an indefinite amount of time. While estivating, a boggard doesn't need to drink or eat, but takes a penalty on Perception checks as if sleeping. Ending this dormant state is a full-round action. This racial trait replaces a boggard's racial bonus on Acrobatics checks to jump.
Leaper
Boggards in some regions have legs better suited to explosive movement on land rather than swift propulsion underwater. Boggards with this trait are always considered to have a running start when attempting Acrobatics checks to jump, and their swim speeds are reduced by 15 feet.
Priest-King
Boggards raised on a diet of blue dragonfly pulp sometimes develop into priest-kings. These boggards have only a +2 natural armor bonus but don't take the common boggard's –2 racial penalty to Dexterity and Intelligence. In addition, priest-kings receive a +4 racial bonus to Wisdom and gain the following spell-like abilities: 1/day—fog cloud, jump, summon swarm . The caster level for these effects is equal to the boggard's Hit Dice. This racial trait doesn't replace any of a boggard's other features, but it's extremely rare and available only at the GM's discretion.
Favored Class Options
The following options are available to all boggards that have the listed favored class, and unless otherwise stated, the bonus applies each time you select the class reward.
Add 1 on the barbarian's Acrobatics checks to jump.
Bard
Reduce the amount of time the bard must wait before using his terrifying croak ability by 5 minutes (minimum 5 minutes).
Increase the hit points of the fighter's tongue by 1 and add 1/2 on all opposed Strength checks to prevent a creature from detaching the fighter's tongue.
Add 1/4 to a single existing favored terrain bonus (maximum +2 per favored terrain).
Boggard Feats
Boggards have access to the following feats.
Extra Croaking
Your vocal chords are especially tough and allow you to croak more often.
Prerequisites
Benefits
You gain one extra use of terrifying croak per hour. If your recharge time is less than 1 hour, you instead gain an extra use each time the ability recharges.
Powerful Tongue
Unlike others of your kind, you are able to pull your prey toward yourself.
Prerequisites
Str 17, sticky tongue.
Benefits
Your tongue attack gains the pull special ability. At the start of your turn, if your tongue is attached to a target of your size or smaller and you succeed at a combat maneuver check, you can pull the target 5 feet closer to you as free action.
Sonic Croak
Your croak creates powerful sound waves that you can direct at fragile targets.
Prerequisites
Throat Pouch*, boggard, terrifying croak.
Benefits
When you use your terrifying croak ability, instead of it imparting its normal effect, you can choose to deal 1d4 points of sonic damage to creatures in a 15-foot cone (Fortitude half). The DC of this Fortitude save is the same as that of your terrifying croak. For every 3 Hit Dice you possess, the damage dealt increases by 1d4.
Special
The Throat Pouch feat increases the size of this feat's cone by 5 feet for every 6 HD you have, not every 2 HD.
Stunning Croak
The terrifying force of your croak disorients and debilitates your enemies.
Prerequisites
Sonic Croak*, Throat Pouch*, boggard, terrifying croak.
Benefits
When you use your terrifying croak ability, instead of imparting its normal effect you can choose to stun one creature within 30 feet for 1 round. If the target succeeds at a Fortitude save, it is instead staggered for 1 round. The DC of this Fortitude save is the same as that of your terrifying croak ability.
Throat Pouch
You can swell your throat to amplify and broadcast your vocalizations over vast distances.
Prerequisites
Benefits
The range of your terrifying croak ability increases by 5 feet for every 2 Hit Dice you have (maximum 30-foot increase). While speaking Boggard or wordlessly vocalizing, you can swell your throat pouch as a free action to reduce the Perception DC needed to hear your voice by an amount equal to your Hit Dice.
Special
The benefits of Throat Pouch and any feats that use it as a prerequisite are available only while you're wearing light, medium, or no armor.
Boggard Spell
Boggard priest-kings see no problem with feeding off the labor and energy of their own tribe, believing themselves to embody all that is great and worthy in their own kind. The following spell takes this even further, allowing boggard priests to literally leech away their kin's life force.
Aura of Cannibalism
School: necromancy [] (evil)Domain:
Level: cleric: 3; oracle: 3; warpriest: 3; sorcerer: 3; wizard: 3; arcanist: 3; witch: 3
Components: V, S, M (a piece of flesh from another creature of your species)
Casting time: 1 standard action
Range: personal
Duration: 1 minute/level (D)
Saving Throws: Fortitude negates
Spell Resistance: yes
Area: 20-ft.-radius emanation centered on you
You emanate an aura that saps the strength of others of your kind and channels their energy into you. Each round that a creature starts its turn in the spell's area and shares both your creature type and at least one subtype you possess (if any), that creature must succeed at a Fortitude save or take 1d4 points of damage. You gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the amount of damage you deal with this spell (maximum 10 + your caster level). These temporary hit points go away when the spell ends.
