Bandersnatch

Bandersnatches are consummate hunters, and only the deadliest predators or the most cunning intelligent prey offer them sport. Once a bandersnatch has marked a creature for death, it runs it to ground without fear, rest, or remorse.

Bandersnatches rely on speed, shock, and terror to bring down prey. They pace their quarry from a distance, hidden among the trees, then break from cover, savage their target, and dart away again. They drag smaller creatures away to dispatch at leisure, while engaging larger ones in skirmishes until they gradually wear their prey down. An outmatched bandersnatch withdraws at full speed, stopping only to pick off pursuers that distance themselves from their allies. Once its wounds heal, the bandersnatch returns to the scene of its defeat, picks up the trail of its assailants, and eliminates them one by one.

In appearance, a bandersnatch resembles a tawny, six-legged great cat, but with wickedly barbed quills running the length of its body and down to the tip of its long, flexible tail. Its quills serve to deter attackers, but also act as a formidable weapon. With a single flick of its muscular tail, a bandersnatch can fling as many as a half-dozen quills at distant foes with surprising accuracy. A bandersnatch captivates any prey that meets the gaze of its saucerlike, luminous eyes. A bandersnatch measures 40 feet in length plus another 10 feet of tail and weighs 12,000 pounds. Despite their bulk, bandersnatches move with speed, grace, and even considerable stealth when required.

Bandersnatches were once native to the primal world of the fey, where they preyed on the greatest hunters of that ancient realm. As with other legendary creatures from this realm, such as the jabberwock, bandersnatches belong to a group of creatures known collectively as the “Tane.” Whether the fey were careless in guarding their portals or released the first bandersnatches into Material Plane deliberately cannot be said with certainty. Rare in the extreme on the Material Plane, bandersnatches lair within forgotten forests where ancient beasts walk the world.

Bandersnatches mate only rarely. A female becomes fertile perhaps once or twice per century, leaving the male soon after mating and giving birth to only one or two kittens per litter. The mother brings meat to her ravenous young, which mature into lesser bandersnatches (see below) within a year. Bandersnatches live for a thousand years or longer.

Though no bandersnatch is ordinary, some are rarer than others. The most famous is the frumious bandersnatch, brimming with rage so fierce it burns. Variant bandersnatches may combine two or more of the abilities below.

bounding charge, brutal tail, gaze, lash out, pounce, rake (4 claws, +32, 2d6+13/19-20), rend (2 claws, 2d6+19)

planar acclimation, relentless tracker

Bleeding Critical, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Critical Mastery, Exhausting Critical, Improved Critical (claws), Improved Critical (quills), Improved Initiative, Improved Iron Will, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Stealth), Tiring Critical

Acrobatics +19 (+31 when jumping), Climb +21, Perception +26, Stealth +18 (+26 forests), Survival +3 (+23 tracking)