Kintan Strider (beast)

Allies and Opponents   Nonheroic Codex   Beast Codex

Kintan Strider

Now extinct on its home planet, the Kintan strider can be found on various other planets of the galaxy, where it is used as a guard beast by Hutt crime lords or as an opponent in gladiatorial combat in less civilized societies. Kintan striders are enormous beasts with huge shoulders and arms that nearly drag on the ground. A Kintan strider does not have a neck&mash;its overexaggerated face sits squarely in the middle of its chest, protected by a thick layer of fat and hide.

     Although they are barely intelligent. Kintan striders have learned how to use branches and poles as weapons, bashing their prey with powerful two-handed swings. Some even utilize these weapons to shovel food in their mouths, giving the appearance to uneducated observers that they are actually sentient, tool-using beings. Kintan striders possess incredible healing abilities and can come back from wounds that would easily kill beasts of similar size.

     Although few citizens of the galaxy have ever seen a Kintan strider, almost everyone knows the creature as a piece in the game called Dejarik and is familiar with its signature move, the Kintan strider death gambit.

Kintan Strider Encounters

Ironically, the one place this creature will never be encountered is the planet for which it is named. Millennia of hunting by the planet’s primary species, the Nikto, nearly wiped out the strider population. After the Hutts' domination of the Nikto, the few hundred su rviving striders were shipped offplanet, to be bred in captivity or released into the wilds on other, more hospitable worlds.

     Heroes might run into a Kintan strider with in a crime lord’s headquarters, where these creatures are kept as fodder for blood sports, or in “execution pits” where criminals are bludgeoned to death and eaten by these ravenous beasts. Crime lords who consider themselves notable Dejarik players sometimes mimic the game in real life, by utilizing the same types of beasts found in the game within their collection of deadly creatures. True “masters” of this macabre game also employ the famous Kintan strider death gambit. in which the strider is sacrificed during the gladiatorial display in order for the victor to fall prey to some other creature kept in reserve.

Kintan Strider           (CL 5)

     Threats of the Galaxy, page 111.

Large beast 6

Initiative: −1; Senses: low-light vision;Perception +2

Defenses: Ref 15 (flat-footed 16 15), Fort 16, Will 12

Hit Points: 63, fast healing 5; Damage Threshold: 26

Speed: 6 squares

Melee: 2 claws +10 each (1d6+9) or

Melee: tree branch +10 (1d8+12)

Fighting Space: 2×2; Reach: 2 squares

Base Attack: +4; Grapple: +15

Abilities: Str 22, Dex 8, Con 22, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6

Special Qualities: fast healing 5, low-light vision

Feats: Improved Damage Threshold, Weapon Proficiency (simple)

Skills: Endurance +7, Perception +7

Possessions: tree branch (treat as mace)

Fast Healing 5—A Kintan strider automatically regains 5 hit points every round at the end of its turn, up to its normal maximum, until it is killed.

Allies and Opponents   Nonheroic Codex   Beast Codex

 

Footnotes and References
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