As long as you have at least 5 temporary hit points while this spell is in effect, you gain a +1 competence bonus on attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks. If you have 15 or more temporary hit points, this competence bonus increases to +2.
Ordinary boggards are rarely proficient at crafting mundane items, as priest-kings see such skill in subordinates as a threat to their authority. The priest-kings, instead encourage their priestly progeny to manufacture prized magic items for them.
Cap of Enervation
Aura: faint necromancyCLl: 5th
Price: 3,500 gp
Weight: -
This floppy leather hat allows a boggard or other froglike creature to drain the strength of those it strikes with its tongue attack. If the wearer ends its turn with its tongue attached to or grappling another creature, the grappled creature takes a –1 penalty to Strength, and the wearer's tongue gains 5 temporary hit points. The penalty and temporary hit points last for 1 minute. For each round that the target remains attached, the Strength penalty increases by 1, the tongue gains an additional 5 temporary hit points (maximum 10), and the duration resets.
Aura: moderate necromancyCLl: 7th
Price: 2,500 gp
Weight: -
When applied to a creature's skin, scales, or carapace, this greasy unguent causes that creature to sweat poison from its pores. During this time, a creature that strikes the user with a natural weapon attack or unarmed strike is exposed to the poison. As a swift action, the user can apply the poison to a weapon. As a standard action, the user can deliver the poison as a touch attack. The salve creates a total of 3 doses of venomsweat poison, and any unused doses of poison harmlessly evaporate after 1 hour.
Venomsweat
: Contact or injury; save Fort DC 16; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d3 Dexterity damage; cure 1 save.
Example Boggards
Boggard Fighters
Boggard fighters make up the majority of war parties.
Init: +1. Senses: darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +5. Ac: 16, touch 11, flat-footed 15 (+2 armor, +1 Dex, +3 natural).
Hp: 34 (4 HD; 3d8+1d10+16).
Fortitude: +8. Reflex: +2. Will: +2.
Speed: 20 ft., swim 30 ft.. Melee: mwk morningstar +9 (1d8+6), tongue +2 touch (sticky tongue). Ranged: mwk javelin +5 (1d6+4). Special Attacks: terrifying croak (DC 13). Strength: 19. Dexterity: 13. Constitution: 16. Intelligence: 6. Wisdom: 13. Charisma: 10.
Base Attack: +3. Cmb: +7. Cmd: 18.
Feats: Intimidating Prowess, Toughness, Weapon Focus (morningstar).
Skills: Acrobatics +4 (+20 when jumping), Intimidate +9, Perception +5, Stealth +0 (+8 in swamps), Swim +12.
Languages: Boggard. Special Qualities: hold breath, swamp stride. Combat Gear: potions of barkskin (2). Other Gear: leather armor, mwk javelins (2), mwk morningstar, 132 gp.
Tactics
During Combat The boggard brute throws his javelins before rushing into combat.
Boggard brutes may be armed with primitive-looking weapons, yet their terrifying strength makes them as deadly as any knight in armor.
Init: +5. Senses: darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +5. Ac: 22, touch 11, flat-footed 21 (+6 armor, +1 Dex, +3 natural, +2 shield).
Hp: 72 (8 HD; 3d8+5d10+32).
Fortitude: +10. Reflex: +5. Will: +3 (+1 vs. fear). Defensive Abilities: bravery +1.
Speed: 20 ft., swim 30 ft.. Melee: +1 terbutje +15/+10 (1d8+9), tongue +7 touch (sticky tongue). Ranged: mwk javelin +9 (1d6+5). Special Attacks: terrifying croak (DC 12), weapon training (heavy blades +1). Strength: 20. Dexterity: 13. Constitution: 16. Intelligence: 8. Wisdom: 13. Charisma: 8.
Base Attack: +7. Cmb: +12. Cmd: 23.
Feats: Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Toughness, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (terbutje), Weapon Specialization (terbutje).
Skills: Acrobatics +2 (+18 when jumping), Climb +6, Intimidate +6, Perception +5, Stealth +0 (+8 in swamps), Survival +8, Swim +10.
Languages: Boggard. Special Qualities: armor training 1, hold breath, swamp stride. Combat Gear: potion of bull's strength, potion of cure serious wounds. Other Gear: +1 black dragonhide scale mail, mwk heavy wooden shield, +1 terbutje, mwk javelins (2), 282 gp.
Tactics
During Combat The boggard champion uses her terrifying croak before engaging in melee.
Most boggard champions forsake tactics in favor of mayhem. In magic-deficient tribes, champions are often second only to priest-kings in status.
Boggard Oddities
A few boggards serve their tribes in specialized roles.
Init: +0. Senses: darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +11. Ac: 15, touch 10, flat-footed 15 (+2 armor, +3 natural).
