Fhorge

The fhorge (pronounced FOUR-jay) is a huge, savage relative of the boar found in the wilder stretches of the neutral planes and some outer planes. It is famous for its foul mood and its single-mindedness: once angered, it does not stop until it is dead or its target is ripped apart. Sensible folk never provoke one, but fhorges are maddeningly easy to provoke. Planar wits say a fhorge has two moods, bad and demon-bad.

An adult is about 6 feet long and 5 feet high at the shoulder, as big and strong as a bull. Short, tough bristles cover it, and its massively thick skull sports two long, outward-curving tusks. Its long, powerful tail ends in a tuft of spiny quills, and its small red eyes glare with malice.

Nothing about a fhorge is supernatural, though its frenzied bloodlust might fool an observer. It flies into killing rages at the slightest excuse and loves to open with a sudden, fast charge, often from thick cover. In its preferred scrub, thicket or woodland terrain, foes suffer -1 on surprise checks.

A charge gains +2 to hit and +1 damage per die, totaling 3d6+3. When the attack roll beats the needed number by 4 or more, the target goes down unless it saves vs. paralyzation. For example, against plate mail (AC 3) a fhorge needs a 12, so a 16 or better may topple the victim. It then tramples and slashes at anyone on the ground with +4 to hit until they get up or allies drive it off. While charging, its armored head shields its body, giving it AC 3 against attacks from the front.

It always goes for downed foes first, then prefers to charge, needing at least 20 feet to build speed. Its least favored option is brawling with a standing opponent it cannot charge. Against someone behind it, it can lash with its quilled tail, but at -4 to hit.

Fhorges are absurdly hard to put down. Their natural rage grants +2 against mind-affecting and emotion spells, and they fight on until they drop to -10 hit points.

A typical pack is a single dominant boar with 2 to 4 sows, plus young numbering twice the sows. Sows have 3+3 Hit Dice and their smaller tusks deal 2d6 points of damage, but otherwise everything above applies to them as well. The young range from 1+1 up through 2+2 HD, gore for 2d4, and usually avoid anything man-sized or bigger.

Packs come together only at dawn and dusk; during the day members scatter to forage. Young stay with the sows, and the old bristleback male is rarely near his family by day. Sows are as fierce as any boar and fall on anything that seems to menace their piglets.

Planar folk say a glutton has 'the appetite of a fhorge', because it will eat anything. Its usual diet is roots, tubers and insects, with the occasional bit of carrion, but it also gobbles bladevine, the razor-thorned planar weed almost nothing else can eat; its dense bristles and bony face shrug off the thorns.

They are hunted for their gamy meat, which some enjoy, and for hides that tan into tough, supple leather. Across the neutral and lower planes, fhorge hunts are a social pastime for the well-to-do, a chance to gather and gossip, though many would-be hunters who forgot about the quarry have died on its tusks.