You never see the Kathari elves until it’s too late. Quiet, they are, and quick as any man. Old King Draten thought to keep his men safe by only allowing mounted riders down the forest roads. That’s when the elves started training their cats. . .
These panthers are twice as large as regular pack leaders, and dark as the moonless sky. Their claws appear to be made of obsidian, with an eerie black shine, but suffer from no brittle state. When viewed in bright light, tendrils of darkness seem to waif up from below their rippling forms.
Loyal Companions
All panthers are fierce predators that no fey would want to face down in combat. The Kathari elves have been training the beasts for generations as hunting animals. Moving stealthily, side by side with the elven warriors, they could quickly take down prey or those who might intrude on their woodland homes.
When the humans began sending teams of mounted warriors trampling through their lands, and upsetting the primal spirits there, the elves again looked to the panthers for aid. One of their shamans gave up his mortal life to the great fire spirit, Tourq, in exchange for the remarkable transformation of their cats. No longer would they hunt by the elves’ side, but were now large enough to carry their hunting partners on their backs. Their powerful legs could keep up with any human horse, and tear open their soft flesh even faster.
Curse of Shadow
The Tourqen panthers generally sleep during the day, and seem unnaturally restless if forced to hunt while the sun still shines. This may be a trait shared by other, more normal cats, but for the Tourqen Panthers, it is readily apparent.
Today, some Kathari elves believe that Tourq was not truly a spirit of fire, but an ancient dark fey lord, trapped away in the shadowfell. Some say Tourq hoped that by having agents amongst the elves he could slowly seduce them with visions of dark power, and eventually use them to enact a ritual so that he could escape the shadowfell, and again terrorize the realm of man. He supposedly planted a sliver of his presence in these great cats during the ritual, but did not account for the will of these proud creatures, or their devotion to their elven masters.
Whether the story is true seems to matter little. While these panthers may walk a dark path, they still bear a stronger connection to the natural world. Those who command creatures of shadow will find no ally among them.
Featured image of panther (top) by J Alvarrsson. Black Panther Blue Night artist unknown.
Chris Stevens
In Chris's opinion, the very best vices are dirt bikes, rock music, and gaming, while the very best medicine is fatherhood. If he could just learn to balance them all, he'd live forever. He's much more creative than intelligent, often wakes up belligerent, and ponders many things insignificant. Lastly, in an effort to transform his well-fed body, P90X, Roller Blades, and Food are all laughing at him. And the pain continues.
That’s a nice backstory for the Tourqen panthers. The hook about the dark fey is especially compelling. If I critiqued anything, I might specify that the panthers can use Shadow Bound if they do not have a rider, since the mount keyword means they would need an appropriate rider (level 6+ with mounted combat feat) in order to ever use this power.
Having a pack of these things would be great- either as a PC party or as a group about to attack them.
That is a very good point quirky. I’ll send Tourq a revised stat block.
Actually, re-reading the mount rules I’m not sure that’s the case. When mounted by a rider with the Mounted Combat feat, the rider should be able to benefit from traits and powers with the mount keyword. In this case the rider shifts with the mount and may gain invisibility.
I haven’t found anything that dictates this power cannot be used when the creature has no rider. Perhaps you can point me in the right direction Quirky.
It’s not as explicit as I thought. The Monster Manual glossary has as section in the mount keyword as follows:
“This keyword is applied only to creatures with special mount rules, such as an ability gained when ridden or an ability granted to the rider.” However, that says “such as” and does not say it’s the only options, though I don’t think there are any that don’t fall under one of those two.
The only way I can argue my (very weak) point is that let’s say you wanted to make a creature that couldn’t turn invisible unless it had a rider. Then how would your stat block differ? I think everyone would make the correct interpretation as is and have the panther use it’s ability without a rider. If you want to be explicit, remove the mount keyword from shadow bound and then add a mount ability that says the rider turns invisible whenever the Tourqen Panther uses its shadow bound power to turn invisible. But it’s not really necessary.
No I think Shadow Bound could have more clear, and I think this was a valuable back and forth. We know wizards has found issues with the clarity of the earlier books, after all we’ve seen lots of errata and completely changed stat block presentation. Looking at the Monster Vault and the DDI Glossary, it seems they’ve minimized the text for the Mount keyword greatly. While this gives designer’s more freedom, its all the more reason to be clear and specific in the power itself.
They changed the mounted combat feat between PHB and DDI. Do you need the Mounted Combat feat to use the mount keyword power on mounts? The new Mounted Combat feat is silent on the issue.
Looking at the DDI Glossary for Mounted Combat (my Rules Compendium is in our gaming location but this should match) I don’t see any mention of the mounted combat feat, but also don’t see anything about mount powers there.
However, the updated notes on the Mounted Combat feat, specifically mentions ‘removing the mount keyword dependence’. So I’m thinking you don’t need mounted combat to use mount powers, the creature just needs to meet the mounted combat prerequisites. The benefit gained from the feat, is that the mount doesn’t take a penalty to attack rolls, and there are a few skills they can use your modifier for.
Should this panther have some kind of pounce? Most of the other big cats have it in one form or another. Maybe only when not carrying a rider?
Having your mount jumping around would probably make it pretty tough to ride. Just like how they teach horses not to reel onto their hind legs, I guess they do the same with Panthers.
This is enough to make me want to play a character with a mount. . . curses! Ah, well. Something to think about if anything should happen to my vampire, I suppose.
Maybe the panther should have an extra d6 damage at enemies it has combat advantage. Like a really stealthy panther.
@ Jonathan
Is there something that prevents a vampire’ish character from riding mounts, other than what some hollywood themes dictate?
@ Aguinaldo
Yeah, I could see that.
@ Tourq
Now that you mention it, I suppose there isn’t. And since we’re in a Kingmaker conversion… I suppose I ought to start thinking about getting a majestic and kingly mount eventually. If a giant Tourqen panther doesn’t qualify, I don’t know what does.
this may sound dumb, but, what’s the “lore” of this? is it like a video game? book? movies? it seems pretty interesting. thanks.