# Beetle, Knell >[!rimg]+ > ![[Placeholder2.png]] > >[!debug]+ > >claws: 1d6 (×2) > >bite: 1d8 (×2) > >Melee/Ranged: +16/+8 > >Secondary: +11/+3 > >Multiattack: +14/+6 > >M/R_PA: +16/+8 > >2nd/PA: +11/+3 > >MA_PA: +14/+6 > >Itterative: 2 > > xDmg: Str: +8; Str2: +12; StrOH: +4; StrPA: +8; StrPA2H: +12; StrPAOH: +4 > > xDCs: Str: 24; Dex: 16; Con: 22; Int: 16; Wis: 16; Cha: 16 > > xFeat: —/0 (0) > > > > > > xLang: 0/0 (0) *This ten-legged, beetlelike creature has a hard, shiny red shell. Two wicked claws grope the air before its four beady, black eyes and sharp, jagged mandibles. These mouth parts sit below a massive protrusion that looks like a bell made of chitin, from which you can hear a faint, highpitched warbling.* <div class="grid-container"><div class="MON">Knell Beetle</div> <div class="CR">CR 10 (9,600 XP)</div> <div class="SOU">Monster Manual 3</div> <div class="SYS">Dungeons & Dragons 3.5</div></div> N Large Vermin **Init** +0 **Senses** darkvision 60 ft., scent; **Perception** +4 #### defense **AC** 24, 9 touch, 24 flat-footed (+15 natural, -1 size) **hp** 126 (12d8+72) **Fort** +14, **Refl** +6, **Will** +4 **Feint** —, **Demoralize** — **Defensive Abilities** sonic healing **Immune** mind-affecting effects, sonic #### offense **Speed** 50 ft., burrow 10 ft. **Melee** 2 claws +17 (2d8+8), bite +17 (1d8+8) **Space** 10 ft., **Reach** 10 ft. **Special Attacks** rend (2 claws, 4d8+12), shake the earth, sonic chime, trample (4d6+12, DC 24) #### statistics **Str** 26, **Dex** 10, **Con** 23, **Int** —, **Wis** 11, **Cha** 11 **BAB** +9, **CMB** +18, **CMD** 28 (44 vs. bull rush, trip), **TA** +16, **RTA** +8 **Feats** [[Alertness]]^B, [[Lightning Reflexes]]^B, [[Weapon Focus]] (claw)^B **Skills** Perception +4 **Racial Modifiers** #### special abilities ### Shake The Earth (Ex) a knell beetle can channel the sonic energy within its body by performing a rhythmic stomping on the ground as a standard action. Any creature within 5 feet of a knell beetle when it activates this ability must succeed at a DC 24 Reflex save or fall prone as the ground lurches and buckles beneath it. If multiple knell beetles activate their shake the earth ability in the same round, the radius of the effect expands as the resonance in the ground combines. For every knell beetle within 5 feet using shake the earth, the radius of the effect expands by another 5 feet. The save DC is strength-based. ### Sonic Chime (Su) Once per day, a knell beetle can emit a 30-foot cone of sonic energy from the chitinous bell above its head. Creatures within the cone take 10d6 points of sonic damage (reflex DC 22 half). The save DC is constitution-based. ### Sonic Healing (Su) For every 5 points of damage a sonic attack would deal to a knell beetle, the creature instead heals point of damage it has already sustained. If a knell beetle receives more healing than its current hit point maximum, the extra hit points are wasted (the creature does not gain temporary hit points from exposure to sonic damage). #### tactics Knell beetles in groups fight by using their shake the earth ability, attempting to knock prone as many enemies as possible. They then rush in and trample whatever foes they can before switching to claw, bite, and rend attacks. The creatures only resort to their sonic chime attacks if necessary. Although mindless vermin, knell beetles fight with a certain amount of savage cunning, perhaps also a result of the long ago transmutation experiments that created them. #### ecology **Terrain** Underground **Organization** Solitary or colony (3–12) **Treasure** None **Advancement** — Knell beetles are an offshoot of giant beetles that were long ago warped by overexposure to transmutation magic and sonic energy. Since their original creation, the twelvelimbed vermin have thrived in underground colonies, constructing immense, convoluted tunnel complexes reminiscent of anthills. A knell beetle’s black and red carapace looks like it might conceal wings, but it acts only as durable armor. Two more limbs—jointed, agile, and wickedly hooked claws—jut from each side of a pair of long mandibles. Above the knell beetle’s head is a hornlike growth shaped like the bell of a massive trumpet, tapering above the creature’s shoulders and flaring out over its sharp jaws. Its four black, insectoid eyes sit in a chitinous brow ridge that runs just below this horn. Essentially, the creature lacks a true head; in its place is the large horn, which warbles and trumpets when the knell beetle communicates to other knell beetles. Knell beetles, like most vermin, are mindless hunters. They live to breed and expand their warrens, breaking off into new colonies when one has grown too large for an area (typically when a colony has amassed more than fifty members). Knell beetles have also been known to be used as mounts by Underdark races. Hobgoblins have domesticated them in the past, as have some orc tribes. These groups know that in great numbers knell beetles only become more effective, and mounted units of knell beetles riders sometimes form the elite fighting units for certain tribes or cities. A knell beetle usually measures about 9 feet in length and weighs about 1,500 pounds.