I tend to treat flavour text in the bestiary as a suggestion, not canon, and I like to feel I've been encouraging the readers of this blog to do the same. If you've actually listened to me and done so before, ignore it now. Paizo just do everything about goblinoids and goblinoid-adjacent rules so goddamn perfectly. While I will try to put at least a bit of a spin on the entries that follow, i feel like you can just rip a page from any Paizo adventure using goblins, hobs, or even the goddamn goblin dogs and snakes, and you'll have a top-tier encounter in your hands.
Also, for god's sake, this stat block practically begs you to modify it, with the random mutation piece of fluff. Please, do yourself and your players a favour and do it.
Most Barghests who become greater Barghests find their morbid hunger under control. With Grax the Glutton it was the opposite. The morbidly obese, fleshy fiend rarely goes into wolf form these days, preferring that of a massive, tumorous bugbear. While the legion of hobgoblins he rules over guard the only bridge leading across the Valga river, preparing a lavish feast for him may be enough to soften him up for negotiations.
While barghests tend to hate "civilized races", their disdain for those pales in comparison to their disdain for other barghests. County Keyldaire is home to two Barghests - a mangy, pathethic thing that alternates between a goblin and a goblin dog form known as Skittermaw, and powerful old Hobgoblin warlord going by the name of Azguul. While Skittermaw is a minor menace at worst, stealing food, breaking into homes, and pulling pranks on the good people of Keyldaire, Azguul and his tribe are essentially in a state of open warfare with the city guard, raiding the surrounding countryside, killing, kidnapping and pillaging.
The location of Azguul's fort has been found, but so far, no-one has dared march against it.
Skittermaw appears in the barracks one day, claiming to know a secret passage that from the surrounding hillside straight into Azgul's private quarters in the fort, but his price for the information is rather unconventional - the right to land the final blow on the warlord, and keep the body "as a trophy" afterwards.
Many barghests end up ruling tribes of goblinoids, but not Skindazzle Fellswoop. He became the leader of a pack of wargs instead, indeed hunting with them for so long that even in his goblin form he retains many canine features.
He is notorious for directing the beasts with brutal precision, letting them focus on the more physical combatants, while he himself goes into the back line, tearing any archers, casters or any such nuisance to shreds.
Also, for god's sake, this stat block practically begs you to modify it, with the random mutation piece of fluff. Please, do yourself and your players a favour and do it.
Most Barghests who become greater Barghests find their morbid hunger under control. With Grax the Glutton it was the opposite. The morbidly obese, fleshy fiend rarely goes into wolf form these days, preferring that of a massive, tumorous bugbear. While the legion of hobgoblins he rules over guard the only bridge leading across the Valga river, preparing a lavish feast for him may be enough to soften him up for negotiations.
While barghests tend to hate "civilized races", their disdain for those pales in comparison to their disdain for other barghests. County Keyldaire is home to two Barghests - a mangy, pathethic thing that alternates between a goblin and a goblin dog form known as Skittermaw, and powerful old Hobgoblin warlord going by the name of Azguul. While Skittermaw is a minor menace at worst, stealing food, breaking into homes, and pulling pranks on the good people of Keyldaire, Azguul and his tribe are essentially in a state of open warfare with the city guard, raiding the surrounding countryside, killing, kidnapping and pillaging.
The location of Azguul's fort has been found, but so far, no-one has dared march against it.
Skittermaw appears in the barracks one day, claiming to know a secret passage that from the surrounding hillside straight into Azgul's private quarters in the fort, but his price for the information is rather unconventional - the right to land the final blow on the warlord, and keep the body "as a trophy" afterwards.
Many barghests end up ruling tribes of goblinoids, but not Skindazzle Fellswoop. He became the leader of a pack of wargs instead, indeed hunting with them for so long that even in his goblin form he retains many canine features.
He is notorious for directing the beasts with brutal precision, letting them focus on the more physical combatants, while he himself goes into the back line, tearing any archers, casters or any such nuisance to shreds.
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