I for one was outraged and nearly refused to buy the bestiary when I discovered there was STILL no DIRE TREE SLOTH.
How could a DIRE TREE SLOTH not be included?
ON a side note I am glad the first pleistocene monster published was not the Irish Deer. Otherwise all of our pleistocene monsters would be called Irish wolves, and irish lions.
Irish tigers. Irish sloths.
Using the world Dire in front of any animal but wolf is a dire petpeeve of mine.
Actually, the 1e Monster Manual had a Dire Tree Sloth--the Baluchitherium. It also had Smilodons, Cave Bears, Titanotheres, and Irish Deer. It also has regular and giant badgers.
It also had a lot of Giant animals. (Why 3e couldn't just call them Giant Animals, I don't know.)
However, the big thing for me is, why should we consider an animal in a different category than any other monster? Because it exists in real life? If it's big and has nasty, sharp teeth or whatever, it's a threat, and an encounter can be built around it. That's cool.
Unimportant aside:
I remember years ago, as a teen, seeing a dire wolf reconstruction at a museum and being amazed.
Because, honestly? They aren't that big, or particularly terrifying-looking. They're essentially wolves, but more rugged/heavyset.
For my part, I read the title as 'black antlers' and was confused. I mean, big black antlers sound potentially cool, depending on the monster...
The dirty little secret of Lost World stories it that, for the most part, modern predators are likely more efficient and dangerous. However, some older mammals tended to be bigger, which is cool.
The dirty little secret of Lost World stories it that, for the most part, modern predators are likely more efficient and dangerous. However, some older mammals tended to be bigger, which is cool.
I don't necessarily agree with this. It seems likely the key difference is that modern predators are specialized to hunt significantly different prey than their ancient forebears.
A tiger might be smarter and stealthier, but the specialized teeth of a smilodon probably allowed it to take down the significantly larger herbivores of its day.
Also I think that mega-fauna has the added threat of significantly greater mass. You don't have to be smart when you are swinging blows backed by a couple tons of bulk.
__________________ His most serene plurality
--------------------------------------
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
-------------------------------------
I've seen some articles that suggest the teeth of a smilodon might have been too delicate for tearing in combat, but might have been used primarily to bloody the neck once a prey animal had already been downed and for feeding.
I've seen some articles that suggest the teeth of a smilodon might have been too delicate for tearing in combat, but might have been used primarily to bloody the neck once a prey animal had already been downed and for feeding.
I read an article by a group of paleontologist who experimented with this idea. Their findings showed that not only were the teeth strong enough to make a kill, but they also seemed to be perfectly designed to puncture the neck muscles and crush the trachea of prey animals many times larger than the smilodon.
The experiments included several field tests using recreated teeth, a hydraulic "mouth" with the theorized bite-strength of a smilodon, and IIRC several dead caped buffalo. Imaging of the buffalo's throats during the "bite" process demonstrated how efficiently a smilodon's maxillary canines punctured the thick hide and protective layers of muscle and allowed it to crush the trachea and possibly puncture major blood vessels in the process.
__________________ His most serene plurality
--------------------------------------
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
-------------------------------------
I read an article by a group of paleontologist who experimented with this idea. Their findings showed that not only were the teeth strong enough to make a kill, but they also seemed to be perfectly designed to puncture the neck muscles and crush the trachea of prey animals many times larger than the smilodon.
The experiments included several field tests using recreated teeth, a hydraulic "mouth" with the theorized bite-strength of a smilodon, and IIRC several dead caped buffalo. Imaging of the buffalo's throats during the "bite" process demonstrated how efficiently a smilodon's maxillary canines punctured the thick hide and protective layers of muscle and allowed it to crush the trachea and possibly puncture major blood vessels in the process.
Now they're saying 40,000 years ago instead. Still, though... cool.
Well, I'm not going to make a call either way on poor old Megalania just yet, since the sum total of the actual fossils that have been found are a few bits of jaw and a couple of vertebrae - people are still arguing how bit the things were, +/- 50%. Not that this stops the Museum of Victoria having a complete skeletal reconstruction in their evolution gallery - someone's been using their imagination there...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hobo
Actually, they weren't really very much like hyenas. Hyenadon means hyena-tooth, but otherwise their anatomy was pretty different.
There's also other completely non-related-to-hyena critters like Andrewsarchus that could be described by dire hyena stats in an RPG.
Ah - but to me a boa constrictor isn't a 'regular' animal. I mean stuff like cats, beavers, horses, skunks and the like. Big freaking snakes scare the crap out of me and are iconic D&D enemies.
In my campaign, a riled dire badger almost killed my player's character, and thus the campaign, in Dragonfiend Pact. And Legends are Made, Not Born has a great encounter with a skunk. Also, have you seen a snapping turtle or swan when they're pissed off? Eek!
Basically, animals are classic 1st level encounters. Spiders and bats get lame after a while.
__________________ All role playing advice is given without knowledge of you and your group. Only you and your group knows what is fun for you. What you are doing is not badwrongfun. My advice is offered based on what I think might be fun for you to try.
"Art is the demonstration that the ordinary is extraordinary." - Amedee Ozenfant, Foundations of Modern Art
"I already have a place where I can get little recognition for my accomplishments, advance at a very slow pace, and have to work hard to eke out minimum rewards for my efforts. It's called work." - toberane.
The dirty little secret of Lost World stories it that, for the most part, modern predators are likely more efficient and dangerous. However, some older mammals tended to be bigger, which is cool.
Then there's the "Jurassic Park" fallacy that many overly romantic paleontologists ascribe to... y'know, the idea that velociraptors were twice as big as they really were, faster than cheetahs, smarter than chimps, etc.
The real secret, and it's actually neither secret nor dirty, is that all faunal assemblages, i.e., the collection of animals that are found together in nature in a given place and time, are well adapted to the situation in which they find themselves. There's an intricate relationship between prey, predators and environment, and all three are highly adapted to each other. Animals go extinct because their environment changes, their foodsource changes, or other changes cause their specializations to be the wrong ones for the new environments in which they find themselves. More generalist creatures then pick up the slack and evolution causes them to in turn become more specialized.
Evolution isn't a constant progress---on to better and more efficient things. Rather, it's just constant change---on to something new because a few inputs in a highly complex system change. I think it's a mistake to assume that modern predators are "better" than extinct ones just because the extinct ones have the bad-luck to have gone extinct.
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