Mantis, Giant

This towering insect walks on its back four legs. Its head is triangular and its front legs sport razor-sharp edges and claws.

Giant MantisCR 3

XP 800
N Large vermin
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +6

AC 15, touch 10, flat-footed 14 (+1 Dex, +5 natural, –1 size)
hp 30 (4d8+12)
Fort +7, Ref +2, Will +3
Immune mind-affecting effects
Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft. fly 40 ft. (poor)
Melee 2 claws +5 (1d6+3 plus grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks lunge, mandibles, sudden strike
Str 16, Dex 13, Con 16, Int —, Wis 14, Cha 11
Base Atk +3; CMB +7 (+11 grapple); CMD 18 (22 vs. trip)
Skills Climb +11, Fly –5, Perception +6, Stealth +1 (+13 in forests); Racial Modifiers +4 Perception, +4 Stealth (+12 in forests)

Lunge (Ex)

A giant mantis’s limbs are capable of reaching much farther than normal for a creature of its size. As a full-attack action, it can make a single attack with its claws at double its normal reach. When a giant mantis attacks with a claw in this manner, it gains a +4 bonus on its attack roll. A giant mantis cannot make attacks of opportunity with its lunge.

Mandibles (Ex)

A giant mantis that grabs a foe can make a bite attack against that foe as a secondary attack. The mantis’s bite is a +0 attack that inflicts 1d6+1 points of damage on a hit.

Sudden Strike (Ex)

A giant mantis is particularly adept at moving quickly when its foes are surprised. During a surprise round, a giant mantis may act as if it had a full round to act, rather than just one standard action.

Environment temperate forests
Organization solitary
Treasure none

Known to many as the giant praying mantis for the way the creature’s deadly front limbs fold under its head as it lies in wait for food, this creature is well feared along caravan tracks that pass through dense woodlands. The giant mantis, a master of hiding in dense undergrowth, is almost unnaturally patient as it lies in wait, striking with unsettling speed as unsuspecting meals wander by.

In many savage societies, the giant mantis is particularly feared—in regions where these vermin are common, they are often regarded as messengers of death sent to the world by angry gods. Their swift speed, alien appearance, and near-invisibility in forests give rise to many legends—that the giant mantis can become invisible, that it can smell fear, and that the souls of those who it slays and eats are digested and kept from moving on to the afterlife. While the giant mantis is nothing more than an efficient and deadly vermin, the numerous legends and whispers regarding its supposed powers and alien intellect have inspired some spellcasters to work such features into their constructs as a way to make them even more fearsome. There are even stories of entire societies of assassins who worship an immense mantis as a god, and who have taken to heart the mantis’s style of murderous ambush, fighting with twin serrated rapiers.