Crabman

Large monstrosity, neutral

Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 37 (5d10 + 10)
Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
16 (+3)	11 (+0)	15 (+2)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)	8 (-1)

Skills Perception +4
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Crabman, some speak Common
Challenge 2 (450 XP)

Special Traits

• Amphibious. The crabman can breathe air and water.

Actions

• Multiattack. The crabman makes two attacks with its pincers.
• Pincers. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage. The target is grappled (escape DC 13) if it is a Large or smaller creature and the crabman doesn’t have another creature grappled already. The target is restrained until the grapple ends.

About

This giant-sized creature is a bipedal humanoid with a crab-like head, large hands that end in powerful pincers, feet that are splayed. It is covered with chitinous plates, reddish-brown in color. Two smaller humanoid arms protrude below its pincers.

Crabmen inhabit coastal waters, hunting fish and gathering food. Crabmen communicate with others of their race through a series of hisses and clicks.

A typical crabman stands about 9 feet tall. They speak their own language, and those with an Intelligence of 12 or higher often speak common.

Crabmen make their homes in sea caves and coastal cliffs, venturing forth occasionally in search of food. They spend most of their time hunting, filtering algae for food, or scavenging the shores and beaches. Occasionally, they will gather wet sand from the seashore and filter it through their mouths, sucking out all organic material and plankton. The remainder is a hardened, dry ball of sand approximately 1 inch across; these pellets inadvertently give away the presence of a crabman community.

Crabmen live in coastal caves, but some communities will excavate more expansive burrows into the cliff face. Within such a warren, each individual has a lair set off from a centralized meeting area. Each crabman tribe is led by an elder that can be of either sex.

Crabmen have no regular breeding or mating cycle, and each female seems to have her own periods of fertility and infertility. A fertile female will produce about 100 eggs within a two-week period.

Crabman eggs are released into the ocean, hatching into translucent larvae with soft shells. These larvae vaguely resemble the adults but may be mistaken for normal crabs given their size. After 6 months, crabman larvae molt and develop the harder shell required for life on land. Before their first molting, crabman larvae are practically defenseless.

Crabmen rarely engage in commerce with other humanoid communities around them, including other crabman tribes. Crabman artisans produce only ephemeral goods made of driftwood, shells, and seaweed, and are quite capable of producing what other more aesthetic races would call works of art.