New Oe/BX/1E Monster: Giant Flayer Beetle

This is one of those monsters that, when I came up with it, I said to myself... "damn, that's cool." Obviously, you're the judges here, but I still think it's pretty cool.

DESCRIPTION Flayer beetles are nasty buggers that feed in a way very similar to their namesake, burrowing into the head of a victim and sucking out the victim's brains. These cerebral pests attack by attempting to grapple a victim’s head and plunge its tentacles into the various facial cavities (ears, nose, throat, eyes sockets) of that victim. On a natural 20 “to hit” roll, they will succeed in doing so, landing their attack in one of those locations (1=left ear, 2=right ear, 3=nasal passage, 4=mouth, 5=right eye socket, 6=left eye socket) and then “dig” into the victim’s skull, reaching the brain and killing the victim in 1 turn, unless the flayer beetle is killed. Additionally, any area affected by this type of hit will permanently lose its functionality (e.g., hearing, sight, ability to speak, et al.) unless cured by a potion of extra healing or the 6th level Cleric spell heal. On any other successful “to hit” roll (apart from a natural 20), the flayer beetle has succeeding in “jabbing” its victim with 1-6 of its 6 tentacles, doing 1-6 (points of damage in the process (1 point for each successfully jabbing tentacle).

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Very rare NO. APPEARING: 1-6 ARMOR CLASS: 6 MOVE: 6”/15” HIT DICE: 2+4 % IN LAIR: 15% TREASURE TYPE: Nil NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 DAMAGE/ATTACK: See below SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Animal ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: S (18” long) PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 6 HIT DICE: 2+4 MOVE: 60’/150’ ATTACKS: 1 special DAMAGE: See below NO. APPEARING: 1-6 SAVE AS: Fighter: 2 MORALE: 8 TREASURE TYPE: Nil ALIGNMENT: Neutral