Hallucigenia
| Climate/Terrain: | Shallow sea floor |
|---|---|
| Frequency: | Very rare |
| Organization: | Solitary |
| Activity Cycle: | Day |
| Diet: | Carnivore/Scavenger |
| Intelligence: | Animal(1) |
| Treasure: | Nil |
| Alignment: | Neutral |
| No. Appearing: | 1-4 |
| Armor Class: | 5 |
| Movement: | 9 |
| Hit Dice: | 9 |
| THAC0: | 11 |
| No. of Attacks: | 9 |
| Damage/Attack: | 1d10/1d6/1d4 (x7) |
| Special Attacks: | Trample |
| Special Defenses: | Nil |
| Magic Resistance: | Nil |
| Size: | H (25' long, 18' high at the shoulder) |
| Morale: | Fearless (20) |
| XP Value: | 3,000 |
Hallucigenia is well named. Totally unprecedented, it is so strange that no one's sure about anything regarding this creature. It is assumed that the rounded thing at one end is the head. The thing on the tail end has an opening, and may well be a mouth and throat. Gould has suggested that perhaps this "animal" is only a complicated organ from a much larger creature. Keeping all this in mind, let's finish this listing.
Like certain other creatures, Hallucigenia may leave the water for an hour or more at a time, wreaking havoc on the local flora and fauna. It has nine standard attacks: the seven back-mounted, pincertipped tentacles do 1d4 points of damage each; the cluster of six small tentacles inflict total damage of 1d6; and the throat/tail/whatever can constrict for 1d10 points. In addition, the monster has the option of walking over a prone opponent. Its legs (if that's what they are) are so sharp that each one does 1d8 points of damage, and Hallucigenia has fourteen of them. That's a maximum of 112 points of damage for one series of attacks! Remember to roll each attack separately. If the creature is fighting other foes at the same time, we have another 44 points of potential damage. No matter how you look at it, a monster that can dish out 156 points of damage in one combat sequence is a lot of monster!