Klar

Imagine a kodiak bear with an oversized head, a chitin plate over its back and a thick tail stump for balance when it rears. Shaggy sandy fur grows up to six inches long. It walks on all fours; standing, it looms over nearly every beast of its world, long arms still touching the ground.

It opens with psionics, preferring ego whip or invincible foes to terrify. It also has telekinesis, inertial barrier, ballistic attack, control sound and control body; domination, mind link, contact, psionic crush and mind thrust; and cause sleep and photosynthesis.

Each paw deals 2-9. Two paw hits in a round mean a bear hug: automatic damage of 2-20 (2d10) plus one per point of the victim's AC (negative AC reduces it), halved by a successful Strength roll. Playful with food, it often releases after one squeeze to try again, but a losing klar holds on until one of them dies. Bend Bars/Lift Gates frees the victim. Its jaws snap for 1-10 (1d10).

Its AC reflects tangled fur, chitin and experience. Lairs may hold 1-2 cubs (never outnumbering adults): 1d6+2 HD (3-8), AC 4, half damage, no hug, and no battle psionics. Parents defend them savagely.

Klars growl to each other and use psionics for silent or distant talk. They consider humans and demihumans too stupid to address, though a few watching a remote frontier town are reconsidering; some psionicists have made contact, then been shredded. Not territorial, a klar claims any mountain cave by killing its tenant. Cubs' minds may be overwhelmed by their own psionic power, sometimes fatally, so parents avoid moving the den and turn especially vicious toward intruders then. They live 60-100 years.

Most creatures avoid klar caves. A hunter who kills one can sell the hide to a tanner; even worn as armor, the fur grants AC 5, a bit better than most hide. The chitin cannot be shaped without magic and is of little value.