Hp: 32 (5d8+10).
Fortitude: +5. Reflex: +4. Will: +5; +4 vs. bardic performance, language-dependent, and sonic.
Speed: 20 ft., swim 30 ft.. Melee: mwk shortspear +5 (1d6+1), tongue -1 touch (sticky tongue). Ranged: shortspear +4 (1d6+1). Special Attacks: bardic performance 8 rounds/day (countersong, distraction, fascinate [DC 13], inspire courage +1), terrifying croak (DC 15). Strength: 13. Dexterity: 11. Constitution: 14. Intelligence: 12. Wisdom: 13. Charisma: 14.
Base Attack: +3. Cmb: +4. Cmd: 14.
Feats: Skill Focus (Perform [sing]), Sonic Croak, Throat Pouch.
Skills: Acrobatics +6 (+22 when jumping), Diplomacy +8, Knowledge (geography, history, nature, nobility) +7, Linguistics +5, Perception +11, Perform (sing) +13, Stealth +5 (+13 in swamps), Swim +9.
Languages: Boggard, Common, Draconic. Special Qualities: bardic knowledge +1, hold breath, swamp stride, versatile performance (Perform [sing]).
Gear: leather armor, mwk shortspear, shortspear, 468 gp.
bard spells known: (CL 2nd; concentration +4)
1st (3/day)-alarm, grease (DC 13), ventriloquism (DC 13)
0 (at will)-dancing lights, daze (DC 12), flare (DC 12), ghost sound (DC 12), message
Init: +4. Senses: darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +3. Aura: cowardice (10 ft.). Ac: 20, touch 10, flat-footed 20 (+7 armor, +3 natural).
Hp: 98 (10 HD; 3d8+7d10+47).
Fortitude: +14. Reflex: +6. Will: +8. Immune: disease.
Speed: 15 ft., swim 30 ft.. Melee: +1 greataxe +16/+11 (1d12+8/19-20/×3), tongue +9 touch (sticky tongue). Ranged: throwing axe +9 (1d6+5). Special Attacks: channel negative energy (DC 15, 4d6), smite good 3/day (+2 attack and AC, +7 damage), terrifying croak (DC 15). Strength: 20. Dexterity: 11. Constitution: 16. Intelligence: 8. Wisdom: 9. Charisma: 14.
Base Attack: +9. Cmb: +14. Cmd: 24.
Feats: Improved Critical (greataxe), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Toughness, Weapon Focus (greataxe).
Skills: Acrobatics +0 (+16 when jumping), Bluff +6, Intimidate +8, Knowledge (religion) +3, Perception +3, Sense Motive +4, Stealth +0 (+8 in swamps), Swim +10.
Languages: Boggard. Special Qualities: cruelties (sickened, staggered), fiendish boon (weapon +1, 1/day), hold breath, swamp stride, touch of corruption 5/day (3d6). Combat Gear: potions of cure moderate wounds (3). Other Gear: +1 breastplate, +1 greataxe, throwing axe, cloak of resistance +1, 922 gp.
antipaladin spells prepared: (CL 4th; concentration +6)
2nd-invisibility
1st-death knell (DC 13), doom (DC 13)
antipaladin spell-like abilities: (CL 7th; concentration +9)At will-detect good
Boggard Barbarians
Boggard barbarians are terrifying and unpredictable.
Init: +0. Senses: darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +10. Ac: 15, touch 8, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +3 natural, -2 rage).
Hp: 61 (5 HD; 3d8+2d12+30).
Fortitude: +12. Reflex: +3. Will: +4. Defensive Abilities: uncanny dodge.
Speed: 30 ft., swim 30 ft.. Melee: mwk greatclub +12 (1d10+9), tongue +5 touch (sticky tongue). Ranged: javelin +4 (1d6+6). Special Attacks: rage (10 rounds/day), rage powers (no escape), terrifying croak (DC 12). Strength: 23. Dexterity: 11. Constitution: 22. Intelligence: 8. Wisdom: 13. Charisma: 8.
Base Attack: +4. Cmb: +10. Cmd: 18.
Feats: Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (greatclub).
Skills: Acrobatics +6 (+22 when jumping), Climb +11, Intimidate +4, Perception +10, Stealth +0 (+8 in swamps), Swim +19.
Languages: Boggard. Special Qualities: fast movement, hold breath, swamp stride. Combat Gear: oil of magic weapon, potions of cure moderate wounds (2). Other Gear: +1 studded leather, javelins (3), mwk greatclub, 269 gp.
Boggard Mystics
These casters are often the children of the priest-king.
Encounters
Despite boggards' generalized training, natural divergences in ability mean adventurers traveling through marshes and neighboring environments might encounter groups of boggards with wildly different compositions.
Bugbears